The newest trove of documents related to the investigation into child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein arrived on Friday afternoon, and are filled with page after page of entirely redacted documents—fueling claims of an ongoing cover-up by the Trump administration.
More than six years after Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking teenage girls, hundreds of thousands of files relating to his heinous crimes have finally been released by the Department of Justice.
But many of the documents unveiled on Friday were almost entirely blacked out, limiting insight into the federal investigation of the sex predator and his vast network of rich and powerful allies.
After the files were put on the Justice Department’s website, the White House issued a statement saying it was “the most transparent administration in history.”
But the endless blank pages have frustrated victim advocates, stunned legal experts, and left former MAGA fans fuming.
“When I opened it, I gasped because I thought we were going to see something,” said MS NOW senior legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
“What I saw instead was a 100-page document that says ‘Grand Jury of New York’ at the top of it, and that’s the only text that you can see. It goes on for 119 pages, where every single page of it is completely and 100 percent blacked out.”
Lauren Hersh, the national director of World Without Exploitation, said survivors had been clear about what they wanted to see in the files.
“They said that they want all of the files released and they want redactions for victim identifying information. That’s very different than document after document of full redactions,” Hersh told CNN.
“They also want to see the names of people who have caused harm on both sides. They don’t care if they represent the left, the right, or the center.”
John Sabal, a former Trump supporter who goes by the moniker Patriot Voice, wrote on X: “What a freaking JOKE.”
Democrat congressman Ro Khanna, who joined Republican Thomas Massie to force a vote compelling the Justice Department to release the files, said the department had violated the Epstein Transparency Act—the law Trump reluctantly signed last month.
Khanna and Massie are now “exploring all options” to hold the administration to account, he said, including the possible impeachment of department officials or potential referrals for prosecution.
“One document from a New York grand jury of 119 pages totally was blacked out,” Khanna said. “This despite a federal judge ordering them to release that document.”
“Our law requires them to explain redactions. There’s not a single explanation for why that entire document was redacted,” he added.
The files released on Friday afternoon include court records, DOJ disclosures, and details released as part of the Freedom of Information Act.
They also showed Epstein’s extensive networks, with photos of Epstein with music legends Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger.
Bill Clinton also heavily featured in the files, with photos of the former Democratic president frolicking in a pool with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, partying with Michael Jackson, and sitting with a young woman on his lap (her face is redacted).
Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles confirmed this week that the president is also in the files and traveled on the sex offender’s plane.
But she insisted “he’s not in the file doing anything awful,” telling Vanity Fair: “They were, you know, sort of young, single, whatever—I know it’s a passé word but sort of young, single playboys together.”
But references to Trump are limited. One document related to an earlier court case against Ghislaine Maxwell, in which a victim testified that she was 14 when Epstein took her to Mar-a-Lago.
The document says: “Epstein elbowed Trump playfully asking him, referring to [Jane] Doe, ‘This is a good one, right?’ Trump smiled and nodded in agreement. They both chuckled and Doe felt uncomfortable, but, at the time, was too young to understand why.”
Earlier on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed that some information would not be released by the Friday deadline.
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today several hundred thousand and then over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” he told Fox and Friends.
But the department attempted to hide Trump’s name from the Epstein files months ago, with FBI Director Kash Patel enlisting special agents from New York and Washington to join the bureau’s FOIA team to trawl through the files and determine what could be released.
As reported by the Daily Beast at the time, this included working around the clock to go through more than 100,000 documents and search for anything relating to the president.
Trump, however, has long insisted the issue is a Democratic hoax.
Last month, he also ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Bill Clinton and other Democratic enemies as he struggles to contain the fallout over the convicted sex offender.
On Friday, however, he avoided questions about his former friend. The president’s refusal came after a lengthy White House press conference in which Trump unveiled an initiative to lower drug prices as millions of Americans struggle with cost-of-living pressures.
“I prefer not talking and asking questions, only for the reason that this is such a big announcement… that I really don’t want to soil it up by asking questions—even questions that are very fair questions that I’d love to answer,” he said.
“So I think we have to just stop right here.”
