Monday marked one month since the Dec. 19 deadline for the Justice Department to release files related to its investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Despite that mandate, only 12,000 of the millions of documents have been made public.
On Tuesday’s “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough blasted the administration for slow-walking their release and questioned whether its refusal to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act was an intentional move to protect Donald Trump and his allies.
“A month ago, Congress passed a law, almost unanimously, that said that the DOJ and the Trump administration had to release all of the files … to stop the protection of rich, powerful sex offenders,” Scarborough said. “But the Trump administration will not do it. The DOJ will not do it.”
The Justice Department has said the delay in releasing the documents was due in part to steps being taken to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims. Scarborough, however, expressed doubts as to whether that is truly the case.
As the MS NOW host pointed out, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February that she had the Epstein files client list on her desk. No such document has been released. “It’s just delay after delay after delay,” Scarborough said.
Along with having failed to release documents, the Justice Department has also come under fire for what some have called excessive redactions among the files it has released. Scarborough questioned what information was being concealed, asking, “Who is behind all of those redactions? What names?”
The “Morning Joe” host said the botched release raised a series of important questions, among them, “Who is the Trump administration protecting? Why are they breaking the law? Who is the DOJ protecting?”
“We’re talking about what supporters of Donald Trump have long said is the biggest pedophile ring in American history,” Scarborough continued. “So the question is: Why is the DOJ — why is the Trump administration, why is the White House — continuing to drag their feet?”
You can watch Scarborough’s full commentary in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”