Sawt Falasteen - US Justice Dept releases documents, images, videos from Epstein files

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the White House played no role in the review of the extensive files related to the convicted sex offender, a once close friend of Trump.

"They did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what to not redact," Blanche said at a press conference.

Some of the documents being released contain "untrue and sensationalist claims" about the 79-year-old Trump submitted to the FBI before the 2020 presidential election, he said.

But Blanche -- who previously served at Trump's personal lawyer -- dismissed suggestions that potentially embarrassing material about the president had been redacted from the more than three million documents, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos being released on Friday.

"We did not protect President Trump," he said. "We didn't protect or not protect anybody."

Blanche said all images of girls and women were being redacted aside from those of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of trafficking underage girls for Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

"We did not redact images of any men unless it was impossible to redact the woman without also redacting the man," the deputy attorney general said.

A wealthy US financier, Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls. His death was ruled a suicide.

Previous Justice Department releases have shed light on Epstein's ties to top business executives, celebrities, academics and politicians, including Trump and former president Bill Clinton.

Trump's right-wing base has long been obsessed by the Epstein saga and conspiracy theories that the financier oversaw a sex trafficking ring for the world's elite.

- 'We would prosecute them' -

Only one person -- Epstein's former girlfriend Maxwell -- has ever been charged in connection with his crimes and Blanche appeared to play down expectations that the latest release of the files would lead to further prosecutions.

"If we had information -- we meaning the Department of Justice -- about men who abused women, we would prosecute them," he told reporters.

"But I don't think that the public, or you all, are going to uncover men within the Epstein files that abused women, unfortunately."

Trump and Clinton both figure prominently in the records published so far but neither has been accused of wrongdoing.

A Republican-led House panel voted recently to launch contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton over their refusal to testify before its probe into Epstein.

Trump, who used to move in the same social circles as Epstein in Florida and New York, fought for months to prevent release of the vast trove of documents about the disgraced financier.

But a rebellion inside his Republican Party forced him to sign off on a law mandating release of all the documents.

Trump has given varying accounts of why he eventually fell out with Epstein. He has criticized the file dumps, expressing concern that people who "innocently met" Epstein over the years risked having their reputations smeared.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) called for all of the documents held by the Justice Department to be published by December 19.

Blanche said Friday's release brings the Justice Department in compliance with the act and he blamed the delay on the need to painstakingly carry out redactions that protected the identities of Epstein's more than 1,000 alleged victims.

Blanche said he did not expect the release of the latest documents would quell public curiosity and conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein.

"There's a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents and there's nothing I can do about that," he said.

H.Darwish--SF-PST