Columnist points to how Trump 'created the worst possible outcome' for Epstein's victims

Donald Trump created the worst possible outcome for Jeffrey Epstein's victims, according to a columnist.

On Friday, December 16 — the deadline for compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act of 2025 — thousands of "unclassified" U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) files on billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released. And more files were released two days later.

Many of the files, however, were heavily redacted. And quite a few legal analysts on CNN and MS NOW are expressing their frustration with DOJ and the Trump Administration's handling of the Epstein files, including MS NOW's Joyce White Vance. A former federal prosecutor for DOJ, Vance believes that the Trump-era DOJ is doing Epstein's victims a huge disservice.

Vance is not alone in that view.

In a biting op-ed published by the New York Times on Christmas Eve Day 2025, liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast argues that DOJ and the Trump Administration have handled the Epstein files badly.

"As we try to find some cozy solace with our families for the holidays, the Department of Justice is starting to — as required by a law that it took an open political revolt by the MAGA base to enact — release the Epstein files," Jong-Fast explains. "It is doing so in what seems to be the most haphazard, obfuscatory and confusing a manner possible. As a result, we are not getting much closer to the truth about many of the fundamental facts of how Jeffrey Epstein ran his sex-trafficking ring, spun his favors and kept some of the most powerful men on the planet in his orbit."

Jong-Fast continues, "Oh, actually, we do know something of how the last part went: He facilitated their receiving the attentions of young women. Some of this was plainly illegal — sex trafficking and rape. Much of the rest of it fell into the legal gray zone of abusive or exploitative. In any case, we seem no closer to getting justice for the women who were the victims of this vast scheme."

The Gen-X journalist, known for her Vanity Fair and The Atlantic articles and frequent appearances on MS NOW, laments that the "release of the Epstein files was not supposed to be this way."

"The fight was to get them released, and then all would be revealed," Jong-Fast argues. "Instead, social media is filled with a bewildering number of documents — some real, many not — and photographs with celebrities and without context. The contents have clearly been selectively released by the Department of Justice, a lot of it highly redacted, revealing little but stirring up much…. The flood of files has created the worst possible outcome, an even more hyper-partisan blame game that is completely unfocused on justice for the victims."

Jong-Fast continues, "And the powerful men that Mr. Epstein cavorted with, who in turn seemed to provide him with so much? Why did many of his 10 possible conspirators have their names shielded? Are they being protected?"

Molly Jong-Fast's full op-ed for The New York Times is available at this link (subscription required).