Takeaways from release of Epstein files

The US Department of Justice on Friday (19 December) released a new cache of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Epstein files have been a significant political problem for President Donald Trump, with many of his supporters and Republicans in Congress demanding their release. It remains to be seen if this partial release will satisfy Trump's critics on the issue.

Here are some initial takeaways from the documents:

Not much Trump

The big question before the document release was: How prominently would Trump feature in them? He and Epstein were friends and socialised frequently in the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump says they had a falling out in the mid-2000s, before Epstein's first conviction in 2008.

Friday's document dump of government files containing hundreds of thousands of pages was therefore notable for the lack of mentions of Trump. The Justice Department said more documents will be released over the next two weeks.

An initial examination of the cache by Reuters found scant photos of Trump or any mentions of him in documents. There was a single photo of Epstein appearing to hold a check with Trump's name on it, and a separate photo taken inside Epstein's Manhattan townhouse where a copy of Trump's 1997 book, 'Trump: The Art of the Comeback', was tucked inside a bookshelf.

Trump's name appeared in flight manifests listing passengers on Epstein's private plane that were included in a first batch of material the Justice Department released in February.

Trump and several of his family members were also listed in an Epstein contact book, which was made public during the 2021 trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former associate who was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with Epstein's crimes.

Trump has often denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or that he had any knowledge of his crimes when the two socialised in Florida.

Quite a lot of Bill Clinton

The documents contained a number of mentions and photos of former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

There were several photos of Clinton, including one of him in a swimming pool with Maxwell and an unidentified person. Others showed Clinton in a hot tub, and another with a young woman sitting on the armrest of his seat with her arm draped around his shoulders, her face redacted. A fourth was a photo of a painting of Clinton in a blue dress hanging in Epstein's New York home.

The release of the Clinton photos could conflict with Justice Department policy not to release material related to ongoing investigations. Trump, a Republican, has ordered the Justice Department to investigate Clinton's ties to Epstein, in what critics said was an effort to shift the focus away from his own relationship with Epstein.

Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes when the two socialised and travelled together and has said he wishes he had never met Epstein.

Angel Urena, Clinton's deputy chief of staff, responded on the social media platform X, calling the images of Clinton "grainy, 20-plus-year-old photos", and said Clinton knew nothing about Epstein's crimes when the two socialized. "This isn't about Bill Clinton," Urena said.

1,200 victims and relatives, and 254 masseuses

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress in a letter that the department had identified more than 1,200 victims of Epstein and their relatives during an "exhaustive review" of the documents.

One document was Epstein's masseuse list, which contained 254 names. All the names were redacted.

Blanche said the documents released on Friday included FBI files from its 2018 and 2006 investigations of Epstein and its investigation of his 2019 death, among other materials.

Heavy redactions, Democrats cry foul

Many of the documents released by the Justice Department were heavily redacted. One of the redacted files, a 119-page document that appeared to contain grand jury testimony, was entirely blacked out. Three more documents of 100 pages each were totally redacted.

Some Democrats decried the Justice Department's failure to release all of the Epstein files by the deadline set by a law passed by Congress in November and signed by President Trump.

Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator, called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to appear before Congress and explain why all the files had not been released.

Chuck Schumer, the senior Senate Democrat, said in a statement, "This set of heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence."

Thomas Massie, a House Republican who was a leading sponsor of the Epstein document release law, said on X that Friday's partial release "fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law" that Trump signed.

Trump and his Justice Department likely will face more criticism in the coming days for the paucity of Friday's release and the fact that Trump is barely mentioned, while Clinton is. Ultimately, it is likely that Trump has not yet put the Epstein controversy behind him.