Former White House ethics lawyer says it’s ‘critical’ all Epstein files are released

Former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter says U.S. President Donald Trump must ensure the Justice Department release all Epstein files or face backlash.

A former chief White House ethics lawyer says the U.S. Department of Justice needs to release all unredacted files connected to Jeffery Epstein’s crimes, with the exception of redactions necessary to protect victims.

Richard Painter, who worked with the second Bush administration from 2005 to 2007, told CTV News Channel Saturday, that it was “critically important” that all the documents be released publicly.

“This is a scandal that goes back to the 1990s, during the Clinton administration, when the FBI should have been investigating reports of child molestation by Jeffrey Epstein,” the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota Law School said.

“Instead, very powerful people in academia, in the government – people like Larry Summers, who was the treasury secretary for (U.S.) President Clinton, and the president of Harvard, Alan Dershowitz, (and) many others forming very close relationships with Jeffrey Epstein.”

Among the noteworthy names that have been released during the investigations by the U.S. Justice Department, were also artists like Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

• IN PICTURES: New Epstein photos included in files released by DOJ

“It’s absolutely critical that Donald Trump, as president of the U.S., make sure that the Justice Department do its job now and release all of the files,” Painter said.

He called it a “tragedy” that could have been prevented if the authorities had done their job during the Clinton administration.

“Epstein should have been prosecuted for a much more serious crime,” Painter added. “He should have been locked away for life. His lawyers, Alan Dershowitz and others, used devious tactics to get him off the hook.”

According to Painter, a professor of linguistics at Harvard, Steven Pinker, “made up” a story about interpreting language in statutes prohibiting the use of computers to solicit sex from children, which led to Epstein being sentenced to a shorter term.

“This has been an abdication of responsibility all the way from the 1990s, on through the Biden administration that had these documents for four years,” Painter said.

“They didn’t want to release them; they didn’t want to embarrass Larry Summers or some of the other academics involved with Epstein.”

He called it “shameful” that the Trump administration was holding back the documents, adding that the victims needed to be vindicated.

“We need to find out which other powerful men were involved with Jeffrey Epstein,” he said.

“Why was it that it takes so long to chase down a child predator? Why did he get such an easy sentence back in 2008 or whenever? Why did so many people flock to his defense, even after he was convicted?”

Painter called it “amazing” that people couldn’t grasp how “deeply immoral and criminal” Epstein’s conduct was.

“This is a bipartisan scandal. It involves Democrats, Republicans and Independents,” he added.

“We shouldn’t politicize it. We should release the files and make sure that something like this never happens again in the U.S.”

The U.S. Justice Department started releasing the long-awaited files from its investigations on Friday, however, a large amount of the material was heavily redacted, angering Democrats who accused the Trump administration of trying to bury information.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department has said that it would continue to release more documents in the coming weeks.

With files from the Associated Press and AFP