At least 16 files from the Justice Department’s public webpage for Jeffrey Epstein documents, including a photo of Donald Trump, disappeared within a day of being posted, without any explanation from the government or notification to the public.
The missing files, which were available Friday but were no longer accessible by Saturday, included an image of a painting depicting a naked woman and a file showing a series of photos in a drawer along a credenza. Among the images, in a drawer among other photos, was a photo of Trump alongside Epstein, Melania Trump, and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate and accomplice.
Online, the missing files have fueled speculation about what was deleted and why the public was not notified, complicating a long-standing conspiracy about Epstein and the powerful people around him. “What else is being hidden? We need transparency from the American people,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee wrote, pointing to the missing image of Trump’s photo in X’s post.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice Department’s decision to remove some files from web pages. He said the documents were removed because they also included Epstein’s victims. Blanche said Trump’s photo and other documents would be reposted once edits were made to protect survivors.
“I have nothing to do with President Trump,” Blanche said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Dozens of photos have already been released showing President Trump meeting with Mr. Epstein.”
The episode deepened concerns already emerging from the Justice Department’s long-awaited release of documents. The tens of thousands of pages released offered little new insight into Mr. Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges over the years, and omitted some of the most high-profile documents, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos about prosecution decisions.
Blanche also defended the Justice Department’s decision to release only part of the file. He promised that the Trump administration would ultimately fulfill its obligations under the law. However, the ministry stressed that it has a duty to tread carefully when releasing thousands of documents that may contain sensitive information.
“The reason we’re still reviewing documents and continuing the process is simply… to protect the victims,” Blanche said on “Meet the Press.” “So the same people who were complaining about the lack of documentation produced on Friday are the same people who clearly don’t want us to protect victims.”
Disclosures offer few new insights
Some of the most critical records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which run into tens of thousands of pages.
FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos reviewing indictment decisions are missing. The records could help explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was able to plead guilty to relatively minor state-level prostitution charges in 2008.
The groove widens further.
The records, which must be made public under recent legislation passed by Congress, make little mention of several prominent people who have been associated with Mr. Epstein over the years, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, raising renewed questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much their release would really promote public accountability.
Among the fresh information is insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon its investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, allowing him to plead guilty to state-level charges, and an undisclosed 1996 indictment accusing Epstein of stealing photos of children.
Previous releases focused on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but also included some photos of celebrities and politicians.
There were a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Clinton, but only a few of President Trump. Both had relationships with Epstein, but both have since denied their friendship. Neither had been charged with any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and there was no indication that the photos were implicated in any criminal charges brought against Epstein.
The Justice Department said it plans to release the records gradually, even though Congress set a Friday deadline to release everything. The agency blamed the delay on the lengthy process of concealing survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any indication of when further records will arrive.
This approach infuriated some Epstein accusers, and the lawmakers who fought to pass the bill forced the department to act. Friday’s release of documents did not mark the end of a years-long fight for transparency, but only the beginning of an indefinite wait for the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and alleged crimes, as well as the steps taken to investigate them.
“Mr. Department of Justice, I feel like the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who claimed Epstein began sexually abusing her at the age of 14 in his New York City mansion.
Edit, lack of context
Federal prosecutors in New York indicted Epstein on sex trafficking charges in 2019, but he committed suicide in prison after his arrest.
The documents just released were part of potentially millions of pages of records in the department’s possession. An example is an agent. Gen. Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors have more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, but many duplicate materials have already been turned over to the FBI.
Many of the records previously released were made available through court filings, parliamentary releases or Freedom of Information requests, but for the first time, the public can search them for free.
New ones often lacked the necessary context or were heavily blacked out. The 119-page document, marked “New York Grand Jury,” was completely blacked out, likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the indictments of Epstein in 2019 and Maxwell in 2021.
Trump’s Republican allies seized images of Clinton, including photos of Democrats and singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, as well as with TV news anchor Walter Cronkite. However, there were no captions for any of the photos, and no explanation as to why they were together.
The most detailed records released so far show that federal prosecutors had a strong case against Epstein in 2007 but did not indict him.
The grand jury minutes, released for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews with several girls and young women who said they were paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 years old and in the 9th grade.
One woman told investigators that Epstein sexually assaulted her during a massage when she initially resisted his advances.
Another woman, who was 21 at the time, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein hired her to give her a sexual massage when she was 16 and then continued to solicit other girls to give him the same massages.
“He gave me $200 for every girl I brought to the table,” she said. Most of them were people she had known since high school, she said. “I also told them that if they were underage, they should lie and tell them they were 18.”
The documents also include a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers conducted more than a decade later with Alexander Acosta, the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, about his ultimate decision not to file federal charges.
Acosta, who served as labor secretary during Trump’s first term, expressed concern about whether jurors would believe Epstein’s accusations.
He also said the Justice Department may have been reluctant to pursue federal prosecutions in cases that straddle the legal boundaries between sex trafficking and pimping, cases typically handled by state prosecutors.
“I’m not saying that was the correct view,” Acosta added. He also said the public today would likely view survivors differently.
“There have been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.
Jennifer Freeman, an attorney who represents Epstein’s accuser Maria Farmer and other survivors, said Saturday that after the documents were released, she felt her clients were vindicated. Ms. Farmer had been searching for years for documents to support her claims that Mr. Epstein and Mr. Maxwell possessed images of child sexual abuse.
“This is both a triumph and a tragedy,” she said. “It appears the government did nothing at all. Something terrible is happening. If there had been some investigation, they could have stopped him.”
Sisak and Caruso write for The Associated Press. Associated Press reporter Amel Madani, Adriana Gomez Licon, Ali Swenson, Christopher L. Keller, Kristin M. Hall, Aaron Kessler and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.
