By Ben Meiselas
The MeidasTouch research team and I spent hours reviewing what the Department of Justice released as “Data Set Eight” of the Epstein files, and the picture that emerges is deeply troubling, not only for what appears in the records, but for what remains missing, redacted, or contradicted by official statements. As president, Donald Trump now presides over a Justice Department that is asking the public to accept its assurances while simultaneously producing documents that undermine those very claims.
The DOJ’s posture has been unusually defensive. In a public statement announcing the release of nearly 30,000 additional pages, the department took an unusually defensive tone, insisting that some materials contained “untrue and sensational claims” about Donald Trump, asserting that if any allegation had “a shred of credibility,” it would have been weaponized years ago. The department framed the disclosure as a commitment to transparency, while emphasizing legal protections for victims of Jeffrey Epstein.
Among the disturbing materials is a letter that is alleged — and I emphasize alleged — to have been postmarked shortly after Epstein’s death to Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics physician convicted of serial sexual abuse. The letter, returned to sender and submitted for handwriting analysis by the FBI, contains grotesque language referencing sexual exploitation and includes a line invoking “our president.” The existence of such a letter was widely reported on in 2023, though its contents at the time were unknown. Until now. Investigators have not publicly confirmed the letter’s authorship, and the results of the handwriting analysis have yet to be discovered in the files or presented to the public by the FBI. We are calling on the DOJ and FBI to provide the official conclusions made regarding this document.
Perhaps even more significant are internal DOJ communications from 2019 documenting the existence of ten Epstein co-conspirators. Prosecutors and investigators discussed locating, interviewing, and serving grand jury subpoenas on these individuals across multiple states, including New York, Florida, and Massachusetts. One email describes teams traveling to interview approximately twenty-five victims and notes dozens of calls to the FBI tip line. Yet in sworn testimony years later, FBI Director Kash Patel stated unequivocally that there was “no credible information” that Epstein trafficked victims to anyone else. Why would Trump’s FBI director claim there were no co-conspirators, when the files clearly show that to be false?
Those two realities cannot both be true. Either federal investigators pursued co-conspirators because evidence warranted it, or senior officials later misrepresented the contents of their own files. The newly released emails suggest the former.
The documents also show that a grand jury subpoena was issued to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in October 2021 in connection with the investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell. A representative of the club was compelled to appear before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. This is not speculation; it is a matter of record.
Another set of records involves a separate investigation into the “We Build the Wall” scheme, in which Steve Bannon was later pardoned by Trump at the federal level before pleading guilty in a state case. During forensic review of Bannon’s phone, investigators flagged a photograph of Trump and Maxwell.
Perhaps most consequential is a January 2020 email between federal prosecutors summarizing flight records obtained during the Maxwell investigation. According to that email, Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously had been reported,” including at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, several of which included Maxwell. On two flights, Trump was present with a potential witness in the Maxwell case, the prosecutor wrote. The message notes that Trump sometimes traveled with family members and, in one instance, was listed as the only passenger with Epstein. The prosecutors emphasized that they were flagging this information so it would not “be a surprise down the road.”
That email, too, appears in the files.
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The release also includes FBI intake reports from 2020 documenting tips from private citizens. These reports explicitly caution that the statements are not verified and should not be construed as fact. Still, they describe why the FBI deemed the information worthy of preservation. One report recounts a former limousine driver describing a 1995 encounter with Trump and remarks he claimed to have overheard. Another references secondhand accounts of a party at Mar-a-Lago described as involving prostitution. None of these allegations have been adjudicated, and responsible reporting requires that distinction. But responsible governance requires honesty about what the government possesses and how it has handled it.
What troubles me most is not that allegations appear in an FBI file (law enforcement records often contain unproven claims), but that the administration appears determined to minimize, redact, or dismiss their existence while castigating anyone who reports on them. Hundreds of thousands of Epstein-related documents remain unreleased. Names of alleged co-conspirators are blacked out (a violation of the law, by the way). Victim interviews referenced in internal emails have not been produced. And sworn testimony from senior officials now stands in stark contrast with their own agency’s records.
The rule of law depends on equal application, not selective transparency calibrated to protect the powerful. If the Department of Justice wants the public to trust its conclusions, it must first earn that trust by releasing the full record, explaining discrepancies, and allowing independent scrutiny to do its work. And frankly, it needs to stop acting like Donald Trump’s personal public relations crisis management firm.
Anything less is simple damage control masquerading as transparency.
I’ll continue to keep you updated. Keep a lookout on the MeidasTouch YouTube channel and podcast feed for new reports all day, including some great new interviews. By the way, have you listened to today’s show with me and my brothers, Brett and Jordy? I hope you have a chance to check it out now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. If you already follow and listen to the podcast, consider leaving a 5-star review while you are there.
OK, back to my next report. Talk to you soon.
