he Epstein files arrived late Friday afternoon, quietly posted by the Department of Justice with assurances that more material would be released in the coming weeks. The administration framed the slow rollout as caution, citing the need to protect victims and comply with court orders. Survivors and transparency advocates saw something else entirely: delay, over-redaction, and a sense that the most consequential information was still being withheld.
If you were obsessively refreshing the DOJ website, as I was, you noticed pretty quickly that some material appeared and then vanished. Photos were posted, then pulled. One image showing an open drawer in Epstein’s possession containing a photograph of Donald Trump circulated briefly before disappearing. The explanation from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche amounted to this: trust us, we are being careful. That answer has not satisfied anyone, on the left or the right.
