A new batch of documents released by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with its investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has further revealed the late financier's close connections with President Donald Trump.
According to an email dated January 8, 2020, and written by an assistant US attorney from the Southern District of New York, Trump had travelled on Epstein's private flights at least eight times, reported CNN.
Flight records show Donald Trump "travelled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware)," the attorney wrote in the email.
According to the email, which was sent during Trump's first term, the US President was listed as a passenger on "at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which (Ghislaine) Maxwell was also present."
Ghislaine Maxwell is Epstein's former girlfriend and the only person convicted in connection with his crimes. She is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein.
On a flight in 1993, Trump and Epstein "are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old," the email said.
"On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case," the assistant US attorney said.
"We’ve just finished reviewing the full records (more than 100 pages of very small script) and didn’t want any of this to be a surprise down the road," he added.
The email is part of thousands of new documents linked to the case that were made available by the DOJ on Tuesday, amid mounting criticism over the pace of the publication and heavy redactions.
At least 8,000 files were posted online, including hundreds of videos or audio recordings, notably surveillance footage from August 2019, the month Epstein was found dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The DOJ posted around 11,000 links to new documents online, but some of them appeared to lead nowhere.
Shortly after releasing the documents, the Justice Department claimed that it contained "untrue and sensationalist" claims against Trump, which were submitted to the FBI before the 2020 elections.
"Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election," the Justice Department said on X, without specifying which allegations were false.
"If they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already," the department said.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), passed nearly unanimously by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, mandated the complete release of the Epstein files by Friday of last week.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has blamed the delay on the need to redact the identities of Epstein's more than 1,000 victims from the hundreds of thousands of documents and photos in the government's possession.
EFTA co-sponsors Ro Khanna, a Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Republican, threatened over the weekend to bring contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General Pam Bondi for failing to comply with the law.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a resolution on Monday calling for legal action against the Trump administration for failing to release the complete Epstein files.
"Instead of transparency, the Trump administration released a tiny fraction of the files and blacked out massive portions of what little they provided," Schumer said in a statement.
"This is a blatant cover-up. Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche are shielding Donald Trump from accountability, and the Senate has a duty to act."
Blanche denied on Sunday that the Justice Department was redacting the files to protect Trump, a one-time close friend of Epstein.
"We are not redacting information around President Trump," Blanche, a former personal lawyer to the president, told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Blanche said one picture of Trump was briefly removed over concerns for victims. It was later reposted after the Justice Department determined there was "no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted."