Trump appears in newly released photos from estate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
One of the new batch of photos shows US President Donald Trump (far left) with late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (second from left).
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- US House Democrats released images from Jeffrey Epstein's estate, including photos of Donald Trump with women and Epstein.
- Other figures like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates appear in photos; items such as sex toys and a "Trump condom" were also found.
- Democrats call for the Justice Department to release all Epstein files, while Republicans accuse them of politicising the investigation.
AI generated
WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats released 19 new images from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Dec 12, including photos of now US President Donald Trump, as a deadline for an extensive release of documents related to the disgraced financier nears.
Mr Trump is featured in three of the 19 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, Mr Trump is seen smiling with several women – whose faces are redacted – on each side of him.
A second image shows Mr Trump standing beside Epstein, and a third, less-clear image shows him, with his red tie loosened, seated alongside another woman, whose face is also redacted.
It was not clear when or where the photos were taken.
“Everybody knew this man,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Dec 12. “He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, almost – there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him. So that’s no big deal.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Mr 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.
Trump fanned Epstein conspiracies
The Epstein scandal has been a political headache for Mr 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 Mr Trump’s handling of the Epstein case, well below his overall 85 per cent approval rating in his own party.
Mr Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and early 2000s, but Mr Trump says he broke off ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges.
Mr Trump has consistently denied knowing about the late financier’s abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls.
Other men also shown
Former president Bill Clinton, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former treasury secretary Larry Summers also appear in the batch of images, as well as sex toys and a US$4.50 “Trump condom” emblazoned with Mr 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”.
Among the photos is one of a US$4.50 “Trump condom” emblazoned with Mr Trump’s face and the all-caps phrase “I’M HUUUGE!”
PHOTO: REUTERS
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.
US President Donald Trump posing with unidentified women an image from the estate of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mr Trump signed into law in November 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.
Dec 19 will mark the end of that window. REUTERS
