PinnedUpdated Dec. 19, 2025, 5:34 p.m. ETThe Justice Department released thousands of documents and hundreds of photographs related to investigations of Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, responding to a deadline set by Congress and reviving a scandal that has dogged the second Trump administration.The significance of the disclosure was unknown, given the volume of the records and how much Epstein material has been previously disclosed. And because the Justice Department said that it had withheld some documents, citing ongoing investigations or national security concerns, the release is as likely to reignite the furor over the so-called Epstein files as quell it.An initial review of the files showed numerous photographs of people known to have associated with Mr. Epstein, including his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of Britain and his former wife Sarah Ferguson, and pop stars like Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger. The context of the photographs, the locations where they were taken and their connection to Mr. Epstein was frequently unclear.Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a Fox News interview on Friday morning that the Justice Department would release “several hundred thousand documents” from its investigative files on Mr. Epstein. But he also said the department would hold back an unknown amount of material while its lawyers continue to comb through it.In a letter to members of Congress, Mr. Blanche said that the Justice Department had identified 1,200 names of victims of Mr. Epstein or their relatives, and that its lawyers had redacted or withheld any materials that could reveal their identities.In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Blanche wrote that “the volume of materials to be reviewed” would lead to the release of more documents, and that the Justice Department “will inform Congress when that review and production are complete by the end of this year.”Friday’s release was mandated by an act of Congress in November. Though Republican leaders worked for months to stop the legislation, it passed nearly unanimously in the House and Senate and was then signed by Mr. Trump, who ultimately urged its passage after losing a political battle to prevent it.The White House, fixated on the perils of a never-ending political crisis stoked by its own encouragement of Epstein conspiracy theories, had sought for months to block efforts to release any new information about Mr. Epstein, who had a yearslong friendship with Mr. Trump.Little worked. An overhyped document dump in February produced little new material. An unsigned statement from the Justice Department and F.B.I. in July announced that the government had ended its review of the files and would not release more, only for the agencies to reverse themselves after public outcry and condemnation. And the release of more than 20,000 emails related to Mr. Epstein and subsequent releases of images only served to renew interest in the case, and the clamor for yet more transparency.Here’s what else to know.Document review: A preliminary review by New York Times reporters suggests that much of the Epstein materials derive from three investigations into his interactions with young women and girls: an initial inquiry opened by the police in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005; a subsequent investigation conducted by federal prosecutors in Florida that ended in 2008 with a plea deal for Mr. Epstein; and a final inquiry by prosecutors in Manhattan in 2019 that was never resolved because he died in prison while the case was proceeding.Epstein’s emails: White House officials have acknowledged that Mr. Trump appears in the Epstein files, and his name appeared in a trove of emails released in November. In those messages, Mr. Epstein cast himself as a Trump insider, suggested the president knew about his conduct with underage girls, and discussed leveraging potentially damaging information about Mr. Trump to “take him down.”Epstein’s fortune: Times reporters spent months reporting the fullest portrait to date of how Mr. Epstein used connections and leverage to amass his fortune, revealing how, again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power.Epstein and Trump: Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were longtime friends before a falling-out. Here’s a timeline of what we know about their relationship, and a Times investigation into how the men bonded over the pursuit of women.Dec. 19, 2025, 6:29 p.m. ETAn image of Jeffrey Epstein’s desk with photographs including of Donald Trump in the desk drawer was included in the document release.Credit...Department of JusticePresident 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.Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were close friends for years, The Times has reported, and Mr. Trump’s initial refusal to release federal files related to investigations into Mr. Epstein sparked speculation about whether those files featured Mr. Trump. His allies have previously confirmed that his name appears in the files about Mr. Epstein.The files that The Times initially reviewed on Friday included scattered references to or images of Mr. Trump. Most of the photos were already public, including shots of him and Melania Trump with Mr. Epstein and Mr. Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Written references to Mr. Trump came up in Mr. Epstein’s address book and flight logs, as well as a message book in which Mr. Epstein’s assistants let him know about missed phone calls. Versions of those documents were already public.Mr. Trump’s name also comes up in interviews with Ms. 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 Mr. Epstein’s criminal defense lawyers, said that he had seen Mr. Trump at Mr. Epstein’s home. He didn’t provide specifics.Mr. Trump has repeatedly downplayed his relationship with Mr. Epstein, including by saying that he cut ties with Mr. Epstein in the early 2000s after Mr. Epstein recruited one of his employees from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.The scarce mentions of Mr. Trump are in stark contrast to references to former President Bill Clinton. The Justice Department released dozens of photos of Mr. 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 Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender.Dec. 19, 2025, 6:16 p.m. ETA photograph of former President Bill Clinton was part of the documents released by the Justice Department from its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.Credit...Department of JusticeThe first tranche of documents released by the Justice Department from its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein appeared to focus significantly on material connected to former President Bill Clinton, at a moment when Republicans have fought to shift public attention away from Mr. Epstein’s friendship with President Trump.The dozens of photos released on Friday include one of Mr. Clinton in a hot tub and another showing Mr. Clinton swimming in a pool with Ghislaine Maxwell, who conspired with Mr. Epstein to operate his sex trafficking operation and former girlfriend, along with a second woman. Another shows a woman seated closely with Mr. Clinton on what appears to be an airplane. There are also what appear to be a candid shot of Mr. Clinton speaking with Mr. Epstein and pictures of him with the musician Mick Jagger.The images and documents have been released without context or background information. It is unclear which photographs might have been taken by Mr. Epstein and which might have been sent to or acquired by him, or where many of them were taken. Justice Department officials have not said how they selected the particular tranche of documents that were released on Friday.Mr. Clinton is one of the few people whose faces were not redacted, along with Mr. Epstein himself and Ms. Maxwell. In posts on X after the release, a White House spokeswoman repeatedly pointed out photos of Mr. Clinton and argued that the news media did not want to focus on the images.In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has worked to deflect public scrutiny of his own close friendship with Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, ordering his appointees in to begin an investigation into Mr. Clinton and other prominent Democrats who were associated with him. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are also seeking to force Mr. Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to give in-person depositions in their own investigation. On social media, Mr. Trump has claimed without evidence that Mr. Clinton and other Democrats spent “spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’”But Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, has contradicted those assertions. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Ms. Wiles said that Mr. Trump was not telling the truth in accusing Mr. Clinton of visiting the private island. Ms. Maxwell, in her interview this summer with Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, also undercut Mr. Trump’s efforts to blame Mr. Clinton. In the wide-ranging interview, Ms. Maxwell said Mr. Clinton was her friend, not Mr. Epstein’s.Angel Urena, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton, did not immediately respond to requests for comment but has previously said Mr. Clinton cut ties with Mr. Epstein years before Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor, and that he was unaware of his wrongdoing.None of Mr. Epstein’s victims have made any public allegations of wrongdoing against Mr. Clinton.Mr. Clinton’s ties to Mr. Epstein are relatively well known. The former president took four international trips with Mr. Epstein on the financier’s private jet in 2002 and 2003, including a humanitarian trip to Africa that brought Mr. Epstein his first significant publicity. Roughly 80 photos in one document are marked “Clinton, Africa, London,” and appear to include shots taken during the humanitarian trip, when Mr. Clinton’s entourage included the actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker.Mr. Clinton also flew on Mr. Epstein’s private plane in February 2002, from Miami to Westchester County, N.Y., and in March 2002, from New York City to London, according to flight manifests released by the Justice Department on Friday.But Mr. Clinton has said he did not visit Little St. James, the island that Mr. Epstein owned and where many of his abuses are alleged to have occurred.Mr. Clinton visited Mr. Epstein’s New York apartment once around 2002, according to his representatives, but he has said he never visited Mr. Epstein’s palatial residence in Palm Beach, Fla. or the financier’s ranch in New Mexico.In 1993, after Mr. Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president, Mr. Epstein visited the White House in February, the first of many trips to the Clinton White House. He also became a donor, giving $10,000 to help refurbish the White House.By 1995, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Epstein were friendly enough for Mr. Clinton to write a get-well note to Mr. Epstein’s mother who was sick. “Hang in there,” Mr. Clinton scrawled on a yellow Post-it, which was reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Epstein saved the note.Dec. 19, 2025, 6:04 p.m. ETOne of the redacted files, containing 119 pages and entitled “Grand Jury NY,” is entirely blacked out. The Justice Department went into federal court twice in Manhattan seeking the release of grand jury materials arising from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Even though a judge agreed to the department’s second request, it appears as if the grand jury materials remain shielded from the public.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:54 p.m. ETAlmost two hours after the Justice Department made public thousands of documents from its Jeffrey Epstein files, President Trump has not yet commented on their release. The case has long haunted him politically.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:38 p.m. ETThe files contain a set of phone message notes written years ago for Jeffrey Epstein. One message, dated Nov. 8, 2004, from a caller whose name was redacted, said: “I have a Female for him.” The following January, he got another message with identical wording: “I have a female for him.”Credit...Department of JusticeDec. 19, 2025, 5:35 p.m. ETSenator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, called for more information on the redactions in the files released by the Justice Department today.“Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law,” he said in a statement. “For example, all 119 pages of one document were completely blacked out. We need answers as to why.”The law that required the release of the files allowed the Justice Department to redact some information. The department is required to file a report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees in 15 days that details the legal basis for the redactions that it made.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:34 p.m. ETPresident Trump has appeared in this initial tranche of documents only a handful of times, according to a preliminary New York Times scan of the material. One image, for instance, appears to show an array of photos in which he is posing with women.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:33 p.m. ETA large portion of the investigative files are redacted, including what appear to be case files connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s multiple female victims. At least so far, the unredacted materials have not disclosed any major new revelations.The trove of documents also contained a large number of undated, mostly uncaptioned photographs of Epstein with celebrities, including Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger. There are also several photos of former President Bill Clinton, including one that shows him reclining in a hot tub with a person whose face has been blacked out.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:18 p.m. ETDonald J. Trump with Jeffrey Epstein in New York City in 1997.Credit...Thomas Corcordia/Getty ImagesPresident Trump often generates multiple news cycles per day. White House officials believe that when the news is focused on immigration, crime or the president’s peacemaking efforts abroad, Mr. Trump is winning. As such, if Mr. Trump doesn’t like one news cycle, he can fire off an all-caps Truth Social post and create another.But the Epstein files — which carry with them a constant reminder of the president’s long friendship with a sex offender — have dogged him in a way few other issues have. Nothing Mr. Trump has tried to do to get them out of the news has worked.Mr. Trump has sought to distract from the files, complaining that the public should focus instead on his administration’s successes. He issued threats, ordering Republicans to stop talking about them, and enlisted his closest aides to bully once-compliant lawmakers who joined the effort to get the files released. He even accused one of his biggest supporters of being a “traitor.”But it was only when it became clear that he was going to lose the vote to release the files in the House that he relented, reluctantly embracing the legislation even as he continued to dismiss as nothing more than a “hoax.”Mr. Trump has denied any involvement in or knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. But this spring, how own attorney general, Pam Bondi, told him that his name appeared in them.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:17 p.m. ETA preliminary review by New York Times reporters of the thousands of Jeffrey Epstein documents released this afternoon by the Justice Department suggests that much of the materials derive from three investigations into his interactions with young women: an initial inquiry opened by the police in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005; a subsequent investigation conducted by federal prosecutors in Florida that ended in 2008 with a plea deal for Epstein; and a final inquiry by prosecutors in Manhattan in 2019 that was never resolved because he died in prison while the case was proceeding.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:11 p.m. ETSenator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before Congress and explain why the Justice Department was not prepared to release all of its files by Friday, the deadline set by a law passed by Congress in November and signed by President Trump.“They promised to release the files. They haven’t done it,” Schiff, a member of the Judiciary committee, said in a television interview. “They could have been completely ready for this moment, and they’re not, or they’re just simply willfully withholding the materials.”Dec. 19, 2025, 5:10 p.m. ETJeffrey Epstein and his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell were charged by authorities for abuse.Credit...Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesJeffrey Epstein paid teenage girls money to perform sex acts and used his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell to recruit and manage his stable of victims.An F.B.I. and Florida police investigation led to his indictment in 2006. Two years later he pleaded guilty in state court to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor, in a deal that avoided federal charges that could have meant far more serious prison time.A series of articles years later by The Miami Herald revealed how the criminal justice system had catered to Mr. Epstein, despite the reams of evidence against him.In 2019, he was arrested by federal agents in the New York area, accused of trafficking dozens of girls, some as young as 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. The authorities say he hanged himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial.Ms. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Mr. Epstein for nearly a decade to aid his abuse.The very nature of the charges against Mr. Epstein contributed to some of the confusion about what he did. By calling him a sex trafficker, federal officials left many with the impression that Mr. Epstein was selling children to others to be abused, but that was never part of the criminal charges against him.Dec. 19, 2025, 5:02 p.m. ETIn his letter to members of Congress, which was viewed by The New York Times, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said that the material released on Friday included portions of the F.B.I.’s investigative files for its 2006 and 2018 cases against Epstein; its 2019 criminal case against Ghislaine Maxwell; grand-jury materials from all three cases; and material from the F.B.I.’s investigation into Epstein’s death in federal prison in 2019.Blanche said that the department had more than 200 attorneys reviewing material to determine what the Justice Department could release to the public.Dec. 19, 2025, 4:51 p.m. ETRepresentative Ro Khanna, who helped lead the campaign in Congress to force Friday’s release of files, said that if Department of Justice officials do not adequately demonstrate that they are complying with the law requiring the release of the documents, Congress could hold impeachment hearings for Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, “if it comes to that.”Dec. 19, 2025, 4:43 p.m. ETThe trove of released materials contain hundreds of photographs collected during the Epstein investigations. A team of New York Times reporters is currently going through them. Former President Bill Clinton appears in many of them but it is difficult to assess the context. Other photographs show the pop star Michael Jackson.There is also a large trove of investigative files arising from various inquiries into Epstein. Some of those files appear to be related to interviews with some of Epstein’s victims, but a large portion of the files are redacted, hiding the substantive information contained in them.Credit...Department of JusticeDec. 19, 2025, 4:39 p.m. ETIn a letter to members of Congress, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said that the Justice Department had identified 1,200 names of victims of Jeffrey Epstein or relatives of victims, and that it had redacted or withheld any materials that could reveal their identities.In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Blanche also wrote that “the volume of materials to be reviewed” would lead to the release of more documents. He suggested that the process would be done before the year ends, writing that the Justice Department “will inform Congress when that review and production are complete by the end of this year.”Dec. 19, 2025, 4:38 p.m. ETRepresentitive Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, said that he believes that the Department of Justice is trying to comply with the law requiring the release of the trove of documents. But he urged Department of Justice officials to explain why they were not able to release all of the documents, and to explain “each redaction.”Khanna, who spoke to reporters on a video call as the documents were released, said that “all options are on the table,” as members of Congress and survivors’ lawyers comb through the release. “I don’t know whether there’s new information or whether it’s stonewalling,” he said.Dec. 19, 2025, 4:23 p.m. ETOn first review, many of the files appear heavily redacted. The law mandating the release of the files, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, required the Justice Department to redact information that identified potential victims of Epstein or contained child sexual-abuse material.It also allowed the Justice Department to withhold material involved in continuing investigations. Federal officials will legally need to submit a report to Congress providing details on this material, but they will not have to do so for at least two weeks.Credit...Department of JusticeDec. 19, 2025, 4:22 p.m. ETThe Justice Department’s website also contains a search function, though it is unclear if it’s working properly. A query for “Epstein” returned no results.It will take time to go through these files, and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, suggested that the documents here were not the full release, making it difficult to know what material has been withheld.Dec. 19, 2025, 4:22 p.m. ETCredit...Justice.govThe Justice Department on Friday released a set of publicly downloadable files in response to a law passed by Congress. You can see and search them at this link on the department’s website.On a site that it calls an “Epstein Library,” the files are sorted into multiple categories:Court records from criminal and civil cases;Disclosures the Justice Department said it made to comply with a law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in November;Material it has released in response to public records requests;A batch of files it released in September to the House Oversight Committee, much of which contained material that was already public.The Justice Department warned that some of the library’s contents include descriptions of sexual assault, advising that portions of the database may not be appropriate for all readers.Dec. 19, 2025, 4:18 p.m. ETA group of Times reporters and editors with deep experience covering the Jeffrey Epstein case are examining the documents released by the Justice Department on Friday. But they will proceed with typical care to ensure accuracy and fairness.Several of these staff members have covered the case since 2019. Others report on the Justice Department, Congress, the White House and the federal court system.The public release was mandated by Congress in November. Though Republicans worked to stop the legislation, it passed nearly unanimously in the House and Senate and was signed by President Trump. That signature started a 30-day clock to release the files Friday.The legislation contains significant exceptions, allowing the Justice Department to keep many documents confidential. The department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, said Friday that “several hundred thousand” pages of materials would not be released by the deadline set by Congress.Here’s more coverage:Dec. 19, 2025, 4:13 p.m. ETOn a site that it calls a “full Epstein library,” the Justice Department has sorted files into multiple categories: court records from criminal and civil cases; disclosures it said it made because of the law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in November; material it has released in response to public records requests; and the batch of files it released in September to the House Oversight Committee, much of which contained material that was already public.Dec. 19, 2025, 4:10 p.m. ETThe Justice Department has just released a set of publicly downloadable files in response to a law passed by Congress.Dec. 19, 2025, 3:17 p.m. ETJeffrey Epstein posed for a photo when Cosmopolitan magazine named him its “bachelor of the month” in July 1980.Credit...Stephen OgilvyMore than six years after his death, Jeffrey Epstein has become an American obsession. The public fascination only intensified after President Trump initially refused this year to release federal investigative records about the infamous sex offender — before reversing himself under pressure.Much of the last quarter-century of Mr. Epstein’s life has been carefully examined — including how, in the 1990s and early 2000s, he amassed hundreds of millions of dollars through his work for the retail tycoon Leslie Wexner. Yet the public understanding of Epstein’s early ascent has been shrouded in mystery. How did a college dropout from Brooklyn claw his way to the pinnacle of American finance, politics and society? How did Epstein go from nearly being fired at the investment firm Bear Stearns to managing the wealth of billionaires? What were the origins of his own fortune?A team of New York Times reporters spent months trying to pierce this veil. They interviewed dozens of Epstein’s former colleagues, friends, girlfriends, business partners and financial victims; sifted through private archives and tracked down previously unpublished recordings and transcripts of old interviews; perused diaries, letters, emails and photo albums, including some that belonged to Epstein; and reviewed thousands of pages of court and government records.What emerged is the fullest portrait to date of one of the world’s most notorious criminals — a narrative that differs in important respects from previously published accounts of Epstein’s rise, and revealed how, again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power.Dec. 19, 2025, 12:13 p.m. ETTodd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said the Justice Department would not release all of its files relating to Jeffrey Epstein by Friday, the congressionally mandated deadline.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York TimesThe Justice Department will not release all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison, by its congressionally mandated deadline of Friday, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said.Appearing on Fox News, Mr. Blanche, the department’s No. 2 official, said that while the Trump administration would release “several hundred thousand documents” related to Mr. Epstein by Friday, officials would make public “several hundred thousand more” in the coming weeks.“There’s a lot of eyes looking at these, and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing,” Mr. Blanche added, “that we are protecting every single victim.”The delay meant that the administration would apparently violate a law signed by President Trump in November ordering the complete release of all unclassified materials about Mr. Epstein in the Justice Department’s possession within 30 days, with limited exceptions.Under the law, the administration may withhold records that identify victims, that include images of child sexual abuse, or are otherwise classified. The legislation also allows the Justice Department to withhold records if they would “jeopardize an active federal investigation.”Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan to investigate ties between Mr. Epstein and prominent Democrats shortly after Mr. Trump directed her to do so last month.Mr. Blanche, in his interview, said he was aware of the 30-day window, adding that department officials had been “working tirelessly” to review and make public “every single document that we have within the Department of Justice.”Several members of Congress quickly moved to criticize Mr. Blanche, saying that the department’s partial release of the Epstein files meant it failed to meet its legal obligations.Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who broke from Mr. Trump to push for the release of the files, voiced his discontent in a social media post, sharing a photo of the law in which he highlighted the language requiring the department to release “all” of its files by Friday.“Time’s up. Release the files,” Mr. Massie wrote in a follow-up post.Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, accused the White House of breaking the law and assailed Mr. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi as being “hellbent on hiding the truth.”Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and one of the lawmakers who introduced the Epstein files law, criticized the Trump administration as well, saying it had ample time to prepare for the full release. But Mr. Khanna said that if the Justice Department clarified its timeline to release the rest of the material, it would be “a positive step.”