California Gov. Gavin Newsom trolled President Donald Trump on Christmas Eve over the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files release, which has been hindered by heavy redactions and delays.
The governor rounded off a year of mocking the president by posting a short video that showed pages and pages of redactions in the files in the late convicted sex offender’s case, cut with footage of Trump speaking with Epstein in the early 90s.
“2025: REDACTED,” Newsom posted on his X account alongside the 20-second clip, which opened with a voiceover that said: “And with that, the 2025 season comes to an end. Goodnight.”
The footage played over the 2009 Mumford & Sons hit White Blank Page.
Newsom’s video then showed a grainy image of Trump inside Epstein’s desk that was initially published by the Justice Department on December 19, the deadline set by Congress to release all of the files.
The image was removed the next day by officials “out of an abundance of caution for further review” and was later reposted.
But critics were quick to notice the photo had been taken down, which only fueled further speculation over whether the department was withholding evidence of Trump in the files.
“DOJ defends removing Trump photo from Epstein files,” a headline read alongside the image in the video posted by Newsom.
The president is not accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes, and a person’s appearance within the files does not suggest wrongdoing. Early this week, the DOJ released another batch of documents from the Epstein files. These featured several mentions of Trump, though DOJ officials were quick to provide context that some of the references involving the president came from fake documents part of the file.
Newsom’s video also highlighted a record of an internal email sent by an unnamed assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York dating from January 2020 that was included in the second batch release.
The official wrote to colleagues explaining that flight records obtained from Epstein’s private jet revealed Trump had flown in it “many more times than previously has been reported.”
That appears to contradict a claim Trump made on Truth Social in January 2024, while campaigning for the presidency, in which he flatly declared: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane.”
Just 30 minutes after Newsom posted the video, Justice Department officials admitted they had uncovered over a million more documents “potentially” tied to the Epstein case, and it may take weeks to release them all.
“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the statement said.
The Trump administration faces more backlash over its partial release of the files by the December 19 deadline and as the Justice Department appears to be scrambling to redact the remaining files.
So far, approximately 750,000 documents in the convicted sex offender’s case have been reviewed and released by a team of 200 people, a Trump administration official told Axios.
Leadership reportedly sent out an “emergency request” asking career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer over the Christmas holiday to assist in redacting the files, according to CNN.
“We need AUSAs to do remote document review and redactions related to the Epstein files,” the email from a supervising prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office reportedly said.
“I am aware that the timing could not be worse,” the email sent two days before Christmas Day said. “For some the holidays are about to begin, but I know that for others the holidays are coming to an end.”
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, the lawmakers behind the legislation to release the files, have suggested Attorney General Pam Bondi could be held in contempt for failing to release documents by the deadline.
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