The Justice Department has come under fire for redacting and quietly removing some photos from the files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case, which were already released on Friday. Attorney General Pam Bondi, accompanied by (L-R) Metropolitan Police Department Chief of Police Pamela Smith, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Washington Field Office Special Agent in Command Anthony Spotswood, FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Darren Cox, and FBI Director during an arrest of Kash Patel6, speak during a new conference of Kash Patel6. bombing at the Department of Justice on December 4, 2025 in Washington, DC. Federal agents have arrested a suspect they believe planted two pipe bombs, which never exploded, the night before the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Getty Images via AFP) Amid backlash over deleted photos from the recently released Epstein files, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi reaffirmed Sunday that anyone involved will bring legal action against anyone and we will bring the Justice Department first. exploitation of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.” She posted on X: “We confirm this commitment and ask any victim to please come forward with any information relating to any individuals who were involved in illegal activity at their expense.” She said authorities have met with many victims and victim groups, and will continue to do so as more reach out. “Please contact myself, DAG Blanche, or the FBI, and we will investigate immediately. We believe in the equal standard of justice in this country and will ensure that Justice is served,” Bondi said. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche earlier said Justice Department officials protected the victims of Jeffrey Epstein when they removed several images from the agency’s release of files related to the notorious sex offender. “There were a number of photos that were pulled after they were released on Friday,” Blanche said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “That is because a judge in New York has ordered us to listen to any victim or victims’ rights group if they have any concerns about the material we post,” Blanche said. Jeffrey Epstein sparks controversy The Justice Department released thousands of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, December 19. However, the department has received criticism for editing and allegedly removing photos from the files already released on Friday. According to The New York Times, NPR and the Associated Press, up to 16 photos, including the Trump desk drawer image, were removed from the Justice Department’s website on Saturday, although Reuters could not independently confirm the removals. The Justice Department later on Sunday said it restored one photo after determining “there is no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted in the photo.” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier Sunday that his office removed the photo because of concerns about women in the photo. “This has nothing to do with President Trump,” Blanche said during a Sunday morning appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.” “You can see in that picture there are pictures of women,” Blanche said earlier Sunday. “And so we learned after we released that photo that there was concern about those women and the fact that we put that photo up. So we pulled that photo down. It has nothing to do with President Trump.” However, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have accused the Trump administration of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act and protecting President Donald Trump. Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said on CNN’s State of the Union that the administration is “covering up things that, for whatever reason, Donald Trump doesn’t want to make public.” Blanche rejected that claim, promising that nothing related to Trump was in the files. “If President Trump is mentioned, if there are photos that we have of President Trump or anyone else, they will of course be released, with the exception of any victims or survivors that we have identified,” he told NBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Justice Department has come under fire for redacting and quietly removing some photos from the files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case, which were already released on Friday. Attorney General Pam Bondi, accompanied by (L-R) Metropolitan Police Department Chief of Police Pamela Smith, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Firearms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hameed.nwar.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}