Jake Tapper Scrolls Through Blacked Out Epstein Files on Phone: ‘It’s Just 100 Pages of Redaction’

Jake Tapper Scrolls Through Blacked Out Epstein Files on Phone: ‘It’s Just 100 Pages of Redaction’

Jennifer Bowers Bahney

Fri, December 19, 2025 at 11:00 PM UTC

2 min read

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

Generate Key Takeaways

The Department of Justice’s partial release of the Epstein files on Friday drew the scrutiny of CNN’s Jake Tapper, who complained about just how much “transparency” the Trump administration was providing in compliance with the law.

The Epstein Transparency Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump, required all of the files on the convicted sex trafficker to be released by midnight Friday, which wasn’t expected to happen. The bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), claimed there would be consequences for the DOJ missing the deadline, and threatened on social media, “Any person who attempts to conceal or scrub the files will be subject to prosecution under the law.”

CNN Justice Correspondent Evan Perez said that the heavy redactions will be a topic of conversation in Congress.

“One of the things I think we’re going to see going forward is the question of, why can’t we see that? Why is that being redacted? Because this law is pretty clear that Congress meant for the public to see as much of this as possible.”

Tapper then pulled out his iPhone.

“Talk about blacking out. I don’t know if I can get a close-up of my phone. This is one of the documents that the Justice Department released. It’s 100 pages. This is what it looks like, I don’t know if you can see. It’s all black. It’s just 100 pages of redaction. That’s the transparency we’re getting here.”

Perez continued, “We understand, obviously, that there needs to be a protection of these victims…The question is, what is behind those blacked-out pages? And is it something that DOJ is being overcautious about — to protect what, I don’t know — or is this something that Congress has to maybe go back in and tell them that they need to release?”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson commented on X, “This clearly says that it was redacted to protect victims. Ridiculous to demand the names of victims be shared publicly.”

In a second post, she wrote, “Why do the sickos in the liberal media want a document called ‘masseuse list,’ which was clearly redacted to protect victims, to be public?”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

The post Jake Tapper Scrolls Through Blacked Out Epstein Files on Phone: ‘It’s Just 100 Pages of Redaction’ first appeared on Mediaite.

About Our Ads

Source