Trump Administration Responds to Accusations of Censorship of Epstein Dossier. Photo that has been pulled from the Department of Justice website

The American Department of Justice defended itself on Sunday against accusations that it censored information about President Donald Trump in the thorny Epstein file, at a time when criticism is mounting regarding the partial and massively edited publication of the investigation's documents, reports AFP, taken over by Agerpres.

“We do not censor information regarding President Trump” from published or future files, assured the number two in the ministry, Todd Blanche, in an interview for NBC.

This former personal lawyer of Donald Trump responded to criticism from elected officials from both parties and victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the New York financier and sex offender who died in prison in 2019, around the publication of this sprawling dossier.

Blackened document on 119 pages

After months of delays, the minister began on Friday to make public thousands of photos, video recordings and texts about this businessman accused of sexually exploiting more than a thousand young women, including minors, and known for frequenting prominent personalities, including the current president and one of his predecessors, the Democrat Bill Clinton.

The full file has not been made public until now, as the law at the origin of this transparency effort stipulates, and many files are heavily censored, such as a document blackened on all 119 pages.

Several published photos were suppressed on Saturday, prompting accusations. One of the images pulled from the ministry's website showed various photos arranged on a piece of furniture and in a drawer, one of which was of the Republican president. “All of this is about hiding things that, for one reason or another, Donald Trump doesn't want to make public,” Democrat-elect Jamie Raskin said on CNN on Sunday.

When asked about this image, the head of the ministry assured that it is not a maneuver to protect the president. “We found out after the publication of this photo that there were concerns” regarding the women present on this cliché “and therefore we withdrew it; it has nothing to do with President Trump”, assured Todd Blanche.

Bipartisan critics in Congress

Accusations of censorship are not only coming from the Democratic camp. Victims of the deceased American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and members of Congress harshly criticized the Trump administration for only partially publishing the huge file, from which documents were edited and photos were removed.

“We are very disappointed,” protested Marina Lacerda, one of Epstein's more than 1,000 alleged victims. “Why can't you just release the names that should be released?” she asked CNN, lamenting the anonymization of many people named in the files.

“The US Department of Justice continues to cover up powerful men who assaulted or raped young girls or who attended parties where these young girls were exposed and abused,” Congresswoman Ro Khanna, a Democrat, accused X.

That criticism was shared by fellow Republican Thomas Massie and far-right nominee Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally who distanced herself from the leader over his lack of transparency on the issue. “The purpose was NOT to protect the politically exposed,” she wrote on X.

US media revealed that about a dozen images were removed from the file after they were briefly published. On Saturday night, the Department of Justice promised X that “the photos and other documents will continue to be analyzed and edited, in accordance with the law and (…) based on new information we receive.”

An alleged Epstein victim, Jess Michaels, told CNN that she could find no tape of her statements to the FBI.