Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday said the Department of Justice (DOJ) review of files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein is “over” after months of scrutiny regarding their release.
“This review is over,” Blanche said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I mean we reviewed over six million pieces of paper, thousands of videos, thousands — tens of thousands of images … which is what the statute required us to do,” he added.
The Justice Department released the final batch of files tied to Epstein on Friday.
President Trump’s name is mentioned over 3,000 times in the files alongside former President Bill Clinton and other prominent people. The appearance of their names in the files, however, does not prove any wrongdoing.
Blanche said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that some tips the FBI received about Trump’s alleged involvement with Epstein were anonymous and relied on second-hand information, which he said is “not something that can be really investigated.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who helped author the Epstein Files Transparency Act alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), said on Sunday the DOJ has not complied with the law to properly release the Epstein files to the public.
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“They’ve released, at best, half the documents. But even those shock the conscience of this country. I mean, you have some of the most wealthy individuals, tech leaders, finance leaders, politicians, all implicated in some way, having emails about wanting to go to Epstein’s Island, knowing that Epstein was a pedophile,” Khanna said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“It’s frankly one of the largest scandals, in my view, in our country’s history, and there is a demand for elite accountability. But the survivors’ lawyers that I’ve talked to have said that the survivors are still upset,” he added.
Khanna also said “many” of Epstein’s victims’ names “accidentally came out without redactions.”
“Leadership … on the Hill, Congressman Massie, Senator Schumer are quick to complain. There is no way they have spent any time looking at the materials we produced, because I know the materials we produced,” Blanche told ABC, referring to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“We produced them on Friday. By Saturday, they’re already complaining about what we did? And by the way, apparently Massie and others wrote a letter to come and review unredacted materials. I didn’t get that letter yet. They leaked it to the press before they actually sent it to me,” he added.
The deputy attorney general said the Trump administration has “nothing to hide” adding that “our doors are open if they want to come and review any of the materials that we produced.”
