Attorney General Pam Bondi released more than 100 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein - though much of the information was already publicly available.
As part of President Donald Trump’s executive order demanding the government make documents related to cases of national interest public, Bondi said on Wednesday she would release “a lot of information” related to Epstein.
The latest instalment of the Epstein files included flight logs, a redacted contact book and an evidence list that made up part of the investigation into the disgraced financier.
Epstein, who died by suicide while in prison in 2019, spent decades running a scheme that allowed him and other people – including allegedly high-profile people – to sexually abuse children.
However, disappointment washed over people who have long believed there is a government cover-up conspiracy tied to the Epstein case when most of the information in the documents Bondi released, including names, had already been widely reported on.
Being named in the documents does not indicate wrongdoing related to Epstein or anyone else. The list of names includes alleged victims, accusers and people tangentially connected to Epstein who were pulled into the civil or criminal lawsuits against his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
For example, both former president Bill Clinton and Trump have been named in connection to Epstein because both traveled on Epstein’s private jet at one point in time. But neither has been formally accused of wrongdoing and deny any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
The names included in the documents previously released have been listed below.
Bondi said in a statement that the first phase was intended to “shed light to Epstein’s extensive network and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability.”
The federal government had begun pursuing a case against Epstein after there was intense public scrutiny of the sweetheart deal he cut with state prosecutors in Florida in 2008, serving only 13 months in prison despite being accused of sexually abusing hundreds of underage girls and young women.
A similar case was pursued against Maxwell, his longtime girlfriend who helped him abuse children for decades. She was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offenses in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Justice Department also released a document entitled “Massuse list,” which was entirely redacted in order to protect the privacy of victims. They also released Epstein’s, already public, address book.
Despite the lacking information, Trump’s administration still made show out of the day, inviting a group of conservative influencers to the White House to hand them white binders that contained “Phase 1” of the Epstein Files.
The attorney general said more information would be released soon and accused the FBI field office in New York of withholding documents. She sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel requesting they hand over “the full and complete Epstein files” by Friday morning.
