release<\/a> is expected to fall short of the full publication of the Epstein file mandated under a recently passed law.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche warned that some documents would be delayed, in order to ensure the privacy of Epstein\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that we\u2019re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,\u201d Blanche told Fox News.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo today, several hundred thousand, and then, over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.\u201d<\/p>\n
That announcement, however, is likely to spur outrage \u2014 and the possibility of a backlash from the US Congress.<\/p>\n
The legislature set a 30-day deadline for the release of the full investigative file when it passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19.<\/p>\n
The law required the Department of Justice to \u201cmake publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials\u201d in its possession.<\/p>\n
That includes records obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is part of the Justice Department, as well as internal communications about decisions to charge \u2014 or not charge \u2014 the late financier.<\/p>\n
The law\u2019s purview also extends to materials in the government\u2019s possession related to Epstein\u2019s co-defendant and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and documents about entities with \u201cknown or alleged ties\u201d to Epstein.<\/p>\n
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, did contain some exemptions. It allowed the government to redact information that might be used in ongoing investigations or that might identify victims. Explicit material was also allowed to be concealed.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s release on the Justice Department website included a search bar that promised the \u201cfull Epstein library\u201d.<\/p>\n
But on social media, some users complained that there was a queue to enter the Justice Department\u2019s site and that the search tool failed to return results for basic terms related to the case.<\/p>\n
Viewers also pointed out that many of the newly released materials appeared to be heavily redacted, with some pages largely blacked out.<\/p>\n
Already, Congress members have warned the Trump administration could face consequences if it failed to release the full Epstein file.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny person who attempts to conceal or scrub the files will be subject to prosecution under the law,\u201d Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, one of the law\u2019s sponsors, posted on social media on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The official account for the Democratic Party, meanwhile, underscored Blanche\u2019s comments that Friday\u2019s release would be partial.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s DOJ will not comply with today\u2019s release deadline for the Epstein files,\u201d the party wrote. \u201cAll files were required by law to be released today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even some Republicans appeared to express frustration with the limited scope of Friday\u2019s file drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelease all the files,\u201d Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on social media in the hours after Blanche\u2019s interview. \u201cIt\u2019s literally the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to Friday\u2019s release, another Republican representative, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, posted a 14-minute video on social media instructing the public about how to evaluate Friday\u2019s file release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victims lawyers have been in contact with me, and collectively they know that there are at least 20 names of men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI. These would reside in the FD-302 forms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FBI fills out these forms to summarise or memorialise what a witness gave them as far as testimony when they interviewed with the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if we get a large production on December 19, and it does not contain a single name of any male who\u2019s accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven\u2019t produced all the documents.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a developing story. More details to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States Department of Justice has begun to release part of its trove of files documenting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[188,32,1234,12,34745,49,978,286,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-642975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sexual-assault","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-us-canada","16":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115748450007473159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}