President Donald Trump has called on Americans to move past the Jeffrey Epstein scandal following the U.S. Department of Justice’s release of millions of documents from its sex-trafficking probe. Yet demands from victims and lawmakers suggest the issue persists.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the review—mandated by Congress last November—has concluded without grounds for new prosecutions.
“There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs,” Blanche said on Sunday. “But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”
The House Oversight Committee pursues its own inquiry, scheduling Bill and Hillary Clinton for depositions on 26 and 27 February after Republican contempt warnings. Unverified 2016 FBI tips alleging abuse against Trump and others vanished briefly from the DOJ site, labelled by officials as baseless pre-2020 election claims.
Trump’s name appears thousands of times, often in news clippings or Epstein’s casual mentions linked to their 1990s New York and Palm Beach friendship, which Trump says ended in 2004. A 2011 email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell noted positively: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump… [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.”
No direct post-2004 emails or new photos emerged. At the White House, Trump insisted: “Nothing came out about me… really time for the country to get on to something else.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer questioned omissions. “You say all the documents are released. Does that include all of the co-conspirator memos, the corporate protection memos, the original Palm Beach Police Department reports, etc.? Has every document that mentions the word Trump been released?”
Survivor Lisa Phillips criticised the DOJ. “The [department] has violated all three of our requirements… Number one, many documents still haven’t been disclosed. Number two, the date set for release has long passed. And number three, the DOJ released the names of many of the survivors, and that’s not OK. We feel they’re playing some games with us, but we’re not going to stop fighting.”
Unlike Trump, elites like Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Lord Peter Mandelson, Larry Summers, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk faced professional fallout from post-2008 Epstein ties. Trump’s supporters have shifted to other issues like Minneapolis unrest and 2020 election probes, despite ongoing critic Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Democrats eye Trump subpoenas if they gain House control in November midterms, with Clinton hearings poised to spark clashes. The saga endures long after Epstein’s death.