The Justice Department’s incomplete release of the Jeffrey Epstein fileson Friday — failing to meet a legally mandated deadline — ignited fury among representatives for his victims.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche fessed up that the administration would perform a staggered rollout, indicating to Fox News that additional documents would trickle out over the next couple of weeks. However, the move sidestepped the Friday deadline set by Congress under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of all investigative records unless they compromise active investigations, national security, or identify trafficking survivors.
Spencer Kuvin, who represents multiple Epstein survivors, blasted the partial disclosure as a predictable outcome.
“Unfortunately, the Department of Justice has dragged its feet regarding these documents for the last 18 years so the victims don’t expect much by way of openness or honesty,” Kuvin said, according to The Guardian. “These young women have been lied to and repeatedly denied justice by system that was meant to protect them. The public need to demand more and continue to require accountability.”
Gloria Allred, an attorney for more than 20 survivors, raised sharp questions about what the Trump administration is withholding.
“There was resistance by this administration to releasing the Epstein files,” she told CNN. “The question is, is there a cover-up? What are they hiding? What is in there that perhaps some powerful people would not like revealed? … Survivors are fighting to have the release of all the files [because] they want accountability. If there are rich, powerful, famous men who engaged in or assisted in or conspired to sex traffic underage girls, they want to know who those people are. They want to know what the evidence against them was.”
However, the release offered vindication for Maria Farmer, an early whistleblower who reported Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the FBI in 1996. The files confirmed her decades-old complaint in the newly disclosed materials. Through attorney Jennifer Freeman, Farmer expressed bittersweet emotions.
Thank you for believing me. I feel redeemed. This is one of the best days of my life. Of course, it’s mixed with the fact that I’m devastated about all the other girls … who were harmed because the FBI didn’t do their job … I’m shedding tears of joy for myself, but also tears of sorrow for all the victims.”
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