U.S. President Donald Trump waves from a car as he departs after golfing at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, U.S., October 4, 2025. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz
New documents were released Monday from the massive cache of information regarding the federal investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Among those documents was a personal letter to convicted serial sex offender Larry Nassar in which Epstein wrote about their mutual interest in young girls. The letter also notes that President Donald Trump shares their interest.
CNN legal analyst Ellie Honig called the note "grotesque."
"I don't think there's any real way that I'm in a position, or anyone's really in a position to interpret it. I do want to say, though, that letter would not be admissible in any prosecution of any other person," Honig said.
Honig thinks that Epstein was clearly trying to "leave a message behind."
While Trump has complained about the release of the Epstein files, Honig noted it was Trump himself who signed the law mandating the release.
"So, he's the one who allowed this to happen," Honig added.
Still, any claims of transparency by the administration are suspect, the legal expert explained.
"There are valid criticisms that I completely share with the way this rollout has happened," he said. "The fact that it's late really undermines the credibility of it. As we sit here now, you and I have no idea how many of the documents that we've seen and the manner of redactions have been completely inconsistent."
Honig pointed to a graphic with over 100 pages completely blacked out.
"[O]n other instances, we see just an individual name sort of lanced out of a larger document," Honig said. "So, I think those are perfectly valid. But I also think it's hard to say that DOJ is engaged in a massive cover-up here when they have released several documents that we've been talking about that are, at a minimum, embarrassing for Donald Trump."
In a final point, he criticized the DOJ, arguing the department doesn't get to pat itself on the back for transparency after being forced by Congress to release the documents.
"It's not like this is voluntary transparency," said Honig.