The US Department of Justice returned a photo with Trump to the “Epstein files”

The US Department of Justice has returned photos of the US President Donald Trump to the public files linked to the now-deceased sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying they did not pose a risk of exposing confidential information about victims after a review.

The Guardian writes about this.

The first batch of thousands of files was published on December 19, and the next day at least 16 of them disappeared. The photos show photos of current US President Donald Trump, which Epstein kept in a drawer, as well as in a frame on his desk: they show Trump standing next to Epstein, his future wife Melania Trump, and Epsteinʼs convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

It also became known that one of the photos, which depicts the late singer Michael Jackson, 42nd US President Bill Clinton and singer Diana Ross, was previously known. It depicts Rossʼs son and Michael Jacksonʼs children, whose faces were hidden by the Justice Department as minors.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson posted this edited photo on X with the caption that the people whose faces were obscured were “victims and/or minors”. This drew criticism on social media and accusations of an attempt to falsify who was actually in the photo.

Social network X, thanks to user comments, added a disclaimer that this photo is not new and is not related to the Epstein case.

The Jeffrey Epstein case

American financier Jeffrey Epstein was first arrested in 2008. He was convicted of sex with minors and organizing prostitution. After 13 months in prison, the financier made a deal with prosecutors and was released. In 2019, he was charged with new charges of human trafficking.

At the time, it was reported that the FBI had discovered thousands of names of famous people in Epsteinʼs notebook, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, and billionaire Richard Branson. This sparked a series of accusations and suspicions against famous people that they may have used Epsteinʼs services.

Epstein was arrested a second time on July 7, and on August 10, 2019, he committed suicide in prison. In December 2023, a US court ordered the release of the names of more than 170 people from Epsteinʼs inner circle.

Donald Trump has also been accused of having ties to Epstein. Trump and Epstein were allegedly friends and attended the same parties in the 1990s. However, Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against journalists who covered this information.

In November, it became known that dozens of references to Ukraine were found among Jeffrey Epsteinʼs documents. Among other things, the names of politician Oleksandr Vilkul and former President Leonid Kuchma appear there.

On December 18, American Democrats published five photos from the “Epstein files” — without any explanation. Among other things, they show American linguist and political journalist Noam Chomsky on a plane with Epstein, multibillionaire Bill Gates with an unknown woman, and the passport of an unknown Ukrainian woman.

The screenshot shows correspondence about sending girls to "clients" for money. One of the messages mentions a girl aged 18, specifies her physical parameters and the country of departure — Russia.

On December 19, the US Department of Justice published the first selection of the “Epstein files”. Among the tens of thousands of documents that were censored are many photos of famous people. Many of them are of the 42nd US President Bill Clinton.

Also pictured are actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, singers Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, former British Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, billionaire Richard Branson, and illusionist David Copperfield, who is seen hugging Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

President Donald Trump is not in the photo. His image appears only among the photos Epstein kept in a drawer and in a frame on his desk: there, the men stand with Maxwell and Trumpʼs future wife Melania. Some Democrats have already criticized the publication as too limited.

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