Gov't Faces Epstein File Release Date  12/19 06:13

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department faces a Friday deadline to release 
its files on Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and wealthy financier 
known for his connections to some of the world's most influential people, 
including Donald Trump, who as president had tried to keep the files sealed.

   The records could contain the most detailed look yet at nearly two decades 
worth of government investigations into Epstein's sexual abuse of young women 
and underage girls.

   Their release has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any 
of Epstein's rich and powerful associates knew about -- or participated in -- 
the abuse. Epstein's accusers have also long sought answers about why federal 
authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.

   Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on Nov. 19 
signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its 
files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the 
investigation into Epstein's death in a federal jail.

   The Justice Department hasn't said exactly when during the day it intends to 
make the records public.

   The law's passage was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame 
months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.

   What the law allows

   That law allows for redactions about the victims or ongoing investigations 
but makes clear no records shall be withheld or redacted due to "embarrassment, 
reputational harm, or political sensitivity."

   Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Nov. 14 that she had ordered a top 
federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein's ties to Trump's political foes, 
including former President Bill Clinton. Bondi acted after Trump pressed for 
such an inquiry, though he did not explain what supposed crimes he wanted the 
Justice Department to investigate. None of the men Trump mentioned in a social 
media post demanding the investigation has been accused of sexual misconduct by 
any of Epstein's victims.

   In July, Trump dismissed some of his own supporters as "weaklings" for 
falling for "the Jeffrey Epstein hoax." But both Trump and House Speaker Mike 
Johnson, R-La., failed to prevent the legislation from coming to a vote.

   Trump did a U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional 
action was inevitable. He insisted that the Epstein matter had become a 
distraction to the Republican agenda and that releasing the records was the 
best way to move on.

   The Epstein investigations

   Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the 
family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. The 
FBI joined the investigation, and authorities gathered testimony from multiple 
underage girls who said they had been hired to give Epstein sexual massages.

   Ultimately, though, prosecutors gave Epstein a deal that allowed him to 
avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges 
involving someone under age 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

   Epstein's accusers then spent years in civil litigation trying to get that 
plea deal set aside. One of those women, Virginia Giuffre, accused Epstein of 
arranging for her to have sexual encounters, starting at age 17, with numerous 
other men, including billionaires, famous academics, U.S. politicians and 
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain's Prince Andrew.

   All of those men denied the allegations. Prosecutors never brought charges 
in connection with Giuffre's claims, but her account fueled conspiracy theories 
about supposed government plots to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by 
suicide at her farm in Western Australia in April at age 41.

   Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against 
Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail a month after his arrest. 
Prosecutors then charged Epstein's longtime confidant, British socialite 
Ghislaine Maxwell, with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.

   Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, 
though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a 
minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed over the summer 
by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Her lawyers argued that she never 
should have been tried or convicted.

   The Justice Department in July said it had not found any information that 
could support prosecuting anyone else.

   Lots of Epstein records were already public

   After nearly two decades of court action and prying by reporters, a 
voluminous number of records related to Epstein is already public, including 
flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury 
records, courtroom testimony and transcripts of depositions of his accusers, 
his staffers and others.

   Yet the public's appetite for more records has been insatiable, particularly 
for anything related to Epstein's associations with famous people including 
Trump, Mountbatten-Windsor and Clinton.

   Trump was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling-out. 
Neither he nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with 
Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone's name in files from the 
investigation does not imply otherwise.

   Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having sex with Giuffre, but King Charles 
III stripped him of his royal titles this year after Giuffre's memoir was 
published after she died.