<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US Justice Department </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/justice-department-begins-releasing-longawaited-files-tied-to-epstein-sex-trafficking-investigation/e4c60703-d817-48e6-a944-77aca0cf9226" rel="" target="" title="released thousands of files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein"><span>released thousands of files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein</span></a><span>, but the incomplete document dump did not break significant ground about the long-running criminal investigations of the financier or his ties to wealthy and powerful individuals.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The files included a small number of photos of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/new-photos-epstein-estate-trump-bannon-bill-clinton/036bce34-b6ce-45db-8919-ef561400d2f5" rel="" target="" title="President Donald Trump"><span>President Donald Trump</span></a><span>, sparing the White House for now from having to confront fresh revelations about an Epstein relationship that the administration for months has tried in vain to push past.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It did, however, feature a series of never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton from a trip that the former president appears to have taken with </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/jeffrey-epstein-files-donald-trump-administration-redacted-documents-latest-news/5d9ea1fd-527e-41f0-b545-567efffba191" rel="" target="" title="Epstein "><span>Epstein </span></a><span>decades ago.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/justice-department-begins-releasing-longawaited-files-tied-to-epstein-sex-trafficking-investigation/e4c60703-d817-48e6-a944-77aca0cf9226" rel="" target="" title="Clinton looms large in Epstein files, but no sign of Trump"><strong><span>Clinton looms large in Epstein files, but no sign of Trump</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Reaction to the disclosures broke along mostly partisan lines. Democrats and some Republicans seized on the limited release to accuse the Justice Department of failing to meet a congressionally set deadline to produce the Epstein files. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>White House officials on social media gleefully promoted a photo of Clinton in a hot tub with a person with a blacked-out face. The Trump administration touted the release as a show of its commitment to transparency, ignoring the fact that the Justice Department just months ago said no more files would be released. Congress then passed a law mandating it.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The records, consisting largely of pictures but also including call logs, grand jury testimony, interview transcripts and other documents, arrived amid extraordinary anticipation that they might offer the most detailed look yet at nearly two decades worth of government scrutiny of Epstein's sexual abuse of young women and underage girls. Their release has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any of Epstein's associates knew about or participated in the abuse. Epstein's accusers have also sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/jeffrey-epstein-latest-updates-donald-trump-justice-department-files-live-updates-bill-clinton/6d739dc2-efef-4281-8283-598a7a61f954" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Yet the release, replete with redactions, seemed unlikely to satisfy the public clamour for information given how many investigative records the department indicated it was continuing to withhold.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a letter to Congress obtained by The Associated Press, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that the Justice Department was continuing to review files in its possession and expected additional disclosures by the end of the year. The department also said it was withholding some documents under exemptions allowed in the law and was redacting names of victims. The department expects to complete its document production by the end of the year, Blanche said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on November 19 signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into his death in a federal jail. The law's passage, which set a deadline for Friday, was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Limited details about Trump</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The released files include a small number of photos of Trump, which appear to have been known for decades, including two in which Trump and Epstein are posing with now-first lady Melania Trump in February 2000 at an event at Trump's Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, before the pair's friendship ruptured.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling-out. Neither he nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone's name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month that she had ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein's ties to Trump's political foes, including Clinton. Bondi acted after Trump pressed for such an inquiry, though he did not explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In July, Trump dismissed some of his own supporters as "weaklings" for falling for "the Jeffrey Epstein hoax." But both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson failed to prevent the legislation from coming to a vote.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump did a U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable. He insisted that the Epstein matter had become a distraction to the Republican agenda and that releasing the records was the best way to move on.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After nearly two decades of court action and prying by reporters, a voluminous number of records related to Epstein had already been public well before Friday, including flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury records, courtroom testimony and transcripts of depositions of his accusers, his staffers and others.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span></span><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/new-photos-epstein-estate-trump-bannon-bill-clinton/036bce34-b6ce-45db-8919-ef561400d2f5" target="" title="New Epstein photos 'no big deal', says Trump"><strong><span>New Epstein photos 'no big deal', says Trump</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>New photos of Clinton</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Senior Trump White House aides took to X to promote photos in the Epstein files that show Clinton with women whose faces are redacted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, wrote "Oh my!" and added a shocked face emoji in response to a photo of Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face was redacted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn't about Bill Clinton," Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said in a statement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There are two types of people here," he said. "The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships after that. We're in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-transgender-gender-affirming-car-banned/9e1f7ccb-e24b-49d0-8b3f-d6cd4ea71ae3" target="" title="Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children"><strong><span>Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>The Epstein investigations</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. The FBI joined the investigation, and authorities gathered testimony from multiple underage girls who said they had been hired to give Epstein sexual massages.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ultimately, though, prosecutors gave Epstein a deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges involving someone under age 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Epstein's accusers then spent years in civil litigation trying to get that plea deal set aside. One of those women, Virginia Giuffre, accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters, starting at age 17, with numerous other men, including billionaires, famous academics, US politicians and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain's Prince Andrew. Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having sex with Giuffre, but King Charles III stripped him of his royal titles this year after Giuffre's memoir was published after she died.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Prosecutors never brought charges in connection with Giuffre's claims, but her account fuelled conspiracy theories about supposed government plots to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia in April at age 41.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail a month after his arrest. Prosecutors then charged Epstein's longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed over the summer by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Her lawyers argued that she never should have been tried or convicted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Justice Department in July said it had not found any information that could support prosecuting anyone else.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-calls-reporter-piggy-after-jeffrey-epstein-question/d53a7a53-c344-4560-bfff-01de835f38cf" target="_blank"><strong><span>Trump hurls outrageous slur at female reporter</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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