DOJ releases first batch of Epstein files, 1,200 people identifies as victims or their relatives

The Justice Department on Friday released to Congress the first batch of files related to its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein to Congress, meeting its mandated deadline.The department said it would not release all the files at once but would be delivering several hundred thousand documents on Friday and then release more in the coming weeks. 
The deadline is because Congress passed a bill last month mandating the documents be made public within 30 days of the law’s enactment, POLITICO reported. President Trump signed the bill into law on Nov. 19.
“In view of the Congressional deadline, all reasonable efforts have been made to review and redact personal information pertaining to victims, other private individuals, and protect sensitive materials from disclosure,” the Justice Department said on a website containing the files. 
“Because of the volume of information involved, this website may nevertheless contain information that inadvertently includes non-public personally identifiable information or other sensitive content, to include matters of a sexual nature,” it added.
The new files include photographs of former President Bill Clinton, including images of him on Epstein’s plane with a woman sitting on his lap whose face has been redacted, according to the Associated Press. 
Another image of the former president shows him with a woman in a hot tub whose face was also redacted, and an image of him in a pool with a woman whose face was redacted and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell. It was not clear when the photographs were taken. 
The files also consist of court records, DOJ disclosures, Freedom of Information Act records and disclosures from the House Oversight Committee.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna claimed the release failed to comply with the “Epstein Transparency Act.”
“Unfortunately, today’s document release by [Attorney General Pam Bondi] and [Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche] grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that [Trump] signed just 30 days ago,” Massie said on X.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

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