Democrats question redactions and whether Trump officials are holding back more documents – key US politics stories from 30 January at a glance
The US justice department has released more than 3m pages of documents related to its investigation into the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a long-awaited announcement that appears to represent the bulk of the so-called Epstein files that have dogged Donald Trump politically.
While an analysis is still under way, the release exposes previously unknown financial ties and social connections between Epstein and prominent figures in the US and UK – including some in the president’s orbit.
One back-and-forth email chain between Epstein and Elon Musk in 2012 appears to show the world’s richest billionaire responding to the question “how many people will you be for the heli[copter] to the island” with “what day/night will be the wildest party on =our island?”
Musk, you may recall, formerly served as an unelected official in the Trump administration, running the “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
