Documents in the rolling release of the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein have yet to show evidence of wrongdoing on the part of famous, powerful men, against the expectations of many of those who pushed for the files’ release.
The DOJ said the files, which included a trove of photographs and court records, would not be fully released on Friday, despite a law mandating doing so, due to the vetting process required to protect Epstein’s victims.
Democratic lawmakers pushed back on the partial nature of the release, which included minimal references to President Donald Trump. Critics of Trump have speculated about the degree to which the president, who had a friendship with Epstein until they had a falling out around 2004, appears in the Epstein files, while Trump has accused several well-known Democrats of having ties to the disgraced financier.
Democrat California Rep. Ro Khanna, a co-author of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, posted a video on X explaining why the DOJ release “does not comply” with the law.
“Our law requires them to explain redactions. There is not a single explanation,” Khanna said.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview with ABC News on Friday, said there has been “no effort” to redact Trump’s name from the release and that every document that mentions Trump will be released in the coming weeks, “assuming it’s consistent with the law.”
First complaint to FBI was made years before probe
Among the new pieces of information released Friday was a complaint to the FBI about Epstein that was filed years before he was first investigated for child sex abuse.
The document appears to be first known report to federal law enforcement that Epstein was involved in child sexual exploitation: a September 1996 complaint filed with the FBI’s Miami office accusing Epstein of participating in “child pornography,” more than eight years before the first law enforcement investigation into Epstein was launched.
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, December 19, 2025.
U.S. Justice Department
The complainant, Maria Farmer, said that she was a professional artist and took pictures of her younger sisters, age 12 and 16, for personal use, and alleged that Epstein stole the photos and negatives, and that he may have “sold the photos to potential buyers.”
The complaint says Epstein also requested that she “take photos of young girls at swimming pools” and that Epstein threatened her and said he would “burn her house down” if she told anyone about the photos.
Farmer, whose name was redacted from the documents, confirmed to ABC News Friday that she was the complainant. In an interview in 2019, Farmer told ABC News that she had gone to the FBI in 1996 after first reporting Epstein’s behavior to police in New York. Earlier this year, Farmer filed a complaint against the federal government alleging that the FBI had failed to follow up on her complaint, with “wide-ranging consequences.” Until Friday, she had never seen the 2006 report that was released by the DOJ.
Speaking to ABC News by phone following the materials’ release, she said, “I’m just really grateful. I’m finally able to be vindicated. I feel redeemed.”
“And I’m slightly shocked that they’ve released anything. I didn’t expect it,” Farmer said.
Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented over 200 alleged victims of Epstein in civil litigation, had harsh words for the government’s first disclosure from the Epstein files, contending that documents critical to understanding the government’s handling of Epstein investigations were not yet produced.
“Where is Marie Villafaña’s prosecution memo and draft indictment?” Edwards said in a message to ABC News late Friday. Villafaña — the federal prosecutor who led the investigation of Epstein for the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami — had prepared an 83-page memo and a 60-count draft indictment of Epstein in May of 2007, but it was never filed and never made public because her superiors opted to negotiate a deal with Epstein rather than pursue the indictment. Those documents prepared by Villafaña — which could shed light on the government’s decisions to forgo prosecution — was not found in Friday’ disclosure by the DOJ, according to a review of the files by ABC News.
“There’s no excuse that it has not been released,” Edwards said.
Edwards also said that when he saw that Farmer’s 1996 FBI complaint was included in the disclosure, he was angered — because so many years had gone by while Farmer, her attorneys and journalists relentlessly pursued the documentation to prove she had reported Epstein all those years ago.
“Every single person who has known about Maria Farmer’s complaint and pretended like it did not exist or refused to provide it in response to FOIA requests, or made it seem like she was mistaken or had never reported it, should be investigated and punished. And, honestly, Maria should be compensated for the way the government has behaved toward her for this many years. The fact that she made that report does not even show up in the [Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility] report at all,” Edwards said, referring to a 2020 internal DOJ investigation of the government’s handling of Epstein investigations.
“It is mind blowing that this many changing-of-the-guard government actors would conceal a single document as powerful as Maria’s complaint of child pornography against Epstein,” Edwards said.
Clinton camp pushes back
The initial release of the files contained numerous photos of Epstein traveling with Bill Clinton, including pictures of Clinton lounging in a jacuzzi and one of him swimming with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The images were released without any context or background information and sparked a backlash from Clinton’s camp.
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday only to protect Bill Clinton,” Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Urena said Friday. “They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton.”
“Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats,” the spokesperson said.
Flight logs from Epstein’s private jets made public during civil litigation against Epstein showed that Clinton and his entourage had taken four international sojourns in 2002 and 2003 on Epstein’s Boeing 727 to locations including Bangkok, Brunei, Rwanda, Russia, China and elsewhere.
Former President Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein appear in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, December 19, 2025.
U.S. Justice Department
Maxwell, who’s currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming the underage girls whom Epstein sexually abused, was listed as a passenger on each of those trips, identified in the flight logs by the initials “GM.”
The total number of flight “legs” that included Clinton is 26, according to the logs, though many of those legs were parts of the same international trips. Clinton’s last known trip on Epstein’s plane was in November 2003, according to the logs. The first reports that Epstein was under investigation in Florida for alleged sexual exploitation of minors surfaced in 2005.
“President Clinton knows nothing of about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to,” Urena said in an earlier statement.
Other new photos and redacted material released
Friday’s release includes thousands of newly released photos, some of which are graphic and heavily redacted with black boxes over faces and body parts. Notations on some redacted images indicate that they were not scanned due to their being child sexual abuse material.
The release also appears to contain images from Epstein’s 50th birthday party in January 2003, many of which contain images of other people who are obscured by black boxes.
Hundreds of photos taken during what appears to be a 2019 FBI search of Epstein’s palatial townhouse in New York City show lavishly-appointed living quarters — complete with chandeliers, multiple bedrooms, a home gym and a taxidermy tiger — and a room where the central piece of furniture appears to be a massage table.
Images depicting the exterior of the home show the metal initials “J E” mounted on the stone doorway. The outside wooden door has been damaged.
On the walls of the massage table room are photos and paintings of nude women; on the shelves are bottles of lotion, Astroglide and other lubricant. A small side table holds a corded phone right next to the massage table.
Other images show rows of framed photographs and photo albums on top of a large desk, as well as a drawer. Some of them show well-known figures, such as a previously released photo of Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Epstein and Maxwell, as well as one previously released of Epstein and Steve Bannon taking a selfie in the mirror, this time framed on a shelf. Others show women posing and smiling in bathing suits. Others, such as a photo of what appear to be two young females wearing matching outfits and with their arms around Epstein, have their faces blacked out.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, December 19, 2025.
U.S. Justice Department via Reuters
Images of opened closets in the home show an array of coats and robes. There are also some images that show opened drawers containing what appear to be sexual paraphernalia. Other images show additional items laid out, including condoms and several costumes that appear to resemble schoolgirl uniforms. One costume says “Baby” and “Cry” across two front pockets.
Among the files are also hundreds of pages of thumbnail photographs, along with images of accompanying CD and DVD discs. Some include labels of locations such as “AFRICA SEPT.02”, “ALHAMBRA SPAIN 03” or events such as “JE 50TH BD” or “LSJ XMAS 05”. Many of the photos include Epstein and Maxwell both individually and together. Entire pages of photos are blacked out. There are also documents that say “CSAM NOT SCANNED” indicating that those images were withheld from disclosure by the DOJ because they contained potential child sex abuse material.
Later Friday night, the DOJ released an additional batch of records containing images of various boxed-up items of evidence seized during the investigations of Epstein and Maxwell. Among the images is one of several manilla folders and envelopes laid out — one of which is labeled in black marker, “Maxwell Security Footage.” The context of what footage is contained in that evidence is unclear.
Other images include numerous photos of hard drives, thumbnails, CDs and boxed-up materials.
There is also an image of a green folding massage table wrapped in a sheer plastic cover, resembling the one that would later be set up in front of the jury during the Maxwell trial proceedings.
In addition to newly released materials, the documents include many files that had previously been released, including documents from more than 50 civil and criminal cases involving Epstein and Maxwell.
The release also includes the full, 354-page text of the 1999 edition of the book “Massage for Dummies.”
The DOJ faced a Friday deadline for the release of all remaining Epstein files after Congress last month passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act following the blowback the administration received seeking the release of the materials.
Blanche, in his interview with ABC News, said that the release of the files will continue beyond the Friday deadline due to the department’s obligations to the victims.
“The law is very specific that the Department of Justice is required to make sure that we protect victims,” he said. “And as recently as Wednesday, we learned of additional victim names, and so we’ve received over 1,200 names of victims and their family members since we started this process. And so there’s an established precedent that in a situation like this where it’s in essence impossible for us to comply with the law today, that we that we comply with the law consistent with the law.”
The Justice Department and FBI announced in July that they would be releasing no additional Epstein files, after several top officials — including Patel and outgoing FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino — had, prior to joining the administration, accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.
The Senate subsequently voted to approved the Epstein transparency bill passed by the House, after which President Donald Trump signed it into law.
Epstein owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands and large properties in New York City, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida, where he came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.
In 2019, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein on charges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations,” using cash payments to recruit a “vast network of underage victims,” some of whom were as young as 14 years old.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller, John Parkinson, Ely Brown, Elizabeth Thomas, Luke Barr, Armando Garcia and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
