‘Laughter?’ CNN host surprised by Epstein survivors’ reaction to question about DOJ

CNN’s Audie Cornish remarked on the reaction of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse survivors to a question about the Department of Justice’s pending release of investigative files about the late sex offender.

Congress passed a law last month mandating DOJ to publicize redacted files by Friday, and CNN’s MJ Lee asked a group of Epstein survivors whether they had faith the department would release everything in its possession – and they all shook their heads no and even burst into laughter.

“I don’t think any prosecutor wants to hear laughter from the potential survivors of a case in terms of their faith in the justice system,” Cornish said. “Help me understand today, are we expecting to for sure see something released, and if we don’t, what happens if they don’t comply?”

Legal analyst Elliot Williams told “CNN This Morning” that the Epstein files had grown so large in the public imagination that it was almost impossible to predict what would be revealed, but he was certain the public would be disappointed.

“This concept of the Epstein files has sort of gotten into the ecosystem,” Williams said. “So what does that mean? Is it grand jury materials? Well, those can never be made public, or at least should not be made public because the law requires that they not be. Is it photographs? Is it files? Is it case notes, which also cannot be made public because of the records of the government? So what exactly do they plan on releasing?”

Another panelist pointed out that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has already said President Donald Trump was listed in the files, although she said he was not accused of any wrongdoing.

“To your point about Susie Wiles,” Williams replied, “this was a mess of the executive branch’s creation. The White House suggested that they were sitting on this trove of information that they were ready to release to the public, and I think people are going to be quite dissatisfied with whatever comes out.”

House Oversight Democrats have been releasing photos and emails, as recently as Thursday, that were obtained from Epstein’s estate, and Williams said they had little power to do much more than that if DOJ doesn’t provide the evidence survivors hope will be released.

“I think ultimately in a perfect universe, and we live in a horribly imperfect one, Congress would get together and decide on a bipartisan basis what they wanted to see and press the government and even withhold funding if the government was not providing them what you know, what they found satisfying,” Williams said. “Democrats really can use their bully pulpit and make statements publicly and issue statements and so on. But there’s not a ton of power that they have by themselves.”