VTwenty years after the first report from the mother of a 14-year-old girl, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have just won a major victory: America’s president has given the green light to, perhaps, shed light on a widespread affair. “I just signed a text that aims to make the Epstein files public,” Donald Trump announced on Truth Social this Wednesday, November 19. But there is no guarantee that the entire approximately 300 GB of data held by the American government will be disclosed: the text adopted by Congress includes several important exceptions.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act was adopted almost unanimously by Congress on Tuesday after a revolt by a handful of Republicans, forcing Donald Trump to make spectacular changes to avoid humiliation.
100,000 pages of documents
Grand jury transcripts, FBI reports, investigative reports, documents seized during searches of Epstein’s property… The text gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) 30 days to publish all unclassified documents, in a format that allows textual searches in huge amounts of data.
READ ALSO “You’re going to blow everything up”: how Trump covered up the Epstein caseIn September, the House Oversight Committee published 33,000 pages that contained no earth-shattering revelations. Many documents from the case have actually come to light over the years following civil proceedings initiated by the victims of the child molester, who committed suicide in his cell in August 2019, but also during the trial of his batterer Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors.
Last week, following an additional 20,000 pages obtained from Epstein’s estate. Via email, the New York financier assured that Donald Trump “knew about the girls, just as he asked Ghislaine to stop”. The White House tenant, who maintained a friendship with Epstein for nearly 15 years, has always maintained that he knew nothing about the abuse.
Last summer, a judge estimated the files held by the US government contained about 100,000 pages. This means that there are still tens of thousands more that have not been published. It is quite worrying that many figures have ties to Epstein, such as the former Prince Andrew, financier Leon Black, and Bill Gates.
Exceptions are provided
On Wednesday, United States Attorney Pam Bondi assured that her department would “respect the law (adopted, Editor’s Note) and encourage maximum transparency.” But at the same time, he declined to provide details, citing the “ongoing investigation” of Manhattan prosecutors.
To find
Kangaroo today
Answer
Donald Trump has actually asked the DOJ to investigate ties between Epstein and several Democratic figures, especially Bill Clinton, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Larry Summers. After stepping down from OpenAI’s board, the former Treasury Secretary also took a leave of absence from his duties at Harvard University on Wednesday evening.
This request from Donald Trump could limit the disclosure of information. The Epstein Files Transparency Act does include exceptions to protect ongoing investigations, in addition to restrictions regarding the protection of victims and minors. It is likely that some documents remain classified, for now, or have been largely redacted. But future revelations could shake up powerful people who, until now, had no legal concerns over their ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
