WASHINGTON, December 20 (ANI): US President Donald Trump’s name is rarely mentioned in the batch of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Justice Department on Friday, according to a preliminary review by The New York Times of thousands of documents and hundreds of photographs.
Trump and financier Jeffrey Epstein were close friends for years, The New York Times has reported, and Trump’s initial refusal to release federal files related to investigations into Epstein had fueled speculation over whether those records prominently featured him. Trump’s allies have previously acknowledged that his name does appear in the files.
The documents initially reviewed by The Times were heavily redacted. Those portions that were visible contained only scattered references to or images of Trump. Most of the photographs were already public, including images of Trump and Melania Trump with Epstein and Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Written references to Trump appeared in Epstein’s address book and flight logs, as well as in a message book in which Epstein’s assistants recorded missed phone calls. Versions of those documents had already been released publicly in the past.
Trump’s name also surfaced in interviews with Maxwell, transcripts of which had previously been made public by the Justice Department and were rereleased on Friday.
In a 2016 deposition, Alan Dershowitz, one of Epstein’s criminal defense lawyers, said he had seen Trump at Epstein’s home, though he did not provide specific details.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Epstein, stating that he severed ties with him in the early 2000s after Epstein recruited one of Trump’s employees from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The limited references to Trump stand in contrast to mentions of former President Bill Clinton. The Justice Department released dozens of photographs of Clinton in various settings, including one image showing him in a hot tub.
Todd Blanche, a senior Justice Department official, said on Friday that the administration would continue releasing a large volume of Epstein-related documents in the coming weeks after further review to redact references to possible victims of Epstein, a convicted sex offender, according to The New York Times.
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