Frank Okon, with agency reports

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday released hundreds of thousands of pages of documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a disclosure that made scant reference to President Donald Trump but prominently featured former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

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The release followed a law passed overwhelmingly by Congress in November requiring the disclosure of all Epstein-related files. The move came despite months of resistance from the Trump administration, which had previously sought to keep the records sealed. Trump has long promoted conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein, but the issue has become a political liability since his return to the White House in January.

It was not immediately clear how much new information the documents contained. Many Epstein-related materials have already entered the public domain since Epstein’s death in a New York jail in 2019, which was ruled a suicide. Reuters said it was still reviewing the newly released files.

The documents include evidence from multiple law enforcement investigations, as well as photographs of Clinton alongside Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Clinton has previously acknowledged socializing with Epstein but said he was unaware of any criminal conduct. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

By contrast, the files appeared to contain few, if any, references to Trump, despite his well-documented friendship with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. The absence was notable given that Trump’s name has appeared in prior Epstein disclosures, including flight manifests released earlier this year and an Epstein contact book made public during Maxwell’s trial.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said additional documents would be released in the coming weeks, leaving open the possibility that Trump could feature more prominently in future disclosures.

Last month, Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate Clinton’s ties to Epstein, a move critics described as an effort to redirect scrutiny away from Trump’s own past relationship with the financier. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he was unaware of Epstein’s sex trafficking activities.

The Justice Department said it made “all reasonable efforts” to redact victims’ personal information but warned that some identifying details could still appear. Blanche told Congress that more than 1,200 victims or their relatives are named in the files and that further review would take about two weeks.

The White House said the release demonstrated its commitment to transparency and justice for Epstein’s victims, while blaming previous Democratic administrations for failing to act. Democrats countered that the administration released only a fraction of the records and did so only because Congress forced its hand.

“This set of heavily redacted documents is just a small part of the full body of evidence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Public reaction has been mixed, including criticism from Trump supporters who accuse the administration of concealing Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscuring details surrounding his death. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that only 44% of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein issue, compared with his overall 82% approval rating among the group.

The controversy has weighed on Trump’s political standing ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be contested.