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The Justice Department’s release of several thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein did not reveal any explosive new revelations about Donald Trump’s past relationship with the late sex offender.
Arguably the most revealing photos were of Bill Clinton, including one of the Democratic former president in a hot tub and another in a swimming pool with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s one-time girlfriend who is now serving prison time for child sex crimes.
At a campaign-style rally focused on the economy in North Carolina on Friday night, Trump spoke for more than an hour but did not even mention the Epstein documents.
But Trump may still struggle to move on from the scandal that has ensnared his second term as president, divided parts of his own Republican Party, and left him facing fierce Democratic attacks.
Critics who wanted maximum transparency in the Epstein file disclosures objected to the drastic redaction of the documents. They were angry that the Justice Department failed to release the entire cash, as required by a law passed by Congress and enacted under pressure from Trump last month.
“Unfortunately, today’s document release fails to follow both the spirit and the letter of the law that (Donald Trump) signed just 30 days ago,” Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who has emerged as one of the president’s harshest internal opponents, wrote on X.
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has also criticized Trump over Epstein, complained that Trump’s slogan of “draining the swamp” meant the government needed to “expose the rich powerful elites who are corrupt and commit crimes, not redact their names and protect them”.
The political crisis over Epstein has dogged the president for months, as the Justice Department and the FBI said in July that they had reviewed all documents and “no further disclosure would be appropriate or necessary.”
An intense bipartisan reaction ensued, including from key figures in Trump’s “MAGA” base, who called for the full release of the files. This forced the President and his administration to back down from their resistance to releasing the documents.
The political damage to Trump comes as he tries to refocus his attention on inflation and affordability, which are voters’ biggest concerns. These issues are dragging down their polling numbers, a worrying sign for Republicans ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“For whatever reason (Trump) is allowing this to consume parts of his political self and his administration,” says George Pollack, senior US analyst at Sygnum Global Advisors.
“Although this will not cause Republicans to ‘lose’ in the midterms, the way the administration has handled this has only served to further political disenfranchisement of some voters and increase their feelings of betrayal by a politician[with]whom they have invested so much in their political identity.”
Following the partial release of the documents, Democrats continued to attack the White House, feeling Trump was still vulnerable to attacks on Epstein.
Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said in a statement, “Ignoring the law now is not confusion or delay. It is a deliberate effort to bury the truth and protect pedophiles who exploit and abuse young girls.”
Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees warned that “all legal options” were on the table to challenge the way the Justice Department released the documents.
Trump aides will be hoping the Epstein scandal begins to fade, betting that most Americans will see enough candor in Friday’s partial release of the files, and that Democrats like Clinton will be associated with the disgraced late financier rather than Trump.
Benny Johnson, a conservative commentator on X, said, “This Epstein file drop is absolutely damaging to Bill Clinton. He spilled everything in it.”
A Clinton spokesman accused the White House of “protecting itself from whatever happens next.”
Trump administration officials insisted that any cuts were meant to protect only the victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking, rather than any politicians.
“We’re looking at every single piece of paper that we’re going to prepare, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected,” Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanch told Fox News ahead of Friday’s release.
But judging by the reaction to Friday’s release, such explanations are failing, leaving Trump struggling to restore his credibility on the Epstein case.
