New Epstein recordsdata launched: What to know concerning the newest supplies

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Welcome to The Logoff: We've got a brand new tranche of paperwork from the Epstein recordsdata — however not rather more readability.

What do we all know? On Friday, the Justice Division launched about 3 million new paperwork from the “Epstein recordsdata,” or the DOJ’s collected investigative supplies from its investigations into deceased financier and convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Among the many revelations: emails between Epstein and Steve Bannon, Trump’s White Home chief strategist from his first time period and now a MAGA media titan, in addition to between Epstein and present Trump Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick (contradicting previous statements by Lutnick), and Epstein and Elon Musk.

One significantly lurid merchandise launched final week was an FBI tip sheet with disturbing allegations of sexual abuse by Donald Trump and Epstein, however the claims on the sheet are unsubstantiated and unvetted.

Additionally included within the launch was a draft of a 2007 indictment, which was finally not filed after Epstein reached a cope with prosecutors.

What’s the context? Congress handed a legislation late final 12 months mandating the disclosure of the recordsdata, which started in December however has moved slowly since then, regardless of tons of of DOJ legal professionals engaged on it — together with more than half of the legal professionals for the Southern District of New York.

That rush has resulted in delicate materials being revealed by mistake, together with the unredacted names of dozens of Epstein victims and unredacted nude photographs. It’s reminder of one thing Vox’s Ian Millhiser wrote last year : There’s purpose the DOJ has sturdy norms in opposition to releasing these sorts of supplies.

What don’t we all know? As my colleague Andrew Prokop wrote final 12 months, there have been some big-picture questions that may have been answered by releasing the recordsdata. Chief amongst them: Did Epstein visitors ladies or ladies to different males, as a few of his victims have mentioned? And if that's the case, why weren’t these males charged?

As was the case in December , although, this newest — and far bigger — launch of recordsdata did little to clear up these or different questions.

What’s subsequent? That is prone to be the final substantial launch of recordsdata by the DOJ, if not the final outright. On Sunday, Deputy Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche instructed ABC that “the evaluate is over,” although a decide continues to be contemplating some supplies for launch.

That doesn’t imply the Epstein story is over, nevertheless: Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein confidante and convicted youngster intercourse trafficker, will likely be deposed by a Home committee next week . And new particulars should still come to mild out of the hundreds of thousands of paperwork nonetheless being reviewed by journalists.

And with that, it’s time to log out…

It’s that point once more: My colleagues over at Vox’s Unexplainable made one thing pleasant and I’m going to inform you to hearken to it. This time, it’s a follow-up to a 2025 episode concerning the musical observe “A,” that includes listener — and violin and cello maker — Michael Doran. You possibly can hearken to the complete episode here . Thanks for studying, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!