Justice Department releases limited set of files tied to Epstein sex
trafficking investigation
[December 20, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department released thousands of files
Friday about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the incomplete
document dump did not break significant ground about the long-running
criminal investigations of the financier or his ties to wealthy and
powerful individuals.
The files included photographs of famous people who spent time with
Epstein in the years before he came under suspicion, including some
candid snapshots of Bill Clinton, who flew on Epstein’s jet and invited
him to the White House in the years before the financier was accused of
wrongdoing. But there was almost no material related to another old
Epstein friend, President Donald Trump, aside from a few well-known
images, sparing the White House from having to confront fresh questions
about a relationship the administration has tried in vain to minimize.
The records, consisting largely of pictures but also including call
logs, grand jury testimony, interview transcripts and other documents,
arrived amid extraordinary anticipation that they might offer the most
detailed look yet at nearly two decades worth of government scrutiny of
Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls. Yet the
release, replete with redactions, seemed unlikely to satisfy the clamor
for information given how many records had yet to be released and
because some of the materials had already been made public.
Democrats and some Republicans seized on the limited release to accuse
the Justice Department of failing to meet a congressionally set deadline
to produce the files, while White House officials on social media
gleefully promoted a photo of Clinton in a hot tub with a woman with a
blacked-out face. The Trump administration touted the release as proof
of its commitment to transparency, ignoring that the Justice Department
just months ago said no more files would be released. Congress then
passed a law mandating it.
In a letter to Congress, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that
the Justice Department was continuing to review files in its possession,
was withholding some documents under exemptions meant to protect victims
and expected additional disclosures 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.
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This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows
Jeffrey Epstein and Michael Jackson. (U.S. Department of Justice via
AP)
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.
___
Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press reporters from around
the country contributed to this report.
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