President Donald Trump gave a long-winded rant when asked about the Justice Department’s release of some of the Epstein files.
He warned that the release of photos in the files could ruin reputations, but did not address the push for justice for the late sex offender’s survivors.
On Monday, while taking reporters’ questions, the president was asked directly for the first time about the latest batch of Epstein documents released last week.
The president began by addressing the files, but then went on a lengthy diatribe about a series of topics ranging from Epstein to drug prices.
While answering questions at Mar-a-Lago, where he is staying for the holidays, a reporter asked Trump, 79, if he was surprised by the number of photos of former President Bill Clinton in the files that were released on Friday and if he could commit to the files being fully released by the end of the year.
“I know there are a lot of people that are angry about all of the pictures of other people,” Trump began. “I think it’s terrible.”
The president said he has always liked Clinton and they’ve always gotten along, despite him previously calling for the Justice Department to investigate the former president’s relationship with Epstein as he tried to deflect the focus away from his own relationship with the convicted sex offender.
“I hate to see photos come out of him,” Trump said on Monday.
The president did not mention the survivors of Epstein’s abuse as he continued to speak, but slammed Democrats and “a couple of bad Republicans” for pushing for the release.
“They give you photos of me, too,” the president continued. “Everybody was friendly with this guy. He was around. He was all over Palm Beach and other places.”
Trump repeated his claim that he threw Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, though the timeline and reason for their falling out have raised questions.
“As a person that was in Mar-a-Lago, I threw him out. This is Mar-a-Lago. It’s the hottest place in, I think, it’s the hottest place in the world,” Trump rambled. “But it’s the hottest place in Florida, and everybody would come here. He’d come here. We actually threw him out.”
The president then went on to lament some of the images of Epstein associates going public.
“But no, I don’t like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown. I don’t like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it’s a terrible thing,” Trump said.
The Justice Department is under fire for failing to comply with the law and meet the Friday deadline to release all the documents.
DOJ officials said more files would be released over the coming weeks as the department can go through and make sure to remove information to ensure victims’ identities are protected.
But critics have blasted the administration for making sweeping redactions and not following the letter of the law, while also releasing only some of the files by the deadline.
“You probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they’re, you know, highly respected bankers and lawyers and others,” Trump said.
The president then went on to slam GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, who helped lead the bipartisan effort to pass the law to release the files, calling him a “low life.”
Trump claimed the entire focus on Epstein was “a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has.”
Some of Epstein’s victims have voiced their displeasure with the Justice Department’s failure to deliver the full files on Friday as required by law.
A group of 19 women abused by Epstein took aim at Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday with a statement.
“There has been no communication with survivors or our representatives as to what was withheld from release or why hundreds of thousands of documents have not been disclosed by the legal deadline, or how the DOJ will ensure that no more victims are wrongly disclosed,” the statement read.
“While clearer communication would not change the fact that a law was broken, its absence suggests an ongoing intent to keep survivors and the public in the dark as much as possible and as long as possible.”
Trump complained on Monday that he was still facing questions about Epstein as his administration has struggled to get out in front of the fallout after backtracking on releasing the files months ago, despite Trump himself promising to release them on the campaign trail.
“I thought that was finished. I believe they gave over 100,000 pages of documents,” Trump complained on Monday.
He claimed that there is “tremendous backlash” over the release of documents.
“A lot of people are very angry that the pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein, but they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruin a reputation of somebody,” Trump said.
While Trump bashed photos being released, his own White House communications team has been promoting photos of Clinton on social media that were included in the files dump.
A spokesperson for Clinton released a statement earlier on Monday saying that Clinton needs no protection. It called for Bondi to release any further material mentioning Clinton or photos of him and claimed refusal to do so would confirm speculation that the Justice Department’s actions are not about transparency but insinuation.
Trump did not address whether he would commit to all the files being released by the end of the year.
