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At least 16 files have disappeared from the Justice Department’s public web page for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein – including a photograph showing President Donald Trump – less than a day after they were published, without any explanation from the government or any notification to the public.
The missing files, available Friday and not accessible Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women and a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photo of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Justice Department did not say why the records were deleted or whether their disappearance was intentional. A ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what had been deleted and why the public had not been informed, deepening long-running storylines about Epstein and the powerful figures around him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed out the missing image depicting a photo of Trump in an article about X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”
The episode aggravated concerns that had already emerged during the much-anticipated publication of a document by the Justice Department. The tens of thousands of pages made public provided little new information about Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched documents, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.
Little new information in initial revelations
Some of the most important documents expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.
Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos reviewing charging decisions — documents 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-level prostitution charge.
The differences go further.
The documents, required for release under a recent law passed by Congress, barely refer to several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and the extent to which the disclosures actually advance public accountability.
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Among the new nuggets: a look at the Justice Department’s decision to drop an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, allowing him to plead guilty to that charge at the state level, and a unpublished complaint from 1996 accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.
Posts so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York and the US Virgin Islands, with a few photos of celebrities and politicians.
There was a series of unprecedented things photos of former President Bill Clinton but briefly little Trump. Both were associated with Epstein, but both have since disavowed those friendships. Neither have been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and there is no indication that the photos played a role in the criminal proceedings against him.
Despite Congress’ Friday deadline for everything to be made public, the Justice Department has said it plans to release the records on a rolling basis. He blamed the delay on the tedious process of masking survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has given no notice when other files might arrive.
This approach angered some of Epstein’s accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the law forced the ministry to act. Instead of marking the end of a years-long battle for transparency, the document’s release Friday was just the start of an indefinite wait to get a full picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.
“I feel like once again the Justice Department and the justice system are failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges that Epstein began sexually abusing her in his New York mansion when she was 14.
Many long-awaited documents were redacted or lacked context
Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he committed suicide in prison after his arrest.
The documents just made public represented only a fragment of potentially millions of pages of documents in the ministry’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said federal prosecutors in Manhattan had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations of Epstein and Maxwell, although many duplicate documents had already been turned over by the FBI.
Many of the documents released so far have been made public in court filings, congressional communiqués, or Freedom of Information requests, even though for the first time they have been released. all in one place and available for the public to search for free.
Those that were new often lacked the necessary context or were heavily obscured. 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, has been completely blacked out.
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 of Epstein with TV presenter Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had a caption and no explanation was given as to why either of them were together.
The most comprehensive records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007, but never charged him.
The transcripts of the grand jury proceedings, made public for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who said they were paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 years old and in the ninth grade.
One of them told investigators that she had been sexually assaulted by Epstein when she had 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 later recruited other girls to do the same.
“For every girl I brought to the table, he would give me $200,” she said. Most of them were people she had known since high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are underage, lie and tell them you are 18.”
The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers had more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to pursue federal charges.
Acosta, who was Labor secretary during Trump’s first term, raised concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.
He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to pursue federal charges in a case that straddled the legal line between sex trafficking and solicitation of prostitution, a topic more commonly handled by state prosecutors.
“I’m not saying it was the right vision,” Acosta added. He also said that today’s audiences would likely perceive survivors differently.
“There have been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.
