At least 16 photographs, including one of Donald Trump flanked by women in bikinis, were mysteriously removed without explanation from the Epstein Files – and have since been reinstated.
The missing files, which were made available Friday but were no longer accessible on the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s website by Saturday, sparked claims by Democrats of a Republican cover-up.
The DOJ said that the image of the American president was flagged by the Southern District of New York ‘for potential further action to protect victims’.
Following furious backlash, it was reinstated on Sunday morning after it was determined that ‘there is no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted in the photograph’, a statement posted on X said.
The DOJ published more than 300,000 files concerning the deceased paedophile on Friday night, but large swathes were not released. Other files were heavily redacted and no major revelations emerged.
The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into the disgraced financier’s crimes, FBI interviews with victims, or internal DOJ memos on charging decisions.
But among the hundreds of photographs released, one showed an open desk drawer containing two photos of President Trump. In one previously unseen snap, he poses with four women in swimwear.
It was removed alongside 15 other images, apparently from the same room – a small massage parlour with multiple nude photographs and paintings hanging on the walls.
It is not immediately clear why the selection of 16 images was recalled.
The photos show a room with clouds painted on the ceiling, brown patterned wallpaper and a massage bed in the centre.
A wooden cabinet can be seen at the back of the room, containing various ointments and other toiletries.
On one wall hangs a large painting of a naked woman from the back, looking into a mirror.
Three photographs of naked women are hanging from another wall, with their faces redacted.
In two of the images, a woman can be seen lying down on a bed, her back facing the camera.
While the paintings and the photographs may depict victims – explaining their removal – other photos from the selection are nondescript and mundane, depicting only empty hallways.
One painting shows a naked woman lying on her back, while another depicts a woman in the nude sitting next to a man wearing a black suit.
On Saturday night, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee questioned the quiet removal of the 16 images from the released Epstein Files.
‘This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release,’ they tweeted, asking Attorney General Pam Bondi: ‘Is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.’
The DOJ said the image depicting Trump was removed temporarily for further review ‘out of an abundance of caution’ in relation to protecting victims.
Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, said it was ‘laughable’ to suggest that the photo was removed due to it featuring the US President.
The image in question showed a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers, including one of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
‘It has nothing to do with President Trump,’ Blanche told NBC News.
‘There are dozens of photos of President Trump already released to the public seeing him with Mr Epstein.’
He added: ‘So the absurdity of us pulling down a photo, a single photo, because President Trump was in it, is laughable.’
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When the 16 images were cryptically removed, the DOJ was already under fire for not releasing all of the files by the Friday deadline, as mandated by law.
Congressman Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who led the charge to release the files, said he was disappointed with the Trump administration for missing the deadline.
‘They are flouting the spirit and the letter of the law,’ he told CBS News on Sunday. ‘It’s very troubling the posture that they have taken. I won’t be satisfied until the survivors are satisfied.’
Democrat Ro Khanna and Massie – whose jointly authored bill forced the documents’ publication – said they were considering legal action over an ‘incomplete release, with too many redactions’.
Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat on the oversight committee, said: ‘I’m furious, I think they broke the law. They have clearly released about a fraction [of the files].
‘It seems they may have redacted some of them to protect certain political people, and certain political enemies were highlighted.’
Despite the Friday deadline, DOJ said it plans to release records on a rolling basis and blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information.
Victims’ rights advocate Gloria Allred told CNN on Saturday that the ‘system has failed the survivors’, including with the release of files that she said had been ‘under-redacted’.
‘I saw a number of survivors’ names which should never have been published, because the whole point is to protect the survivors,’ she told the outlet.
One Epstein survivor, who had reported the sex offender to the FBI in 2009, wrote a furious letter to the DOJ, saying her name had been wrongly exposed in the files but she had not even been allowed to view her own FBI file previously.
‘My name, and/or identifying information was disclosed publicly without any proper redaction,’ she wrote.
‘The contradiction is extraordinary. The DOJ asserts that my own file requires prolonged review to determine whether redactions are appropriate – yet it had no difficulty publicly releasing my identity in a mass disclosure.’
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has not been accused of any crimes by the sex offender’s victims.
The 300,000 pages of released files largely dealt with three police investigations into the convicted paedophile. First, a Palm Beach police inquiry from 2005.
Then a probe by federal prosecutors in Florida that ended with the financier’s 2008 plea deal, in which he was handed a notably soft sentence.
And finally, the 2019 inquiry by Manhattan prosecutors that was cut short when Epstein died in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City.
There was a series of never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton, including images of him relaxing in what appears to be a hot tub and smiling at parties with women.
A spokesman for the former president commented on the new photos, saying they were decades old.
‘They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be,’ Angel Ureña wrote on social media.
‘There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships with him after.
‘We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.
‘Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.’
He has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein’s abuse, and has denied knowledge of his sex offending.
Another photo appears to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lying across five women’s laps.
Dressed in black tie, the former Duke of York is seen laughing with Maxwell, who is standing in the background.
Andrew has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and said he did not ‘see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction’.
‘I feel like again, the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,’ said survivor Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.
Many of the files were heavily redacted, with nearly 700 pages entirely blacked out and women’s faces obscured in photos, leading to accusations that the public is not being given the full story.
A 119-page document marked ‘Grand Jury-NY’, which was a transcript from the grand jury proceedings involving Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Maxwell, was entirely blacked out. It has since become un-redacted.
‘This initial documents release is inadequate,’ said House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, on ABC’s This Week. ‘It falls short of what the law requires.’
More gaps include records that could have helped explain why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.
Marie Villafaña, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation of Epstein for the US attorney’s office in Miami, had prepared an 83-page memo and a 60-count draft indictment of Epstein in May 2007, summarising evidence against the financier.
Those documents – which could have shed light on the government’s decisions to forgo prosecution at the time – were not included in Friday’s disclosure by the DOJ.
Khanna said that the partial ‘document dump this afternoon does not comply’ with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, telling CNN: ‘The most important documents are missing.’
More than 600,000 pages related to the pedophile have now been released this year, prompting the Trump administration to describe itself as the ‘most transparent in history’ following Friday’s disclosure.
In the release, there were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite.
But none of the images had captions and no explanation was given for why any of the photos were grouped together.
The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 yet never charged him.
Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for the paedophile.
The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.
One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.
Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.
‘For every girl that I brought to the table he would give me $200,’ she said.
They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. ‘I also told them that if they are underage, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.’
One court document revealed how Epstein demanded to see ID to make sure girls were under 18.
‘At one point [redacted] witnessed him asking for ID to girl,’ notes from a police interview released by the DOJ read.
Being named or pictured in the files is not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The Justice Department posted on X: ‘Documents and photos will continue to be reviewed consistent with the law and with an abundance of caution for victims and their families.’
