Over 100,000 pages of documents, thousands of photos and videos, a telephone directory with the numbers of all the richest and most powerful men of the last 30 years and, above all, the censored names of 1,200 young women abused by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. But, according to analysts, the infamous files on the case of the pedophile financier made public by the US Department of Justice are only 1% of the documents in the Attorney General’s possession.
After months of controversy, one of the most controversial cases of Donald Trump’s second presidency therefore seems far from over. Meanwhile, there is the issue of censorship heavily applied to documents to protect victims, as argued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. For Democrats and some Republicans, however, it would be an expedient to continue to protect the powerful who knew about the hell and did not report it or who directly participated in the horrors.
Then there’s the Trump factor. The American president, who in recent months has been accused by the opposition and the more conservative Maga base of wanting to hide the truth, almost does not appear in the documents, except in a few stories or photos and in the telephone directory together with his ex-wife Ivanka and his daughter Ivana. Unlike former president Bill Clinton who, together with former Prince Andrew, confirms himself as one of the protagonists of Epstein’s shots. Furthermore, in the column of almost 95 pages, the names of thousands of personalities from the elite of entertainment, finance and entrepreneurship appear: from Mick Jagger and Phil Collins to Henry Kissinger and also some Italians, including, as has already emerged in recent years, Flavio Briatore and Giuseppe Cipriani.
Finally, there are the people most harmed by these decades of silence: the billionaire’s victims who fought in Congress for disclosure. On the one hand they said they were satisfied and vindicated, but on the other disappointed. “What are they hiding?”, attacked Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, one of the victims who committed suicide a few years ago.
In the “complete Epstein library”, as the page dedicated to the dossier has been called, the papers are divided into various categories: court documents on criminal and civil cases; documents disclosed pursuant to law passed by Congress; the material released following requests for access to public documents and documents from the House oversight commission. But between omissions – some of the papers are completely black sheets – and technicalities, many wonder what is left in the department’s drawers.
While Trump has so far avoided commenting directly, the White House has hailed the disclosure of the files as a demonstration of the president’s transparency. “By releasing thousands of pages of documents, he has done more for victims than Democrats have ever done,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who helped lead the campaign to pass the law on Capitol Hill, warned that if the Justice Department does not adequately demonstrate compliance with the law that mandated the disclosure, Congress could begin impeachment proceedings against the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and Deputy Attorney Blanche. The publication, he said, “was disappointing, at least on first reading. And it was not transparent.” The other campaign manager, Republican Thomas Massie, also accused the Justice Department of “grossly” violating its legal obligations.
“The release of the documents in no way respects either the spirit or the letter of the law that Trump signed 30 days ago,” he wrote on X. And naturally, Clinton’s reaction was not long in coming. His spokesperson accused the White House of pointing the finger at the former president’s relationships with Epstein to divert attention from those between Trump and the pedophile financier. “There are two types of people in this story – attacked Angel Urena – The first group knew nothing and broke off relations with Epstein before his crimes came to light. The second group continued to frequent him even after. We belong to the first group. Everyone, especially Maga’s supporters, expects answers, not scapegoats”.
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