Legendary music stars, including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson, featured in photos included in the first Justice Department release of Epstein files.
The thousands of files from court records, documents, and photographs were released on the Justice Department website under “Epstein Library.”
One photograph posted without any context showed the lead singer of the Rolling Stones seated between former President Bill Clinton and Epstein at a table with others.
Another photograph showed the convicted sex offender and Michael Jackson standing in front of a painting. Epstein is smiling at the camera.
The files were uploaded late Friday without the Justice Department providing any context.
It will take a lot of time to go through the information released so far. The drop of documents came as the Trump administration was facing a deadline to release the files related to Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, under the law passed last month by Congress.
Another photo from the uploaded documents shows Michael Jackson standing next to a smiling Clinton.
None of the photographs suggest any wrongdoing by the famous musicians featured in them, as the administration released troves of documents from the Justice Department, FBI, and U.S. attorneys’ offices as they investigated the disgraced financier.
One photo shows Jagger and Clinton with a woman whose face was redacted. Separate photos from the release show other images of Clinton with women whose faces have been redacted.
It was previously reported that Jagger’s name was among the celebrities listed in a contact book already released by the Justice Department.
The photos included in the drop were not dated and did not indicate the locations where they were taken.
In some cases, it appeared that the Justice Department uploaded entire CDs of photos. At least one of them had the words Rolling Stones written in Sharpie on it, and a full set of images in the release appeared to be photos of the band performing taken from backstage.
The Trump administration started releasing files after Congress passed a law last month demanding the release of all unclassified documents.
The Justice Department was required to comply in 30 days after the president signed the legislation, making Friday the deadline.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche indicated before the files were even released that not all of them would be released by the deadline, but said more would be released in the coming weeks.
Some Democratic lawmakers slammed the administration for not meeting the deadline and accused it of engaging in a cover-up.
The law also required that the redactions be limited to protect the identities of victims, but entire pages released were redacted.
It also directed the Justice Department to make the files searchable, but as of Friday evening, the search function did not appear to be working.
