At least 16 files disappeared from the U.S. Department of Justice’s public page for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.
The missing files, which were available on Friday (19) and no longer accessible on Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a sideboard and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Justice Department did not respond to questions Saturday about why the files disappeared, but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue to be reviewed and redacted in accordance with the law out of an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”
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Online, the inexplicably missing files fueled speculation about what was taken and why the public was not notified, adding to long-running intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a photo of Trump in an X post, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
The episode deepened concerns that had already arisen from the much-anticipated release of Justice Department documents. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the charging decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos about charging decisions.
Missing FBI interviews about survivors
Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein were not found in the initial Justice Department disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.
Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state prostitution charge.
The gaps go further.
The records, required to be released under a law recently passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who wasn’t, and how much the disclosures actually advance public accountability.
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Among the new details: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to drop an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which allowed him to plead guilty to that state charge, and a previously unseen complaint from 1996 accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.
The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York and the US Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.
There were a number of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton, but very few of Trump. Both were associated with Epstein but have since denied those friendships. None were accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and there was no indication that the photos played a role in the criminal cases against him.
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Despite a deadline set by Congress on Friday to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on an ongoing basis. It attributed the delay to the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has given no warning as to when more records might arrive.
That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the law that forced the department to act. Rather than marking the end of a years-long battle for transparency, Friday’s release of documents was just the beginning of an indefinite wait for a full picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.
“I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges that Epstein began sexually abusing her in his New York City mansion when she was 14.
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Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked context. Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.
The newly made public documents were a fraction of potentially millions of pages of records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations involving Epstein and Maxwell, although many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.
Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases or freedom of information requests, although for the first time they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.
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Those that were new often lacked necessary context or were heavily redacted. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was fully redacted.
Trump’s Republican allies seized on images of Clinton, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV journalist Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions and no explanation was given for why any of them were together.
The most substantial records released so far show that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 but never charged him.
One of the victims said she was sexually assaulted by Epstein
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 sexual acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 years old and in ninth grade.
One of them 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 hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she went on to recruit other girls to do the same.
“For every girl I brought, 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 were underage to just lie about it and say they were 18.”
The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers conducted more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.
Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.
He also said the Justice Department may have been more reluctant to bring federal charges in a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and solicitation of prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.
“I’m not saying that was the correct view,” Acosta added. He also said that audiences today would likely view survivors differently.
“There were a lot of changes in the testimony of the victims,” Acosta said.
Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer representing Epstein accuser Maria Farmer and other survivors, said Saturday that her client feels pressure following the release of the document. Farmer searched for years for documents to support his claim that Epstein and Maxwell were in possession of child sexual abuse images.
“It’s a triumph and a tragedy,” she said. “It seems like the government did absolutely nothing. Horrible things happened and if they had investigated in any small way, they could have stopped him.”
