Two Fakes in Four Days: Why Wasn’t the Epstein Evidence Properly Vetted?
The Nasser letter caught many by surprise
I warned days ago that the Epstein files release would likely contain disinformation. Now we’re seeing it.
The Nassar Letter
Tuesday, the DOJ released a handwritten letter signed “J. Epstein” to convicted child molester Larry Nassar. It referenced Trump’s alleged taste for “young, nubile girls.”
Hours later, the FBI called it fake. The postmark was Virginia—Epstein was jailed in New York. The envelope was processed three days after Epstein’s death. Wrong jail on the return address. Handwriting didn’t match.
A paralegal could have caught this in five minutes.
The Suicide Video.
Monday, a 12-second clip appeared showing Epstein hanging in his cell. It was a computer animation posted to YouTube in 2019, labeled “rendering 3D graphics.” Someone had emailed it to the FBI in 2021 asking if it was real.
The DOJ released it as evidence, then quietly deleted it.
Deputy AG Todd Blanche explained: “We produce documents, and sometimes this can result in releasing fake or false documents because they simply are in our possession.”
That’s not an explanation. That’s an admission that nobody vetted this material before release.
Instead of vetting them thousands of FBI man hours were deployed to redact Donald Trump’s name from the files Imagine if those resources were used tic investigate the actual crimes
The Effect.
The DOJ now says “just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual.”
That statement covers everything in these files.
Tuesday’s release contained a prosecutor’s email confirming Trump flew on Epstein’s jet at least eight times. A subpoena to Mar-a-Lago for employment records. References to “10 co-conspirators” and memos about potential charges.
But the fake letter dominated coverage.
What’s Missing.
The FBI has 300 gigabytes of data from Epstein’s properties. Forty computers. Seventy CDs. Twenty-six storage drives. Six recording devices. Visitor logs from Little St. James.
In July, WIRED analyzed the prison surveillance footage the DOJ released as “raw.” It had been edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, assembled from multiple clips. A “missing minute” AG Bondi blamed on a system reset was actually 2 minutes and 53 seconds.
The camera on Epstein’s cell door wasn’t recording. Neither was the camera on one elevator bay to his floor.
The Question.
Whether this is incompetence or strategy, the result is the same. Obvious fakes get released, debunked, and become the story. Genuine evidence gets dismissed as potentially fake too.
Rep. Ro Khanna is pursuing contempt charges against Bondi. “DOJ is spending more time protecting the Epstein class than the survivors,” he said.
He’s right. But the protection isn’t just through redactions. It’s through contamination.
Watch what they don’t release. That’s where the answers are.
What they did and want not to trust reporting. was to distrust what you and other podcasters are reporting. I had heard this on Drop Site before you reported it. But, I was skeptical what was said. It make me disgusted with the government. It’s hard to believe our government has hidden this info for more than 40 years. And had not vetted the info before releasing it. A government who I trusted. I subscribe to you for almost a year. And read and watched your investigation connect the dots. Your reporting made me question what has been going on for years. Our institutions have failed us. And what the government wants is not to believe anything. I trust your reporting especially when all your work has proved you were correct before anybody else reported it. Even NYT overlapped your work. Thank you Zev for telling the truth. Happy holidays, I’m still a supporter and will continue to be. It’s been a crazy week. On another note, if you didn’t see Lev’s postcast his latest please check it out. He calls all Michael Cohen who I detest. He’s colors were showing on your podcast last week questioning your investigative work. He has something to hide.
Most likely Moscow thought them this trick , as many times before. To discredit it all. If you can't fight something, lead it or spoil it.
Moreover, Russians or Chinese may have helped creating such fakes.