The Division of Justice defended President Trump’s title showing repeatedly within the newest batch of Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata, dismissing what it calls the “sensationalist” claims in opposition to him and arguing that the timing of studies in opposition to him lodged with the FBI was politically motivated.
“A few of these paperwork include unfaithful and sensationalist claims made in opposition to President Trump that had been submitted to the FBI proper earlier than the 2020 election,” the Justice Division wrote in an X publish together with a hyperlink to the newly launched paperwork.
“To be clear: The claims are unfounded and false, and if they’d a shred of credibility, they definitely would have been weaponized in opposition to President Trump already,” they added earlier than patting themselves on the again for releasing them.
“However, out of our dedication to the legislation and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these paperwork with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” the publish concluded, referencing the large-scale redactions showing within the 30,000-item doc dump, which have been slammed by critics as an try at obfuscation.
The recordsdata had been launched beginning Dec. 19 after Congress handed the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act in November — mandating their publication inside 30 days — which Trump signed into legislation after failing to rally the Republican caucus in opposition to the invoice.
A Jan. 8, 2020, electronic mail included in the newest launch notes that he traveled on convicted intercourse offender Epstein’s personal jet no less than eight instances between 1993 and 1996.
“To your situational consciousness, wished to let you recognize that the flight information we obtained yesterday replicate that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s personal jet many extra instances than beforehand has been reported (or that we had been conscious), together with in the course of the interval we might count on to cost in a Maxwell case,” reads the e-mail, penned by an unidentified US legal professional for the Southern District of New York.
On no less than 4 of the flights, the e-mail states, convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was additionally current. On a number of the journeys, the president’s son Eric, his daughter Tiffany, in addition to his second spouse, Marla Maples, had been additionally in attendance.
On one flight in 1993, Trump and Epstein had been the one listed passengers, and one other flight included simply Trump, Epstein and an unnamed 20-year-old.
“We’ve simply completed reviewing the total information (greater than 100 pages of very small script) and didn’t need any of this to be a shock down the highway,” the e-mail warned.
The e-mail offers no proof that Trump was conscious of Epstein’s intercourse crimes in opposition to girls and women as younger as 14, nor does it accuse him of any wrongdoing.
The president himself has vocally dismissed the obsessive curiosity within the recordsdata as an try by Democrats to wreck him politically.
“What this complete factor is with Epstein is a method of attempting to deflect from the great success that the Republican Social gathering has,” he informed reporters in Florida Monday.
“Like, as an example, immediately, we’re constructing the most important ships on the earth, strongest ships on the earth, they usually’re asking me questions on Jeffrey Epstein. I believed that was completed.”
Trump has claimed he banished Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago golf resort after the disgraced financier ignored warnings to cease poaching masseuses from the membership to work for him.
He’s additionally risen to the protection of former President Invoice Clinton, who appeared in quite a few photographs launched in earlier batches of Epstein recordsdata drops, together with in a sizzling tub and with an unidentified younger girl seated on his lap on Epstein’s personal jet.
“I don’t like photos of Invoice Clinton being proven,” Trump informed reporters Monday. “I believe it’s a horrible factor.”
