00:00We begin in the United States, where there's growing anger over what many say
00:04is the incomplete release of files related to the late pedophile, sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
00:10One former victim is calling it a slap in the face.
00:13The Justice Department did not release all court evidence as ordered by Congress,
00:17and many of the records were heavily redacted.
00:20That's fueling speculation that President Donald Trump's allies
00:23are trying to hide any ties he may have had with Epstein.
00:26Ethan Behrman is an attorney and adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
00:33He joins us now.
00:36So after this partial release of documents, we are seeing a lot of criticism,
00:40not only from Democrats, but also from a few Republican lawmakers.
00:43Does that surprise you?
00:46It doesn't surprise me in the slightest, as Democratic Congressman Khanna just said a moment ago.
00:53They've had months to prepare for this.
00:55They have three federal judges that have ordered the release of these documents.
00:58They knew that Congress was moving legislation through to force the release of these documents.
01:06This was actually a topic that President Trump ran on in his campaign last year,
01:12was to release the Epstein files.
01:15So this idea that we have, according to CBS News,
01:18at least 500 pages that are completely blacked out is nonsensical.
01:22And I would just add one more key fact here.
01:24The federal judges have made it clear that they should be redacting only information that would expose the victims.
01:32And if there's an ongoing investigation, everything else should be made available to the public.
01:37And it wasn't.
01:39Now, as you were just speaking about there, many of these files were very heavily redacted.
01:44Now, in this context, is that kind of censorship legal?
01:46And who exactly makes that call?
01:48Well, this is something that ends up in the courts quite often in situations like this,
01:56where the Justice Department is supposed to make that initial decision of what to redact or what not to redact,
02:02based on the judge's order or Congress's orders here.
02:06And as a result, if there's a problem with those releases, this can be brought before a judge.
02:12People can be brought before Congress.
02:15This is, I mean, it's very upsetting because the rules were very clear on what was supposed to be redacted.
02:22And it appears that they went far beyond that, which only leads to more speculation that they're trying to protect somebody.
02:31Now, there were many high-profile figures featured in these releases, including former President Bill Clinton.
02:37However, some have argued that the Justice Department is trying to distract from possible connections between Trump and Epstein with this release.
02:44Do you think those concerns are founded?
02:45Well, I think that they've definitely reinforced those concerns, again, in light of what they haven't produced and what they have redacted.
02:56It would appear that there's something going on.
03:00But more importantly, I think if you start digging through these files, there is some release of people very closely connected to Donald Trump.
03:08There's some incriminating documents that appear to be incriminating.
03:12Let me be clear about that.
03:14But the absolute lack of information tying back to President Trump himself really, really feeds the fire of those who want to speculate that there really is a connection to him that's being covered up.
03:29Now, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch said that he expects several hundred thousand more files to be released over the coming weeks.
03:35Is there a plausible reason that we could be seeing another delay like this?
03:40Well, plausibly, it would be that they made no effort to prepare these documents before the president signed it into law.
03:51They were ignoring what the judges were saying once it was signed into law until somebody decided to assign, according to Todd Blanch, 200 attorneys in the DOJ to review the files.
04:02I've got to tell you, this, it doesn't smell good.
04:06It smells like there's something going on.
04:08They should have been ready.
04:10And we look forward to additional releases.
04:12But we hope that they actually release the files with only the redactions as necessary in accordance with the federal judge's orders.
04:23All right.
04:23I'm afraid we have to leave it there.
04:24That was Ethan Behrman, adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
04:29Thank you very much for joining us.
04:32Thanks for having me, Aaron.
04:33The Justice Department's website showed just how much interest the Epstein files have sparked.
04:39The public can now access a portion of the records.
04:43But it's hard to tell what people will take away from the thousands of photos and documents from Epstein's homes and social gatherings published with little to no context.
04:54The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was known for being well-connected.
04:59And the images feature famous faces like music stars Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
05:08Their appearance in the photos does not indicate wrongdoing, as many of those identified have stated.
05:14But one prominent feature of this release is the heavy redaction.
05:18There are lots and lots of obscured faces, and entire pages are blacked out without explanation.
05:25The U.S. Justice Department published the files just in time for Friday, the deadline set by Congress, but released only a few thousand, despite reporting there were hundreds of thousands more.
05:36The Democrats say that's unacceptable.
05:40It is disappointing that they haven't been able to release these documents on time in compliance with the law.
05:48While it's clear they're trying, at the very least, to meet the deadline, they should have been able to do more.
05:55What we need is a clear timeline of when the rest of the documents will be released, and an explanation for why they did not release all of them today.
06:07Despite his well-documented past association with Epstein, President Donald Trump's name is largely absent from this latest release.
06:15But this has only intensified calls from critics for the total discussion.
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