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| lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
| ARTICLE VIEW: | |
| 4 takeaways from the latest batch of the Epstein files | |
| Analysis by Aaron Blake, CNN | |
| Updated: | |
| 6:22 PM EST, Tue December 23, 2025 | |
| Source: CNN | |
| The Justice Department has released related to convicted sex offender | |
| Jeffrey Epstein – documents that include many more mentions of than | |
| last week’s dump. | |
| DOJ released on Friday — the deadline for it to make them public | |
| after Congress passed a new law last month — and continues to | |
| gradually release additional documents. | |
| Below are some takeaways from the latest release. | |
| 1. New evidence of a pursuit of ‘co-conspirators’ | |
| We’re continuing to learn potentially significant things about the | |
| government’s handling of the Epstein investigations. | |
| The new batch of documents, for example, includes evidence that | |
| prosecutors sought to investigate and potentially charge more people. | |
| A series of apparent FBI emails from July 2019 cite “10 | |
| co-conspirators.” | |
| “When you get a chance can you give me an update on the status of the | |
| 10 CO conspirators?” reads one July 7, 2019, email from a sender with | |
| “FBI New York” in their signature. | |
| Another email from two days later requests “an update on the 10 | |
| co-conspirators by COB today.” | |
| A third cites efforts to locate and serve these people with subpoenas. | |
| It indicates some were indeed contacted. One who wasn’t is described | |
| as “a wealthy business man in Ohio.” | |
| The documents also cite – but don’t appear to actually include – | |
| memos after Epstein’s August 2019 death outlining co-conspirators | |
| that could be charged. | |
| To date, only Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend, | |
| have been charged. | |
| We don’t actually have these memos or the names of the alleged | |
| “co-conspirators,” so we don’t know whom these could be in | |
| reference to. It’s not clear what kinds of crimes might have been at | |
| issue. And while many have been on the hunt for a so-called “client | |
| list” that the FBI says doesn’t exist, it’s not clear whether | |
| these documents actually implicate others in alleged crimes. | |
| We don’t know what happened with these potential prosecutions. The | |
| fact that the cases were never charged might suggest that the | |
| investigations didn’t substantiate such charges. But the use of | |
| “co-conspirators” suggests that, at least at one point, | |
| investigators felt others were involved in Epstein’s crimes. | |
| And these are the kinds of documents that lots of people have been | |
| anticipating for a very long time – documents that might suggest who | |
| else might be held accountable for Epstein’s crimes. | |
| You can bet there will be lots of pressure on the Trump administration | |
| to make sure they get produced. | |
| 2. We’re learning how Trump was invoked in the Epstein investigations | |
| Friday’s initial batch included . This batch features a much heavier | |
| dose of the current president. | |
| And perhaps most notably, the documents show how Trump’s name came up | |
| in the context of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s investigations and | |
| prosecutions. (Trump has never been accused by law enforcement of | |
| wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes, and he has denied any | |
| wrongdoing.) | |
| There is seeking “any and all employment records relating to” a | |
| redacted individual. (While it’s not clear who the individual is, | |
| we’ve known that one of Epstein’s accusers, the late Virginia | |
| Giuffre, formerly worked at Mar-a-Lago.) | |
| There is from an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New | |
| York noting Trump flew on Epstein’s plane eight times (something | |
| that’s since become public knowledge via the release of flight | |
| records). The assistant US attorney also says two of the flights | |
| included “women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.” | |
| At least four of the flights included Maxwell, according to the flight | |
| records. | |
| There are also tips to the FBI involving Trump and his relationship | |
| with Epstein, with little or no indication about whether those tips | |
| were followed up on or corroborated. | |
| 3. A much-discussed letter that the DOJ now says is ‘fake’ | |
| Aside from those references, the new document dump features an | |
| intriguing apparent reference to Trump. | |
| Included is a letter — which the Justice Department now says is | |
| “FAKE” — signed by “J. Epstein” and addressed to another | |
| infamous convicted sex offender, disgraced ex-USA Gymnastics doctor | |
| Larry Nassar. | |
| “We shared one thing … our love and caring for young ladies and the | |
| hope they’d reach their full potential,” the letter . “Our | |
| President also shares our love of young, nubile girls.” | |
| The letter then includes another lewd apparent reference to Trump. (It | |
| doesn’t use the word Trump, but it’s from 2019, when Trump was | |
| serving as president.) | |
| It then suggests that, unlike Trump, “we ended up snatching grub in | |
| the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair.” | |
| Notably, the letter is postmarked three days after Epstein’s death in | |
| prison, which has been ruled a suicide. The author alludes to having | |
| “taken the ‘short route’ home,” and wishes Nassar, “Good | |
| luck!” The letter was marked as “return to sender.” | |
| What to make of this? There are so many questions that are unanswered | |
| here. | |
| DOJ said Tuesday afternoon the FBI had determined the letter was | |
| “FAKE,” in part because the writing didn’t appear to match | |
| Epstein’s. (An FBI document from 2020 indicates a handwriting | |
| analysis had been requested, but the documents released Tuesday don’t | |
| include the results.) | |
| The DOJ statement also noted the letter was postmarked in Virginia, | |
| while Epstein had been held in New York; the return address listed the | |
| wrong jail; and it was processed three days after Epstein died. | |
| Even if this letter were indeed from Epstein, it would just be a claim. | |
| Earlier Tuesday, the DOJ didn’t invoke this letter specifically but | |
| broadly suggested the allegations raised against Trump – likely | |
| including the FBI tips mentioned above – weren’t true. | |
| “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims | |
| made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right | |
| before the 2020 election,” the DOJ said. “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.” | |
| CNN has reached out to the White House about the latest batch of | |
| documents, including that letter. | |
| But there are just too many unanswered questions about this letter to | |
| draw definitive conclusions. | |
| At the very least, the new disclosures are the kinds of things Trump | |
| once indicated he worried would unnecessarily tarnish people. | |
| Trump in a 2024 Fox News interview in the Epstein files that had the | |
| potential to “affect people’s lives.” He , warning that merely | |
| being in a picture with Epstein could ruin someone’s reputation. | |
| 4. More questionable actions from the DOJ | |
| The release of these materials previously has been marred by DOJ | |
| mishandling, and that’s continuing. | |
| First, DOJ’s initial Tuesday statement is extraordinary. It reads as | |
| if it’s from Trump’s personal lawyer – i.e. its reference to how | |
| this information, if credible, “certainly would have been weaponized | |
| against President Trump” – rather than a neutral handler of this | |
| information. | |
| That’s a huge contrast to how the DOJ handled Clinton’s appearance | |
| in the files released Friday. Back then, a DOJ spokesperson pointed to | |
| an image of Clinton appearing in a hot tub with a redacted individual | |
| and of Epstein’s abuse. | |
| Clinton, like Trump, has never been accused by law enforcement of | |
| wrongdoing related to Epstein. On Monday – before the latest batch | |
| was released — the former president’s spokesman to release | |
| everything it has related to Clinton, claiming that “selective | |
| releases” were about “insinuation,” not transparency. | |
| The DOJ’s questionable handling of the files has also been | |
| underscored by the curious and that go beyond the limits of the law | |
| Congress passed last month. | |
| The 2020 email from the assistant US attorney redacts the author’s | |
| name, for instance. Other emails appear to redact the names of | |
| government officials, meaning it’s not clear which officials were | |
| involved in key decisions and discussions – including emails from | |
| around the time of Epstein’s much-criticized non-prosecution deal in | |
| the late 2000s. | |
| And lastly, the documents were apparently uploaded Monday, then | |
| removed, then reposted again, according to . | |
| It’s not clear why that happened or whether the documents that were | |
| reposted match the ones that had been initially been posted. | |
| The Justice Department has already failed to comply with the deadline | |
| to release all of these documents, which were due in their totality on | |
| Friday. | |
| And after that initial release, it briefly pulled back some documents | |
| that had been posted, including one image that , which was later | |
| restored. | |
| Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the photo was removed due | |
| to caution about potentially featuring an Epstein victim. | |
| “It has nothing to do with President Trump,” Blanche said this | |
| weekend. “The absurdity of pulling down a single photo because of | |
| President Trump is laughable.” | |
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