Washington DC [US], December 20 : US President Donald Trump's name is rarely mentioned in the batch of Jeffrey Epstein files that his Justice Department released on Friday, based on a preliminary New York Times scan of thousands of documents and hundreds of photographs.
Trump and Financier Jeffrey Epstein were close friends for years, The Times has reported, and Trump's initial refusal to release federal files related to investigations into Epstein sparked speculation about whether those files featured Trump. His allies have previously confirmed that his name appears in the files about Epstein.
The files that The Times initially reviewed on Friday were heavily redacted. Those that were visible included scattered references to or images of Trump. Most of the photos were already public, including shots of him and Melania Trump with Epstein and Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Written references to Trump came up in Epstein's address book and flight logs, as well as a message book in which Epstein's assistants let him know about missed phone calls. Versions of those documents were already public.
Trump's name also comes up in interviews with Maxwell, transcripts that the Justice Department had previously made public and rereleased on Friday.
In a 2016 deposition, Alan Dershowitz, who served as one of Epstein's criminal defense lawyers, said that he had seen Trump at Epstein's home. He didn't provide specifics.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Epstein, including by saying that he cut ties with Epstein in the early 2000s after Epstein recruited one of his employees from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The scarce mentions of Trump are in stark contrast to references to former President Bill Clinton. The Justice Department released dozens of photos of Clinton in various settings, including one of him in a hot tub.
Todd Blanche, a top Justice Department official, said on Friday that the administration would continue to release a large volume of Epstein documents in the weeks ahead after those files had been reviewed to redact references to possible victims of Epstein, a convicted sex offender, as reported by New York Times.