WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Epstein's estate has turned over roughly 95,000 photographs to the House Oversight Committee. So far, the public has seen only a tiny fraction of that trove of files.
On Thursday, Democrats on that committee released 68 photos from the estate, including photos of Epstein, the convicted sex offender, with high-profile people. The release and another one last week by Oversight Democrats include dozens of photos of Epstein posing with President Donald Trump, his top ally Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, movie director Woody Allen and others. All have denied any wrongdoing, and none have been charged related to Epstein's crimes.
The latest batch of photos was released just one day before the deadline, Friday, when the Justice Department will be required, under a new law, to release all of the government’s Epstein files with very limited exceptions.
Speaking on the Capitol steps, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said the committee is systematically reviewing all of the Epstein estate’s materials and working with attorneys and survivors’ groups to ensure any victims depicted in the photographs are not identified or harmed.
“There’s about 95,000 pictures. We’ve probably gone through 75% of all the photos. We expect that by next week, all the pictures will be reviewed, and then we’ll put out additional photos,” Garcia told reporters.
“Certainly the most disturbing photos are certainly the ones that are more sexual in nature,” he continued. “We’re having conversations about the best way to deal with those and talking to the lawyers and the survivor groups, because we want to be very cautious of the trauma that the survivors are going through.”
In a statement accompanying Thursday’s release, Garcia noted that “the Epstein estate did not provide context for any of the 95,000 images they transmitted and therefore the images are presented as received.”
Some in recent releases have included Epstein and celebrities, while others feature what appear to be photos of his properties and of work visas that are heavily redacted.
Another member of the Oversight Committee, Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., agreed that the victims and survivors are the top priority in the process: “We’ve had discussions with the survivors about trying to respect their privacy to avoid triggering them. Like, what actions can we take? So that process of redaction, of checking in with the survivors, is also part of the delay.”
The release of the new batch Thursday generated a wave of news headlines about the Epstein files, keeping pressure on the Justice Department on the eve of the critical deadline. Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Nov. 18, and Trump signed it into law the next day. It gave the Justice Department 30 days to produce all of its files stemming from its investigation into Epstein, who was facing federal charges of sex trafficking of minors when he died by suicide in prison in 2019.
The law says the files must be posted online and in a searchable database for the public.
The White House accused Garcia and the Democrats last week of releasing “cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try to create a false narrative” to make Trump look bad. While photos and videos show that Trump had socialized with Epstein decades ago, Trump has said he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after he learned Epstein was hiring female employees from the club’s spa.
There is no evidence that Trump engaged in any illegal activity with Epstein, and he has never been charged with any crime related to Epstein.
At least one of the photos posted by Democrats was a wire image taken by Getty Images and had been public long before its release.
Thursday’s tranche included photographs of quotes from the Vladimir Nabokov novel “Lolita” written on women's body parts, travel documents and Epstein socializing with other prominent men.
Eventually, Garcia said, all of the photos and documents from the estate will be released.
“We think that transparency is the absolute best approach. And so we will continue to release photos, documents, emails, whatever we can release from some of the financial records,” Garcia said. “I think that’s what oversight should be about. It’s transparency.”
But he added: “We will never release information about women or survivors in any of the files.”
Garcia said he is skeptical that the Justice Department will fully comply with the Epstein law by Friday's deadline. Trump and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill had initially opposed releasing the files, until a bipartisan effort by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., succeeded in forcing a vote on the matter.
“I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that tomorrow we’re going to get all the files,” Garcia said. “But if we look at past behavior, I’m not sure that’s going to happen. We may get a partial release. We may get highly redacted information that doesn’t tell us much.”
Khanna, who co-authored the law, told NBC News this week he is also giving the Justice Department the benefit of the doubt, predicting that all but perhaps 5% of the documents would be made public by the end of Friday. The Justice Department has not said what its plans are for the deadline.
If the Justice Department drags its feet, Garcia and Khanna warned, Democrats could take the Trump administration to court. Around the country, federal judges have been citing the new Epstein law in granting Justice Department requests to unseal grand jury records related to past probes of Epstein in 2019 and the mid-2000s.
“They have to release everything,” Garcia said of the Justice Department. “We will use every tool available to us, including if we need to go to the courts and if we need to take legal action to get the files released.”
