WASHINGTON – The Justice Department faces a Dec. 19 deadline to release more information about accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the latest revelations in two decades of state and federal criminal investigations into the high-flying financier who previously partied with two U.S. presidents.
Those investigations along the way have left a lot of collateral damage, including the resignation of a Cabinet secretary. The case ended with Epstein’s mysterious death in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, while he was in jail awaiting trial on charges he recruited girls as young as 14 for sex at his mansions in New York and Florida, and at his private island in the Caribbean.
But the slow drip of leaks and government revelations continue to roil the political waters six years later. President Donald Trump’s popularity suffers from photographic and email reminders of spending time with Epstein decades ago, before a falling out, despite not being accused of wrongdoing. Another former Cabinet secretary quit his business and educational posts because of the “shame” of email messages exchanged with Epstein years earlier.
More: Maps show luxury locales where Epstein has been accused of sex abuse
Raising expectations of fresh revelations, three federal judges have approved the release of grand jury transcripts and other evidence from the Epstein case under a law Congress approved and Trump signed a month earlier.
