Donald Trump’s name appears over a million times in the unredacted Epstein files, according to Congressman Jamie Raskin, who reviewed the documents the Justice Department decided the public shouldn’t see.
Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, dropped this bombshell after examining the DOJ’s blacked-out materials—the stuff that got conveniently redacted when the agency released 3.5 million files earlier this month. “There’s tons of redacted stuff,” Raskin told Axios. “And [Trump’s] name, I think I put his name, and it appears more than a million times. So it’s all over the place.”
THE DETAILS: In the heavily redacted public release, Trump showed up about 5,300 times. But more than a million references? That’s a whole different story—one the Trump DOJ apparently doesn’t want Americans reading.
One unredacted email Raskin reviewed directly contradicts Trump’s favorite talking point: that he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago years ago. According to Raskin, the email contained a conversation between Epstein’s lawyers and Trump’s lawyers that told a different tale. “Epstein’s lawyers synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mar-a-Lago—but he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago and he had never been asked to leave,” Raskin told reporters. “And that was redacted for some…inscrutable reason.”
BUT BUT BUT: Trump has claimed for years he cut ties with Epstein in the mid-2000s after a “falling out.” He’s insisted he “wasn’t a fan” and kicked the guy out for being a “creep.” Yet another newly released document shows Trump calling Palm Beach’s police chief in July 2006—right when Epstein’s first sex charge went public—to inform him that Epstein’s activities were “well known.” In that same call, Trump reportedly called Ghislaine Maxwell Epstein’s “operative,” adding “she is evil and to focus on her.”
So which is it? Trump knew nothing, or Trump knew enough to call the cops with tips about the whole operation?
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt couldn’t say whether the phone call even happened when pressed by reporters Tuesday. Her defense? “The president cut off his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and was honest and transparent about that for years and years.”
OF COURSE: The DOJ released only about half of the six million documents it reviewed, despite Trump himself signing laws last year demanding “maximum transparency.” Survivors aren’t buying it. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, they wrote: “This release does not provide closure. It feels instead like a deliberate attempt to intimidate survivors, punish those who came forward, and reinforce the same culture of secrecy that allowed Epstein’s crimes to continue for decades.”
WHY IT MATTERS: The president of the United States appears over a million times in documents related to a convicted sex trafficker, and his own Justice Department is actively hiding those references from the public. Trump’s response? “I think it’s really time for the country to get on to something else.”
Bondi faces questioning from the House Judiciary Committee later this week. Expect more stonewalling, more redactions, and more insistence that the guy whose name appears a million times in sex trafficking documents is actually the victim here.