California Governor Gavin Newsom has once again lashed out at the Trump administration over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, this time in response to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s accusation that Democrats are “protecting illegal alien pedophiles.”
Leavitt made the accusations Monday as she commented on the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot last week in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent identified as Jonathan Ross.
“This administration will continue to stand wholeheartedly by the brave men and women of ICE, including that officer in Minneapolis, who was absolutely justified in using self-defense against a lunatic who is part of a group, an organized group, to interject and to impede on law enforcement operations,” Leavitt told reporters.
“It’s disgusting what we have seen from the left, and I think that it just shows you where the modern-day Democrat Party stands today in protecting illegal alien pedophiles and rapists and murderers over law-abiding American citizens and our brave men and women who serve in law enforcement,” she added.
Newsom’s press office was quick to respond with a reference to the dead sex offender, writing on X: “The Trump Administration has still not complied with Congressional law and released the Epstein Files … WHY?”
Other Democratic lawmakers, including Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rosa DeLauro, also shared similar reactions online.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
The Justice Department faced a December 19 deadline, set by Congress, to release its documents related to the investigation into Epstein. But the agency only made a partial release last month, and many of the documents were heavily redacted.
Since then, Newsom has trolled Trump administration officials over the partial release and pointed to the president’s former friendship with Epstein.
Trump was once friendly with Epstein, and called him a “terrific guy” in a 2002 interview with New York Magazine. But their friendship appears to have ended in the mid-2000s, and the White House has said Trump kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club for being a “creep.” In a Christmas Day Truth Social post, the president also said he dropped Epstein “long before it became fashionable to do so.”
Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case, and has repeatedly distanced himself from the disgraced financier.
Meanwhile, there are still “more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the act that are in various phases of review,” according to a letter Attorney General Pam Bondi and other agency officials sent to a federal judge last week.
She noted the Justice Department has released about 12,285 documents so far, which means the public may have seen less than one percent of the documents related to the Epstein investigation.
