Epstein files reveal he was allowed into Canada in 2014, after his conviction

3 trillion sir thomas more pages of sir jacob jacob epstein files released today

Documents reveal that Epstein visited Canada in 2014, despite having a criminal record that made him inadmissible to the country. 

The documents include emails and an itinerary indicating that Epstein travelled to Vancouver in March 2014, and stayed in the Prime Minister Suite of the Four Seasons Hotel. 

A U.S. Customs baggage inspection document released last month indicates that he flew from Vancouver to Seattle on March 20, 2014. 

Epstein pled guilty in 2008 to state charges that included soliciting prostitution with a minor, an offence that should have barred him from entry to Canada unless he was granted permission on the basis of exceptional circumstances.     

As we previously reported, Epstein in 2018 sought a temporary resident permit, a document that allows entry to Canada in spite of a criminal record, but the Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles rejected his application, documents released today revealed. 

A document drop this big requires a lot of painstaking reporting: our journalists review and verify the information included before producing the news — including the updates you're reading here. A reminder to keep following along with our coverage as we continue to dive in and report the latest. 

Today's drop includes some 300 gigabytes of material — compared to just 13 gigabytes worth released during the last drop. 

That's a lot of material! For perspective, Blanche described it as "two Eiffel Towers' worth." 

Epstein was a millionaire hedge fund manager with ties to many high profile celebrities and politicians around the world. That circle included people like U.S. President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton, former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,  Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and director Woody Allen.

Epstein had been arrested in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking and sexually abusing dozens of girls. Prosecutors had accused Epstein of creating a "vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach."

But a month after his arrest, he killed himself in a New York jail. 

Many observers hope the documents would provide more information about Epstein's high profile contacts and whether any had knowledge of or may have participated in some of his alleged sex crimes. 

Despite the dump of millions of pages of documents, there are still many unanswered questions relating to the Epstein case.

The files released so far have not given any details about how Epstein amassed such a large personal fortune, his trafficking scheme or how he funded it.

The new files show that Epstein applied for a temporary resident permit that would have allowed him to travel to Canada in 2018 despite his criminal record. 

His request was refused. 

In an email to the Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles, Epstein said he applied for the permit "in connection with my plan to visit Vancouver, BC … to attend the TED 2018 Conference." 

A letter from the consulate dated April 4, 2018, tells Epstein that he is deemed inadmissible to Canada because he had been convicted of at least one crime that would constitute an indictable offence in Canada. 

"While a Temporary Resident Permit is intended to allow entry to Canada in spite of criminal offenses, it can be issued only in exceptional circumstances that might be best described as humanitarian and compassionate, or on occasion, when compelling Canadian interests are served," it says. 

"After a careful and sympathetic review balancing all the factors, I have determined that there are insufficient grounds to merit the issuance of a permit in your case." 

What Blanche described as "a very small portion of the documents collected" are temporarily being withheld because they are subject to a protective order in a civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell.  

He said they are material that a law firm submitted to the Southern District of New York in 2019 under a grand jury subpoena during the criminal investigation into Maxwell. 

Given the protective order, Blanche said the Justice Department decided it would be prudent to seek court permission for it to be released. 

"If that motion is granted, we'll release those materials with appropriate redactions immediately," Blanche said. 

Blanche told reporters on Friday that the document drop includes extensive redactions, noting that information about victims, including medical files, were removed.

Images and videos depicting women — save for Ghislaine Maxwell — were also redacted. 

Finally, sensitive images or materials revealing child sex abuse, injury, physical abuse and/or death were also removed, Blanche said. He added that information that could compromise an ongoing federal investigation was also withheld. 

Trump just wrapped up a 30-minute televised event in the Oval Office, about an executive order to allow an IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., this summer. 

He took questions from reporters for the final 15 minutes of the event. 

Although he spoke about Minneapolis, Iran, a state tax increase in Virginia and his new nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, he did not address any questions on the Epstein files release.  

Liz Stein, another Epstein survivor, said survivors' stories are sometimes lost in the coverage of the high-profile case.

She noted that people who were not involved in the case often comment about it, but "we are the ones who experienced this crime."

A reporter asked Blanche whether he can assure Americans that everything relevant to Trump or other prominent figures and their connections to Epstein was released. 

"We complied with the act," Blanche said. "We did not protect President Trump. We didn't protect anybody."

He said Trump's direction to the Justice Department on releasing the Epstein files was "to be as transparent as we can, and that's exactly what we did." 

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