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Jamie Raskin claims unredacted files show Trump never banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago; ‘was a guest…’
Rep. Jamie Raskin says unredacted DOJ documents contradict Trump’s claims about banning Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) made a huge tranche of the Epstein Files publicly available, but many of them were heavily redacted and lacked important context.
The House of Congress had announced last week that they will be revealing an original, unredacted set of documents to a select group of House members on Monday, February 9.
Representative Jamie Raskin, who has access to a limited set of unredacted materials ahead of testimony by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that the documents raise serious questions about public statements made by Trump regarding his relationship with Epstein.
The disclosures come as part of ongoing oversight into the excessive redactions in the DOJ's release of Epstein files.
Read more: UK royal family ‘ready to support’ police probe into Andrew's links with Epstein
Contradiction in Trump's narrative
Raskin stated that he had only had time to go over "30 or 40" documents so far.
Raskin spoke with reporters after reviewing the files and said that the Epstein files contain an email suggesting that Jeffrey Epstein was never asked to leave Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, contradicting repeated assertions by President Trump about their past association.
According to Raskin, one of the unredacted documents is a 2009 email forwarded by Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell. The email exchange reportedly described a discussion between Trump's and Epstein's attorneys.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute
Raskin said, “Epstein's lawyers synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mar-a-Lago, but he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago, and he had never been asked to leave.”
The document, Raskin alleges, was redacted in the released DOJ files without clear justification. He described the redaction on this file and others as “inscrutable” and “completely unnecessary.”
Read more: Epstein wanted to create ‘super race’ by impregnating women with his sperm
Trump's claim of severed ties with Epstein
Trump has repeatedly replied to questions about his relationship with Epstein, saying that he had Epstein banned from his Mar-a-Lago in early 2000s for acting inappropriately toward staff members.
Trump has also implied that Epstein's poaching of Mar-a-Lago personnel resulted in his ban. He told reporters, “People were taken out of the spa — hired by him — in other words, gone.”
He then added, saying that he did not know about this until his employees informed him about Epstein “taking people from the spa.” He apparently warned Epstein and said that “we don't want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa.”
Trump added, “And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, 'Out of here.'”
