Epstein files: Trump administration releases new documents, congressmen are outraged. “One of the biggest cover-ups in American history”

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) published on Saturday a new series of files related to the investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, continuing the gradual disclosure of documents that began on Friday afternoon, Politico reports, cited by News.ro.

But lawmakers are still angry about the first batch of documents, which were redacted and did not reveal much new information about the financier's rise and his connections to influential people.

“People are angry and walking away,” Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warned Friday. She criticized the release of the documents, calling it “NO MAGA”.

The new documents released Saturday include grand jury materials from the Epstein probes in Florida and New York. The Justice Department renewed requests for federal judges to release the classified materials after the Epstein Transparency Act was passed in November, which was granted.

The materials include transcripts of interviews with witnesses and investigators, although they appear to provide little revealing information about the investigations. The judges initially rejected the administration's requests to release the materials, noting that the information would be insufficient compared to all the information held by the DOJ.

“The information contained in the grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case is insignificant compared to the information and material from the Epstein investigation in the possession of the Department of Justice,” federal judge Richard Berman, appointed by Bill Clinton, wrote in a 14-page opinion at the time.

Saturday's release appeared to include redactions that went beyond victim information and included the identities of prosecutors, FBI agents and other law enforcement officials who appeared before the grand jury.

The Justice Department missed a Friday deadline to release all the information it had about Epstein, in apparent conflict with a law signed by President Donald Trump in November that required full release of the information within 30 days.

However, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche promised on Friday on Fox News that the department would make available “several hundred thousand documents” in the coming days and weeks. Blanche said the Justice Department will not show favoritism or withhold material “because Donald J. Trump or anyone else's name appears.”

“What else is hiding?”

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said on Saturday that one of the thousands of files released Friday — an undated photo of a desk drawer that included at least one printed photo of Donald Trump — appeared to have been removed from the list published by the Justice Department.

“This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files involving Donald Trump, appears to have been removed from the DOJ release,” the Oversight Committee Democrats' X account wrote Saturday afternoon. “@AGPamBondi is this true?” they ask, tagging Attorney General Pam Bondi. “What else is being hidden? We need transparency for the American public.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat, wrote on Saturday that “if they take this out, imagine how much they're trying to hide… It could be one of the biggest cover-ups in American history.”

The photo appeared to be missing from the DOJ's archive on its website Saturday afternoon.

Overnight, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie — one of the lawmakers who pushed through the law forcing the Trump administration to release all the files — said the documents released Friday “seriously violate the spirit and letter of the law” that he, along with Rep. Ro Khanna, introduced in September.

The congressman continued to criticize the administration on Saturday morning, unearthing a 2021 post by former Sen. JD Vance, in which the current US vice president said: “What interest would the US government have in keeping the identity of Epstein's clients secret? Oh…”.

“PUBLISH THE EPSTEIN DOORS,” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace also demanded on X, even after Friday's initial release.

The Trump administration defends itself, says it is the most “transparent” administration in history

Since Friday's publication, the Trump administration has played down the furor over the revelations and said it was acting transparently, attacking Democrats instead.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Saturday that “the Trump administration has done more for victims than the Democrats have ever done,” adding that the administration is the most “transparent” in history.

Democrats, meanwhile, plan to continue to press Trump over his ties to Epstein. Trump was once friends with Epstein, but the president has maintained for years that the two fell out decades ago. The president has repeatedly denied any involvement in wrongdoing associated with Epstein and that there is no evidence to suggest his involvement in any crime related to the convicted sex offender.

Democrats in Congress are criticizing the Justice Department for censoring a significant portion of the files released Friday, including names, dates, details of the investigation and internal deliberations.

Republicans attack Pam Bondi

“I want to hear from MAGA voters who supported transparency in the Epstein case,” Khanna said Saturday morning. “Are you satisfied with the excessive censorship and the lack of the 60 counts in the draft indictment? Or do you want Bondi and Blanchard to release the documents that will incriminate the Epstein class?” he said, referring to Bondi and, apparently, Blanche.

Khanna told CNN Friday night that he and Massie are in the early stages of drafting articles of impeachment and contempt against Bondi.

“We haven't decided yet whether we will go ahead, but we are in the process of doing so,” he said. “The problem the attorney general has … is the large number of MAGA influencers who are unhappy with her. The problem for her is not whether there will be 212 Democrats to support her. The problem for her is how many Republicans and MAGA supporters would support her.”

What the democrats promise

The severe censorship in the first version violates “the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law,” Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer wrote on X on Friday.

“Democratic senators are working to evaluate the documents that have been released to determine what steps need to be taken to hold the Trump administration accountable,” he said. “We will pursue all options to make sure the truth comes out.”

Democrat Robert Garcia, an important member of the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives, had a similar attitude.

“What we're seeing is not transparency,” he said on CNN on Friday. “This is not what the adopted law provides. This does not comply with the subpoena issued by the Supervisory Commission.”

Instead, many Trump administration officials have resorted to X since its initial release to claim “victory,” boasting that they are the most transparent administration in history.

In a post announcing that the Justice Department had received court approval to release to Congress documents gathered as part of the FBI's investigation into the attempted assassination of the president, Bondi praised the president's administration as “the most transparent administration in American history.”