The Epstein Files Only Get Worse

This particularly cursed holiday week kicked off in earnest last night when my father turned his iPad in my direction. On its screen was a terribly disturbing post on X containing two images. In the first, Jeffrey Epstein was hugging and kissing a little girl. In the second, that girl was bound and gagged on a bed. Dad was rightly outraged and disgusted. He asked me if I’d seen the photos in my time going through the Epstein files. I immediately recognized the first image of Epstein and deduced that it had been Photoshopped from a widely distributed photo of Epstein hugging Ghislaine Maxwell. The second image seemed to be an AI rendering. (To add to the confusion, images reportedly do exist of Epstein cuddling children.) I let him know that the imagery was fake, and a distinctly non-yuletidy conversation ensued. Yes, Epstein was a heinous pedophile and convicted sex offender. Also, the internet is awash in fake, traumatizing slop that’s being used to score points in an ongoing information war. Happy holidays! Early this morning, the Department of Justice released nearly 30,000 documents related to its investigations into Epstein. A previous batch was released late last Friday afternoon, as mandated by Congress, and was notable for its thorough redactions, its overall lack of material related to President Donald Trump, and the fact that it was incomplete. This latest batch contains far more mentions of Trump, leading the DOJ to issue a defensive-sounding, partisan, and frankly unprofessional post on X: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.” As I looked through the documents myself, I realized that many mentions of Trump in this batch come from news stories or documents referencing publicly available information about the president. For example, a random email in the archive includes a link to a story headlined “Trump: Kushner’s Security Clearance Is Up to Kelly.” But there are some new, salacious-seeming details. Take, for instance, a 2020 email from an unidentified federal prosecutor alerting an unknown recipient that Trump had taken more trips on Epstein’s plane than was previously realized. There are at least two unvetted forms submitted in 2020 to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center tip line that mention Trump’s name in conjunction with alarming and unproven allegations, including rape and paying for sex. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about these new documents and allegations, and instead referred me to posts on X by the DOJ; Trump has previously denied any wrongdoing and has downplayed his past relationship with Epstein. Another shocking revelation is a copy of a letter allegedly written by Epstein to Larry Nassar, a former U.S.-gymnastics-team doctor who was convicted of possessing child pornography, among other crimes, and who used...

Preview: ~500 words