{"id":45703,"date":"2025-12-22T12:39:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45703"},"modified":"2025-12-22T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:39:59","slug":"dems-demand-answers-as-trump-photo-disappears-from-doj-online-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/22\/dems-demand-answers-as-trump-photo-disappears-from-doj-online-epstein-files\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems Demand Answers as Trump Photo Disappears From DOJ Online Epstein Files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Attorney<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a Senate committee on June 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat else is being covered up?\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 20, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressional Democrats on Saturday pressed US Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/a> for answers regarding the apparent removal of a photo showing President Donald Trump<\/a> surrounded by young female models from Friday\u2019s Department of Justice<\/a> release of files related to the late convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the heavily redacted documents in Friday\u2019s DOJ release<\/a> was a photo of a desk with an open drawer containing multiple photos of Trump, including one of him with Epstein and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and another of him with the models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Epstein<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018An Absolute Joke\u2019: Trump DOJ Partially Releases Epstein Files, Many Heavily Redacted<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Ro<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As DOJ Blows Deadline to Release Epstein Files, Khanna Vows to Prosecute Any Obstruction<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

However, the photo\u2014labeled EFTA00000468<\/a> in the DOJ\u2019s Epstein Library<\/a>\u2014was no longer on the site as of Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump<\/a>, has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release,\u201d Democrats on the House Oversight Committee noted<\/a> in a Bluesky post. \u201cAG Bondi, is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/embed\/did:plc:ttmijboii4ni6lhyaa2ovw6z\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3magqb3l3kc2s?id=6740938584895692&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.commondreams.org%252Fnews%252Ftrump-and-epstein-photos-2674817173&colorMode=system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous critics have accused the\u00a0Trump administration<\/a>\u00a0of a cover-up due to the DOJ\u2019s\u00a0failure<\/a>\u00a0to meet a Friday deadline to release all Epstein-related documents and heavy redactions\u2014including<\/a>\u00a0documents of 100 pages or more that are completely blacked out\u2014to many of the files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche responded to the criticism by claiming<\/a> that \u201cthe only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law\u2014full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConsistent with the statute and applicable laws, we are not redacting the names of individuals or politicians unless they are a victim,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation reportedly redacted<\/a> Trump\u2019s name from its file on Epstein, who was the president\u2019s longtime former friend and who died<\/a> in 2019 in a New York City<\/a> jail cell under mysterious circumstances officially called suicide while facing federal child sex trafficking and conspiracy charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has not been accused of any crimes in connection with Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said<\/a> during a Friday CNN<\/em> interview that the DOJ only released about 10% of the full Epstein files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DOJ has had months and hundreds of agents to put these files together, and yet entire documents are redacted\u2014from the first word to the last,\u201d Garcia said on X. \u201cWhat are they hiding? The American public deserves transparency. Release all the files now!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a joint statement<\/a> Friday, Garcia and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin<\/a> (D-Md.) said, \u201cWe are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Ro Khanna<\/a> (D-Calif.)\u2014who along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act<\/a>, which was signed into law by Trump last month and required the release of all Epstein materials by December 19\u2014said in a video<\/a> published after Friday\u2019s document dump that he and Massie \u201care exploring all options\u201d to hold administration officials accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can be the\u00a0impeachment<\/a>\u00a0of people at Justice, inherent contempt, or referring for prosecution those who are obstructing justice,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a Senate committee on June 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images) \u201cWhat else is being covered up?\u201d Brett Wilkins Dec 20, 2025 (CommonDreams.org) Congressional Democrats on Saturday pressed US Attorney General Pam Bondi for answers regarding the apparent removal of a… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45704,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45703\/revisions\/45704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}