Epstein Evidence Disappeared — 74 Seconds After Release

The disappearance of files from the Justice Department’s website on the evening of December 19, 2025, is not a technical glitch; it is a clinical example of institutional obstruction. When newly released materials—evidence the American public has waited decades to see—vanish within hours of their publication, the issue is no longer about the late Jeffrey Epstein. It is about the integrity of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi and the lengths to which this administration will go to shield its own.

The hypocrisy of the current DOJ is staggering. For months, the Trump administration and Bondi herself weaponized the promise of the “Epstein Files,” framing their release as a grand act of transparency that would expose a protected cabal of predators. Yet, the moment the files actually touched the light of day, the narrative shifted. The heavily redacted documents released on December 19 were an insult to the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” a law passed with near-unanimous support specifically to prevent the kind of political gatekeeping we are now witnessing.

Senator Cory Booker’s surgical dismantling of Bondi’s “I don’t know” defense during the December 20 hearing exposed the rot. The timeline is damning:

11:47 AM: 247 documents and 63 images are logged as public.

11:51 PM: The status of all files is changed to “restricted.”

12:03 AM: The modification logs—the digital fingerprints of who made the change—are erased.

Bondi’s claim that she “handled dozens of alerts” and couldn’t recall a priority urgent notification regarding evidence tampering is a pathetic attempt to hide behind bureaucratic volume. An Attorney General who is “not a technical expert” in the systems she oversees is an Attorney General who is choosing not to look. The fact that the White House Counsel’s office intervened within minutes to tell the DOJ that no further investigation was required confirms that this was not an internal records error, but a top-down directive.

The removal of images showing Donald Trump with Epstein is the most transparent part of this cover-up. While the DOJ later claimed these photos were removed out of an “abundance of caution” for victims, the subsequent restoration of a single credenza photo only highlights what else remains missing. The law is crystal clear: records cannot be withheld based on “political sensitivity.” By complying with a White House order to stand down, Bondi has essentially turned the Department of Justice into a private records-management service for the executive branch.

This is the ultimate betrayal of the victims and the public. Transparency is not a “rolling basis” privilege to be dolled out when it serves a political agenda. When the modification logs are deleted and the Attorney General claims amnesia, the message is sent that some individuals are above the law and some evidence is too dangerous to exist. The subpoenas issued on December 20 are just the beginning; the American people deserve the files, the logs, and a DOJ that respects the law it is supposed to enforce.