<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US Justice Department has begun releasing its files on Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and wealthy financier known for his connections to some of the world's most influential people, including Donald Trump, who as president had tried to keep the files sealed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The total number of files being released in accordance with a congressional mandated deadline was not immediately clear, though Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Fox News Channel interview that he expected the department to release "several hundred thousand" records Friday and then several hundred thousand more in the coming weeks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The release included photographs, call logs, grand jury testimony and some documents and records that have already been in the public domain.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/new-photos-epstein-estate-trump-bannon-bill-clinton/036bce34-b6ce-45db-8919-ef561400d2f5" target="" title="New Epstein photos 'no big deal', says Trump"><strong><span>New Epstein photos 'no big deal', says Trump</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The records could contain the most detailed look yet at nearly two decades worth of government investigations into Epstein's sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Their release has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any of Epstein's rich and powerful associates knew about — or participated in — the abuse. Epstein's accusers have also long sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on November 19 signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into his death in a federal jail. The law's passage was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/justice-department-begins-releasing-longawaited-files-tied-to-epstein-sex-trafficking-investigation/e4c60703-d817-48e6-a944-77aca0cf9226" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-transgender-gender-affirming-car-banned/9e1f7ccb-e24b-49d0-8b3f-d6cd4ea71ae3" target="" title="Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children"><strong><span>Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>What the law allows</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That law allows for redactions about the victims or ongoing investigations but makes clear no records shall be withheld or redacted due to "embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Attorney General Pam Bondi said on November 14 that she had ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein's ties to Trump's political foes, including former President Bill Clinton. Bondi acted after Trump pressed for such an inquiry, though he did not explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men Trump mentioned in a social media post demanding the investigation has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein's victims.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In July, Trump dismissed some of his own supporters as "weaklings" for falling for "the Jeffrey Epstein hoax." But both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., failed to prevent the legislation from coming to a vote.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump did a U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable. He insisted that the Epstein matter had become a distraction to the Republican agenda and that releasing the records was the best way to move on.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-calls-reporter-piggy-after-jeffrey-epstein-question/d53a7a53-c344-4560-bfff-01de835f38cf" target="_blank"><strong><span>Trump hurls outrageous slur at female reporter</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>The Epstein investigations</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. The FBI joined the investigation, and authorities gathered testimony from multiple underage girls who said they had been hired to give Epstein sexual massages.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ultimately, though, prosecutors gave Epstein a deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges involving someone under age 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Epstein's accusers then spent years in civil litigation trying to get that plea deal set aside. One of those women, Virginia Giuffre, accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters, starting at age 17, with numerous other men, including billionaires, famous academics, US politicians and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain's Prince Andrew.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>All of those men denied the allegations. Prosecutors never brought charges in connection with Giuffre's claims, but her account fuelled conspiracy theories about supposed government plots to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia in April at age 41.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail a month after his arrest. Prosecutors then charged Epstein's longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed over the summer by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Her lawyers argued that she never should have been tried or convicted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Justice Department in July said it had not found any information that could support prosecuting anyone else.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Lots of Epstein records were already public</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After nearly two decades of court action and prying by reporters, a voluminous number of records related to Epstein is already public, including flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury records, courtroom testimony and transcripts of depositions of his accusers, his staffers and others.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Yet, the public's appetite for more records has been insatiable, particularly for anything related to Epstein's associations with famous people including Trump, Mountbatten-Windsor and Clinton.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling out. Neither he nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone's name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having sex with Giuffre, but King Charles III stripped him of his royal titles this year after Giuffre's memoir was published after she died.</span></div></div>