President Trump’s name is rarely mentioned in the batch of Jeffrey Epstein files that his Justice Department released on Friday, based on a preliminary New York Times scan of thousands of documents and hundreds of photographs.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were close friends for years, The Times has reported, and Mr. Trump’s initial refusal to release federal files related to investigations into Mr. Epstein sparked speculation about whether those files featured Mr. Trump. His allies have previously confirmed that his name appears in the files about Mr. Epstein.
The files that The Times initially reviewed on Friday included scattered references to or images of Mr. Trump. Most of the photos were already public, including shots of him and Melania Trump with Mr. Epstein and Mr. Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Written references to Mr. Trump came up in Mr. Epstein’s address book and flight logs, as well as a message book in which Mr. Epstein’s assistants let him know about missed phone calls. Versions of those documents were already public.
Mr. Trump’s name also comes up in interviews with Ms. Maxwell, transcripts that the Justice Department had previously made public and rereleased on Friday.
In a 2016 deposition, Alan Dershowitz, who served as one of Mr. Epstein’s criminal defense lawyers, said that he had seen Mr. Trump at Mr. Epstein’s home. He didn’t provide specifics.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Mr. Epstein, including by saying that he cut ties with Mr. Epstein in the early 2000s after Mr. Epstein recruited one of his employees from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The scarce mentions of Mr. Trump are in stark contrast to references to former President Bill Clinton. The Justice Department released dozens of photos of Mr. Clinton in various settings, including one of him in a hot tub.
Todd Blanche, a top Justice Department official, said on Friday that the administration would continue to release a large volume of Epstein documents in the weeks ahead after those files had been reviewed to redact references to possible victims of Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
David Enrich is a deputy investigations editor for The Times. He writes about law and business.
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