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A top Justice Department official on Sunday sought to tamp down expectations that the newly released trove of Jeffrey Epstein investigative files will lead to additional criminal charges, saying that even deeply troubling evidence does not automatically translate into prosecutable cases.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department’s position remains unchanged despite a massive document release that has reignited global scrutiny of Epstein’s ties to wealthy and powerful figures.
“There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs — a lot of horrible photographs,” Blanche said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”
Justice Department officials said over the summer that a comprehensive review of Epstein-related material failed to establish a basis for new criminal investigations. Blanche said Sunday that nothing uncovered in the latest disclosures has altered that conclusion.
Limits of prosecution
Blanche acknowledged that Epstein’s victims want accountability but stressed that prosecutors cannot pursue cases without legally sufficient evidence.
“They want to be made whole,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we can just create evidence or that we can just kind of come up with a case that isn’t there.”
The comments came as the Trump administration’s Justice Department began releasing more than 3 million pages of documents, along with 2,000 videos and roughly 180,000 images, under a law designed to make public most of the records generated during long-running federal investigations into Epstein.
The scale and content of the disclosures have fueled renewed public outrage — and immediate political fallout overseas.
International repercussions
In the United Kingdom, Lord Peter Mandelson announced Sunday that he would resign from the governing Labour Party following renewed attention to his past relationship with Epstein. Mandelson said he was stepping aside to avoid causing “further embarrassment,” while denying allegations that he received payments from Epstein decades ago.
In Slovakia, a senior government official stepped down after photos and emails revealed meetings with Epstein in the years after Epstein had been released from jail.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also weighed in, saying that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, should cooperate fully with U.S. investigators and share whatever information he has about Epstein’s activities.
Prominent names surface again
Documents posted to the Justice Department’s website detail Epstein’s friendships and correspondence with a wide array of influential figures across politics, business and philanthropy.
Among them are emails involving Mountbatten-Windsor, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, and references to billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk. None have been charged in connection with Epstein’s crimes.
The Epstein case has long captivated the public in part because of his past relationships with President Donald Trumpand former President Bill Clinton. Both men have said they were unaware Epstein was sexually abusing underage girls.
Blanche said Sunday that Trump is far from the only public figure named in the files.
“There are a ton of people in there,” he said, adding that the FBI received hundreds of calls alleging wrongdoing by prominent individuals — allegations that were “quickly determined to not be credible.”
Unverified allegations and disturbing details
Among the records is a spreadsheet created in August summarizing calls made to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center or to a hotline established by prosecutors. The document includes numerous uncorroborated and sometimes fantastical claims involving celebrities, along with notes indicating whether agents pursued follow-up.
Other materials include Epstein’s personal emails, which contain candid discussions about his habit of paying women for sex even after he served jail time in Florida for soliciting an underage prostitute.
In a 2013 email, a correspondent whose name was redacted criticized Epstein for surrounding himself with young women in ways that blurred professional and personal boundaries.
“Though these women are young, they are not too young to know that they are making a very particular choice,” the person wrote, referencing Epstein’s earlier conviction and the public perception of him as “a powerful man taking advantage of powerless young women.”
In a separate 2009 email, a woman sharply rebuked Epstein for breaking promises to stop bringing prostitutes into his home, writing that she could no longer tolerate his behavior.
“I can’t live like this anymore,” she wrote.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in August 2019, about a month after being indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.
‘This review is over’
In a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Blanche said the Justice Department is awaiting judicial approval to release a small number of remaining documents but emphasized that its internal review is complete.
“We reviewed over six million pieces of paper, thousands of videos, tens of thousands of images,” he said. “This review is over.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that he believes the department is complying with the law mandating the disclosures.
But Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a co-sponsor of the transparency law, said he does not believe the DOJ has fully met its obligations. He also said survivors were angered after some victims’ names were inadvertently disclosed without proper redactions.
Blanche said the department has moved quickly to correct any such errors and that they represent a tiny fraction of the overall material released.
