Epstein file | Thousands of documents published

(Washington) The US Department of Justice began releasing hundreds of thousands of documents on the Epstein scandal on Friday after months of procrastination by Donald Trump on the subject.

These documents, resulting from the investigation led by the American authorities into the influential New York financier and sex criminal, who died in 2019, should help shed light on his past links with prominent figures, including the Republican president.

While he campaigned in 2024 promising total transparency, Donald Trump was reluctant for months to keep his promise, ending up describing the affair as a “hoax” exploited by the Democratic opposition.

His “MAGA” base, obsessed with this scandal, rebelled when the Department of Justice announced in the summer that it had discovered no new elements justifying the publication of additional documents or new prosecutions.

After months of revolt, the president had to give in to pressure from Congress, including elected Republican officials, promulgating a law in November requiring his government to publish all of the unclassified documents in its possession.

Justice Department number two Todd Blanche said Friday that a first portion of the file, with hundreds of thousands of documents, would be released Friday and additional elements “in the coming weeks.”

“Poor past”

This publication in stages aroused the anger of the leader of the Democratic senators Chuck Schumer, who recalled that the law required the government to publish “ALL documents” on Friday.

“This is nothing more than a cover-up to protect Donald Trump from his less than stellar past,” he thundered, accusing the government of “doing everything to hide the truth.”

Once close to the financier with whom he moved in the same circles, Donald Trump has always denied having any knowledge of his criminal behavior and claims to have broken up with him long before he was concerned by the courts.

A figure of the New York jet set, Jeffrey Epstein is accused of having sexually exploited more than a thousand young women, including minors.

This affair, revealed in 2019, hit several celebrities to whom he was close, including Andrew, the brother of King Charles III incriminated by one of the victims but who proclaims his innocence.

The financier’s death in prison the same year before his trial fueled countless conspiracy theories that he was murdered to prevent him from implicating elites who benefited from his crimes.

His death was classified as a suicide by authorities.

Uncertain scope

Jeffrey Epstein’s former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, is the only person to have been convicted in the case.

Todd Blanche, number two at the Justice Department, warned Friday that no new indictments should be expected.

The documents could nevertheless embarrass personalities from the world of business, politics or entertainment who gravitated in the financier’s orbit.

Last week, opposition elected officials published photos showing Jeffrey Epstein in the company of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Richard Branson, and even filmmaker Woody Allen. Donald Trump also appears there, in the company of women with obscured faces.

The documents could also shed light on why prosecutors were slow to bring charges against the financier.

But the scope of the potential revelations remains uncertain, the Department of Justice having had complete freedom to redact the documents in order to protect the victims in particular.