Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed newly surfaced photos showing him alongside the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, characterizing them as “no big deal.”
According to Thai News Agency, Trump addressed reporters at the White House, stating that Epstein was a well-known figure in Palm Beach, frequently appearing in photographs with numerous people. Trump remarked, “That means there are hundreds of people who have photos with him.”
The release of these photographs comes as Democratic members of the U.S. Congress disclosed 19 new images from Epstein’s properties. This release coincides with a looming deadline for the disclosure of a substantial volume of documents related to Epstein. Trump features in three of these images, unveiled by Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, as part of their examination of over 95,000 photographs from Epstein’s estate. The images include a black-and-white shot of Trump with several women, a photograph of Trump standing next to Epstein, and a blurry image of him seated beside another woman. The exact timing and location of these images remain unspecified.
The Epstein scandal has posed political challenges for President Trump for several months. Some of Trump’s supporters allege that officials within the Trump administration attempted to obscure Epstein’s connections to influential figures and withheld information regarding his death, which was officially recorded as a suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
The Justice Department, in July, declared that third-party investigations into the Epstein case yielded no substantial evidence, uncovering no “client list” or individuals potentially linked to prostitution. Furthermore, there was no evidence to suggest Epstein had engaged in extortion or blackmail.
Trump and Epstein were acquaintances during the 1990s and early 2000s, but Trump claims to have severed ties with Epstein before his guilty plea to prostitution charges. Trump has consistently denied any awareness of Epstein’s involvement in abuse and child prostitution.