Trump features in newly released Epstein photos
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Congressional Democrats released 19 new images from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including photos of now-President Donald Trump, as a deadline for an extensive release of documents related to the disgraced financier nears.
Trump is featured in three of the photos shared by House Oversight Committee Democrats, who said they are reviewing more than 95,000 images produced by the estate.
In one black-and-white photo, Trump is seen smiling with several women – whose faces are redacted – on each side of him.
A second image shows Trump standing beside Epstein, and a third, less-clear image shows him seated alongside another woman, whose face is also redacted, with his red tie loosened. It was not clear when or where the photos were taken.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump’s administration “has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have.”
“It’s time for the media to stop regurgitating Democrat talking points and start asking Democrats why they wanted to hang around Epstein after he was convicted,” she said.
The Epstein scandal has been a political headache for Trump for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe Trump administration officials have covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
The Justice Department said in July that there was no evidence to justify investigating any third parties in the Epstein case, and that it had found no “client list” or people who might have been involved in sex trafficking, or any evidence that Epstein had blackmailed anyone.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found that just half of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein case, well below his overall 85 per cent approval rating in his own party.
Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and early 2000s, but Trump says he broke off ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges.
Trump has consistently denied knowing about Epstein’s abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls.
Democratic former President Bill Clinton, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, Bill Gates and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also appear in the batch of images, as well as sex toys and a $US4.50 ($A6.75) “Trump condom” emblazoned with Trump’s face and the all-caps phrase “I’M HUUUGE!”
A spokesperson for the committee, which is led by Republican Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, said Democrats were politicising the investigation by “cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump.”
Democrats said the tens of thousands of photos include “images of the wealthy and powerful men who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein” and “photographs of women and Epstein properties,” and more will be released in the coming days.
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, said in a statement. “We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
The congressional Democrats said they redacted the women’s faces to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims.
The committee is continuing to obtain and release documents even as the US Department of Justice is expected to publicise unclassified Epstein files from its federal investigation late next week.
Trump signed into law last month an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill led by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California and Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky that compels the Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days. December 19 will mark the end of that window.
Reuters
