The latest release of millions of items from the Jeffrey Epstein files sharpened a public reckoning but also deepened the recurring tragedy of his victims.
And the prospect that the legal system could deliver survivors some justice appeared to recede even further.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled on “State of the Union” on Sunday that there would be no additional prosecutions related to the controversy around Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019.
“We need to separate those two ideas, the fact that there’s the Epstein files and whether there’s anybody there that we can go after,” Blanche told CNN’s Dana Bash.
“There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs. There’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him. But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody,” Blanche said.
The Justice Department on Friday released more than 3 million pages from investigations into the disgraced financier, including videos, photos and emails to prominent people. The disclosures stirred new intrigue about Epstein’s friendships with President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Trump and Clinton both deny knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and neither stands accused of any wrongdoing around those past connections.
The new files also worsened the drama around Britain’s royal family after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the former Prince Andrew should testify to the US Congress about his long links to Epstein. In an undated image, King Charles III’s brother is shown leaning over a woman or girl on the floor.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, has denied all accusations against him and has said he never seen anything that struck him as suspicious when he was around Epstein.
But the fallout from Friday’s release shows how each batch of files casts new shadows over the reputations of powerful elites in politics, business, tech, royalty, sports and finance, whose wealth and fame opened access to Epstein’s circle.
The flood of information, however, is failing in one important respect. It’s doing little to deliver justice or closure to victims whom Epstein trafficked or abused as young women and who have bravely shared stories of their trauma.
Epstein survivors were offered a measure of vindication by the 2022 sentencing of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell to 20 years in prison after she was convicted of exploiting and abusing multiple minor girls alongside Epstein. But many survivors felt justice was cut short when Epstein took his own life while awaiting trial.
One survivor, Danielle Bensky, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday that victims were frustrated that some of them had been identified in documents released by the DOJ despite promises they’d be protected.
Blanche said Friday morning when the files were released that mistakes were “inevitable” given the volume of documents. DOJ has had an inbox for victims to raise concerns.
Bensky also believes there remains a lack of transparency from the DOJ about what information may have been withheld from the latest release.
“It is just a trove of victims’ information. And so, ‘What are we protecting?’ is the point for me and for so many other survivors,” Bensky said. “So, if you’re not protecting survivors, then what — who are you protecting?”
Many critics of the DOJ’s process and of wider flawed investigations of Epstein question how it can be that so many women say they were abused in his alleged trafficking ring, but there have not been wider prosecutions.
In a general sense, Blanche is right: The existence of investigative files containing information, some of it unflattering, about the associates of a alleged criminal does not mean those people have done anything criminally wrong. The risk of reputational damage is why the DOJ typically does not release files when no charges are laid.
“The victims want to be made whole,” Blanche told CNN. “And so we want that. The attorney general wants that more than anything, but that doesn’t mean we can just create evidence or that we can just kind of come up with a case … that isn’t there.”
But critics in Congress question whether the Department has fully complied with a law passed after a rare GOP revolt against Trump. They are angry about decisions made by officials about redactions.
The Epstein case has also long been at the center of conspiracy theories that are impossible to satisfy. And the administration’s failure to release the files until compelled to do so by the new law fueled claims of a cover-up, which officials deny.
Rep Ro. Khanna on Sunday argued that the administration had not complied with the law and said he, along with the law’s co-author, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, would consider contempt or impeachment proceedings against senior officials if performance didn’t improve. “It’s frankly one of the largest scandals, in my view, in our country’s history,” Khanna told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Khanna said survivors were upset by the accidental release of some victims’ names and want all the files released. “They’ve released at best half the documents,” Khanna said.
The California Democrat also said the possibility of new charges should be considered, as well as whether any Epstein associates had “abused or raped underage girls.”
Khanna called for broader debate about well-known people who gravitated toward Epstein.
“There are rich and powerful people who may not have committed a crime, but who are emailing Jeffrey Epstein well after he’s a pedophile talking about going to his island, talking about wanting to participate in wild parties,” Khanna said. “The American people are asking, ‘How are our rich and powerful people living in this country? What moral code are they living by?’”
Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, said on “State of the Union” that Blanche’s comments were “astonishing” and accused the Justice Department of covering up for the president.
The Maryland lawmaker argued that Blanche had “never once attempted to make the transformation from being Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer to the No. 2 person for the United States Department of Justice.” And he condemned the “dribs and drabs” of files coming out, accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of refusing to comply with the law requiring disclosure.
On Saturday, Trump argued that the newly released documents were helpful for him, claiming they revealed a conspiracy when Epstein asked the author Michael Wolff for advice after a Miami Herald story featured dozens of women saying they were victims of the financier’s abuse. “I’m thinking what would trump do,” Epstein wrote to Wolff.
The president commented that “I didn’t see it myself, but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping.”
This snapshot will do little to ease political intrigue over Trump’s relationship with Epstein, especially since he was mentioned more than 1,000 times in the latest disclosures. The documents contain a list of unverified assault allegations against Trump compiled by FBI officials last year. There are also FBI notes about a woman who accused Trump in a lawsuit of raping her when she was 13, and an FBI interview with one of Epstein’s victims who stated that Maxwell once “presented her” to Trump at a party.
There’s no public evidence that any of the allegations against Trump contained in the new documents were deemed credible by the FBI.
Blanche said on “State of the Union” that such questions were not specific to Trump. “I think folks will see when they review the materials we released is that there have been hundreds of calls made to the FBI where allegations are made by either anonymous individuals or people who are very quickly determined to not be credible, whether it’s the nature of what they’re saying or the fact they won’t provide any information or corroboration, and that’s part of the Epstein files,” he said.
The next twist in the saga could come this week, with the House expected to vote on whether to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt for refusing a subpoena to testify about possible connections to Epstein. Attorneys for the Clintons argue they are being unfairly singled out and called the panel’s subpoenas for their testimony “invalid and legally unenforceable.”
Some Democrats voted with committee Republicans on the contempt motion. But Khanna told “Meet the Press” it was premature to hold the former president in criminal contempt. “I’ve also said that President Clinton should come before the committee. But he should come after all the files have been released,” Khanna said.
Raskin told CNN that he’d vote to hold the Clintons in contempt only if Bondi faces a similar measure. “Remember, she’s got millions of documents that she is legally compelled to turn over under a months-old subpoena and under federal law, and she’s not doing it,” Raskin said. “If they’re not going to do it, then they’re not serious about investigating the Epstein files, and that’s what America wants.”
Files previously released in December included never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton and Epstein together and the former president sitting shirtless in a hot tub with someone a DOJ official described as a “victim” of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
The batch includes frequent communications between Maxwell and Clinton staffers between 2001 and 2004. During this period, Bill Clinton traveled with his staffers on Epstein’s private plane at least 16 times, according to a CNN analysis.
A Clinton spokesperson has repeatedly said that the former president cut ties with Epstein before the financier was charged with soliciting prostitution in 2006 and that he didn’t know about his crimes. Clinton also denied ever having visited Epstein’s island.
The renewed focus on Epstein’s social circle follows the release of new documents that mention other well-known acquaintances. They show Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in 2012 planning a trip to Epstein’s island, years later than Lutnick said he had cut ties with Epstein. Lutnick said on a podcast last year that he and his wife decided after a 2005 encounter never to associate with Epstein. But 2012 emails show Lutnick’s wife and assistant communicated with an Epstein assistant about setting up a visit and lunch on one of the financier’s Caribbean islands.
When contacted Friday by The New York Times, Lutnick said, “I spent zero time with him,” and hung up. A Commerce Department spokesperson told CNN: “Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
Similarly, the documents show tech billionaire Elon Musk trying to coordinate trips to Epstein’s island in 2012 and 2013, despite Musk’s claims to having rebuffed Epstein’s attempts to invite him. Musk at one point asks which time would feature the “wildest party.”
In a social media post Friday night, Musk said, “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’, but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.”
