Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday released a batch of photos of Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and other prominent officials and public figures, a small portion of what they said were thousands of images recently provided by Epstein’s estate.
Committee members said the panel received more than 95,000 photos from the estate of the deceased convicted sex offender. The initial batch of 19 released images — several of which have previously been made public — also includes photos of former president Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, filmmaker Woody Allen and conservative media figure Stephen K. Bannon.
The photos are undated and lack other context, such as where they were taken. Epstein does not appear in many of them. Several were taken on private jets, but it is not known whose airplanes are depicted. Four show sexual items with no identifiable people pictured. Democrats did not say what they believe to be the significance of those pictures.
House Republicans criticized the Democratic members of the committee for “cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement that “the Trump Administration has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have.”
Trump on Friday evening told reporters that he had not seen the photos but downplayed their significance.
“Well, I haven’t seen them, but I mean, everybody knew this man. He was all over Palm Beach,” he said during an event in the Oval Office. “He has photos with everybody. I mean, almost there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him. So that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it.”
No evidence has surfaced of wrongdoing by Trump, who has said that he had “no idea” about Epstein’s criminal behavior. Clinton, Gates, Allen and Bannon did not respond to requests for comment.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges that included soliciting a minor for prostitution. In 2019, federal prosecutors brought sex-trafficking charges against him. He pleaded not guilty and died months later by suicide in federal custody while awaiting trial.
Trump has said that he knew Epstein socially in Palm Beach, Florida, and that they had a falling-out in the mid-2000s, which Trump has attributed to a real estate deal and to Epstein hiring employees away from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last month that Epstein was ejected from the club for “for being a creep” to female workers there.
One of the photos shows Trump on what appears to be a private airplane with a blond woman whose face is redacted, and another shows him standing with a group of women wearing Hawaiian leis. The faces of six women fully in the frame of that photo are redacted, but Democrats did not explain why.
Only one of the photos picturing Trump includes Epstein, and it is an image that had been previously released. It shows the two of them at a Victoria’s Secret party in 1997 with Belgian model Ingrid Seynhaeve.
A separate photo features a bowl of novelty condoms bearing the name Trump that a New York-based company sold in 2016.
In addition to its subpoena of the Epstein estate, a subcommittee of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department to compel the release of files from its investigation of Epstein. The committee has released several tranches of documents and photos in recent months.
A batch last month of about 20,000 pages included emails from the financier discussing his onetime friendship with Trump. In one of those emails, Epstein alleges that Trump “knew about the girls.” Trump has denied knowing about the solicitation of underage prostitution before Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, and he reiterated that to reporters after the emails were released. Leavitt said at the time that the emails “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
A separate bipartisan push in Congress last month resulted in Trump signing legislation directing the Justice Department to release files related to the investigation by Dec. 19. Three judges have ordered the release of records in Epstein-related cases, citing the new law.
“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends,” Rep. Robert Garcia (California), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Friday. “These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
Garcia told reporters that the committee received the 95,000 photographs Thursday night and that it had gone through only about 25,000. He said Democrats on the committee would release more photos “in the days and weeks ahead.”
Later in the day, Democrats released several dozen more photos, which they said they were doing “in the interest of transparency.” The photos largely appeared mundane, depicting construction projects and interiors of buildings, with shots of a water heater, a jar of Q-tips and electrical wiring. One photo shows Epstein shirtless in a bubble bath, holding a shower curtain that obscures the bottom half of his body.
The photos released on Friday, while limited, provide a small window into Epstein’s world, in which he mingled with some of the most well-connected cultural, political and economic figures.
“This is what I mean by the Epstein class,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), who co-sponsored the legislation calling for the release of the Epstein files. “These photos document Epstein’s elite and powerful circle. That is why we must push for more information. The public deserves to know who could have been involved in Epstein’s abuse.”
One photo shows Epstein and Bannon standing together looking at a mirror, Epstein taking the photo with a phone and Bannon smiling straight ahead. In another, Bannon and Epstein appear to be engaged in conversation as a computer screen showing a generic screensaver sits on a desk beside them. There are also framed images on the desk, including one in which a person with a redacted face appears to be slumped over.
Several photos include Allen, including one of him and Bannon in conversation. Another shows Epstein on what appears to be a film set with Allen, who appears to be sitting at a monitor with a headset around his neck. In another, Allen is shown sitting at a table with a smiling Epstein and a woman whose face is redacted. The men appear to be talking.
Allen said in a September interview with the Times of London that he “never, ever saw Jeffrey with underage girls.” He later added that “he was charming and personable.”
Clinton is seen in one photo with four people. On one side of Clinton is Epstein and Epstein’s former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of aiding Epstein in his abuse of young women and girls and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. On Clinton’s other side appears to be musician Jimmy Buffett, who died in 2023, and his wife, Jane, who didn’t respond to requests for comment. The photo appears to have Clinton’s signature on it.
A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.
Clinton flew on Epstein’s private jet, and Epstein donated to the Clinton Foundation. A spokesman for the former president has previously said that he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes. Trump called in November for a Justice Department investigation of Epstein’s ties to Clinton.
The new release also includes photos of Epstein with Gates — who has said in the past that his association with Epstein was a “huge mistake” — and prominent economist Larry Summers, who said last month that he was “deeply ashamed” of his extensive communications with Epstein and that he was “stepping back from public commitments,” including a seat on the board of OpenAI and teaching at Harvard. Representatives for Summers did not respond to requests for comment.
Gates is standing in one photo with one of Epstein’s longtime pilots, a briefcase in one hand and under his arm a book called “College (Un)bound: The Future of Higher Education and What it Means for Students.” Another photo, which seems to be from one of Epstein’s homes, shows a cabinet with a collection of framed photos on the wall above it that includes an image of Gates. Other framed photos in that released image are of women with redacted faces.
Another photo shows Gates with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles III. Mountbatten-Windsor was recently stripped of his royal titles, including prince, over his links to Epstein.
Maegan Vazquez and Amy B Wang contributed to this report.
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