WASHINGTON: A new batch of files released Tuesday by the US government in relation to the notorious late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contains numerous references to Donald Trump, including documents detailing flights he took on his then close friend’s private jet.
The Justice Department swiftly issued a statement defending the 79-year-old Republican president.
“Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department said on X, without specifying which allegations were false.
“If they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the department said.
Epstein cultivated a wide circle of powerful friends, including Trump, and was alleged to have run an underage sex trafficking ring before his 2019 death in jail.
Trump, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, fought for months to prevent release of the vast trove of documents collected during years of investigations into the disgraced financier.
A rebellion inside Trump’s Republican Party forced him to sign off on a law mandating release of all the documents. The extraordinary move reflected intense political pressure to address what many Americans, including Trump’s own supporters, have long suspected to be a cover-up.
A first batch was made public last Friday amid fierce criticism that the Justice Department was deliberately slow-walking the release and excluding any references to Trump.
The latest slew of documents contains 8,000 files, including hundreds of videos or audio recordings. This includes surveillance footage from August 2019, the month Epstein was found dead in his jail cell — and declared to have committed suicide. Trump was friends for years with Epstein and the two of them were photographed together at parties. The Republican has given different accounts of how he ended their relationship.
He has said they fell out when Epstein “stole” young women working in the spa at his Florida golf club. He also says he threw Epstein out of his Florida golf club for being “a creep.”
But despite Trump’s repeated claims that he was not close to Epstein, there is considerable evidence to the contrary.
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