The first tranche of Epstein files were released by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice Friday—revealing several images of former President Bill Clinton.
Trump, who had a long friendship with Epstein before he said they had a falling out in the 2000s, is notably absent from the DOJ’s file dump. Trump has railed against Clinton for his association with the sex offender, ordering his Justice Department to open an investigation into him and other prominent Democrats who may have been associated with Epstein.
New, undated images show the former president posing with women and swimming with Epstein’s girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. Another image shows Clinton in a hot tub with another person whose face has been redacted.
Other images show Mick Jagger eating a meal with Epstein and Clinton. Clinton is even pictured with the late Michael Jackson.
Many of the files, including photographs, court records, and documents, were entirely redacted in the Justice Department’s Friday release.
Clinton has never been formally accused by law enforcement of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein. He has repeatedly denied being involved with underage women and has said he cut ties with Epstein before his 2019 arrest.
Trump had pushed back on the release of the files for months, calling it a “hoax” and claiming Democrats “created the Epstein Files.” The president made a swift reversal on his position on the files’ release after it became clear Congress would overwhelmingly pass a bill to force the DOJ to release them.
The House and Senate voted nearly unanimously last month to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the DOJ to release “all” of its files related to Epstein while keeping victims’ names and identifying information private.
The act also clarified that the documents must be released in a “searchable” form. The search function, however, was seemingly not functioning as of Friday afternoon, as even searching for “Epstein” yielded no results.
The DOJ’s file release on Friday comes amid heightened scrutiny of the department after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested that some material related to Epstein could be withheld from the public for weeks.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who played a leading role in the House forcing a vote on the Epstein files, has been critical of the DOJ’s slow release. On a call with reporters as the files were released, Khanna urged Justice Department officials to explain “each redaction,” and why the department could not release all of the files by the deadline.
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