US President Donald Trump gestures while answering questions from reporters as he tours the roof of the West Wing of the White House on August 05, 2025 in Washington, DC.

The Trump administration is scrambling to make the self-inflicted fiasco that is the Epstein files go away.

This week, the latest twist arrived when Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche admitted to judges that the government has no plans to seek the public release of anything from the grand jury related to Epstein and his associate, convicted sex trafficker Ghislane Maxwell, but the transcripts.

Even as the administration is attempting to make a public show of transparency, Bondi and Blanche have admitted that they have no desire to see grand jury exhibits released. Exhibits could include pictures, video, text messages, emails or other communications, interview notes, memos and more — all of which would be eligible for redaction if they contained sensitive or explicit material. And all of which would be far, far more informative than simple transcripts.

The problem started in July, when Bondi denied the existence of Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “client list” and announced nothing else would come from the Justice Department’s bid to declassify or release files tied to the late sex offender. The sudden about-face raised ire from many of Trump’s followers: Bondi had previously claimed that not only did she have files on her desk and ready to be released, but Trump himself had previously promised to release info on Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing charges of trafficking, abusing and exploiting hundreds of underage girls and young women.

The breaking of that much-hyped promise triggered a cascade of headaches for the administration; it left Trump stumbling through questions about his relationship and fallout with Epstein and it set him at odds with his base, who for years have clung to his every word or conspiracy theory about Epstein’s life and death. Trump attempted to quell the storm, instructing Bondi to seek the release of grand jury transcripts.

The manoeuvre is, to put it plainly, a fake-out: Grand jury transcripts contain nothing new; everything in them was made public when Maxwell was on trial in 2022, or had already been reported publicly. What’s more, Bondi and Blanche know it. They told federal judges exactly that. Plus, keeping releases limited to the transcripts leaves the Justice Department in a position to cherry-pick what it believes should or shouldn’t go public with a judge’s blessing.

Meanwhile, the Justice........

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