6 Takeaways From the First Batch of the Epstein Files

Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, and President Trump’s name was rarely mentioned. The White House also sought to make political hay of the release of photos of Bill Clinton.

The Justice Department, rushing under pressure from Congress to comply with a law signed by President Trump last month, released more than 13,000 files on Friday arising from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while under indictment on federal charges of sex trafficking minors.

The release of the files had been long awaited by those who believed the materials could shed light on Mr. Epstein’s activities and his ties to prominent and powerful men. The Justice Department said more documents would be released in the coming weeks.

Here are six takeaways about what the first batch of files divulged — and did not.

The documents produced no major revelations.

The released files, which included thousands of photographs and investigative documents, added little to the public’s understanding of Mr. Epstein’s conduct. The materials also did not provide much additional insight into Mr. Epstein’s connections to wealthy and powerful businessmen and politicians who associated with him.

The materials were mostly drawn from investigations into Mr. Epstein reaching back to an initial inquiry opened by the police in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005. There were also files from a subsequent investigation conducted by federal prosecutors in Florida that ended in 2008 with a plea deal, and from a final inquiry by prosecutors in Manhattan in 2019 that was never resolved, after Mr. Epstein died in jail while the case was still proceeding.

Many of the documents, which included phone records, travel logs and what appeared to be case files with interviews featuring some of Mr. Epstein’s female victims, were heavily redacted. One of the redacted files, amounting to 119 pages and entitled “Grand Jury NY,” was entirely blacked out.

The reaction from the right was muted.

Mr. Trump’s right-wing supporters have traditionally been among the most ardent advocates for releasing the Epstein files. They have long been convinced that the documents would contain evidence that a cabal of prominent men — in their telling, mostly Democrats — had joined Mr. Epstein in abusing young women and covering up their crimes.

But those same supporters were largely silent as the files came out, perhaps in response to the dearth of new incriminating information. Mr. Trump on Friday conspicuously refrained from commenting on the release of the materials, even though the case has haunted him politically.

Whether those who have woven elaborate conspiracy theories around Mr. Epstein and the government’s handling of the investigation will be satisfied by anything the Justice Department releases seems open to question.

Bill Clinton was featured prominently.

Whether by design or chance, many of the photographs included in the files were of one of Mr. Trump’s most prominent political adversaries: former President Bill Clinton.

One image depicted Mr. Clinton reclining in a hot tub with a person whose face had been blacked out. In many of the photos of Mr. Clinton, he was only person whose identity could be discerned. The files provided little or no context for the pictures.

The photos of Mr. Clinton were made public after Mr. Trump ordered the Justice Department last month to investigate any ties between the former president and other Democrats to Mr. Epstein. Attorney General Pam Bondi immediately followed up on Mr. Trump’s instructions by directing Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, to undertake the case.

The White House on Friday sought to make political hay of the release of the photos of Mr. Clinton.

“We did see something,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, wrote in a social media post on Friday above the image of Mr. Clinton in the hot tub. “Just not what you wanted.”

A spokesman for Mr. Clinton suggested that the White House had engineered the release of the photos to distract from Mr. Trump’s own relationship with Mr. Epstein.

“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” said the spokesman, Angel Urena. “This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever.”

There were few mentions of Trump.

For months, Mr. Trump actively fought the release of the Epstein files, calling them a Democratic “hoax” and threatening to punish members of Congress who voted to allow them to be made public.

But his name was mentioned rarely in the materials released on Friday. It remained unclear, though, whether he would figure more in the release of files still to come and whether the Justice Department selected the initial batch with politics in mind.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were close friends for years, and the president’s earlier reluctance to release the files prompted speculation about whether they prominently featured him.

Most of the photos of Mr. Trump released on Friday had already been made public, including images of him and his wife, Melania, with Mr. Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a federal prison sentence for helping Mr. Epstein traffic underage women.

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.

Epstein attracted the rich and famous.

The files showed how Mr. Epstein attracted a remarkably broad spectrum of famous people into his orbit, from the rock stars Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger to the legendary newsman Walter Cronkite.

While the materials bore no suggestion that these celebrities had any knowledge of or involvement in Mr. Epstein’s illicit activities, they stood nonetheless as a remarkable testament to his ability to attract attention from the rich and famous.

Still, the documents and photos were largely silent about a roster of other well-known people who have long been associated with Mr. Epstein and his finances, including businessmen like Leon Black and Leslie H. Wexner.

There’s more to come, eventually.

In an interview on Fox News on Friday morning, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, acknowledged that the Justice Department was not finished releasing files. Thousands more would be made public “in the coming weeks,” he said.

The delay meant that the Trump administration would apparently violate the law signed by the president 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 can withhold records that identify victims or include images of child sexual abuse. The legislation also allows the Justice Department to withhold records if they are otherwise classified or would “jeopardize an active federal investigation.”

Several members of Congress quickly moved to criticize Mr. Blanche, saying that the department’s partial release of the Epstein files meant it had 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.

Nicholas Confessore and Steve Eder contributed reporting.

Related Content