Donald Trump was forced into releasing the Epstein Files after Republicans and Democrats voted together to demand the documents be made public, overturning any presidential veto
More Epstein Files have been released after months of fury and in-fighting between Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, who argued about making the billionaire’s secrets public.
President Trump returned to the White House in January, in part, following his vow to release the trove of documents. But months into his second term, Trump lashed out at any notion of their release – even going so far as to brand it a “hoax”.
Tonight’s partial disclosure of the files has already led to accusations of a Trump ‘cover-up’ after it emerged documents would now be released in stages, despite expectations of a full release.
Even when Trump has appeared willing to release the files, he was keen to note that there would have to been redactions and some censorship. Speaking to Fox News ahead of the 2024 election, Trump said he supported sharing the documents.
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“I guess I would [release them],” he said. “I think that less so because, you don’t know, you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.”
The admission was widely seen as acknowledgement that parts of the files would be redacted, although it was unclear what exactly he meant by “phony stuff.”
Why some parts of the Epstein Files have been redacted
As journalists and concerned members of the public begin searching the files, many will undoubtable come across parts of the files that have been redacted. Under the law that forced Trump to release the files by December 19, information is allowed to be withheld by the Justice Department that, if made public, would be a “clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”.
The law will also prevent the release of any materials that depict the sexual abuse of children or any photos that show death, physical abuse, or injury. Should any video exist showing Epstein or any other figure abusing young girls, it will not be released to the public.
But under the law it has been made clear that no records will be withheld or redacted, meaning they cannot be withheld for simply being embarrassing to any elected officials or public figures. The law does allow the Justice Department to withhold some documents that it said could risk an active police investigation.
Any document can also be blocked from being made public if they are found to have any information linked to national defence or foreign policy. Despite investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, there are ongoing ones into people who knew the pair.
There will be no Epstein client list as imagined by conspiracy theorists, though there will be numerous documents from the billionaire and others who knew him.
