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Welcome to The Logoff: We have now a brand new tranche of paperwork from the Epstein information — however not way more readability.
What do we all know? On Friday, the Justice Division launched about 3 million new paperwork from the “Epstein information,” or the DOJ’s collected investigative supplies from its investigations into deceased financier and convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Among the many revelations: emails between Epstein and Steve Bannon, Trump’s White Home chief strategist from his first time period and now a MAGA media titan, in addition to between Epstein and present Trump Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick (contradicting previous statements by Lutnick), and Epstein and Elon Musk.
One significantly lurid merchandise launched final week was an FBI tip sheet with disturbing allegations of sexual abuse by Donald Trump and Epstein, however the claims on the sheet are unsubstantiated and unvetted.
Additionally included within the launch was a draft of a 2007 indictment, which was in the end not filed after Epstein reached a cope with prosecutors.
What’s the context? Congress handed a legislation late final yr mandating the disclosure of the information, which started in December however has moved slowly since then, regardless of a whole lot of DOJ attorneys engaged on it — together with greater than half of the attorneys for the Southern District of New York.
That rush has resulted in delicate materials being revealed by mistake, together with the unredacted names of dozens of Epstein victims and unredacted nude images. It’s reminder of one thing Vox’s Ian Millhiser wrote final yr: There’s cause the DOJ has sturdy norms towards releasing these sorts of supplies.
What don’t we all know? As my colleague Andrew Prokop wrote final yr, there have been some big-picture questions that might have been answered by releasing the information. Chief amongst them: Did Epstein site visitors ladies or women to different males, as a few of his victims have mentioned? And in that case, why weren’t these males charged?
As was the case in December, although, this newest — and far bigger — launch of information did little to clear up these or different questions.
What’s subsequent? That is prone to be the final substantial launch of information by the DOJ, if not the final outright. On Sunday, Deputy Lawyer Basic Todd Blanche instructed ABC that “the evaluate is over,” although a decide remains to be contemplating some supplies for launch.
That doesn’t imply the Epstein story is over, nevertheless: Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein confidante and convicted baby intercourse trafficker, will probably be deposed by a Home committee subsequent week. And new particulars should come to gentle out of the thousands and thousands of paperwork nonetheless being reviewed by journalists.
And with that, it’s time to sign off…
It’s that point once more: My colleagues over at Vox’s Unexplainable made one thing pleasant and I’m going to inform you to hearken to it. This time, it’s a follow-up to a 2025 episode in regards to the musical observe “A,” that includes listener — and violin and cello maker — Michael Doran. You possibly can hearken to the total episode right here. Thanks for studying, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!
