Serious reactions, but also questions are caused by the policy of the Ministry of Justice regarding its records that have been forced by a relevant resolution of Congress to make public, as a photo showing the president of the United States was revealed, was removed from the website that hosts the database, only to be re-uploaded later edited, while entire documents have been censored, such as for example all the pages of a court document by a court of New York.
According to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch, a total of 16 files were downloaded and redacted because there were complaints from Epstein’s victims that they contained critical and sensitive information about them.
The photo in which Trump appears depicts a desk drawer containing various photos. Among them is one in which Donald Trump appears together with Ghislaine Maxwell, a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. According to CNN, that particular photo had been removed from the site on Saturday.
Reactions to the download
“This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files featuring Donald Trump appears to have now been removed from the Justice Department’s release,” House Oversight Committee Democrats said in a post on X on Saturday.
“Pam Boddy, is that true?” What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American people,” they added.
“This is a cover-up by the White House,” the committee’s Democratic lawmakers argued in a later post.
The ministry’s response
In a statement, the Justice Department said: “The photographs and other material will continue to be reviewed and processed (redacted) in accordance with the law, with particular care as we receive additional information.”
Criticism of the records alteration highlights the highly charged political climate surrounding the release of the documents ordered by Congress, with Democrats arguing that the records released so far are heavily censored and cherry-picked in a way that portrays Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, in a negative light.
In a post on Platform X, the Department of Justice clarified that the withdrawal was made to ascertain whether further processing was required to protect victims. As he said, after a relevant check it was found that the photo does not depict Epstein’s victims and, therefore, it can be republished without any changes.
