Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Ministry of Justice started releasing files related to the life, death and criminal investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein Friday. The files continued to be posted on the Epstein Library website on Saturday.
But NPR identified more than a dozen files released by the Justice Department on Friday that were no longer available Saturday afternoon, including one that showed a photo of President Trump on a desk among several other photos. The deleted files also featured various works of art, including some containing nudity.
on his websiteThe Justice Department is directing people to report any files that should not have been released by notifying the agency via a special email address. A statement at the top of each page of the website reads: “In view of the deadline set by Congress, every reasonable effort has been made to review and redact personal information relating to victims and other individuals and to protect sensitive materials from disclosure.”
However, the DOJ acknowledged that “due to the volume of information involved, this website may nonetheless contain information that inadvertently includes non-public personal information or other sensitive content, including sexually explicit matters.”
The Justice Department said in a statement Sunday that it removed the image of President Trump at the request of the Southern District of New York, where judges oversaw the latest cases against Epstein and his longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell. The Ministry of Justice is back Trump imageThe photo is on his website as of Sunday afternoon.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Department of Justice has temporarily removed the image for further review. After review, it was determined that there was no evidence that the photograph depicted any of Epstein's victims and it was republished without any changes or edits,” the department said. in the statement posted on social networks.
This photo illustration taken in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2025, shows a court document after the Justice Department began releasing its long-awaited investigation into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Congressional problems
After the files were initially released, some members of Congress expressed concern about what was missing from the data sets.
“There are powerful people, bankers, politicians that we know from survivors – they told us this – who were at these parties where there were a lot of young women and some were underage, and these powerful people knew about it, but they didn't say anything,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. told NPR. They should at least be publicly held accountable.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who co-sponsored the Epstein Transparency Act in the House with Khanna, criticized the amendments.
Publication on X, He said the release “completely does not comply with either the spirit or the letter of the law.” He also warned “The future Department of Justice may convict the current one [Attorney General] and others” for failing to properly release all files that are required by law to be made public.
Aside from a photo that can no longer be downloaded, Trump's name and image rarely appear in newly available documents. There are several photos of him with women, as well as a framed photo of Epstein and an edited woman holding a huge check for $22,500 signed by Trump.
While Trump wasn't mentioned as often this time around, he was a frequent subject of emails and text messages in another batch of Epstein files released by the House Democratic Oversight Committee – with over a thousand different mentions – though mostly as the subject of Epstein's near-obsession with his presidency, as the latter positioned himself as some sort of Trump whisperer to his powerful associates.
NPR Rahul Mukherjee And Stephen Fowler provided reporting.
