16 Epstein Files, Including Photo of Donald Trump, Disappear from DOJ’s Website Shortly After Release

A batch of documents the Department of Justice posted as part of its Jeffrey Epstein investigations appeared to shrink within a day of going live — and at least one of the missing items was an image that included former President Donald Trump.

On Friday, Dec. 19, the DOJ released thousands of files one month after the president signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law requiring the department to make documents tied to the Epstein investigations publicly available and searchable.

By Saturday, at least 16 files had been removed from the DOJ webpage, the Associated Press reported. Among them: a photograph that included Trump, 79.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the removals during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, saying the material was pulled to protect victims’ rights and comply with a court order.

“There were a number of photographs that were pulled down after being released on Friday,” Blanche said. “That’s because a judge in New York has ordered us to listen to any victim or victim rights group, if they have any concerns about the material that we’re putting up.”

Blanche said the department would take down images if concerns surfaced — even if officials did not initially believe the people shown were victims — then review and re-post material after making necessary edits.

“So when we hear concerns — whether it’s photographs of women that we do not believe are victims or we didn’t have information to show that they were victims, but we learned that there are concerns, of course — we’re taking that photograph down, and we’re going to address it,” he said.

“If we need to redact faces or other information, we will, and then we’ll put it back up,” Blanche added, saying the department was complying with the statute and asserting Trump has “nothing” to hide in the Epstein materials.

He also said viewers should expect the ongoing releases to match what the law requires: “You should not be surprised that the material that we released on Friday, or the material that we’re going to release over the next couple of weeks, is exactly what the statute requires us to release.”

When Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker asked about a specific removed image — one that she said appeared to show a desk with an open drawer containing a photo of Trump — Blanche responded that the issue was not Trump, but the other people visible in the photo.

“You can see in that photo, there’s photographs of women,” he said. “We learned after releasing that photograph that there were concerns about those women, and the fact that we had put that photo up. So we pulled that photo down. It has nothing to do with President Trump.”

Blanche also addressed why the DOJ has not yet posted everything covered by the Act, arguing that victim protections are central to the review process. He said the department was continuing to review materials in order to safeguard victims.

The Dec. 19 release included five data sets totaling roughly 3,900 files. The materials ranged from documents to photographs, including a scanned copy of Massage for Dummies, a fully redacted 119-page grand jury filing, and a police report in which a young woman alleged Epstein threatened to burn down her house.

Blanche has also said the DOJ would not be able to publish the entire set within the Act’s 30-day window, citing the time required to redact “hundreds of thousands of pages” tied to the investigation. He said additional materials would be released as the review continues, consistent with the law and protections for victims.

The initial release also included images of other high-profile figures, including Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, and Michael Jackson.

Epstein died in August 2019 at age 66. He was found hanging in a jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City while awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.