Top Justice Department official plays down chance for charges arising from Epstein files revelations

Justice Department Downplays Possibility of New Charges from Epstein Files

Justice Department officials have tempered expectations about additional criminal charges stemming from recently released Jeffrey Epstein documents, despite the trove containing troubling photographs and correspondence related to the late financier’s activities.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, acknowledged the disturbing nature of materials found among the more than 3 million pages of documents released by the department since Friday.

“There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs. There’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him,” Blanche said. “But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”

The massive document dump has revitalized public interest in Epstein’s connections to powerful figures worldwide. However, Blanche emphasized that while victims “want to be made whole,” prosecutors cannot “just create evidence or come up with a case that isn’t there.” This position aligns with the department’s summer announcement that its review of Epstein-related records did not establish grounds for new criminal investigations.

The release includes over 2,000 videos and 180,000 images collected during extensive investigations into Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

International fallout from the revelations has been swift and significant. In the United Kingdom, Lord Peter Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party following disclosures about his relationship with Epstein, though he denied allegations of receiving payments from the disgraced financier. A senior Slovakian official also stepped down after documents revealed meetings with Epstein following his initial jail release.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew and a longtime Epstein associate, should cooperate fully with U.S. investigators regarding Epstein’s activities.

The files contain documents detailing Epstein’s friendship with Mountbatten-Windsor and correspondence with prominent figures including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, and billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk. The Epstein saga has long captivated public attention partly because of his past associations with former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, both of whom have denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes against underage girls.

Among the released materials is a spreadsheet from August summarizing calls to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center from individuals claiming knowledge of wrongdoing by various celebrities, including Trump. Blanche noted Sunday that there were a “ton of people” named in the files beyond Trump, and that many allegations were “quickly determined to not be credible.”

Some of Epstein’s personal emails reveal candid discussions about his habit of paying women for sex, even after serving jail time for soliciting an underage prostitute. In one 2013 exchange, a redacted correspondent wrote to Epstein about his choice “to surround yourself with these young women in a capacity that bleeds — perhaps, somewhat arbitrarily — from the professional into the personal and back.”

Another email from 2009, shortly after Epstein completed his Florida jail sentence, shows a woman whose name was redacted condemning him for breaking promises they had made. “I find myself having to question every agreement we have made (no prostitutes staying in the house, in our bed, movies, naps, two weeks Alone, baby…),” she wrote. “Your last minute suggestion to spend THIS weekend with prostitutes is just too much for me to handle.”

Blanche indicated on ABC’s “This Week” that while a “small number of documents” await judicial approval before release, the department’s review is essentially complete. “We reviewed over six million pieces of paper, thousands of videos, tens of thousands of images,” he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson believes the Justice Department is complying with disclosure requirements, while Representative Ro Khanna, who co-sponsored the disclosure law, has expressed concern that some victims’ names were inadvertently released without proper redaction. Blanche assured that the department has moved quickly to address such errors, which he characterized as affecting only a tiny fraction of the materials.

The Associated Press is collaborating with journalists from Versant, CBS, and NBC to thoroughly examine the files, with each organization providing independent coverage of the documents’ contents.