BrianKrebsThis is an insane story from Noah Shachtman:
“Ludicrous” Situation: Jeffrey Epstein Case Redaction Takes Over FBI’s New York Office
The bureau’s New York field office normally chases drug dealers and spies. Right now, according to multiple sources, priority one is redacting the sex trafficker’s case files.
“It’s literally all hands on deck,” one source familiar with the matter tells me, adding that dozens and dozens of agents are working around the clock on the case, instead of on their regular duties. “I even saw an agent walking in with a pillow,” the source added.
The New York field office is an epicenter for FBI counterintelligence, counterterrorism, public corruption, international drug trafficking, and financial crime investigations. The redeployment of agents to comb over the file of the notorious sex trafficker Epstein, who died nearly six years ago, is an indication of the Justice Department’s priorities in this second Trump administration. One FBI veteran calls it a “ludicrous” situation.
During the campaign, Donald Trump said he’d consider releasing Epstein’s alleged client list, which had long been thought of as a kind of unholy grail naming the powerful and privileged who had preyed on Epstein’s victims. Less than three weeks after being sworn in as attorney general, Pam Bondi told Fox News that list is “sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump.” But the release of the “first phase” of the Epstein documents, in binders handed out to perplexed MAGA influencers, became an instant fiasco. Almost all the material had been previously published: a “little black book” that had circulated for a decade as well as flight logs that surfaced during the prosecution of Epstein coconspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. “EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE RIGHT WING PAID INFLUENCERS LIED TO ALL OF YOU TODAY!” posted Trump ally Laura Loomer on X. “THEY ENGAGED IN DECEPTION TO RUN COVER FOR PEDOPHILES!!!”
An apparently irate Bondi later that day wrote to FBI director Kash Patel, alleging that she had been deceived. “I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents. Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein,” Bondi said in her letter. “Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files.” (The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this story.)
ABC News, citing unnamed sources, reported that up to a thousand FBI agents—“many of whom are usually focusing on national security matters”—had been pulled into the effort to review the files. The network also quoted FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson as saying, “Director Patel is committed to full transparency and justice.” (Williamson did not respond to multiple requests to comment for this story.)
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