WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative political commentators were spotted at the White House Thursday holding binders that read “The Epstein Files” hours after Attorney General Pam Bondi promised the release of documents about wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who sexually abused underage girls.
It was not immediately clear what was in the binders, which have not been released publicly by the Justice Department.
The binders read “declassified,” but it was not immediately clear whether the information contained in the binders ever had been classified. Among those holding the binders was political commentator Rogan O’Handley, also known as DC Draino.
Bondi said Wednesday on Fox News that the documents would include flight logs and “a lot of names,” though it was unclear whether there would be details not already publicly known.
Epstein’s crimes and connections to famous people have long been a subject of public fascination and media scrutiny. Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, his criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.
In January 2024, a court unsealed a trove of documents that had been collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. Much of the material, including transcripts of victim interviews and old police reports, had already been publicly known.
Epstein sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14. He killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial in his Manhattan jail cell.
The case has drawn widespread attention because of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s links to royals, presidents and billionaires. Maxwell herself is the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who once owned the New York Daily News.
Maxwell, 62, was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to Epstein so he could molest them, between 1994 and 2004. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
