Disappearing and Missing Epstein Files and the Redactions Story
The DOJ violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act and then compounded the crime.
Even before picture/PDF file 468 was put back in place in the online DOJ Epstein files, Rep. Ro Khanna noticed two essential files were missing: the federal criminal indictment of Epstein that included 60 federal charges before he was given the sweetheart deal for Florida state charges, and the 82-page DOJ memo of Epstein's alleged crimes. These were exactly what the Epstein Files Transparency Act was supposed to bring to light.
There is also the suspiciously missing mentions of Donald Trump in the files released, which have been gone through by reporters, because the search utility doesn't do anything. The search you think you should be getting with each Data Set, and the one that's supposedly giving you a search on all of them, just brings up garbage that has nothing to do with the Epstein files. The requirement in the federal law said that the files had to be in a searchable format. That seems to be a complete failure on the DOJ's part.
Lawmakers are also complaining that they estimated that what was released was only 10% of the files, and again most of it was already in the public domain. The only real material we've gotten has been from the Epstein estate. Ro Khanna says that while JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have been subpoenaed, James Comer has not issued a subpoena for the other 20 banks that Epstein victims had already identified.
This is picture 468 that was deleted:
Reporters also discovered that 15 other files had been removed, including paintings of nude women in paintings. I was not looking for missing file numbers and I may have gotten them on Friday and Saturday before they were removed. I did two articles on the pictures from the New York mansion: Part 1 and Part 2 which may have the missing files.
Other missing documents are interviews with the victims, and internal Justice Department memos of charging decisions. There's nothing about former Prince Andrew, who was a multiple-time visitor to Jeffrey's island, Little St. James, except for one black and white photograph with Andrew lying across the laps of many girls with their faces redacted.
The 119-page NY Grand Jury transcript that originally was all black pages has supposedly been reposted with just redactions for victim names and identifying information.
The story about all the redactions that have been made has been an excuse by Todd Blanche that they are just protecting victims. But reporters have picked up places where men's names were obviously redacted. That's called a cover-up, which is exactly what the survivors and victims have been accusing the Department of Justice of since time immemorial. The rich and powerful are still getting away with not being named, and others are being fingered as being complicit when there is no information, like with all the pictures of Bill Clinton that were released. The only redactions that were supposed to be allowed were the victim names and the identifying information of the victims. That's not what has happened.
Attorneys for 200 victims, Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson, have said that they are hearing from their clients that their names and identifying information were not redacted. One document that was removed from the database was from civil litigation where two dozen victims had been identified. The Department of Justice is not only doing its job badly, but it's also doing it improperly when it's trying to do the right thing. But, maybe that's giving them too much credit. They seem to be helping Epstein's clients rather than the victims.
One document that did get out was a 1996 complaint made to the FBI that Epstein was involved in “child pornography.” The lady's name who made the complaint was redacted, but her lawyer has come forward and identified her. She said Epstein stole photographs of her 12 and 16-year-old sisters that she had taken for her artwork. Later, Epstein wanted her to take pictures of girls at swimming pools, and then threatened that if she told anyone about the photographs he would burn her house down. Late in 1996, she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell. She discovered later that they had taken photographs of her sisters during the visit. She first contacted the New York police and then the FBI, telling the agency that she had been sexually assaulted, that they were running a child sex trafficking ring, and that they possessed and were producing child pornography. She told the FBI that a “modeling book” with child pornography was being kept in a safe at the mansion. You can see detailed pictures of the safe in my Part 1 about the mansion, and you will see two blue binders that could be them. The FBI ignored the whole episode. With those kinds of accusations, how could they not even interview Epstein, much less conduct an investigation?
Jennifer Feeman, the lawyer for the lady, Maria Farmer, said, “Had the government done their job, and properly investigated Maria's report, over 1,000 victims could have been spared and 30 years of trauma avoided. After several years of asking for her records, the government finally released at least some of them today.” She's right. There was a time when people just didn't believe such things could be happening. The FBI must have thought that the claims were so outlandish that they couldn't be true.
One victim, the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, is getting her justice posthumously. Her memoir, Nobody’s Girl, has sold over 1 million copies in 2 months. The revelations about Prince Andrew caused him to lose all the rest of his titles and he is now only known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. She detailed a trip to Little St. James where there was an orgy with Andrew and eight other girls who couldn't speak English. She recounted being trafficked to scores of other men by Epstein and Maxwell, but never named them. She did drop hints like prime minister, former prime minister, gubernatorial candidate, and senator, but never gave names. Many she only identified later when she saw photographs of them. She said Epstein kept the video library of his associates in compromising positions, most likely for blackmail. You can see several pictures of the monitoring room in my previous articles on the mansion.
A newspaper created a searchable database of the 2911 documents released by Epstein's estate (link). The search utility works, unlike the Department of Justice’s.
A decade ago, Virginia Giuffre, then Virginia Roberts, wrote an unpublished book called The Billiomaires Playboy Club (link), can which you can read online at Scribd.
Reporters are spreading rumors that there is going to be another release of documents by the Department of Justice today, but it's after 5:00 in Washington and nothing has happened yet. There's still enough to go through right now. There are still documents that may be unredacted and reposted.
Mark Twain said there were “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” What we've been getting from the Department of Justice is damned lies.