Victims of deceased sexual criminal Jeffrey Epsteinlinked to American political and celebrity elites, denounced on Monday the partial publication of the case files by the Department of Justice.
Congress approved a law for the publication, with deadline December 19from government records about Epstein, who officially committed suicide in 2019 in a New York prison ahead of a judicial proceeding.
A group of victims of the former financier criticized in a statement published in
“We were told that there are still hundreds of miles of pages of documents without an audience,” they stated in the text. “They are clear violations of an unequivocal law,” they added.
Only a portion of the documents were available on the Justice Department’s website on Friday night, and many of them were redacted, such as a 119-page retranscription of jury deliberations, whose release had been “authorized by a federal judge,” the text denounces.
“At the same time, numerous victims’ identities were left uncensored, causing real and immediate harm,” they said.
The Justice Department responded that it needed more time to release the rest of the files.
However, the Democratic opposition sees this delay as a political maneuver aimed at avoiding the disclosure of information supposedly compromising for President Donald Trump, who appears in images with Epstein.
“This is a blatant cover-up. Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche are shielding Donald Trump from accountability, and the Senate has a duty to act,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, referring to the attorney general and assistant U.S. attorney, respectively.
On Monday, Trump addressed for the first time the release of the files that began on Friday.
From his Mar-a-Lago residence, he told reporters that “this whole thing with Epstein is a way to divert attention from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has had.”
He assured that the publication of the case documents “ruins the reputation” of people who met with Epstein. Trump has denied having been friends with him, despite records of that relationship.
The Republican referred to the photos in which former Democratic President Bill Clinton appears. “I’ve always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I hate seeing pictures of him come out.”
“There are also photos of me,” written. “Everyone was friendly with this guy (Epstein).”
“There are probably photos being exposed of other people who innocently met Jeffrey Epstein many years ago, and they are bankers, lawyers and other highly respected professionals.”
