PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The latest release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is garnering mixed reactions.
On Thursday night, the Department of Justice dropped hundreds of unsealed documents just hours before the critical 8 a.m. deadline U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi gave the FBI, demanding the agency hand over thousands of documents she says have been withheld.
WATCH: Latest Epstein document release contains little to no new info
The 200 pages of released records includes a 118-page flight log, 95 redacted pages of Epstein's contact book, an evidence list, and a completely redacted list of masseuses.
WPTV Investigates read through all 200 pages and found they contain little to no new information.
"I thought they were a big nothing burger. I think the problem is that they were over-hyped," said former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Aronberg is one of many left disappointed by the release of the documents.
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Wednesday, in a Fox News interview, Bondi touted the release of the documents as "breaking news" and offered several conservative influencers a sneak preview of the pages Thursday afternoon ahead of the release.
Yet the 118 pages of flight logs contain names like President Donald Trump, attorney Alan Dershowitz, former president Bill Clinton and others, all of whom were already named in previously unsealed court documents.
"A lot of the stuff has already been out there, for example the flight logs, we’ve already known about that for a while," said Aronberg. "The black book Jeffrey Epstein had — we know about that."
The same goes for many of the high-profile celebrities named in the 95 pages of Epstein's contact book, such as Naomi Campbell, Phil Collins, and Mick Jagger, which already had been named in previous documents.
Additionally, neither the flight logs nor the contact book pages contain any context that infers any wrongdoing.
"We don't know what the relationships were, we don't know what the evidence is against these individuals," said Aronberg. "For example, just because Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are associated with Jeffrey Epstein, doesn’t mean they committed any crimes."
Investigative Reporter Kate Hussey asked former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan if he thought the documents were over-hyped.
"No, and to the contrary — let me be clear— I think this should have happened a long time ago," replied Kaplan.
Kaplan has not only represented several of Epstein's victims, but he was also closely involved with the federal agents on the Palm Beach billionaire's case. He believes this is a long overdue step toward transparency.
"There was an absolute effort to clamp down and muzzle any dissemination that would have either implicated these individuals or would have caused any embarrassment," said Kaplan.
Kaplan backed up Bondi's allegations against the FBI, agreeing he believes critical documents have been withheld. In a former letter, Bondi asked FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the agency for their alleged withholding of documents.
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"Do you think there could be any truth to that?" Hussey asked Aronberg.
"I don't know if the FBI is intentionally withholding documents, but it is true that the FBI raided Epstein's mansion in 2019," said Aronberg. "They got a lot of material, including thumb drives. What's on those thumb drives, we don't know. So that may be the last area where there needs to be more disclosure."
"Justice delayed is justice denied," agreed Kaplan. "And again, I think this should have happened a long time ago."
Kaplan also addressed the controversy of the released masseuse list, which was so heavily redacted it contained no information other than the title of the document.
"The problem that is happening is, how do you release this information without prejudicing or putting the victims at harm again, and so there's a balancing act," said Kaplan. "There is an absolute effort to protect those victims so that we don't cause any additional harm to these people."
This release of documents is just the first phase of several the Department of Justice is expected to release.
