(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The White House poured cold water on hopes that the full Epstein files would be released anytime soon.
Speaking to reporters on May 1, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there was no “specific timeline” for the release of the remaining documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I can assure you that the Attorney General and her team are working on this diligently,” Leavitt added, as quoted by the Independent.
Her comments came about two month after the White House staged a publicity stunt, in which a gaggle of pro-Israel conservative political commentators were provided binders that read “The Epstein Files.” It turned out, all the documents in the binders had already been released, and that the binders contained more redactions than the already-public documents.
Attorney General Pam Bondi later blamed FBI duplicity for her phony disclosure, alleging that the bureau’s New York office has been suppressing hundreds of documents.
In March, CNN reported that FBI agents were working around the clock to redact the Epstein records in preparation for their release.
Epstein’s crimes and connections to famous people have long been a subject of public fascination and media scrutiny. Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, his criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.
In January 2024, a court unsealed a trove of documents that had been collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. Much of the material, including transcripts of victim interviews and old police reports, had already been publicly known.
Epstein sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14. He allegedly killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial in his Manhattan jail cell.
The case has drawn widespread attention because of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s links to royals, presidents and billionaires. Maxwell herself is the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who once owned the New York Daily News.
Maxwell, 62, was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to Epstein so he could molest them, between 1994 and 2004. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Numerous researchers have determined that Epstein and the Maxwells were intelligence assets, providing information to agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad. A recently dismissed lawsuit from an unknown Epstein victim, “Jane Doe 200,” is seeking to compel Epstein’s estate to release records that would confirm these connections.
