The Trump administration was ordered to release all the Epstein Files. They didn’t. Lawmakers say they are breaking the law. This episode was produced by Danielle Hewitt with help from Avishay Artsy, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein in one of the images released Friday by the State Department. Photo by The US Justice Department / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What led Congress to demand the release of the Epstein files?
Congress voted to force the release of the Epstein files in mid-November because people wanted answers. How did Jeffrey Epstein get his money? Who else was involved in his crimes? But when the files were released on Friday, there were no real answers. Now lawmakers from both parties say President Trump's Justice Department is covering things up.
Chapter 2: How did Jeffrey Epstein accumulate his wealth?
This is absolutely breaking the law.
So my suggestion would be give up all the information, release it.
Chapter 3: Who were the other individuals implicated in Epstein's crimes?
Well, I think there needs to be a full and complete explanation and then a full and complete investigation as to why the document production has fallen short of what the law clearly required.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, wrote, release all the files. It's literally the law.
Chapter 4: What was the reaction to the limited information released in the Epstein files?
And Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, is urging the Senate to sue the Department of Justice. Coming up on Today Explained, the latest outrage over the Epstein files.
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Chapter 5: Why do lawmakers believe the Trump administration is covering up information?
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Chapter 6: What specific information was expected from the Epstein files?
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This is Today Explained.
Haley Fuchs, I'm a reporter for Politico covering Congress. How much time did you spend since Friday reading the Epstein files? Certainly there was a lot of time spent scouring through these materials and a large team at Politico who were going through them. Okay, so at this point, is it fair to say that the Epstein files have been released? Definitely not.
So the DOJ said they released a smaller tranche of materials on Friday and on Saturday, and they were going to continue to release materials. What's interesting is that the bill that compelled the release of these materials that Congress passed last month actually required them to release the materials by Friday.
So a lot of lawmakers are saying the DOJ is breaking the law by not fully releasing the files. They sent a six-page memo to Congress and said they cited pre-existing laws as reasons that they weren't going to follow our law.
For instance, our law requires them to release information regardless of embarrassment. But they are trying to say that a previous law prevails when it doesn't.
If you say the files weren't fully released, what did you spend all weekend looking at? What did we get? So we got a lot of materials from DOJ. We got some photos, we got some documents, but there really wasn't much in the way of new information in these files. The expectation was that DOJ would answer a lot of questions in its release of the files. People wanted to know
how Epstein amassed his fortune. They want to know who else was involved in his crimes. And really in these files, we didn't find out really anything about any of those questions. We mostly saw material that had already been public. For the first time, the Epstein files made public
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Chapter 7: How did Ghislaine Maxwell's role evolve in Epstein's operations?
You also know that there is a lot of theorizing and conspiracy theorizing around the Epstein files. Do you think there is any information that could be released that would make people feel like this is enough? We know all that we are ever going to know. I don't know that the American public is ever going to be fully satisfied with the information that is provided in this case.
I think that people want to see the people who helped Epstein or potentially were involved in his crimes held accountable. And it's unclear if we are ever going to see that. I think for now, Democrats really want to see DOJ fully release the files, which is something that they have not done and theoretically could do. Haley Fuchs is a reporter for Politico.
Coming up, Ghislaine Maxwell, the author of a book on what we now know about Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice.
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Chapter 8: Where is Ghislaine Maxwell now and what are her legal challenges?
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This is Today Explained.
I'm Noelle King with Barry Levine. Barry is an investigative journalist who wrote a book called The Spider inside the criminal web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Barry, tell me about Maxwell's early years. Well, Ghislaine grew up in England in a mansion. with 50 or 60 rooms. Her father, of course, was Robert Maxwell, the famous Fleet Street media tycoon.
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