Trump Drags Out His Epstein Files Cover-Up
The Trump administration published heavily redacted Epstein records and many photos of Bill Clinton, while failing to comply with the law from Congress.
Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Friday began releasing its files on Jeffrey Epstein, the president’s former friend and the most infamous pedophile in US history. It refused to release all of its Epstein files, however, as the administration both continued its cover-up and prolonged a scandal that is dragging down Trump’s poll numbers.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed with near-unanimous support in Congress, ordered the administration to publish all of its documents and records relating to Epstein by Friday. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president’s former personal lawyer, indicated Friday morning the administration planned to release some, not all, of the Epstein files by the deadline.
Zeteo reviewed thousands of documents released by the Justice Department late Friday afternoon. Much of the text was copiously redacted, as were most people’s faces. One famous face that wasn’t blacked out was former President Bill Clinton’s – even though, at Trump’s prior direction, the Justice Department recently launched investigations into Clinton and other Democrats who were members of Epstein’s social orbit, as an obvious attempt at distracting from the Trump-Epstein scandal bedeviling his second presidency.
Last month, Zeteo reported that senior Trump administration officials were privately frustrated by what they saw as the failure by Republicans on Capitol Hill to effectively run interference for Trump, in the wake of House Oversight Democrats releasing a batch of Epstein-related emails that revived the scandal in the media.
“How do you allow yourselves to get played by Democrats on this?” one of the Trump officials complained at the time. Trump advisers – and, frankly, some Democrats on the Hill – were surprised that House conservatives didn’t have things like a “Bill Clinton file,” as several of them phrased it, ready to immediately blast out to the media in response to Trump revelations pushed by the Dems.
Now that the administration has been compelled to release the Justice Department’s records on Epstein, Trump officials appear to have taken the opportunity to make their own Friday-night Clinton file.