Washington: Democrats within the US Congress launched a selective group of pictures from Jeffrey Epstein’s property that characteristic high-profile people together with presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, businessmen Bill Gates and Richard Branson, filmmaker Woody Allen and Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Some of the pictures depicted intercourse toys and aids, whereas one confirmed a “Trump condom” together with his face on it and the tagline: “I’m HUUUGE!” It was purportedly being offered for $US4.50.
The 19 photos selectively launched by the Democrats had been drawn from what they mentioned had been 95,000 new pictures obtained by the House Oversight Committee below subpoena from the deceased intercourse offender’s property. The pictures don’t depict any prison exercise or wrongdoing.
Democrats have been slowly releasing small batches of paperwork – together with photos of Epstein’s personal Caribbean island Little Saint James – targeted on the financier’s relationship with Trump and different high-profile associates.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking down on a deadline for the Department of Justice to launch doubtlessly tens of 1000’s of paperwork associated to its investigation into Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking crimes, generally known as the “Epstein recordsdata”.
Under a invoice signed by Trump final month, the federal government has till December 19 to provide “all unclassified information, paperwork, communications and investigative supplies in DoJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein”.
The division is allowed to withhold sure data “similar to the non-public data of victims and supplies that might jeopardise an lively federal investigation”.
The pictures launched by the Democrats on Saturday (AEDT) weren’t dated or captioned. One confirmed a a lot youthful Trump at a operate surrounded by six girls, whose faces had been blacked out by the committee.
Others confirmed Epstein and Woody Allen seemingly on a movie set, and sitting with Bannon at a big workplace desk. Another image confirmed Epstein in an out of doors setting with British billionaire Richard Branson, who additionally owns Caribbean islands.
One of the pictures reveals a a lot youthful Bill Clinton, who was president between 1993 and 2001, posing with Epstein and Epstein’s girlfriend and affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell. Clinton appeared to have signed the {photograph}. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of trafficking women for intercourse along side Epstein, who died in jail awaiting trial.
Another picture reveals Bannon and Allen standing and talking at an unspecified location, whereas in one other, Epstein and Bannon take a cellphone selfie collectively whereas standing in entrance of a mirror.
In one picture, additionally from an unknown location and time, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is seen with the previous Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he’s now identified, had his royal titles stripped over his associations with Epstein.
The high Democrat on the committee, congressman Robert Garcia, mentioned the “disturbing” pictures raised extra vital questions on Epstein’s relationships with a number of the world’s strongest males.
“We won’t relaxation till the American individuals get the reality. The Department of Justice should launch all of the recordsdata, NOW,” Garcia mentioned, calling for an finish to what he referred to as a “White House cover-up”.
The Trump administration rejects the suggestion it has coated up Epstein’s crimes or associations. It notes it launched extra recordsdata from the Epstein investigation earlier this yr, and queries why Democrats didn’t launch the Epstein paperwork themselves when Joe Biden was within the Oval Office.
In current weeks, a number of judges have dominated that secret grand jury transcripts referring to investigations into Epstein and Maxwell may be unsealed, in accordance with the invoice compelling the discharge of the Epstein recordsdata.
Trump and Epstein had been mates within the Nineteen Nineties however fell out within the 2000s, Trump has mentioned. Other high-profile males together with Clinton, Gates and economics professor Larry Summers have mentioned they remorse their previous associations with Epstein.
Epstein was convicted of kid intercourse offences in 2008 in Florida, and served jail time below a deal during which he pleaded responsible.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect by way of Twitter or electronic mail.Most Viewed in World
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