The story of today is really what is not in the files released by the US Department of Justice, rather than what is in them.
We haven’t got grand jury evidence and transcripts, we haven’t got internal FBI memos, we haven’t got names of alleged co-conspirators – something the politicians pushing for the release of these documents were expecting (or wanting) to see.
Or perhaps we have, and we just can’t see them. The level of redaction in these files is huge. I’ve just seen a 100-page document that is entirely blacked out – you can’t even tell what the document was supposed to contain.
A 100-page document in the release, which has been entirely redacted.Credit: US Justice Department
It’s far from the only one. Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, who led the push for the files’ release, said there was a 119-page document of New York grand jury testimony that was completely redacted. This release “fails to comply with the law”, Khanna said.
His Republican colleague Thomas Massie, who also led the push for transparency, agreed the document dump “fails to comply with both the spirit and of the law” that President Donald Trump signed 30 days ago.
Deputy attorney-general Todd Blanche has said there will be more documents released over the coming two weeks, so we await those to (hopefully) learn more.
Ro Khanna, left, and Thomas Massie push for more transparency on the Epstein files last month.Credit: AP
Pages from a totally redacted New York grand jury file into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.Credit: AP