Democrats and one Republican have vowed to fight what they describe as a 'full-blown cover-up' after the Trump administration declared its investigation into the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein closed. The justice department released over 3 million new pages on Friday, which Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said represented the final compliance with legislation ordering full disclosure of investigative documents. 'This review is over,' Blanche told ABC's This Week on Sunday, adding that officials had reviewed over six million pieces of paper, thousands of videos, and tens of thousands of images.
However, the declaration drew sharp criticism from several senior Democrats and Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who insist millions more pages are being deliberately withheld. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee, told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday: 'We are witnessing a full-blown cover-up.' He noted that only 3 million of over 6 million potentially responsive documents had been released, with more than 10,000 redactions. 'What about the other 3 million files?' Raskin asked, demanding that he and other Democratic members be allowed to view materials in unredacted form.
The released documents revealed sordid new details of Epstein's abuse, including allegations he trafficked victims to other men. Names of prominent figures such as Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and Britain's Prince Andrew appeared in the documents, though all have denied wrongdoing. The justice department's handling has faced repeated criticism from Democrats, infuriated by its failure to meet a 19 December deadline for full disclosure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told ABC on Sunday: 'It's not over and will not be over until there is full and complete transparency as demanded by the survivors.'
California Democrat Ro Khanna, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Massie, told CNN he believed the justice department had 'released at best half the documents'. He called it 'one of the largest scandals in our country's history' and said survivors' lawyers reported that victims were upset about accidental disclosure of their names and wanted the rest of the files released. On Monday, the justice department said it had taken down several thousand documents from the Friday release that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information, after lawyers for over 200 victims filed court papers demanding the removal of a website hosting the documents.
