Trump’s Department of Justice appears to have been caught deleting 16 files from its most recent trove of already heavily redacted documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including a photograph of the president.
Among the 16 files that were reportedly posted on Friday, then quietly deleted with no explanation or notice to the public, were photographs of paintings featuring nude women and a photo featuring an image of Trump.
“This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release,” wrote the House Oversight Democrats on X.
Tagging Attorney General Pam Bondi, they wrote, “Is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
The deleted shot shows Epstein’s desk adorned with several framed photographs. Buried in Epstein’s desk drawer is what appears to be an infamous photograph of Trump smiling with then-girlfriend Melania, Epstein, and Epstein’s collaborator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
If the DOJ deleted the picture as House Oversight Democrats and many on social media allege, it would fuel suspicion that the department is actively scrubbing images and mentions of Trump from the Epstein files, in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
It would also contradict Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s assertion that there is no cover-up effort to redact Trump from the Epstein files.
“There’s no effort to hold anything back because there’s the name Donald J. Trump or anybody else’s name, Bill Clinton’s name, Reid Hoffman’s name,” Blanche said in an ABC interview that aired Friday. “There’s no effort to hold back or not hold back because of that… We’re not redacting the names of famous men and women that are associated with Epstein.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Justice released a new tranche of Epstein files on Friday, but Trump, 79, appeared in none of the released photographs. Instead, the DOJ’s release included several photos featuring former president Bill Clinton and celebrities in the disgraced sex trafficker’s orbit.
Trump’s absence from Friday’s Epstein dump was highly suspicious, because the real estate mogul and the financier were friends for years before Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019. They were photographed together on multiple occasions.
The Epstein estate released photographs showing Trump partying with anonymous women and Epstein one week before Friday’s DOJ dump.
What the DOJ did release was heavily redacted. The Epstein Files Transparency Act allows for some redactions, saying, “DOJ is permitted to withhold certain information such as the personal information of victims and materials that would jeopardize an active federal investigation.”
However, it also stipulates that the DOJ must “report to Congress (1) all categories of information released and withheld, (2) a summary of any redactions made, and (3) a list of all government officials and politically exposed individuals named or referenced in the published materials.”
Democrats and Republicans in favor of releasing all the Epstein files were not satisfied with Friday’s release.
On Friday, the House Oversight Democrats Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin said in a statement, “Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring.”
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, a sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said he and co-sponsor, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, were drafting articles of impeachment against Bondi.
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