Epstein affair | Victims denounce partial publication of documents

(Washington) Victims of sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein denounced Monday the partial publication by the US Department of Justice of the investigation into the financier who died in prison, while Donald Trump worried that the latter would tarnish the “image” of former innocent acquaintances.

Around fifteen victims complained in a press release published on

They also criticized the Justice Department for “leaving the identities of numerous victims apparent, causing immediate and real harm.”

The department was forced by a law, reluctantly promulgated by the American president, to publish the entire file before the deadline of Friday, December 19.

But only part of the documents were available on the Department of Justice website Friday evening and many files were redacted, such as the 119 pages of transcription of jury deliberations, the publication of which was nevertheless “authorized by a federal judge,” lamented the victims.

The department said it needed more time to carefully release the rest of the files, in an effort to best protect victims whose identities might be revealed.

The Democratic opposition, however, sees this delay as a political maneuver intended to avoid the publication of information supposedly compromising President Donald Trump, who appears in images alongside Jeffrey Esptein.

“It is clearly a cover-up operation,” denounced the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, on Monday, submitting a bill to increase pressure on the department which, believes the senator, “broke the law” by not having published everything on Friday.

“All friends”

From his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, the American president expressed concern about the harm that the publication of the file, in particular the photos, could cause.

He spoke Monday for the first time since the partial publication of the Epstein file, expressing concern that these documents would affect the “image” of innocent people.

“Everyone was nice to this guy,” he said at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, residency.

“Bill Clinton was friends with him, but everyone else was,” he continued, worrying that some people “who innocently met” Mr. Epstein “because he was at a party” might be embarrassed by the publication of these documents.

“You’re ruining someone’s image,” he added.

A figure of the New York jet set, Jeffrey Epstein is known to have frequented many prominent American and foreign personalities, including the current Republican president and his distant Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton.

Among the approximately 4,000 files revealed on Friday, several photos show Jeffrey Epstein in the company of superstars such as Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton, who notably appears in a jacuzzi alongside a masked figure.

Read “The “Clinton Files””

Bill Clinton’s team on Monday urged the Justice Department to release all documents contained in the files concerning him, saying in a statement that he had nothing to hide.

“Someone or something is being protected. We don’t know who, what and why. But we know one thing: we do not need such protection,” said a spokesperson for the former Democratic leader.