What was revealed in the latest release of the Epstein files – and what was redacted

The Department of Justice has released its latest, and perhaps final, set of files related to the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. This comes more than a month after the deadline set by Congress. The edition includes more than 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images. The Justice Department says there were amendments, but did not provide a full explanation of what was excluded. Reported by Ali Rogin.

Amna Nawaz:

The Department of Justice has released its latest and likely final major set of files related to the investigations into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This comes more than a month after the Justice Department missed a deadline set by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. It includes more than three million pages, 2,000 video clips, and 180,000 images. The Justice Department says there have been redactions, including the victims’ personal identifying information.

The department did not provide a full explanation of what was excluded. The deputy attorney general said the White House had no oversight of the review or redactions.

Todd Blanche, Deputy US Attorney:

We adhered to the law, we adhered to the law, and it did not happen, and we did not protect President Trump. We did not or did not protect anyone. There is a hunger or thirst for information that I do not believe will be satisfied by reviewing these documents.

And there’s – there’s – there’s nothing I can do about it.

Amna Nawaz:

Our team has reviewed the document dump today.

Now, the NewsHour’s justice correspondent, Ali Rogin, shares with me what we know.

So Ali, what did we learn today?

Ali Rogan:

Amna, this was a huge repository of documents, as I said, three million pages.

As you can imagine, our team is still sifting through them. Before today, by comparison, the Justice Department had issued about 500,000 pages. So this is an order of magnitude larger. The person who made this announcement today is also noteworthy. Todd Blanche, now deputy attorney general, was President Trump’s former personal attorney.

But he stressed that the White House had no role in preparing the documents. He also said that between this release and the next report to Congress, once that is issued, the Justice Department’s obligations under this law passed by Congress, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, will end.

Amna Nawaz:

I know you’re still going through the files, but what do we know about what’s inside the files themselves yet?

Ali Rogin:

I think the most prominent thing people are looking for is mention of President Trump. There are thousands of them in these documents. We should note that many of them are snippets of news.

But there are some lists and summaries of unsubstantiated allegations made against him by individuals alleging wrongdoing, including graphic images of alleged sexual abuse, including of underage girls. Some of these complaints date back to the 1990s, and others date back to more recently when he was campaigning for president.

But what we don’t know is whether any of these allegations have been substantively investigated. But the Justice Department says it is required by law to release everything, including those forged or misrepresented documents.

There’s also a new diagram we saw today that basically shows an organizational chart of Epstein’s inner circle. Some employees are blacked out, but we see the links between him and his co-conspirators like Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as several lawyers and accountants.

There is also what appears to be a new photo of an office or table filled with photos of Epstein, Maxwell and public figures, including Trump, as well as a photo with Pope John Paul II. We’ve also seen in previous releases that some pages are completely redacted and others are just normal things like timeline updates.

Amna, I would also like to note that we have reached out to the White House for comment and they have provided nothing.

Amna Nawaz:

We should also note that I understand that there are other members of management mentioned in some of these documents. What do we know?

Ali Rogan:

Yes, we already knew that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had an affair with Epstein, which he claims ended in the early 2000s.

But new documents indicate they planned to meet for lunch in 2020 — in 2012 on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean while Lutnick was vacationing in the Caribbean elsewhere with his family. It appears in those documents that they followed up on the matter and had that lunch.

Amna Nawaz:

We must stress here that its mere mention in the documents does not indicate any type of violations.

But we should also stress this point, as the deadline for issuing those documents was more than a month ago. Why did it take so long?

Ali Rogan:

It really was.

That was December 19. The Ministry of Justice says it has sent more than 500 lawyers to carefully review and redact these documents. In a letter today, Attorney General Pam Bondi said they identified more than six million pages that needed to be reviewed, leading to today’s three million.

They say they withheld victims’ personal information and sexually explicit material. She also said that nearly 200,000 pages had been redacted or redacted due to various privileges, including attorney-client privilege, and that within 15 days they would provide Congress with a more detailed look at government officials and – I quote – people who are “politically exposed” in this document, although there is no definition of what “politically exposed” means.

Amna Nawaz:

Speaking of Congress, how does all this work on Capitol Hill?

Ali Rogan:

Well, today we heard from one of the authors of the Epstein Files Act, Congressman Ro Khanna.

He says he has lingering questions about why 2.5 million of these documents, by the Justice Department’s calculation, remain out of public view. He said he was looking for victim interview statements, many of which are included in today’s slide. He’s also looking for additional documents from Epstein’s computers.

But, of course, this huge chip was just released today, so there may be more discoveries in the coming hours and days.

Amna Nawaz:

Justice Correspondent Ali Rogin, thank you very much.

Ali Rogan:

Thank you.