UPDATE 1-Trump's Justice Department releases final cache of Jeffrey Epstein files

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday published a new and final cache of millions of documents related to the late convicted sex ‌offender Jeffrey Epstein, under a law passed in November that required the release of all Epstein-related records.

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday published a new and final cache of millions of documents related to the late convicted sex ‌offender Jeffrey Epstein, under a law passed in November that required the release of all Epstein-related records. Reuters is in the process of reviewing the files.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said at a press conference that Friday's ⁠batch of files marked the end of the Trump administration's planned releases under the law. The new cache includes more than three million pages, 2000 videos, and 180,000 images, he said. The files include "extensive" redactions, he said, given the law's exceptions permitting certain documents to be blacked out, including identifying information of victims or ​materials related to active investigations. Previous releases have been heavily redacted, drawing criticism from some lawmakers. Blanche defended the slow pace of releases, saying that ‍the voluminous files required hundreds of attorneys to work day and night for weeks to review and prepare them for public release. The law had set a deadline of December 19, 2025, but officials said they needed more time to review the files.

President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before they had a falling out ⁠years before Epstein's ‌first conviction, spent months resisting any ⁠release until both Democrats and Republicans in Congress advanced the law over his objections. Trump has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and he has denied any ‍knowledge of Epstein's crimes. In a press release announcing Friday's document production, the Justice Department wrote, "Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to ​the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of ⁠credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already."

Epstein, a New York financier, was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While his ⁠death was ruled a suicide, it has engendered years of conspiracy theories, some of which Trump himself boosted to his own supporters during his 2024 presidential campaign. Blanche expressed frustration with accusations that the Justice Department had declined to pursue associates of Epstein who may have participated in illegal activity. "There's this ⁠built-in assumption that somehow there's this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about, that we're covering up, or that we're not we're ⁠choosing not to prosecute. That is not ‌the case," he said.

The Epstein scandal has become a persistent political problem for Trump, who is already facing sagging approval ratings on a range of issues, including his handling of the economy and his immigration crackdown.

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