The US Justice Department has begun releasing its files on Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and wealthy financier known for his connections to some of the world's most influential people, including Donald Trump, who as president had tried to keep the files sealed.
The release included photographs, call logs, grand jury testimony and some documents and records that have already been in the public domain.
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Photos of Bill Clinton
Several photos of former President Bill Clinton are in the documents released by the Justice Department
Some show Clinton on a private plane, including one with a woman whose face was redacted from the photo sitting on his lap. Another photo shows him in a pool with Maxwell and a person whose face also was redacted.
Another photo shows Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face was redacted.
The files do not say when the photos were taken.
Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone's name or images in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.
Clinton minimised his relationship with Epstein, acknowledging that he traveled on Epstein's private jet but saying through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier's crimes.
Several White House officials, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt and top aide Steven Cheung, made social media posts on Friday highlighting the photos.
In a statement, Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said the Epstein investigation "isn't about Bill Clinton".
"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."
Clinton has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein's known victims.
The released files include a small number of photos of Trump which appear to have been in the public domain for decades, including two in which the president and Epstein are posing with now-first lady Melania Trump.
The photo was taken in February 2000 at an event at Trump's Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, before the pair's friendship ruptured.
Epstein accuser calls for files to be fully released
Marina Lacerda, one of the women who says she survived sexual assault by Epstein, beginning when she was 14 years old, said she wanted to see greater transparency from the Justice Department and expressed frustration that all the files aren't out yet.
"Just put out the files," she said. "And stop redacting names that don't need to be redacted." She said she was skeptical of the administration saying it's aiming to be transparent.
"In the beginning, they were calling us a hoax, right?" she said. "Now they're like, 'We believe you, we're gonna release the files,' but yet you still haven't released the files and it's not even fully transparent."
More than 1200 people identified as Epstein victims or their relatives
The Justice Department says more than 1200 people were eventually identified as victims of Epstein or their family members.
That disclosure came in a letter that DOJ sent to Congress discussing how they reviewed the Epstein files and prepared them for public release.
During the review process, DOJ asked lawyers representing Epstein's victims to provide those peoples' names, whether they were previously identified or not.
That process led to more than 1200 people being identified.
DOJ 'must set out timeline for full release': Democrats
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California said the release so far has been "disappointing".
Khanna, who worked in Congress with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky on legislation to force the release the files, said they will explore "all options" to ensure compliance with the law.
If Justice Department officials need more time to review, he said, they need to publicly explain their timeline for release.
Meanwhile Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer decried how much of the files had been completely blacked out.
"The law Congress passed calls for the complete release of the Epstein files so that there can be full transparency," Schumer said in a statement.
"Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law. For example, all 119 pages of one document were completely blacked out. We need answers as to why."
What Democrats could do to force complete release
Democrats in Congress say they are reviewing all their legal options as they assess the Department of Justice's release of the Epstein files, which they say is not a full release of documents.
Lawmakers could go to court to force the Justice Department to comply with the law passed earlier this year forcing the release, but that would almost certainly be a lengthy process that plays out while the Justice Department releases more files.
Separately, the House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena for the Epstein files. That could give Congress another avenue to force the release of more information to the committee, but it would require Democrats to convince Republicans to join them in contempt of Congress proceedings. It would be highly unusual for GOP politicians to take such a move against a Republican administration.
Democratic senator vows to use 'all avenues and legal tools' for full release of documents
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon expressed frustration that the Trump administration had not taken steps to "appropriately redact the Epstein Files to prepare them for release" of their own accord over the last year.
"Instead of meeting the legally required deadline today to release all of the files, they have chosen to illegally disregard the law I led the fight in the Senate to pass," Merkley said. "By failing to comply, the Administration is openly denying 'equal justice under the law' to all of Jeffrey Epstein's victims."
Merkley continued: "I'll keep fighting to release all the Epstein Files and am exploring all avenues and legal tools to get justice for the victims and transparency for the American people."
Files appear online after a waiting room-like queue
High interest led the Justice Department to regulate access to its Epstein files website for a time.
The webpage went live Friday afternoon with a waiting room-type queue akin to what concertgoers sometimes see when they go online to purchase tickets.
Visitors were greeted with the message: "You are in line for Department of Justice web content. When it is your turn, you will have 10 minutes to enter the website."
The webpage then refreshed to reveal a landing page with various categories of documents, including court records and other disclosures.
Inside the records
The records could contain the most detailed look yet at nearly two decades worth of government investigations into Epstein's sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.
Their release has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any of Epstein's rich and powerful associates knew about — or participated in — the abuse. Epstein's accusers have also long sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.
Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on November 19 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's passage was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.
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What the law allows
That law allows for redactions about the victims or ongoing investigations but makes clear no records shall be withheld or redacted due to "embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity."
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on November 14 that she had ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein's ties to Trump's political foes, including former President Bill Clinton. Bondi acted after Trump pressed for such an inquiry, though he did not explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men Trump mentioned in a social media post demanding the investigation has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein's victims.
In July, Trump dismissed some of his own supporters as "weaklings" for falling for "the Jeffrey Epstein hoax." But both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., failed to prevent the legislation from coming to a vote.
Trump did a U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable. He insisted that the Epstein matter had become a distraction to the Republican agenda and that releasing the records was the best way to move on.
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The Epstein investigations
Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. The FBI joined the investigation, and authorities gathered testimony from multiple underage girls who said they had been hired to give Epstein sexual massages.
Ultimately, though, 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 then 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 numerous other men, including billionaires, famous academics, US politicians and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain's Prince Andrew.
All of those men denied the allegations. Prosecutors never brought charges in connection with Giuffre's claims, but her account fuelled conspiracy theories about supposed government plots to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia in April at age 41.
Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail a month after his arrest. Prosecutors then charged Epstein's longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.
Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed over the summer by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Her lawyers argued that she never should have been tried or convicted.
The Justice Department in July said it had not found any information that could support prosecuting anyone else.
Lots of Epstein records were already public
After nearly two decades of court action and prying by reporters, a voluminous number of records related to Epstein is already public, including flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury records, courtroom testimony and transcripts of depositions of his accusers, his staffers and others.
Yet, the public's appetite for more records has been insatiable, particularly for anything related to Epstein's associations with famous people including Trump, Mountbatten-Windsor and Clinton.
Trump was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling out. Neither he nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone's name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.
Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having sex with Giuffre, but King Charles III stripped him of his royal titles this year after Giuffre's memoir was published after she died.
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