The aftershocks of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes are rumbling once again.

And here in Washington, all roads lead through President Trump's Justice Department,

which is withholding files that contain allegations against him.

That omission is just the latest incident drawing pushback

over the government's handling of documents linked to the disgraced financier.

Tonight, is the DOJ bungling a politically radioactive case or is something more deliberate at play?

Next.

Good evening and welcome to Washington Week. I'm Vivian Salama in tonight for Jeffrey Goldberg.

It is possible the Justice Department had just stumbled repeatedly when it comes to its handling of the Epstein files.

But after a year of overpromising and under-delivering, backpedaling, and some flip-flopping,

the Justice Department was forced by law to release most of its files related to the late sex

offender. But even that didn't go as it should have. The DOJ missed the deadline to make public

all the documents in its possession. And in fairness, there are millions. But still, it was

striking when it emerged this week that files containing allegations against President Trump were

withheld from the public. There's a lot to sort through, and luckily we have an expert panel

to walk us through this and the ensuing political fallout. Andrew Dissadario is a senior

congressional reporter at Punch Bowl News. My colleague, Sarah Fitzpatrick, is a staff writer

at the Atlantic.

Stephen Hayes is the editor of the dispatch, and Tarini Parti is a national politics reporter at the Wall Street Journal. It's so great to see you all. Sarah, I'm going to start with you

because there's probably no one who has covered this more closely and for as long as you have.

Just walk us through,

give us an overview of how we got to this moment with regards to the government's handling of the

...