Friday, December 19 is the deadline for compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act of 2025, which calls for the release of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) "unclassified" files on the late billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But a variety of figures across the political spectrum, from MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) to veteran feminist attorney Gloria Allred, are voicing concerns that some important information won't be made public.
Allred, during a December 19 appearance on MS NOW, told host Ana Cabrera, "Some files may not be released today. The survivors want all of them released, and they don't want excuses."
In an article published by The Nation that day, journalist Jeet Heer warns that "the word 'unclassified' potentially gives (President Donald) Trump and the CIA wide latitude to hold back Epstein-related materials that they claim are too sensitive to release."
"In this," Heer observes, "they have the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who insisted that U.S. intelligence agencies be allowed to 'protect their critical sources and methods.'"
Johnson argued, "It is incredibly dangerous to demand that officials or employees of the DOJ declassify material that originated in other agencies and intelligence agencies." But in contrast, Greene, at a November 18 press conference, told reporters, "The real test will be: Will the Department of Justice release the files, or will it all remain tied up in investigations?'Will the CIA release the files?"
Heer emphasizes that questions need to be asked about Epstein's connection to the CIA and possibly the Israeli intelligence agency the Mossad.
"Epstein was a power player in global politics, a kind of diplomat without portfolio with better access to the wealthy and politically powerful than most real ambassadors," Heer explains. "One way to understand him is as a product of a hyper-privatized neoliberal age. Just as much of the policing of the American empire is now done by private military companies — notably, Constellis, formerly known as Academi and Blackwater — billionaires like Epstein have their own private foreign policy."
Heer continues, "Whatever work Epstein did with the CIA or the Mossad would have been as a peer rather than an employee…. Epstein and (former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak were masters of what (author) Naomi Klein and others have called disaster capitalism, profiting from the 'desperation of those in power.' But it is unlikely they could have done this without the complicity of American intelligence. That's why Epstein's intelligence ties are central to understanding his crimes."
Read Jeet Heer's full article for The Nation at this link.
