By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Democrats on a congressional oversight panel released more than a dozen new images from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, including photos of now-President Donald Trump.
Trump is featured in three of the 19 photos shared by House Oversight Committee Democrats, who said they are reviewing more than 95,000 images produced by the estate.
In one black-and-white photo, Trump is seen smiling with several women — whose faces are redacted — on each side of him. A second image shows Trump standing beside Epstein, and a third, less-clear image shows him seated alongside another woman, whose face is also redacted, with his red tie loosened. It was not clear when or where the photos were taken.
Former President Bill Clinton, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, Bill Gates and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also appear in the batch of images, as well as sex toys and a $4.50 “Trump condom” emblazoned with Trump’s face and the all-caps phrase “I’M HUUUGE!”
A spokesperson for the committee, which is led by Republican Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, said Democrats were politicizing the investigation by “cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump.”
Democrats said the tens of thousands of photos include “images of the wealthy and powerful men who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein” and “photographs of women and Epstein properties,” and more will be released in the coming days.
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, said in a statement. “We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
The congressional Democrats said they redacted the women’s faces to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims.
The committee is continuing to obtain and release documents even as the U.S. Department of Justice is expected to publicize unclassified Epstein files from its federal investigation late next week.
Trump signed into law last month an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill led by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California and Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky that compels the Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days. December 19 will mark the end of that window.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and early 2000s, but Trump says he broke off ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges.
Trump has consistently denied knowing about the late financier’s abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls.
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
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