Few novelties and many criticisms in the first phase of the ‘Epstein Papers’ by the Trump administration

“The first phase of the dissemination of these files brought to light the wide network of Epstein and begins an accountability with the citizens that has been waiting,” Bondi defended in the statement of the Department of Justice in which they presented the documents.

The reality is that there was nothing new. Document dump included the flight records of the so -called ‘Lolita Express’, Epstein’s private plane, which was already known and in which figures of all kinds appear, from Bill Clinton to the current president of the US, Donald Trump. The ‘Express Lolita’ was one of the symbols of Epstein’s abuse: with him he flew with his guests to his private island in the Caribbean, where many of those allegedly criminal activities were committed (but not all those who went on the plane went to the island or participated in those activities). The extensive list of contacts of Epstein was also known, which was for years one of the fixtures of the social life of the US elites and that appears in the dump. The papers include a list of the 254 people who were hired by Epstein to give massages -that was the first step before being prostituted -but all their names appear crossed out.

Epstein was arrested in the summer of 2019, but died in a New York cell before he went to trial. The authorities determined that the cause of death was suicide, although many in the US, have doubted it and consider that it is part of a conspiracy to hide the identity of those who participated in Epstein’s runs.

Disappointment among Trumpists for phase I of the ‘Epstein Papers’

During the electoral campaign, Trump fed those versions and promised that, with him in the government, everything that has been hidden about Epstein would be disseminated. That also said Bondi, who also tried to make a wink to Trump’s voters with a particular form of political communication: hours before the documents were officially turned to, they were delivered to a handful of conservative ‘influencers’. Among others, Chaya Rachik, DC Draino or Mike Cernovic. Photos were taken with white folders with the title: ‘Epstein’s papers, phase I’.

But the absence of information irritated many ‘Trumpist’, who expected much more. For example to deputy Anna Paulina Luna, who leads a working group in the House of Representatives on Government Transparency.

“Neither me nor the working group have provided us with the Epstein documents revealed today,” Luna said in the social network X. “This is not what the US people expected and it is a complete disappointment.”

The conservative commentator Glenn Beck also condemned the operation: “Epstein papers’ are a joke,” he wrote on the same social network. “Who is going against the US president?”

More revelations

The lack of revelations also caused turbulence within the Department of Justice. In his statement, it was recognized that the “majority” of the documents revealed had now already been filtered before, although they had not been officially disclosed by the Government. The Department of Justice said at the same time that Bondi was informed that there are “thousands of documents pages related to the investigation and imputation of Epstein that have not been previously revealed.” Apparently, members of the FBI had not shared them. Now, Bondi has demanded that they be transferred in its entirety before eight o’clock on Friday (two in the afternoon in Spain) and that he has asked the new director of the FBI, the controversial Kash Patel, to investigate “why the request to deliver all the documents was not fulfilled.”

Now we will have to see if the next phases of documented documents related to Epstein offer more revelations than those provided so far by the Trump administration.