The US Justice Department under President Donald Trump has been accused of a covert removal after it deleted the only photograph featuring the President from a major evidence dump related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
What Was in the Epstein Files Release?
On Friday evening, 19 December 2025, the department published a heavily redacted cache of material gathered during the investigation into the disgraced financier and convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. The bulk of the release consisted of photographs taken by law enforcement during raids on Epstein's New York residence and his private Caribbean island, Little St James.
The collection also included a selection of private photos from Epstein's personal holdings. These ranged from the lurid to images featuring prominent celebrities and public figures. It is crucial to note that inclusion in these files does not imply any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities.
The Disappearing Trump Photograph
Among the many images, the current President, Donald Trump, appeared in just one. The photo depicted a sideboard in Epstein's New York home, covered with framed pictures. The drawer was open, revealing a pile of additional photographs inside.
Within this drawer, two images seemed to show Trump. One was a widely circulated photo of the President with his wife, Melania, and Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The other was a smaller, less-seen picture appearing to show a younger Trump socialising with four women, two in bikinis.
This specific image file was live on the department's website on Friday night but had vanished from both the direct links and the downloadable zip file by some point on Saturday, 20 December. Its removal was not publicly announced.
Broader Context and Official Response
The release followed a separate disclosure earlier in December, where the Epstein estate handed documents to the House Judiciary Committee containing another previously unseen image of Trump with young women.
Other high-profile names visible in the latest photo collection included Prince Andrew (Andrew Mountbatten Windsor), Michael Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Mick Jagger, Peter Mandelson, and Sir Richard Branson. Many photos were from a tour of Asia that Epstein took with former President Bill Clinton.
Responding to the disclosures, US Attorney General Pam Bondi stated on Saturday night that the evidence release demonstrated the Trump administration was "the most transparent...in American history." The quiet deletion of the sole Trump photo has since raised questions about the completeness of that transparency.
