US officials finally release Jeffrey Epstein-related records to the public amid 'client list' controversy
More than 30,000 pages of records related to Jeffrey Epstein have been released by US officials following backlash over how the Trump administration has handled the files.
The US House Oversight Committee released 33,295 pages of the heavily classified documents, including flight logs, jail surveillance video, court filings, audio recordings, and emails.
But it fell short at revealing the disgraced financier's alleged 'client list' - which conspiracy theorists believe the socialite kept a diary of people involved in his sex trafficking.
In July, an FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) memo was released, which said that the multi-millionaire did not have a 'client list' and there was 'no credible evidence' that Epstein had blackmail against any influential figures.
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In February, however, US Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed to Fox News that the alleged list was 'sitting on my desk right now to review', though White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Bondi was referring to a general list of crimes relating to Epstein.
Oversight Committee Chair Republican James Comer has said the Department of Justice has informed him of its plans to continue to release additional records.
"This is the most thorough investigation into Epstein and Maxwell to date, and we are getting results," he said. "We have already deposed former Attorney General Bill Barr, the Department of Justice provided nearly 34,000 pages of documents, and will produce more, which are being made public as we speak."
However, the Democrats don't see it that way, as they've suggested that almost all the files have already been made public, with an initial review by the Oversight Committee Democrats finding that 3 per cent of the information included was new.
“Oversight Democrats find 97% of the more than 30,000 documents received from the Department of Justice were already public,” Congressman Robert Garcia said on Tuesday (September 2).
Comer himself also noted that there was 'nothing new in the documents' from what he could see, in an interview with NBC News.
One of the videos released features more footage of the night of Epstein's death outside his jail cell; however, when it was first released back in July, many were quick to pick up a 'missing minute' between 23:00 and 00:00 from the CCTV footage.
Bondi previously said that the missing minute was a result of the video being 'reset', and that 'every night should have the same minute missing'.
According to the BBC, the 'missing minute' was not included in the 13-hour footage, however.
Republican representative of Kentucky, Thomas Massie, said his legislation requiring the DOJ to release its Epstein files within 30 days still has support from both Republicans and Democrats, as he said 'somebody needs to show us what's new in those documents' (via CBS).
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell
Joe Yates