By Nathan Layne
Dec 20 (Reuters) – Extensive redactions and the limited number of documents released related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein angered some Republicans and did little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of 2026 midterm elections.
The Trump administration touted this week’s release of a cache of Epstein-related files as a show of transparency, but a handful of Republican lawmakers and right-wing media figures joined Democrats in blasting Friday’s disclosures as inadequate and possibly in violation of a law that prompted their release.
While the criticism fell short of a broader party backlash, it underscored that the Epstein controversy was far from being put to rest and was likely to linger into next year, when Republicans will be fighting to keep control of Congress.
The release of files, starting Friday and followed by a second, much smaller batch released Saturday, is intended to comply with a bipartisan law passed by Congress in November that mandated the disclosure of all Epstein files held by the Justice Department, despite a months-long effort to keep them sealed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who once counted Epstein as a close friend.
The new disclosure represented only a fraction of the total data the FBI and Justice Department have said they possess related to Epstein and was heavily redacted, including several documents or 100 pages or more that were entirely blacked out.
Also notable was the dearth of references to Trump, who had a well-publicized friendship with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. Instead, the released files extensively featured former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and political foe.
ADDING TO CONTROVERSY
Brian Darling, a Republican strategist and former Senate aide, said the limited disclosures would fuel conspiracy theories about Epstein as well as legitimate transparency concerns, potentially dampening turnout among Trump voters.
“The heavily redacted disclosures of the Epstein documents added more fuel to the fire of controversy,” Darling said. “This remains a political risk for all Republicans in swing seats going into the midterms.”
The U.S. Justice Department on Friday released some 300,000 pages of documents, photos, and other materials from the government’s investigations into Epstein, who died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 as he faced federal charges of sex trafficking of minors.
The wealthy financier’s history of hobnobbing with prominent figures has fueled speculation about whether anyone in his social circle was involved with his alleged sexual activity. One person, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, has been convicted on Epstein-related charges to date.
The Epstein scandal resonates with much of Trump’s base because it reinforces their belief in a corrupt establishment — often labeled the “Deep State” — willing to protect itself at all costs, a narrative Trump has repeatedly promoted.
Rachel Blum, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma, said the lack of fuller disclosures could erode support among some Trump backers, including young men who swung to him in 2024 in part over their distrust of government.
“He’s at risk of becoming the Deep State,” Blum said. “I think this has the potential to damage his credibility more than a lot of the other scandals he’s gone through.”
‘PEOPLE ARE RAGING AND WALKING AWAY,’ MTG SAYS
The Justice Department’s initial disclosure fell short of the law’s mandate that all investigative files involving Epstein be released by Dec. 19. The law allowed for records to be withheld or redacted if the information posed a threat to national security or identified victims of sexual abuse.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday that the deadline was missed due to the massive volume of data and the need for careful redactions to protect victims. He promised to release more files “over the next couple of weeks.”
Democrats criticized the administration for not releasing all the files and for the extensive redactions. Representative Ro Khanna of California, who co-authored the law requiring full disclosure, floated possible impeachment of Blanche and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the failure to release the files on time.
Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky who worked with Khanna on the legislation, said he, too, believed that Bondi was in violation of the law, warning in a post to X that she and others could face criminal charges in the future when the Justice Department was in Democratic hands.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a House Republican who split with Trump last month over her efforts to compel disclosure of the Epstein files, cited the failure to release all the documents as well as the heavy redactions as among actions she considered inconsistent with Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
“People are raging and walking away,” she wrote on X.
Some conservative commentators also criticized the Justice Department’s decision not to disclose more.
Kyle Seraphin, a right-wing podcaster and former FBI agent, reposted an old X post by Bondi praising the Trump administration as the most transparent in history, saying, “One gets the feeling that this is tongue-in-cheek at this point…”
Owen Shroyer, a podcaster who was pardoned by Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol but has since become a critic of the president, said he believed the Justice Department was intentionally slow-walking disclosures.
“They covered up the Epstein Files. No other way to put it now,” Shroyer wrote on X after Friday’s release.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Sergio Non and Nick Zieminski)
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