President Trump said Monday that the release of thousands of photos from the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein risked ensnaring “highly respected” people with no connection to the late sex offender’s crimes, in the president’s first public remarks since the files were released last week. 

The congressionally mandated releases brought to light images of former President Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, among others. Epstein was known for cultivating relationships with the rich and powerful, and he socialized with both Clinton and Mr. Trump at various points — though neither man has been accused of any wrongdoing.

Asked Monday what he thought about the emergence of photos of Clinton, Mr. Trump called it “terrible” and said he’s “always gotten along” with the former president — and argued other people who appear in the photos could be unfairly tarred.

“I don’t like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown. I don’t like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it’s a terrible thing,” the president told reporters. “I think Bill Clinton’s a big boy, he can handle it. But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago … and they’re highly respected bankers and lawyers and others.”

The president said Epstein was “all over Palm Beach” and many people crossed paths with him.

“A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein, but they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruin a reputation of somebody,” Mr. Trump said Monday at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The Justice Department began releasing records on Epstein on Friday, a deadline set by Congress last month in the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act that was signed by Mr. Trump. The department has said it plans to release more files “on a rolling basis” over the next few weeks, despite the law’s Dec. 19 deadline, citing the need to redact victims’ names and other information from documents.

The files include decades’ worth of material from the federal government’s investigations into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, but died by suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of trafficking. Epstein was also investigated by federal prosecutors in the 2000s, but in a controversial move, he avoided federal charges in exchange for a guilty plea on state prostitution charges in Florida. 

Mr. Trump encouraged GOP members to vote for the law after deriding Republicans who pushed for more information on the government’s Epstein investigations, calling Democrats’ fixation on the issue a “hoax” and arguing Democrats were using it as a distraction.

The president’s reservations about the issue appeared to still linger on Monday.

“I hate to see photos come out of [Clinton], but this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats, and a couple of bad Republicans are asking for,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the four House Republicans who joined with Democrats in forcing a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Mr. Trump ran in some of the same social circles as Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, but the two had a falling out. The White House has said in the past that the president kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for acting like a “creep.”

Meanwhile, Clinton has acknowledged that he traveled with Epstein on multiple occasions, but added he never went to Epstein’s island. Clinton has said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. On Monday, Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña called on the government to release all additional photographs or records that include the former president, arguing he has nothing to hide. 

“[W]hat the Department of Justice has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why,” Ureña said in a statement. “But we do know this: We need no such protection.” 

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