Trump administration responds to allegations DOJ won’t release all the Epstein files by deadline: Live updates

The Justice Department has responded angrily to claims from Democrats and Donald Trump’s critics that they won’t be able to meet a Friday deadline to release the Epstein files.

A Justice Department spokesperson responded to Politico’s headline: ‘DOJ will not set deadline Friday to release full Epstein files.’

‘Ridiculous framing’ of X, Department of Justice Public Affairs Office wrote. ‘DOJ is releasing scores of new documents that the Biden and Obama administrations refused to release.’

‘The story here is that the Trump administration is providing transparency at a level that previous administrations never considered.

‘The original deadline is being met as we work diligently to protect victims.’

Democrats in Congress have warned the Trump administration of legal action if all the files are not released by the end of Friday.

Donald Trump announced that he made an agreement with nine drug manufacturers to sell their products at the same price as in Europe.

It’s part of the president’s effort to lower drug prices and level the playing field between what Americans pay and what other countries pay for the same product.

The new direct-to-consumer website is called ‘TrumpRx,’ but the President insists he didn’t name it.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, along with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Öz said, ‘We all named it together.’

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s wife, who served 20 years in prison for her role in recruiting and trafficking minors for sex on his behalf, has filed a habeas petition claiming ‘substantial new evidence has emerged’ showing she did not receive a fair trial.

The disgraced socialite’s last-ditch effort, filed without a lawyer, came after she had exhausted all of her direct legal objections.

Democratic Representatives accused the Trump administration of violating federal law requiring the release of the Epstein files.

“It is now taking Pam Bondi an illegally long time for the Trump administration to release the entire Epstein Files,” Rep. Jim McGovern wrote on X.

‘As they admit, they have been working on this issue since February. There is no excuse for delay. Release the damn files. Do it now.”

Representative Jerry Nadler also wrote: ‘All Epstein files are required by law to be released TODAY.

“Trump’s refusal today to release the full Epstein files is a continuation of the White House cover-up,” Nadler added.

‘Americans deserve the truth. Victims and survivors deserve justice. Release the files.’

Just an hour before the Epstein files were expected to be released, Donald Trump boasted about his ‘Trump gold card’, which allows companies to buy documents for foreign workers to stay in the US.

“This is the green card on steroids and it is a way,” the president applauded.

So far, $1.5 billion has been obtained from ‘gold card’ sales, and Trump said that this will be aimed at reducing the US debt.

While individuals can pay $1 million to quickly gain permanent residence in the United States, companies will pay $2 million per employee they sponsor for the new program.

Gold cards give foreign citizens the right to live and work in the United States indefinitely.

Sen. Adam Schiff joined Democrats in criticizing the Justice Department for not planning to release the full Epstein files today.

The ‘Epstein Files Transparency Act is clear: ALL of these records must be released today, while protecting survivors. Not just a few,” he wrote to X.

‘The Trump administration cannot move the goalposts. These are fixed by law.’

The images in the Epstein files released Thursday included screenshots of text messages from an unknown sender, referring to an 18-year-old boy from Russia and mentioning a person asking for ‘$1,000 per girl.’

The infamous ‘Epstein Files’ refers to evidence compiled by the Department of Justice and the FBI during an investigation in Florida that led to the 2008 conviction of the disgraced financier. He was later indicted in New York in 2019.

Little of the alleged files was made public until the signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The law requires ‘all declassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials’ to be released within 30 days of signing on 19 November, meaning the deadline is 19 December.

Newly revealed images linked to Jeffrey Epstein have sparked renewed outrage after several images showed disturbing quotes from the controversial novel Lolita drawn on a woman’s body.

The images were made public by Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee on December 18 and are part of a vast archive of nearly 95,000 photographs recovered from Epstein’s estate.

Many of the photographs focus on a single disturbing theme: quotes from Lolita handwritten on a woman’s body. The novel, written by Vladimir Nabokov and published in 1955, is about a middle-aged man’s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl. The late financier’s private jet was famously known as the Lolita Express.

New York Times columnist David Brooks, who criticized Democrats for publishing the Jeffrey Epstein files, is pictured in documents released Thursday.

In one of the photos, Brooks was seen mingling with Google co-founder Sergey Brin as they sat together at a table at an event for high-profile individuals.

In the other photo, the 64-year-old columnist is seen alone, smiling at the camera.

Both photos are from a 2011 ‘Billionaires Dinner’ event attended by Epstein, who was released from prison for the first time two years ago.

Representatives Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin issued a statement claiming Trump violated federal law after the Justice Department confirmed it would not release all the Epstein files.

“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law by continuing to suppress facts and evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar international sex trafficking ring,” the statement said.

‘For months, Pam Bondi denied survivors the transparency and accountability they demanded and deserved and defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena.

‘The Justice Department is now making clear it intends to defy Congress, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.’

Bill Gates has been dragged back into the scandal surrounding sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein following the latest evidence from the pedophile’s mansion.

The Microsoft founder appeared again in footage released from Epstein’s mansion this week as part of House Democrats’ ongoing disclosure offering a new look at Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful.

In the last slice of undated footage, Gates is seen with two women with blurred faces.

An additional image reveals that Epstein keeps a framed photo of Gates on the wall of his private island mansion.