Claims about Trump in Epstein files are ‘untrue,’ the Justice Department says
WASHINGTON— Tips given to federal investigators about Donald Trump’s alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s schemes with young women and girls were “sensational” and “untrue,” the Justice Department said Tuesday, after multiple references to the president in a new portion of files from the investigation.
The documents also include a limo driver overhearing Trump say that a man named Jeffrey was “abusing” a girl, and an alleged victim accusing Trump and Epstein of rape. It’s unclear whether the FBI followed up on leads. The alleged rape victim died from a gunshot wound to the head after reporting the incident.
Nowhere in the newly released files do federal law enforcement or prosecutors indicate that Trump was suspected of wrongdoing or that Trump himself, whose friendship with Epstein lasted into the mid-2000s, was being investigated.
But an unidentified federal prosecutor noted in a 2020 email that Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously reported”; This includes the period when Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein’s top confidant and would ultimately be convicted of five federal sex trafficking and exploitation charges, was being investigated for criminal activity.
The Justice Department files were released with heavy redactions after bipartisan lawmakers in Congress passed a new law forcing the bill to do so, despite Trump aggressively lobbying Republicans to oppose the bill over the summer and fall. The president signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law after the legislation passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
A new cable purportedly from Epstein, the notorious child sex offender who died in prison on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting a federal hearing on sex trafficking charges, may also shed new light on his views on Trump.
Writing from one prison cell to another to another convicted sex offender, Larry Nassar, shortly before his death, Epstein suggested that he would learn after receiving the note that Nassar had “taken a ‘shortcut’ home,” possibly referring to his suicide. The letter, which has not been verified as authentic, was postmarked on August 13.
“Our president shares our love for young, attractive girls,” Epstein wrote. “He loved to ‘snatch’ a young beauty when she passed by, whereas we had to snatch food in the system’s cafeterias. Life isn’t fair.”
The Justice Department issued an unusual statement openly defending the president.
“Some of these documents contain untrue and sensational allegations against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI just before the 2020 election,” the Department of Justice said in its statement. “To be clear: the allegations are false and false, and if they had any credibility they would certainly be used as weapons against President Trump.”
“Nevertheless, in our commitment to law and transparency, the Department of Justice is releasing these documents in a manner that provides legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” the department added.
The department has faced bipartisan scrutiny for failing to release all of its Epstein files by a Dec. 19 legal deadline and for redacting material in the vast majority of the documents.
Justice Department officials said they followed the law by protecting victims through redactions. The Epstein Files Transparency Act also directs the department not to redact images or references to prominent or political figures and to provide a written explanation for each redaction.
The latest version, released just days before the Christmas holidays, contains about 30,000 documents, the ministry said. Hundreds of thousands more people are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a statement in response to Tuesday’s announcement accusing the Justice Department of a “cover-up” and posted on social media that “new DOJ documents raise serious questions about the relationship between Epstein and Donald Trump.”
Documents from Epstein’s private estate released by the oversight committee earlier this fall already shed light on the relationship, revealing that Epstein wrote in emails to associates that Trump “knew about the girls.”
The latest documents also include an email from a person identified as “A” who claimed to be staying at Balmoral Castle, the royal residence in Scotland, and asked Maxwell if she had found “some new inappropriate friends.” Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has faced intense scrutiny in recent years for his ties to Epstein.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, Trump said the ongoing Epstein scandal was a “distraction” from Republicans’ successes and expressed disapproval of the release of images from the files revealing Epstein’s associates.
“I think they gave over 100,000 pages of documents, and there’s a huge outcry,” Trump told reporters. “It’s an interesting question, because a lot of people are very angry that other people’s photos are being published who actually have nothing to do with Epstein. But because he’s at a party, they’re taking photos with him, and you’re ruining someone’s reputation. So a lot of people are very angry that this is continuing.”
