BREAKING: Bill Clinton photos found in new Epstein files release

I'm Stephen Beardsley in Berlin. Welcome to our program. The U.S. Justice Department has begun releasing thousands of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein just hours before a Friday deadline mandated by Congress. The material includes documents and photos, many heavily redacted and with little context. But not all the remaining Epstein records have been made public despite Congress's orders. Officials say they will release several hundred thousand more over the coming weeks. U.S. President Donald Trump has stalled on releasing the files despite a campaign promise to do so. Trump was once a close friend of Epstein who died in jail in 2019 but denies any involvement in the late financier's crimes. Our Washington correspondent Benjamin Alvarez Gruber gave me his take on the release. There was heavy traffic on the homepage of the Department of Justice that is housing these files. Many users were then sent also to the waiting area of this homepage to then access these files. But although when Congress said that these should be made available to the deadline that is coming to an end now, they said it should be searchable. But the search function was not working. So many, many of these files that you can access, public records, also transcripts, interviews. So there are several teams now, of course, going through these, especially from the Democratic congresswomen and congressmen that have been pushing for the release of these files. A tremendous public interest in the release of these files. Yet this is a partial release instead of a full release. And we should mention it's at the discretion of the Trump DOJ, the Department of Justice, I should say, which has shown itself to be closely connected to Trump. Is there any concern there about attempts to control what's seen and what isn't in these files? So there was a lot of criticism when the deputy attorney general said that they wouldn't release all of these files today. This is something that was approved overwhelmingly by Congress, was signed into law by President Trump. On one side, we have the Department of Justice saying that what they're redacting is everything related to open investigations and also to protect the victims, while some are actually thinking that there might be something more, that they might redact even more names than asking themselves why do they actually need so much time. There were several reactions that came in today. One of them by Republican congressmen to Thomas Massey, who has been at the forefront of these efforts to release the files. He said they need to be released right away and that this release will show whether Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI Director Kash Patel were lying. And another one, Majority Taylor Greene, also a Republican that was very critical of the way the Trump administration has been approaching this. She said release all the files is literally the law. So many teams are going through this batch of information now. They said they would also work with the attorneys of victims to make sure that actually all the files have been uploaded to that homepage, if not today, in the next couple of weeks, as the Department of Justice said. We know the publication of the Epstein files has been debated for years. There's been demand from both sides of the aisle in Congress, something that in of itself is quite rare in the U.S. What took the Department of Justice then so long to respond to that? So there was also a lot of criticism, not just from Democrats, but also from Republicans. This has been leading to a rift, basically, within the party. It has been increasing pressure on the White House, and they saw that it's inevitable that they need to react to that. If we look back, this was one of the campaign promises from Donald Trump to release all those files. The administration always says they're the most transparent administration in U.S. history. And so the pressure has been growing. And there are also polls showing that a majority of U.S. citizens, including a huge number of Republicans, are very critical of the approach that the White House has been taking. So there are a lot of people now looking into these files and, of course, increasing the pressure on the Department of Justice, saying if they did not comply with the that said that all of these files had to be released until today to continue the pressure that they do so in the next couple of weeks, as the Deputy Attorney General of the Department of Justice said. Benjamin, a lot of the details we've seen so far are quite salacious. This relates to a convicted sex offenders who had free access to the halls of power. What, if anything, can we say that this says about the avenues of power in the U.S.? So there have been, of course, attempts by certain people, politicians use this as a partisan way of just pointing at one public figure in these documents or in these pictures or in others, but also how long this has been going on, how hard it has been for the victims to get these support by members of Congress. We recently were at the press conference also by victims who said this needs to be released. This shouldn't be to stand with the victims and to make those who committed these crimes pay for that. And this ring also not just those that usually speak about Jeffrey Epstein, as you mentioned, died a couple of years ago in jail, but also those who knew about this and did nothing to protect these victims as this kept on going for so many years. And also, as you just said, there are very big group of people that were involved there. So more and more documents that are being uploaded to the home page of the Department of Justice will allow the public, not just the lawmakers, but also the public to get a clearer picture of how this process has been going and also how the Trump administration is now kind of taking these pictures, taking these documents and also uploading them following this, as I said, law that was signed by President Trump. And it was overwhelmingly backed by Congress, not just by Democrats, but also by a majority of Republicans. Ben, you mean how dangerous is this release and everything with Epstein for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement? So many are saying that there must have been a reason that they have not uploaded it immediately, that they have been so not convinced to do that right away. We've seen also a turn by Pam Bondi, the attorney general, that went from pledging to release them right away. There were some influencers also at the White House that had some folders that said those are the Epstein files. That quickly turned, quickly changed by calling this a democratic coaxing, there was nothing in it, that President Trump was actually not named there. But it will be interesting to see how this riff within the Republican Party is also leading to more and more Republicans saying that this can't be a partisan issue, that this can't be Democrats against Republicans, but the majority should actually be supporting the victims that have been asking for this and have been pushing for this and looking for support from both sides of the eyes of this very high profile case here in the United States. Benjamin Alvarez Gruber, a correspondent in Washington, D.C. Benjamin, thank you. Alan Lishman is a professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C. He joins me now for more. Alan, thousands of documents have just been released. What, if anything, can we say about the contents at this point? This is the equivalent of the ballyhewed opening of the secret vaults of Al Capone. You open them up and you looked and there was nothing there. For 99.9 percent of these documents, there's nothing there. They're meaningless photos without context. They're redacted documents. There's nothing new. And what's in that one tiny fraction of a percent that is significant? Guess what? It's all targeted on Bill Clinton. You have these photos of Clinton, which don't look good. Nothing about Donald Trump. And we know there are lots of photos of Donald Trump and Epstein. Nothing on any of Donald Trump's cronies like Steve Bannon, who we know had a relationship with Epstein. So they simultaneously managed to give us nothing of real significance overwhelmingly in these files while doing a biased political hit job on Bill Clinton, who, by the way, Trump had earlier ordered the Justice Department to investigate Clinton and Democrats. Nothing about Republicans. This is a travesty. So just to be clear, you're saying this is a highly controlled release that is aimed at smearing specific political opponents of Donald Trump. Will that not be noticed from a public bipartisan public? As we've seen, it's very hungry for all of the details. They've already complained to this point about getting a clear picture of everything there. Is this not a risky game? If you're correct, I think it is a risky game. I think you're right. You know, Trump has tried to bamboozle the American people about the Epstein files for many, many months, maybe even a year and more. And they're not buying it. The overwhelming majority of the American people in the polls think Trump has something to hide. Many even believe he may have been involved with Epstein in criminal activities. And this transparent hit job on Bill Clinton while providing essentially no other information is not going to fool the people. You know, you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all the time. You can't fool all the people all the time. And Trump, I think, is going to learn that lesson here. Supposing that you're right, and this is a highly controlled release, as you say, and that there's more there that's not being shown that could potentially damage Donald Trump in some way. What are the abilities of Congress or the public to demand, to push for more? Would this be another congressional matter? What do you see going forward? You make a very important point. There is nothing that can compel the Justice Department to do anything that Donald Trump doesn't want them to do. Remember, Pam Bondi supposedly is not Donald Trump's lawyer. She is the lawyer to the Constitution and the American people, and yet she is constantly doing whatever Donald Trump tells her to do. Whatever Donald Trump pulls the strings on her, she responds. There is no consequence to this. The worst that could happen is they're held in contempt of Congress, maybe Bondi and other officials. Very unlikely in a Republican Congress. But even if they're held in contempt of Congress, who has to prosecute them? Pam Bondi and the Justice Department. They're obviously not going to prosecute themselves. So they really can do whatever they want without facing any consequences, which by the way, has been the history of Donald Trump, not just as a politician, but as a businessman ever since he was found by the Justice Department to have violated the fair housing laws in the early 1970s for discriminating against minorities. He's always gotten away with everything. I just want to get in one more question before we have to go. There are a lot of salacious details in these files. In your opinion, does the Epstein case shed light on a disreputable corner of the American elite, or does it say something broader about power and connections in the country? As briefly as you can. Both. Yeah, very good. Both. Obviously, there are a lot of very prominent, very elite, very rich, very well contented, connected people in some way involved with Epstein. We don't know if they committed any crimes. And until now, they too have faced no consequences. And most of them may not face any consequences. And this also shows a huge gap in the justice system and an American society in general. We have over time become a much more unequal society, both in terms of income and wealth and in the administration of justice. All right. That's Alan Lishman. He's a professor of history at American University in Washington. Alan, thank you. Take care.