For days, attorney general Pam Bondi had talked about releasing the “Epstein files”, supposedly secret documents the federal govt has on some of the powerful men who were in the orbit of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
But the roughly 200 pages of documents that Bondi released Thursday contained little new information pointing to wrongdoing by anyone other than Epstein, a registered sex offender who died in jail. The document dump largely consisted of flight logs for Epstein’s planes — long ago made public — and contact information for hundreds of associates, along with brief descriptions of items found at his residences.
The release was billed as a gesture ushering in a new era of transparency at the justice department. But the hyped first release of documents, which Bondi teased as “breaking news” in a Fox News appearance Wednesday night, appeared to be mostly political theatre. On Thursday afternoon, Bondi and Kash Patel, director of the FBI, offered a sneak preview of the documents to several conservative influencers, some of whom emerged from West Wing waving chunky white binders with the label “Epstein Files: Phase I.” One of them later cal led it an “interesting souvenir.”
But by midafternoon, the justice department had not posted the contents. And Bondi was drawing criticism on social media from those who had taken her at her word the night before. Bondi responded by promising more documents to come. Later, she said a “source” in the FBI field office in New York City had told her the bureau withheld “thousands” of previously unknown pages of Epstein-related documents and that she was determined to get them. The documents were released late Thursday, along with a statement from Patel that said: “If there are gaps, we will find them. If records have been hidden, we will uncover them.” Still, some Republicans in Congress took to X to voice displeasure. “Get us the information we asked for!” wrote RepresentativeAnna Paulina Luna.
Much of the material, including transcripts of victim interviews and old police reports, had already been publicly known. They included mentions of Trump, ex-president Bill Clinton, UK’s Prince Andrew and magician David Copperfield, as well as testimony from one victim who said she met Michael Jackson at Epstein’s Florida home but nothing untoward happened with him.
(Inputs from NYT and AP)