On Sunday, the Department of Justice reinstated online a photograph from the Jeffrey Epstein documents that depicted President Donald Trump following criticism regarding its withdrawal.
The picture, featuring two distinct photos of Trump, had been taken down by the DOJ from public visibility after being uploaded to the department’s site on Friday. The image displayed a variety of items on or within Epstein’s desk or credenza.
One photo depicted Trump among a group of women, while the other was a familiar image of him with his wife, Melania, Epstein, and Epstein’s now-convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
“The Southern District of New York highlighted an image of President Trump for possible further measures to safeguard victims,” the DOJ stated in a post on the social media platform X.
“As a precaution, the Department of Justice briefly removed the image for additional evaluation. Following the review, it was concluded that there is no proof that any victims of Epstein are shown in the photograph, and it has been reposted unchanged.”
The DOJ did not clarify what it meant by the Southern District of New York. The SDNY can refer to the federal judicial district encompassing Manhattan, New York, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in that district, which handles federal criminal prosecutions.
On Saturday, Democratic members of Congress raised concerns regarding the photo’s removal.
“This photo, file 468, from the Epstein documents featuring Donald Trump has seemingly now been excluded from the DOJ release,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee remarked in a post on X. “@AGPamBondi is this correct? What else might be concealed? We require transparency for the American public.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated early Sunday that the image was removed from the website after concerns were raised regarding the women depicted in the photo, “therefore we took that photo down.”
“It has nothing to do with President Trump,” Blanche remarked on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The removal of the files occurred despite a law enacted by Trump mandating the agency to publicly disclose all the so-called Epstein files by Friday.
The image went live on the DOJ’s website on Friday but vanished from the page hours later. The photograph illustrated a collection of framed and unframed pictures featuring Trump and various other notable personalities including former President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II.
“When we receive feedback from victims’ advocacy groups regarding this type of photograph, we take it down and evaluate the situation,” Blanche explained.
Earlier this month, SDNY Judge Richard Berman instructed the unsealing of grand jury documents related to the DOJ’s 2019 prosecution of Epstein for child sex trafficking charges.
This order included a stipulation that the DOJ address the concerns of survivors about the file content.
The DOJ on Friday disclosed only a small portion of documents and images from the Epstein case, even though the new Epstein Files Transparency Act required that all DOJ materials related to him and Maxwell be released by that date.
The DOJ’s inadequacy in releasing all materials by that deadline faced harsh criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
Additionally, several victims of Epstein criticized the DOJ for allegedly failing to keep them informed about the contents of Friday’s release — a decision that some survivors argued could have endangered them, according to multiple news articles.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. — who along with Ro Khanna, D-Calif., co-sponsored the House legislation mandating the DOJ release the Epstein files — has threatened to hold Justice Department officials accountable for the manner in which the document release has been handled.
In a Sunday interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Massie indicated that some congressional lawmakers are contemplating holding Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt.
“The fastest and, I believe most effective means to secure justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi,” Massie stated.
