WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi released a list of 300 politicians and prominent people who were named in the Epstein files, as she told Congress that all of the docs that the Department of Justice was required to reveal have been made public.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Bondi noted that privileged material is still being withheld as she outlined the list of government officials and “politically exposed” individuals who appeared in the files in a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
“The Department released all ‘records, documents, communications and investigative materials in the possession of the Department’ that ‘relate to’ any of nine different categories,” Bondi and Blanche wrote.
Some of the 300 names listed include President Trump, Barack and Michelle Obama, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Bill Cosby, Robert De Niro, Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Also included are Prince Harry, Woody Allen, Kamala Harris, Mark Zuckerberg, Bruce Springsteen, Elon Musk, Pope John Paul II, Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Bono, Beyonce, and more.
Inclusions in the files does not imply wrongdoing, or even direct contact with Epstein.
Several of the individuals had “extensive direct email contact” with Epstein or his madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, while others were referenced “in a portion of a document (including press reporting) that on its face is unrelated to the Epstein and Maxwell matters,” the two DOJ bosses explained.
The DOJ had been given a deadline of Dec. 19 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act to publicly divulge all files pertaining to the late notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein files included details about organizations with alleged links to Epstein, such as his trafficking and financial operations, as well as internal DOJ emails of feds who were investigating him and his associates.
A team of hundreds of lawyers combed through some 6 million pages worth of files and released over 3.5 million pages of material several weeks after that remarkably short deadline, per the DOJ’s figures.
Files withheld from the public include material subject to “deliberative-process privilege, work-product privilege, and attorney-client privilege,” Bondi and Blanche explained. Additionally, the DOJ made redactions of victims’ names and personally identifiable information.
Here’s the latest on the release of the Epstein files
Blanche previously revealed that there is a “small number of documents” on Epstein that are in limbo due to litigation and will be publicly released if a court approves.
“No records were withheld or redacted ‘on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary,’” Bondi and Blanche emphasized.
“Any omissions from the list are unintentional and, as explained in the previous letters to Congress, a result of the volume and speed with which the Department complied with the Act,” the two added.
“Individuals whose names were redacted for law-enforcement sensitive purposes are not included.”
The missive was sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Saturday.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Bondi did not sign the letter, but Blanche did, though her name was printed on top of his.
Critically, the Epstein files include some accusations and tips that the DOJ was unable to verify or deemed unreliable.
Last week, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who co-led the Epstein Files Transparency Act alongside libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), took to the House floor and read the names of six in the files he accused of being “wealthy and powerful men that the DOJ hid for no apparent reason. “
Under the speech and debate clause of the Constitution, lawmakers are shielded from certain types of liability, such as defamation, if they’re acting in their official capacity.
Four of those names turned out to be in a Southern District of New York photo lineup with no known ties to Epstein, the DOJ later revealed.
“The ‘problem’ is that you didn’t come to us, but immediately ran to X and the House floor and made false accusations about four men, while we were checking the facts,” Blanche said on X in response to the ordeal.
Lawmakers had been given a chance to read the unredacted files starting Monday of last week, though it was revealed that the DOJ tracked their search history in the uncensored trove.
