At least 16 files, including photographs, have disappeared from the US Department of Justice website where documents on the case of financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were published, the AP reported.
The agency said that among the missing files were images of nude women, as well as an image showing a series of photos lined up on a dresser and in drawers, including one showing current US President Donald Trump next to Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The US Department of Justice released some of the Epstein case materials yesterday in accordance with previously passed legislation supported by both Democrats and many Republicans in Congress.
US President Donald Trump is suspected of links to Epstein, although concrete evidence has not yet been presented that he was involved in child abuse.
Epstein was indicted in the US in 2019 on human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and conspiracy to commit crimes. He faced more than 40 years in prison.
According to prosecutors, between 2002 and 2005, Epstein had sexual relations with dozens of underage girls he hosted at his residences in New York and Florida.
He paid them in cash and then hired some of the victims to serve as recruiters to bring in more girls. Some of the victims were as young as 14.
In early July 2019, a Manhattan court in New York, after hearing Epstein’s indictment, ordered his detention and denied bail.
In late July of that year, it was announced that Epstein had been found “semi-conscious” in his jail cell and had subsequently died. An investigation concluded that he had committed suicide.
