At the very least 16 recordsdata disappeared from the Justice Division’s public webpage for paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein — together with {a photograph} exhibiting President Donald Trump — lower than a day after they had been posted, with no rationalization from the federal government and no discover to the general public.
The lacking recordsdata, which had been obtainable Friday and not accessible by Saturday, included photos of work depicting nude girls, and one exhibiting a sequence of images alongside a credenza and in drawers. In that picture, inside a drawer amongst different photographs, was {a photograph} of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Justice Division didn’t say why the recordsdata had been eliminated or whether or not their disappearance was intentional. A spokesperson for the division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On-line, the unexplained lacking recordsdata fueled hypothesis about what was taken down and why the general public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the highly effective figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee pointed to the lacking picture that includes a Trump picture in a submit on X, writing: “What else is being lined up? We’d like transparency for the American public.”
The episode deepened considerations that had already emerged from the Justice Division’s much-anticipated doc launch. The tens of 1000’s of pages made public supplied little new perception into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial choices that allowed him to keep away from severe federal prices for years, whereas omitting among the most intently watched supplies, together with FBI interviews with victims and inside Justice Division memos on charging choices.
Scant new perception within the preliminary disclosures
A few of the most consequential information anticipated about Epstein are nowhere to be discovered within the Justice Division’s preliminary disclosures, which span tens of 1000’s of pages.
Lacking are FBI interviews with survivors and inside Justice Division memos analyzing charging choices — information that might have helped clarify how investigators considered the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead responsible to a comparatively minor state-level prostitution cost.
The gaps go additional.
The information, required to be launched below a current regulation handed by Congress, hardly reference a number of highly effective figures lengthy related to Epstein, together with Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions on who was scrutinized, who was not, and the way a lot the disclosures actually advance public accountability
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Among the many recent nuggets: perception into the Justice Division’s determination to desert an investigation into Epstein within the 2000s, which enabled him to plead responsible to that state-level cost, and a beforehand unseen 1996 grievance accusing Epstein of stealing images of youngsters.
The releases to date have been heavy on photos of Epstein’s houses in New York Metropolis and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photographs of celebrities and politicians.
There was a sequence of never-before-seen photographs of former President Invoice Clinton however fleetingly few of Trump. Each have been related to Epstein, however each have since disowned these friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in reference to Epstein and there was no indication the photographs performed a job within the felony circumstances introduced in opposition to him.
Regardless of a Friday deadline set by Congress to make all the pieces public, the Justice Division mentioned it plans to launch information on a rolling foundation. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming technique of obscuring survivors’ names and different figuring out info. The division has not given any discover when extra information may arrive.
That strategy angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to move the regulation pressured the division to behave. As a substitute of marking the top of a yearslong battle for transparency, the doc launch Friday was merely the start of an indefinite wait for a whole image of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to research them.
“I really feel like once more the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” mentioned Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein began sexually abusing her at his New York Metropolis mansion when she was 14.
Lots of the long-anticipated information had been redacted or lacked context
Federal prosecutors in New York introduced intercourse trafficking prices in opposition to Epstein in 2019, however he killed himself in jail after his arrest.
The paperwork simply made public had been a sliver of doubtless tens of millions of pages information within the division’s possession. In a single instance, Deputy Lawyer Basic Todd Blanche mentioned Manhattan federal prosecutors had greater than 3.6 million information from intercourse trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, although many duplicated materials already turned over by the FBI.
Lots of the information launched to date had been made public in courtroom filings, congressional releases or freedom of data requests, although, for the primary time, they had been multi function place and obtainable for the general public to seek for free.
Ones that had been new had been typically missing mandatory context or closely blacked out. A 119-page doc marked “Grand Jury-NY,” doubtless from one of many federal intercourse trafficking investigations that led to the fees in opposition to Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was fully blacked out.
Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton photos, together with photographs of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There have been additionally photographs of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. However not one of the photographs had captions and was no rationalization given for why any of them had been collectively.
The meatiest information launched to date confirmed that federal prosecutors had what seemed to be a powerful case in opposition to Epstein in 2007 but by no means charged him.
Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, launched publicly for the primary time, included testimony from FBI brokers who described interviews that they had with a number of ladies and younger girls who described being paid to carry out intercourse acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.
One had advised investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances throughout a therapeutic massage.
One other, then 21, testified earlier than the grand jury about how Epstein had employed her when she was 16 to carry out a sexual therapeutic massage and the way she had gone on to recruit different ladies to do the identical.
“For each woman that I delivered to the desk he would give me $200,” she mentioned. They had been principally individuals she knew from highschool, she mentioned. “I additionally advised them that if they’re below age, simply lie about it and inform him that you’re 18.”
The paperwork additionally include a transcript of an interview Justice Division legal professionals did greater than a decade later with the U.S. lawyer who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his final determination to not deliver federal prices.
Acosta, who was labor secretary throughout Trump’s first time period, cited considerations about whether or not a jury would consider Epstein’s accusers.
He additionally mentioned the Justice Division may need been extra reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the authorized border between intercourse trafficking and soliciting prostitution, one thing extra generally dealt with by state prosecutors.
“I’m not saying it was the appropriate view,” Acosta added. He additionally mentioned that the general public at the moment would doubtless view the survivors otherwise.
“There’s been quite a lot of adjustments in sufferer shaming,” Acosta mentioned.
