Last week the White House made a move towards transparency. It distributed file folders with documents about the deceased financier and child molesters Jeffrey Epstein To a number of prominent right -wing extremists. The idea was that these people are the material-that of the US general prosecutor Pam Bondi was referred to as “Epstein files: phase 1”-should search through. And then share their knowledge with their millions of supporters. So the commitment of the Donald government should Trump to demonstrate for a free exchange of information with the American public.
The move went completely Lot back. What Bondi announced in the Fox News and then published were mainly pages of Jeffrey Epstein’s contact list and flight protocols from private jets. Which he used. Both of them have been public for years (and in a lesser form). Conspiracy theorists who were eager to see the so-called “Epstein customer list”, for which there were never evidence, described the disclosure as a farce. And renewed their usual claims of a continued cover -up. Bondi claimed that FBI agents in the branch in New York had retained further documents. And demanded them in a letter to the office manager Kash Patel to.
On Monday she was released again in the Fox News. She claimed that the headquarters of the authority had a “Truck charge evidence” receive. It has included thousands of additional documents. Which would finally be published with blackening to protect the identity of the victims. And possibly for reasons of “national security“. Meanwhile, the white house should In mutual accusations have caught up via Bondi’s original action. And tried to appease the Maga Loyalists who had used their big online platforms to criticize them.
“No customer list”
It is unclear whether Bondi will ever drop a “phase 2” folder. But even if, it is unlikely that this will satisfy the fanatical Trump supporters. They obviously believe that there are secret papers who prove that their prominent liberal enemies have misused the minor girls. The Epstein, together with his employee Ghislaine Maxwell, lured into his sex trade network.
“Basically, his directory of telephone and flying logs were somehow reinterpreted or misunderstood that the idea came up with the idea that there was a kind of customer list,” explains Julie K. Brownwhose investigative reporting on the Epstein case for The Miami Herald has been awarded several times with journalist prices.
“And as far as I know, there is no such thing. In all the hundreds of conversations with victims and all the court statements that I have read – and I tell you that I have never heard or seen almost every civil lawsuit that was submitted, and every single discovery that was submitted – never heard or saw anything that indicates a customer list. “
Even if this legendary list probably does not exist, there are other aspects of Epstein history that could be clarified in the coming years, the correct materials should come to light. There are some big questions here.
The circumstances of Epstein’s death
When Epstein 2019 died in a prison cell in Manhattan in 2019 after his arrest for nationwide charges for sex trade, his death was classified as suicide by hanging. For years, this triggered conspiracy theories of how powerful people who were connected to him could have arranged his murder. To protect yourself, even though none could be proven.
Brown says that the Ministry of Justice published the results of an investigation into Epstein’s death in which serious failures of the Personnel of the New York Metropolitan Correctional Center, but “the underlying documents were not made available”. This would probably include interviews with other occupants, guards and doctors, she explains. The Epstein autopsy was also not released. By restraining this material, we have no complete transparency about how Epstein died exactly.
According to Brown, one way of immediately clarifying the Epstein saga is that the Federal Bureau of Investigation releases the thousands of the files from their investigations, which go back to 2000.
What else the FBI knew
According to Brown, one way of immediately bringing more light into the Epstein saga is that the Federal Bureau of Investigation releases the thousands of the files. They come from their investigations, which go back to 2007 when they took over the investigation by the Palm Beach police against the financier. Technically speaking, the FBI has published a large part of this material on its online portal “Vault”. However, a large part of it is blackened.
“Many of the blackening are completely unnecessary if you really look at these documents,” she says. “You have blackened Jeffrey Epstein’s own names out of some of these documents. In other words, it then means: ‘We are for [leeren] House in Palm Beach “, where there were reports that the girls were in the house of that person ‘. It’s almost a joke. “
It is impossible to say what is still in the FBI files. But they would undoubtedly offer decisive insights into the procedure of the law enforcement authorities against Epstein as a criminal goal. Including the question of whether you have checked his financial documents. And how he accumulated a net assets of around $ 560 million until his arrest in 2019. When these documents are published, says Brown, “we get a better feeling for who the FBI asked exactly. And how many evidence they really had at the time. But that will not bring anyone to prison. Even if we find out these answers. “
“You have kept secret things that you didn’t have to hide”
The coaching files could also draw a picture of whether the FBI did not meet its duty of care when it first determined against Epstein in 2006. Or, if it does, that “the Ministry of Justice did not go one step further and [Bundes-]Has raised charges ”. For him, Epstein’s lawyers obtained a secret agreement without prosecution by gushing in 2008 for inciting the prostitution of minors. And he hardly served a prison sentence.
“One reason for all of these conspiracy theories is that the government has kept the truth kept the truth over the years,” adds Brown. “You have kept secret things that you didn’t have to hide.”
Further details about Epstein’s aircraft (and passengers)
The US Marshals Service published 2019 at the request of the Miami Herald According to the Freedom of Information Act, some of the forms that were filled out when inspect Epstein’s aircraft on the flight between New York and the American Virgin Islands. The names of the passengers were recorded in these reports. But the documents were completely edited, so it was not clear who flown with Epstein. And when.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration has not disclosed its complete records of the travel history of Epstein’s various aircraft over the years.
Epstein’s possible connections to secret service circles
The fact that Epstein was able to get away with his crimes for so long-and in 2008 secured a so-called “darling” comparison at the charges at the state level, while he escaped law enforcement at the federal level-triggered speculation. He was able to contact one or the other secret service that protected him (at least for a while). He liked to tell stories that indicated that he was a “fixer” who was advisable with leading politicians in the world. And know yourself on illegal international markets.
But although Epstein was “very well networked”, as Brown notes, there is no conclusive evidence that he worked as an agent for US secret service or foreign powers. Instead, we have only reports from his former business partners. Like that of the deceased fraudster Steven Hoffenberg, the The journalist Vicky Ward in a prison interview In 2002, he remembered how Epstein alluded to “questions of national security”, which required “blackmail, influence and information exchange on a very serious and dangerous level”. Anecdotes from such sources are of course anything but proven.
What was on Epstein’s computers and cameras
There were indications that the computer hard drives from Epstein’s houses in Palm Beach and Manhattan had been removed before the law enforcement agencies searched the respective properties at a distance of more than a decade. It is not known what was stored on them. Or whether the FBI was able to restore or examine some of it. Computers that the police in 2005 in Florida Conversed, there was no evidence of law enforcement. It is not clear what was on the devices that the federal police confiscated at the raid in New York in 2019.
Epstein’s estates were equipped with video cameras. It is a mystery whether any pictures have been preserved.
Court documents from a widely branched network of cases
We do not know what kind of evidence or testimony while two Grand Juries of the federal government have been presented in connection with Epstein’s activities, since these procedures are secret. We also have no evidence from the process of 2021, in which Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sexual exploitation for children’s trade (the foia requests by The Miami Herald for this material were rejected). Or from the civil claim for organized crime against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate after his death, which was settled out of court. We also do not have all government information from a lawsuit that submitted some of Epstein’s victims against the FBI.
The number and scope of the legal proceedings, which focus on Jeffrey Epstein and who go back almost two decades, are the reason why Brown immediately promised doubts about Bondis to ensure maximum transparency when handing over her documents. “To be honest, I wonder if she understood the case at all,” says Brown. “The way she said from the start:” I have the file on my desk “, lets me think that she could impossible the Epstein files on her desk. This file would fill an entire room. “
“It just seems to me that from the start she didn’t understand how extensive this is. How many years he stretched. How many people were interviewed. And how many legal proceedings led to discovery, ”says Brown. “It is not so easy to get a file on the table that you can simply release. It is much larger than that. “
That is why the people who keep going up a comprehensive Epstein bomb will inevitably be disappointed again and again. Some relevant facts could still leak through. Others will remain under lock and key forever. And justice is never really complete.