The first tranche of the so-called Epstein files contain photos, documents, receipts, snippets of texts and emails \u2014 and a lot of images featuring former US president Bill Clinton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The US Justice Department today released thousands of files it holds on late sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, just hours before the deadline mandated by Congress expired on Friday night, US time.<\/p>\n
ABC News journalists are still looking through the documents and some revelations may take time to emerge.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has also said thousands more documents will be released in coming weeks.<\/p>\n
But for now, here are the main things that have emerged in the few hours since their release.<\/p>\n
LoadingCelebrities, associates and redacted faces<\/p>\n
The documents contain thousands of photos featuring celebrities, rock stars and well-known associates of Epstein.<\/p>\n
Most of the photos contain no context on when or where they were taken. Being named or pictured in the files does not imply any wrongdoing or criminal activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An undated photo of Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton with an unidentified woman. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
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An undated photo of Richard Branson and Epstein, with several women whose identities have been redacted. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A group of people including Ghislaine Maxwell, Kevin Spacey and Bill Clinton pose for a photo found in the Epstein files. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
There is also a photo of former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in a group photo, where everyone but Ghislaine Maxwell has been redacted.<\/p>\n
Mountbatten-Windsor lost his royal title over his past connections with Epstein but has consistently denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Former prince Andrew in a group photo with Ghislaine Maxwell. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
Bill Clinton is pictured. A lot<\/p>\n
Someone whose face appears a lot in the files is former US president Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n
Some photos show him swimming in a pool with Epstein and Maxwell, while there are many that also show him pictured with women whose faces have been redacted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An undated photo of Bill Clinton on what appears to be Epstein’s private jet. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
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The former president appears in many of the released files. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
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A Clinton spokesperson says the White House is “shielding themselves from what comes next”. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
Clinton spokesperson Angel Ure\u00f1a released a statement on social media accusing the Trump administration of “shielding themselves from what comes next”.<\/p>\n
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever.”<\/p>\n
Documents and odd decor<\/p>\n
The release includes some files from previous police investigations, such as notes from interviews with victims.<\/p>\n
Among the documents is a 96-page incident report from the Palm Beach Police Department, dated July 25, 2006.<\/p>\n
Many names are redacted but it includes information from victims who had been interviewed, including a description of a conversation in which a woman said that “if Jeff asked her [redacted name] age, she should say she was 18”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This excerpt from a 2006 police report says a girl was told that if Epstein asked, “she should say she was eighteen”. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The files also contain notes from interviews with victims of Jeffrey Epstein. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
The files also document some adult-themed items and purchases, such as “adult soap on a rope” and “twin torpedoes” vibrators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A receipt from an Adult Video Warehouse shows the purchase of 10 items identified as “novelties”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are also plenty of documents that shed light on the dull minutiae of Epstein’s life, such as grocery lists and handyman receipts.<\/p>\n
Some of the images appear to have been taken on Epstein’s private plane, the “Lolita Express”, and others look like they were taken inside his Manhattan townhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are also several photos of Epstein and his friends at a shooting range.<\/p>\n
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There are multiple shots of Epstein and friends at a shooting range in the desert. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
There are also many photos that simply feature odd decor inside what is presumably one of Epstein’s homes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A statue of a young woman dressed as a bride hangs in the stairwell of Jeffrey Epstein’s New York apartment. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
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A painting of Bill Clinton seen in the front entrance of Jeffrey Epstein’s New York apartment. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
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Photo frames seen on a side table in Jeffrey Epstein’s New York apartment. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n
Few Trump mentions despite opponents’ expectations<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump had long argued against the release of the files, accusing those calling for it of peddling a “Democrat hoax”.<\/p>\n
However last month he changed his tune and supported the documents’ release, saying he had “nothing to hide”.<\/p>\n
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing and says he cut ties with Epstein more than a decade ago. He has also previously called Epstein a “creep”.<\/p>\n
So far in this release ABC journalists have found few references to the president \u2014 but there was an undated photo of a framed image of Epstein posing with a woman whose name has been redacted, holding a cheque for $US22,500 which appears to have Trump’s signature on it.<\/p>\n
There is no implication that Trump was involved in wrongdoing, and the image has not been independently verified.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A framed image of Epstein posing with a woman holding a cheque. This image has not been verified. (Supplied: US Department of Justice)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first tranche of the so-called Epstein files contain photos, documents, receipts, snippets of texts and emails \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22345,14830,82167,2490,43,5634,19928,23945,44,82169,41,39,42,40,196286],"class_list":["post-359635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bill-clinton","tag-department-of-justice","tag-documents","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-michael-jackson","tag-mick-jagger","tag-news","tag-the-epstein-files","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-justice-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}