The US Department of Justice has admitted that over 47,635 Epstein files, including allegations against President Donald Trump, were removed from the released files.
After publishing more than 2 million pages of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, DOJ has withheld from the public nearly 48,000 files stemming from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.
As per analysis of the files by CBS News and The Wall Street Journal, the initial legally mandated releases of documents comprised more than 3 million pages, but that figure is now roughly 2.7 million.
“47,635 files were offline for further review and should be ready for re-production by the end of the week”, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said.
The Independent previously reported that those offline files include materials connected to unverified allegations against President Donald Trump.
Last week, the DOJ told The Independent that it is “currently reviewing” documents that detail unverified allegations against the president.
According to Justice Department spokesperson, Natalie Baldassarre, “the team is working around the clock to address victim concerns, redact personally identifiable information and any images of a sexual nature. All responsive documents will be repopulated online once proper redactions are made.”
The Justice Department released millions of files, including emails, court documents, photos and videos, many of which include images or references to high-profile figures, including the president.
The files include summaries of FBI interviews stemming from unverified claims made by a woman who came forward after Epstein’s arrest in 2019. According to the files released by the DOJ, she alleged that when she was a minor she was sexually assaulted by both Epstein and Trump decades earlier.
The Justice Department in a statement in January said that “some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election”, and that those claims are “unfounded and false”.
Trump’s name appears thousands of times in the files, but he has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and insists he cut ties with Epstein years before the convicted child sex offender was under investigation.