US Attorney Pam Bondi announced that she will start releasing documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, including a list of his contacts, alleged clients and flight records to his private island. Epstein, a financier who socialized with the rich and famous, is accused of introducing numerous young women, many of whom were minors, to his powerful acquaintances on his private jet, the “Lolita Express” and flying them to his private Caribbean island. He was arrested in 2019 and later died in a Manhattan jail cell the same year, with his death officially ruled as a suicide, although many have questioned this.
Evidence in his case remained secret even after his death, with media reports suggesting that the FBI found documents that may have contained compromising material about his employees.
US President Donald Trump had previously announced that he would release the names of alleged clients of Epstein. Bondi stated that the Epstein files had been on her desk for a week and that Trump was not making empty promises. The delay in the release, which Bondi hopes will occur on Thursday, was attributed to the large number of victims, with over 200, according to Bondi and potentially over 250, who must be protected.
The publicly known list of Epstein’s acquaintances includes prominent figures such as former US President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and British Prince Andrew. Trump also knew Epstein, but denied visiting his private island, claiming to have cut ties with him in the 1990s – years before Epstein’s first arrest in 2006 for soliciting prostitution of a minor.
Trump’s efforts to release documents go beyond the Epstein case. A newly established taskforce, led by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, aims to release documents on a wide range of high-profile topics, including the 9/11 attacks, the origins of COVID-19, UFOs and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“The government has been withholding information from the American people for decades” Luna said in a statement early this month. “It is time to give the American people the answers they deserve.