The president is not involved in the decision to remove more than a dozen images from the thousands of pages published about the late tycoon, specified Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said they responded to requests from victims' organizations.

“After publishing the photographs, we learned that there were concerns about the women's identities and the fact that we had published the photos, so we removed them. It has nothing to do with President Trump.

“Dozens of photos of President Trump with Mr. Epstein have already been published,” Blanche stated, while calling the idea that any image had been removed because of the Republican's presence “absurd.”

Temporary Removal and Review for Victim Protection

Among the removed files was a photograph of a desk with framed images of Epstein alongside various public figures. Printed photos of Trump with women in swimsuits were found in an open drawer. Other removed images included sexually explicit artwork, photographs of mailboxes full of envelopes, and a page from a notebook with names and phone numbers. Blanche emphasized that the procedure follows protocols for protecting victims and survivors of the Epstein case. "When victims' rights groups alert us to potential risks, we act immediately. We investigate and, if necessary, redact before republishing," she stated.

The Justice Department itself confirmed that one of the images was removed at the request of the Southern District of New York and republished after it was determined that it did not depict any victims,and was therefore returned to the official website without further censorship.

Political Criticism and Defense of the DOJ

The controversy comes amid strong criticism from Democratic and Republican proposals for the partial release of the files, the deadline for which was set by the recently passed Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and the leading voice of his party on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused the DOJ of violating the law by not releasing all the documents in a timely manner.

Other members of Congress, such as Representative Ro Khanna, called the release “disappointing” and demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Justice Blanche explain the full timeline of the process.

Blanche defended the Department's actions and asserted that the review A phased release is necessary. “We have hundreds of lawyers reviewing every document to protect names and sensitive information of the victims.

“If we need to redact faces or other information, we will, and then we will republish it. In this way, we are complying with the law, which, by the way, is what President Trump has been asking us to do since before he was elected. There is nothing he has to hide in the Epstein files,” he indicated.

The past friendship between Trump and Epstein continues to be the subject of political scrutiny, while the debate over transparency and the protection of victims continues to mark the release of one of the most sensitive dossiers of recent years.