• Newly released documents reveal Donald Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet at least eight times in the 1990s.
• The DOJ dismissed several claims about Trump in the files as “untrue and sensationalist.”
• Criticism of the DOJ continues over redaction practices amid political pressures for transparency.

The US Department of Justice has released nearly 30,000 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, revealing that former President Donald Trump was listed as a passenger on Epstein's private jet at least eight times between 1993 and 1996. An email from a federal prosecutor indicates that Trump traveled on the aircraft “many more times than previously reported.” The flights also included trips with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Notably, Trump's reported travel does not imply any criminal wrongdoing since he is not accused of any illegal activity related to Epstein, according to Indiatimes, The Hill, and Channel News Asia.

The DOJ has claimed that some documents contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” regarding Trump, which were reportedly submitted to the FBI just before the 2020 presidential election. These allegations, including unverified accounts of Trump’s inappropriate behavior, have been roundly dismissed by the department, emphasizing that "if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already," as stated in official releases from Los Angeles Times and HuffPost.

The release of files has sparked considerable debate over the DOJ's redaction practices, particularly regarding the delays in full disclosure and heavy redaction of names within the documents. Lawmakers across both parties have criticized the department for not adhering to the required transparency in the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates the public release of governmental documents related to the case, as highlighted by concerns in The Hill and Indiatimes.

In another significant release, a letter purportedly written by Epstein to Larry Nassar included troubling assertions about Trump, though the DOJ has labeled this communication as fake, pointing out discrepancies such as the letter's postmark being from Virginia, three days after Epstein's death. This highlights the murky overlap between real and fabricated claims surrounding Trump and his connections to Epstein, based on reports from BBC and Le Monde.