'The Cover-Up Is So Brazen': Trump Administration Accused of 'Breaking the Law' With 'Sloppy' Release of Epstein Files

Donald Trump and his Justice Department continue to face intense scrutiny for their handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

In a new interview published Monday, March 9, award-winning writer and journalist Lucia Osborne-Crowley reflected on the Trump administration's ongoing release of documents regarding a federal investigation into the late child predator and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell's trafficking scheme.

While she agrees the public deserves full transparency when it comes to Epstein's criminal network, Osborne-Crowley warned the dump of files may be doing more harm than good for the disgraced financier's survivors.

"It’s so complicated. They feel very validated on some levels," she said while speaking to The Guardian.

Addressing how some survivors' names were unredacted from various file releases while high-profile figures' identities were kept concealed, Osborne-Crowley admitted: "It’s hard to be shocked at this point, but it does feel really shocking that the Department of Justice would do that."

"And they are very angry that the cover-up is so brazen," she added of Epstein's victims, accusing the Trump administration of purposely withholding information.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was notably subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee last week after allegedly suppressing sexual assault allegations made against Trump in the files.

"The law says that the only things that can be redacted are the names of the victims. So you’ve got the executive branch breaking the law, and in a way that’s sloppy," Osborne-Crowley declared.

The Lasting Harm author also expressed frustration with coverage surrounding the files, as she feels it has centered more around key names like Epstein, Maxwell and ex-Prince Andrew than political corruption and sexual abuse.

"This would never have happened if these women hadn’t campaigned for this act [the US’s Epstein Files Transparency Act]. We don’t need more articles or books saying: ‘Ooh, Jeffrey Epstein, how do we understand him?’ There are a lot of things that need more scrutiny, but it’s not the yachts and the islands and the opulent wealth. This is a story about grooming and the girls who lived through it," she explained.

Elsewhere in her interview, Osborne-Crowley opened up about threats both herself and victims of Epstein have received for speaking out about his crimes.

Reflecting on her own experience, Osborne-Crowley said she flew from London to Miami in September 2022 to meet one of Epstein and Maxwell's victims Carolyn Andriano in West Palm Beach.

When she arrived, however, Andriano — a key witness in Maxwell's 2021 trial — revealed she had been visited by a male private investigator who was in his 60s and heard of her plans to speak to someone about a book.

That same afternoon, a man in his 60s approached Osborne-Crowley and pressed her about what she was writing before offering her drugs, cash and a meeting with one of Epstein's pilots.

The individual then put his hands up her skirt and waited in the parking lot for Osborne-Crowley to exit, causing her to have to leave through staff-only doors.

Osborne-Crowley said this was only a taste of what Epstein's victims had experienced, with 28 survivors releasing a statement in November 2025 about receiving death threats and requesting police protection.

As for who hired the private investigator, Osborne-Crowley suggested, "It could be any of the people who are not yet facing charges."

"Firstly, they can afford it. The weekend I was in Miami, there was a person following me, a person following a survivor in South Africa who was in my book, and a person following a survivor in the UK. Just so that we all were aware," Osborne-Crowley — who had two women withdraw from her book because of threats — explained.

"Ghislaine used to tell them: ‘If you ever tell anyone what’s going on here, no matter how far into the future, we will find you and we will stop you.’ And in a lot of ways, that promise was kept," she concluded.