Three million new pages about Epstein bring to light a neglected 1996 allegation

BarcelonaThe massive publication this Friday of over three million pages about the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein The process of identifying and reviewing documents by the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded, but it will most likely not put an end to the speculation surrounding the case. Because, lacking a more detailed analysis of all the material, the most harrowing revelation is the discovery of a complaint filed with the FBI in 1996, a document that would prove that federal authorities already had sufficient evidence against the financier almost a decade before the first allegation of child abuse. In the mid-1990s, his pedophilia and prostitution ring was just beginning to operate.

The complaint was filed by Maria Farmer, who went to the police and then to the FBI accusing Jeffrey Epstein of stealing intimate photographs of her younger sisters and engaging in conduct related to child pornography, as well as threatening to burn down her house if she told anyone. New York Times It was reported at the end of last December that Farmer had filed a complaint alleging abuse against her sister Annie when she was 16. The disclosure of the complaint within the documents released today corroborates her account and the inaction of the federal agency. This is the largest release of official information to date regarding the activities of the American financier, who was convicted of child abuse in 2008 and committed suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting a new trial for sex trafficking of minors. The 1996 complaint is being released in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in November 2015. The document could open a deep crack in the official narrative of the case. Until now, the focus has been primarily on the 2008 Florida investigation. Epstein avoided a federal trial that year thanks to a controversial non-prosecution agreement and was sentenced to thirteen months for soliciting prostitution from minors, with daily releases from prison for work. The existence of a much earlier federal alert raises a key question: why didn't federal agencies act when it was still possible to curb the expansion of the abuse network?

The fact that the document remained in the FBI archives for decades fuels suspicion of a possible combination of institutional negligence, serious coordination errors, or even tacit protection of the financier, who for years maintained relationships with influential figures in the political, economic, and social spheres.

In a public appearance this morning, Washington time, the department's number two, Todd Blanche, detailed the scope of the released documentation: more than three million pages, accompanied by some 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. However, nearly six million potentially relevant documents were identified in total, but only about half have been made public. The rest have been excluded "because they contain child sexual abuse material, personal data of victims, or information protected by legal privileges," according to Blanche.

A team of more than 500 lawyers and professionals from the Department of Justice, the FBI, and various federal prosecutors' offices participated in the analysis of the material. They worked for 75 days, with marathon sessions that included weekends and holidays, to review and censor the material, with the goal of complying with the Deputy Attorney General's instructions.

Congress will soon receive a detailed report with the categories of documents released and withheld, as well as the list of public officials and politically exposed persons who appear in the files.

An open case in time

During the same appearance, Blanche explicitly referenced President Donald Trump and denied any special protection in the document review process. According to her, "We have not protected the president, and there is no effort to withhold anything to prevent Donald J. Trump's name or the names of other individuals from being released." Blanche insisted that the review was conducted in strict compliance with the law and that the redactions applied to the documents were solely "to protect the privacy of victims and comply with established legal limits." Thus, while the files contain some mentions and photographs of Trump with Epstein and associates, Blanche made it clear that this "does not constitute any evidence of criminal conduct," and that the DOJ's objective is transparency, without filtering for political reasons. The first batches of documents, released in previous weeks, had generated controversy due to the dissemination of old images of Epstein with former President Bill Clinton, without any context. Clinton's team accused the DOJ of insinuating nonexistent wrongdoing, an accusation the department has rejected. In any case, both Trump and Clinton have repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. In this regard, it is significant—or surprising—that in the posthumous memoir published by Virginia Giuffre, Epstein's most prominent victim, who accused the now former Prince Andrew of rape and abuse, Trump is specifically exonerated of any crime.

Beyond the names and images, the release again highlights the institutional failure that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to continue abusing minors for decades.

Six years after Epstein's suicide, the massive declassification of files does not close the case; on the contrary, it opens a new chapter of uncomfortable questions about political, judicial, and administrative responsibilities, which are now documented and accessible to members of Congress and representatives of victims who wish to continue filing reports.