The Justice Department on Friday unveiled a trove of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. However, this partial release did not significantly advance the public understanding of the extensive criminal investigations linked to Epstein or his connections with influential figures.

Among the released materials were photographs featuring well-known personalities who associated with Epstein before he faced legal trouble. Notably, there were candid images of former President Bill Clinton, who had traveled on Epstein’s private jet and hosted him at the White House before allegations against Epstein surfaced. In contrast, the documents contained minimal new information regarding former President Donald Trump, save for a few widely recognized images. This lack of new material spared the Trump administration from addressing further inquiries about a relationship it has sought to downplay.

The collection, primarily composed of photographs, also included call logs, grand jury testimonies, interview transcripts, and other documents. There had been significant anticipation that these records would provide a comprehensive insight into nearly two decades of governmental investigations into Epstein’s sexual exploitation of young women and minors. However, with extensive redactions and many records still unreleased, the disclosure fell short of satisfying those seeking more information, especially since some content had already been publicized.

Critics, including both Democrats and some Republicans, criticized the Justice Department for not fully meeting a congressional deadline to release the documents. Meanwhile, White House officials circulated a photo on social media showing Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face was obscured, while the Trump administration highlighted the release as a demonstration of its dedication to transparency, despite previous Justice Department statements that no further files would be released. This stance changed after Congress enacted legislation requiring the disclosure.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a letter to Congress, stated that the Justice Department continues to review the files it holds and is withholding certain documents to protect victims. He also indicated that more disclosures are anticipated by the end of the year.

Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling-out, tried for months to keep the records sealed.

But bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump last month signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into his death in a federal jail. The law set a deadline for Friday.

Limited details about Trump

Trump is hardly glimpsed in the files, with the small number of photos of him appearing to have been in the public domain for decades. Those include two in which Trump and Epstein are posing with now-first lady Melania Trump in February 2000 at an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump’s connection to Epstein is well-documented, but he has sought to distance himself from his former friend. He has said he cut off ties with Epstein after the financier hired young female employees from Mar-a-Lago and has repeatedly denied knowledge of his crimes.

The FBI and Justice Department abruptly announced in July that they would not be releasing any additional records, a decision that was supported by Trump. But the president reversed course once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable. He insisted the Epstein matter had become a distraction to the Republican agenda and releasing the records was the best way to move on.

The White House, meanwhile, has moved to shift focus away from Trump’s ties to Epstein, with Attorney General Pam Bondi last month saying that she had ordered a federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein’s connections to Trump’s political foes, including Clinton.

Neither Trump nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone’s name in the files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.

Among other prominent Epstein contacts is the former Prince Andrew, who appears in a photograph released Friday wearing a tuxedo and lying on the laps of what appear to be several women who are seated, dressed in formalwear. Pop star Michael Jackson also appears in multiple photos, including one showing him standing next to a smiling Epstein.

New photos of Clinton

Unlike Trump, Clinton is featured prominently in the files, though the records included no explanation of how the photographs of the former president related to any investigation or the context surrounding them.

Some photos showed him on a private plane, including one with a woman, whose face is redacted, seated alongside him with her arm around him. Another shows him in a pool with Epstein’s longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and a person whose face was also redacted. He is also seen in a hot tub with a woman whose face was redacted.

Senior Trump White House aides took to X to promote the Clinton photos.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote “Oh my!” and added a shocked face emoji in response to a photo of Clinton in the hot tub.

“They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton,” Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said in a statement.

“There are two types of people here,” he said. “The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships after that. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”

The Epstein investigations

After nearly two decades of court action, a voluminous number of Epstein records had already been public before Friday, including flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury records, courtroom testimony and deposition transcripts.

Besides public curiosity about whether any of Epstein’s associates knew about or participated in the abuse, Epstein’s accusers have also sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.

“Just put out the files,” said Marina Lacerda, who says she survived sexual assault by Epstein. “And stop redacting names that don’t need to be redacted.”

One of the few revelations in the documents was a copy of the earliest known concern about Epstein’s behavior — a report taken by the FBI of a woman in 1996 who believed photos and negatives she had taken of her 12-year-old and 16-year-old sisters for a personal art project had been stolen by Epstein. The documents don’t show what, if anything, the agency did with that complaint.

Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported being molested at his mansion. The FBI joined the investigation. Authorities gathered testimony from multiple underage girls who said they’d been hired to give Epstein sexual massages.

Ultimately, prosecutors gave Epstein a deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges involving someone under age 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Epstein’s accusers spent years in civil litigation trying to get that plea deal set aside. One of those women, Virginia Giuffre, accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters, starting at age 17, with other men, including billionaires, famous academics, politicians and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having sex with Giuffre, but King Charles III stripped him of his royal titles this year.

Prosecutors never brought charges in connection with Giuffre’s claims, but her account fueled conspiracy theories about supposed government plots to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by suicide in April.

Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest. Prosecutors then charged Maxwell, his longtime confidant, with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

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Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press reporters from around the country contributed to this report.

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