Epstein files: final release sparks new scrutiny (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Pictures appearing to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouched over an unidentified woman are featured in the latest disclosure of files linked to the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The images are among more than three million documents published by the Trump administration. It's not known where they were taken. Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor has been asked for comment but he hasn't responded. He's previously denied any wrongdoing. The US Justice Department said this was the final batch of material that would be published. John Sudworth has the details.

[00:00:32] Speaker 2: In and amongst the more than 180,000 images released are these pictures showing the then Prince Andrew kneeling over and touching a female whose identity has been hidden. There's no context, location or date provided. Andrew has always denied any criminal wrongdoing but this latest batch of files once again contains items raising serious questions of judgment. Not least an email exchange from 2010, long after his close friend Jeffrey Epstein had been convicted of sexual offences involving children, suggesting he meet with a 26 year old Russian woman in London who he might enjoy having dinner with. Andrew replies he would be delighted to see her and adds, will she be bringing a message from you? Please give her my contact details to get in touch. Epstein writes back she's 26, Russian, clever and beautiful and yes she has your email. We will continue reducing... The new files also contain further revelations about Peter Mandelson who last year lost his job as British ambassador to Washington after it became clear his friendship with Epstein had been deeper than previously known. They include the claim that the sex offender sent Lord Mandelson's then partner, now husband, Ronaldo Avila de Silva £10,000 to cover the cost of an osteopathy course. Lord Mandelson has described his friendship as a most terrible mistake and says he wasn't aware of Epstein's crimes. There's little though to pose a real threat to President Trump apart from some unsubstantiated allegations which the FBI had already ruled out, nor his administration says anything to prove a wider conspiracy. But with so many documents withheld or redacted, Jeffrey Epstein's victims do not believe they've yet been given the whole truth.

[00:02:26] Speaker 3: When the president signed the bill in November it was to release all the files. All the files need to be released, they haven't been released. So that's what closure looks like, that's what justice looks like, whether anyone's prosecuted or not, get the full information out there so the public, the survivors and everyone can really know what's going on.

[00:02:45] Speaker 2: With continuing calls for him to give evidence in America, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has yet to respond to the latest revelations, but he's always strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

[00:02:58] Speaker 1: John Sutherworth there. Well the documents also include email correspondence between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Epstein. The new email show that Musk, who's not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case, discussed traveling to Epstein's island on more than one occasion, including a 2012 trip where he asked Epstein, what day straight night will be the wildest party on your island? There's no evidence that Mr. Musk ever did end up taking a trip to Epstein's island. Writing on X he says, no one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released and I'm glad that has finally happened. I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his Lolita Express, but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name. Well Gloria Allred, a prominent civil rights attorney, represents many of Epstein's victims. She gave her reaction to the latest release of files.

[00:03:54] Speaker 4: Some of them are completely devastated by the fact that the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, was supposed to and indicated that they were redacting victims' names, the survivors' names. And yet today, with the release of these more than three million files, many of the names of my clients who have been Jane Doe for many, many years, were in fact published. And this is devastating to them and we have to deal with that because, you know, they had little or no trust in the government. Now they have no trust in the government because the government has not earned that trust. And the assistant attorney general today, Todd Blanche, in his press conference said that he hopes that the release of the files will bring closure to the victims. This is ridiculous because they have devastated so many of these survivors by publicly releasing their names. At best it was a sloppy job, at worst it smacks of a cover-up.

[00:05:08] Speaker 1: Gloria Allred there. Well with me is our correspondent John Sudworth. John, a number of questions from this. But first of all, the administration indicating this is the final batch, is that likely to be the case?

[00:05:19] Speaker 2: That's what they're saying, that they have complied with the law, which was that they release all relevant files except for a few exceptions for legal reasons or to protect the identities of the victims. But they say this is pretty much it. What's interesting, Gita, I think in some ways this story is now playing bigger in the UK than it is in the US. Some US news sites I noticed not even leading on this story this morning. And I think that's of course because of the involvement of people like Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Peter Mandelson, etc. There are of course other high-profile American figures caught up in this latest batch of documents. The Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for example, in what looks like an email that wasn't sent, written by Jeffrey Epstein, the suggestion in these files is that Bill Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease. He has called that suggestion absurd and false. And like everybody involved in this, all strenuously denying any involvement in anything, certainly anything wrong and very definitely nothing criminal. And actually these files bear that out. We heard Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's personal lawyer and Deputy Attorney General, releasing these latest batch of documents, saying that there is no evidence here of co-conspirators. If there was, he said, we would be prosecuting those individuals. The trouble with all of this, of course, we were told last year that there were a potential six million documents they were looking at. Now we're told they have finished with the release of three and a half million of them. So somewhere two and a half million haven't been released. For the Justice Department, they will say that's because they're irrelevant or legally confidential or need to be redacted to protect victims. For those who see conspiracy in that, in any of this, they will say they're being withheld precisely for that reason, to continue the cover up. And so of course, I think as much as the Justice Department, as much as the Trump administration wants to draw a line, I think this is very unlikely to do so.

[00:07:32] Speaker 1: Yeah, we've seen Gloria Allred there saying that in fact, identities have been released also for the first time and a call from a lot of those people also for just more material to come out. Do you know whether there's any legal route for them to do that?

[00:07:50] Speaker 2: Well, you're right. As well as claiming that an insufficient amount of material has been released, they are also complaining that in the material that has been released, despite the Justice Department saying that it's been very careful and has withheld information precisely to protect their identities, it has gone ahead and done so. I haven't myself seen any documents where their identities have been revealed, but they are very unhappy about that. Legal avenues, very difficult. Ultimately, the law seemed to give the discretion to the Department of Justice to make those decisions about confidentiality and legal issues. But politically, at least, we can be absolutely certain this story isn't over.

[00:08:33] Speaker 1: John Sussbeth, thank you very much indeed for being with us.