Congressmen who championed the law for the release denounce non-compliance and demand their unrestricted release
The leader of the Democratic Party in the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, accused President Donald Trump’s administration this Saturday of failing to comply with the law, following the release of only a portion of the files related to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Many documents are missing, and many of those released have been censored, with faces obscured in photographs and parts of written documents hidden, including the grand jury case, which is key to identifying those guilty of abuse.
“The law passed by Congress requires the full disclosure of the Epstein files to ensure complete transparency. This set of documents, with extensive redactions, released today by the Department of Justice is only a fraction of the complete body of evidence,” Schumer said in a message on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
The Department of Justice released documentation on the Epstein case this Friday, just before the deadline for its publication under a bipartisan law passed by Congress after Trump changed his position on the matter.
However, several high-ranking Democratic officials have denounced a violation of the law for failing to meet the established transparency criteria. Furthermore, there are hardly any references to Trump himself in the files, which has caused unease and suspicion among Democrats.
“Now we know that the Trump administration is still hiding files,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom in a message that included an image of a search for Trump’s name in the section that the Department of Justice has created on its website under the name ‘Epstein Library,’ which yielded no results.
MASSIE AND KHANNA DEMAND UNCENSORED DOCUMENTS
Some Republican politicians, such as Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who led the campaign for the law’s passage along with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, have also criticized the steps taken by the Department of Justice. “Unfortunately, the document released today by (Attorney General) Pam Bondi and (her deputy) Todd Blanche fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that Donald Trump signed just 30 days ago. Ro Khanna is right,” Massie stated in a statement posted on his X account.
Massie and Khanna argue that the law they championed was specifically designed to prevent censorship like the one carried out by the Department of Justice.
In September, Congress released another batch of files, including more than 33,000 pages, which had been provided by the Department of Justice in an attempt at transparency by the Trump administration. However, the measure failed because most of the documents had already been made public, leading to pressure within Congress for the release of more documents that were new to the public record.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sexual abuse and trafficking of dozens of children in the early 2000s. The millionaire, who at one point rubbed shoulders with figures such as Prince Andrew of England—brother of Charles III—Bill Clinton, and Trump, was found hanged in his cell.
