What’s in the Epstein Files? Documents Mention Trump, Clinton, Celebrities

The Washington Post

12:29 JST, December 21, 2025

The Justice Department released a slice of its massive files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, a much-anticipated disclosure that revealed new details about the government’s investigation into Epstein’s sex crimes and opulent life.

The more than 100,000 files released in random batches and arbitrarily assembled include some documents related to President Donald Trump, although mentions of the president were expected among files that Congress had required the government to release by Friday. The government said it will continue to release documents in the coming weeks, angering lawmakers who have demanded a speedier process and fewer deletions of photos, videos and court records.

The government has posted new files since the initial dump Friday afternoon, but more than 20 files were deleted from the Justice Department’s website after the first drop.

Late Friday night, the Justice Department made available a new set of records that includes grand jury testimony and an interview with Alex Acosta, who, as U.S. attorney in Miami, oversaw the lenient plea deal Epstein received in 2008. The testimony gives key details about the extent of Epstein’s crimes and reveals how various law enforcement agencies uncovered new victims over the years.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the department is working “tirelessly” to provide documents while protecting victims’ identities.

“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected,” Blanche told Fox News.

Here are six takeaways from what has been released so far:

Trump and Clinton are mentioned in several records

A major question looming over the Epstein case has been whether Trump had any awareness of Epstein’s crimes. The president has said he did not know about criminal behavior, and his spokesperson has said he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago Club for being “a creep.”

A flight log shows Trump and his son Eric traveling with Epstein. There is a photo of a check signed with Trump’s name, which appears similar to a check in a previously released book for Epstein’s birthday. Trump’s “The Art of the Comeback” is on Epstein’s bookshelf in another picture.

Trump’s name appears in victim interviews where investigators and attorneys bring up his friendship with Epstein, which ended in the mid-2000s, but no victim in the files accuses Trump of wrongdoing. Much of the material released has been previously disclosed, including a 2010 deposition in which Epstein declined to answer a question, citing his Fifth Amendment rights, when asked about socializing with Trump in the presence of underage girls.

Former president Bill Clinton is in several photos, including one where he is swimming with Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and another woman whose face is redacted.

Clinton’s spokesman Angel Ureña suggested that the White House had engineered the release of the photos to shield Trump.

“They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton,” he said. “Never has, never will be.”

Later-released documents offer key insight into Epstein investigation

Among the files anticipated in the release were grand jury transcripts. A later document drop included several key interviews with investigators who had interviewed victims, reviewed Epstein’s personal documents and shared details with the jurors about Epstein’s life.

The investigators told jurors that many victims had been recruited by others and paid in $100 bills for sexual massages with Epstein. The girls were as young as 14, jurors were told. Law enforcement found that a number of girls shared similar disturbing accounts of going to Epstein’s Palm Beach home, either brought by other girls or on their own. An FBI agent told the grand jury that they were “going back and looking through school yearbooks and attempting to try to locate friends of friends.”

The documents also include a long interview with Acosta and the Office of Professional Responsibility about how his office reached a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, as well as a judge’s finding that the government didn’t provide reasonable notice to victims about the settlement Epstein had reached.

“How we got to the two years, I can’t tell you, because I can give you my general impression,” Acosta said in the lengthy interview. “Ultimately, all the cases in the U.S. Attorney’s Office were under me. Ultimately, I saw what we’ll call that, you know, three-pronged resolution, two years – you know, registration and restitution, and ultimately that was approved on my authority.”

One of the documents included a reference to Trump: a government presentation with pages of Epstein’s phone messages that investigators had flagged, such as one that read, “I have a female for him.” On one of the pages, it was noted Trump had called Epstein.

Several files heavily redacted, while some later deleted

Some records released on Friday were deleted from the Justice Department website without explanation, including one photo of a drawer that contained piles of printed images. That drawer appeared to include a photo of Epstein and Trump together, though Epstein’s face was obscured.

House Oversight Democrats called out Attorney General Pam Bondi for the files’ disappearance. By 7 p.m., at least seven of them – including the photo of the drawer – appeared to be again visible on one section of the website and unchanged. The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Many other documents, including a 119-page grand jury file, are entirely blacked out.

There are also pages and pages of scans of CDs, blank file covers and other records without much information about what they contain. Many of the redactions clearly cover personal information from victims’ statements, investigative records and Epstein’s personal documents.

Under the law, the administration is authorized to redact information to protect victims, withhold any images of child abuse and block the release of documents that are classified or would jeopardize current federal law enforcement efforts.

The redactions have been widely criticized by Democrats and those seeking more disclosures.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said in a statement that “this set of heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence.”

Reps. Ro Khanna (D-California) and Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who had led the effort in Congress to demand the document release, demanded full disclosure of the records.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi is withholding specific documents that the law required her to release by today,” Massie said on Friday.

Epstein had many celebrities in his orbit

Over the years, Epstein’s associations with major figures in business, politics and Hollywood have been a big part of the narrative about him.

Friday’s release includes photos showing Epstein and Maxwell posing with celebrities, including a sunglasses-wearing Michael Jackson, who died in 2009.

These records didn’t implicate the celebrities in any wrongdoing. They vividly illustrate Epstein’s social access to high-profile figures. Many of Epstein’s star-studded associations were previously known.

Last week, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a batch of photos from a separate group of documents provided by Epstein’s estate. Those included photos of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, filmmaker Woody Allen and conservative media figure Stephen K. Bannon.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. In 2019, he was arrested by federal authorities and charged with sex trafficking. He died in federal custody that year, before his case could go to trial. His death was ruled a suicide. Blanche said Friday in a letter to Congress that the Justice Department had compiled the names of 1,200 people who were either victims of Epstein or relatives of victims.

Years of victims’ allegations were documented

The documents include graphic details about sexual assault and trafficking allegations against Epstein spanning decades.

Epstein was sentenced in 2008 for Florida state charges of solicitation of prostitution after multiple underage girls, many of them high school students, told police that he had hired them to give sexual massages.

One of the earliest of these records is a complaint from 1996 against Epstein related to child pornography.

While the name of the complainant is redacted in the document, Maria Farmer’s attorney said Farmer told law enforcement that Epstein had stolen photos of her underage sisters, sold them and threatened “to burn her house down” if she told anyone.

“This is a moment for which I have waited three decades, over half of my life,” Farmer said in a statement provided through her attorney.

“When I was ignored and hung up on by the FBI in 1996, my world turned upside down, and I felt frozen in time. I faced death threats, ridicule, and mockery by some of the most powerful people on earth,” she added.

There is more to come

Blanche told Fox News that he expects “several hundred thousand more” records to be released by the government “in the next couple of weeks.”

The Justice Department has not said what types of records are remaining and when they will be released.

Khanna told NPR that he found the release unsatisfactory and expects the agency to release the draft indictment in Epstein’s first case, more witness interviews and other records.

“Overall, I’ve been pretty disappointed with the release,” he said.