Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche promised Sunday that every mention of President Donald Trump in the files surrounding deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be released to the public.
Friday’s release of the files contained heavily redacted information, very rarely had any mention of Trump, and provided little-to-no new substantive details about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. Blanche said on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not redact any information relating to the president because he has committed no wrongdoing.
“Is any information about President Trump redacted in any of the files that have or will be released?” NBC News host Kristen Welker asked.
“No, not unless it’s supposed to be redacted under the law, which means victim information or any sort of privilege like attorney client privilege,” Blanche said. “But I have no reason to believe that the lawyers that were working on this case were talking about President Trump because he had nothing to do with Epstein files. He had nothing to do with the horrific crimes that Mr. Epstein committed. And so I don’t expect there will be anything redacted.”
“But the short answer is we are not redacting information around President Trump, around any other individual involved with Mr. Epstein,” Blanch continued.
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Blanche added that the DOJ is not protecting Trump because he had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes.
“But yes, if President Trump is mentioned, if there’s photographs that we have of President Trump or anybody else, they, of course, will be released with the exception of any victims or survivors that we’ve identified, which we will either not release that photograph if it’s just a photograph of a survivor,” Blanche continued. “Or if we do release the photograph because there’s other individuals in the picture, the survivor’s face or her entire body in some cases will be redacted.”
The administration missed the deadline to release all of the files by 11:59 p.m. Friday. Blanche said during a Friday appearance on “Fox & Friends” the DOJ will continue to release files on a rolling basis as internal reviews proceed and victim protections are applied.
The release of the files is in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which directs the DOJ to release all of the unclassified files to the public. Although he previously opposed the release, Trump signed the legislation into law Nov. 19 and assured he had “nothing to hide.”
The files garnered national attention after the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded in July that Epstein committed suicide inside his jail cell and that he possessed no client list. The memo was an abrupt end to the investigation after Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in February the client list was sitting on her desk and a group of conservative influencers received a “Phase 1” binder of Epstein files.
While the tranche hardly mentioned Trump, the DOJ released photographs showing a shirtless former President Bill Clinton lying in a hot tub and socializing with Epstein. The few photos of Trump that were shown had already been made public for decades.
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