In retrospect, the House Oversight Committee Democrats’ slow-drip release of the Jeffrey Epstein files has been one of the most effective political plays in recent memory. Each new photo or email became a huge story and dominated the newscycle. They’ve been laying the groundwork for the eventual full release of the Epstein Files. Except that Donald Trump and his merry band of traffickers and abusers can’t actually expose Trump to that extent. On Friday, the Justice Department faced the deadline to release the files. They ended up releasing reams of blacked-out documents. Initially, they included photos of Trump with Epstein and Epstein’s cronies, but then Justice removed those photos from the online records:
More than a dozen photos — including one featuring President Trump — were removed without explanation from the large collection of files connected to the investigations of Jeffrey Epstein that the Justice Department released on Friday.
A total of 16 photos were taken down at some point on Saturday from the website that the department created to house files — among them, one of the few that contained Mr. Trump’s image. It was a photo of a credenza in Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan home, with an open drawer containing other photos, including at least one of Mr. Trump.
The Justice Department did not explain on the site why the images had been removed, and a department spokesman did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee immediately seized on the missing photo of Mr. Trump, reposting it on social media and asking Attorney General Pam Bondi if it was true that the image had been removed.
“What else is being covered up?” the post said. “We need transparency for the American public.”
Twelve of the other missing photos pictured the infamous massage room on the third floor of Mr. Epstein’s mansion in New York. The room, which sat down the hall from Mr. Epstein’s bedroom, was where investigators say that many of his sexual assaults occurred — some of them against teenage victims. The shelves in the room were stocked with lubricants and a silver ball and chain, among other things.
Despite mounting expectations, the released files, which included thousands of photographs and investigative documents, were something of an anticlimax. They added little to the public’s understanding of Mr. Epstein’s conduct, and also did not provide much additional insight into his connections to wealthy and powerful businessmen and politicians who associated with him.
As depressing as it is to say aloud, we simply have to acknowledge that over the course of Trump’s first term and all of 2025, Trump and his allies/lackeys have attempted to cover their tracks. I believe that even the files being released are altered, with all of the most incriminating evidence removed. Incriminating for Trump and his associates. They let ONE photo slip through accidentally and they quickly removed it. That should tell you everything. It should also tell you something that Trumpland is going overboard to push the photos of Bill Clinton socializing with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. Bubba’s team is on it:
A spokesperson for Bill Clinton accused the White House late on Friday of using him as a scapegoat after pictures of the former president with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as with a young woman in a pool, were included as part of congressionally ordered release of government files.
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” the spokesperson said in a statement on X. “This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So 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.”
“Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton,” it said, referring to comments made by White House chief of staff to Vanity Fair in which Wiles acknowledged that Clinton had not been on Epstein’s Caribbean island despite repeated claims by Trump to the contrary. Clinton has long maintained that he cut ties with Epstein around 2005, before the disgraced financier plead guilty to solicitation of a minor in Florida.
In the statement, Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Ureña said: “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.”
Everyone has known that Bill Clinton socialized with Epstein many years ago, but there’s never been ANY credible report or first-person account of Epstein providing girls or women to Bill. Unlike Donald Trump, who was literally Best Friends Forever with Epstein and they hunted for girls together. There are dozens of first-person accounts about Trump and Epstein’ predatory behavior towards the SAME women. Anyway, it’s depressing to admit, but I’m sure the most incriminating evidence against Trump has already been destroyed.
Protecting Donald Trump is not “an abundance of caution.” https://t.co/6XgxojyLl6 pic.twitter.com/uYr1FXjdBv
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) December 21, 2025
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Getty.
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- New York, CA – Financier Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead on 10 August 2019 in his prison cell in New York while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Epstein, 66, had pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was being held without bail. Pictured: Jeffrey Epstein BACKGRID USA 10 AUGUST 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump attend state funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter at the National Cathedral on January 9, 2025 in Washington, D.C Featuring: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Barack Obama, Donald J Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 09 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump host a Halloween trick-or-treat event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, October 30, 2025. Featuring: Donald J. Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 30 Oct 2025 Credit: Aaron Schwartz/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
They should had made the release be of unredacted files. The only way Trump signed the law was because he knew it would be heavily redacted and his name would never be found.
“Teenage victims” = children.
By all means the victims should be redacted. But the adults involved should not and that was what I was getting at. Trump would not have encouraged/signed it if him and all his cronies weren’t redacted.
The problem there is that it could/would out victims who haven’t chosen to go public. The White House is taking advantage of a necessary element for protection of the victims to protect their guy as well (even though everyone KNOWS at this point, it’s just so stupid)
That’s NOT the problem because the law allows for the redactions of victims’ names. The PROBLEM is their interpretation of the word ‘victim’ to include all men in the photos (except Bill Clinton & Michael Jackson), which the laws specifically disallows.
They’re incompetent, so people have already found a file that mentions Trump and a picture of him with a little girl. 16 files have been scrubbed that I heard of.
Did anyone expect something different?
Honestly amazed it even got this far.
As expected.
I wonder how long it will be, before someone inside the DOJ starts leaking some of this stuff out. The great MAGA crackup has only just begun and it’s likely to get much uglier, before it’s over. Shouldn’t be surprised if it were to snag some people inside the DOJ, along the way.
i think part of the issue is this isn’t only about trump and protecting him. there are high profile people on both sides of the aisle and around politics (as opposed to directly in) that i expect are exerting pressure. don’t get me wrong, trump is directly involved in the cover up, i just don’t think it’s only him.
My expectations were low but I didn’t expect them to be this obvious that they’re protecting T and other powerful people. Their arrogance in breaking the law is exhausting.
When they first came out on Friday, someone found the photo of Clinton and Michael Jackson – and Diana Ross – on Getty (someone in the WH was even highlighting it). It seemed to have nothing to do with Epstein; it was in DC, the black squares were Jackson’s kids and Ross’s kid and it was a completely different photographer. I feel like a conspiracy theorist but would they actually take the time to search for photos of Clinton and kids in nondescript hallways to include?
It should be at WH spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, published photos of Bill Clinton with Michael Jackson & Diana Ross, with black circles to redact faces of “victims and/or minors” “per the Epstein files transparency act” in order to incriminate Clinton. In truth, the photos were publicly available pics from a charity event in DC and the “victims and/or minors” that were redacted were Evan Ross and Paris & Prince Jackson.
I had assumed there probably was at least some potentially incriminating evidence against Bubba but if the administration needs to pull a stunt like this to create the illusion of incriminating evidence against Clinton, either there’s nothing to implicate Clinton in wrongdoing with Epstein or any evidence to that effect also heavily incriminates Trump too