Bill Clinton is facing renewed questions about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after it featured prominently in the first tranche of unsealed documents.
Dozens of photos of Mr Clinton with the late pedophile tycoon have been released by the Trump administration, including one showing him in a hot tub and swimming with Ghislaine Maxwell.
The pictures are part of the so-called Epstein files that Congress ordered to be released by December 19 after increasing public pressure on Donald Trump.
The US justice department said that “hundreds of thousands” of other documents will be released in the coming weeks, suggesting that some of the most damaging to the White House could be published over Christmas.
Democrats accused the Trump administration of censoring the release to protect the US president.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s spokesman shared a picture of Mr Clinton relaxing in the hot tub with the comment: “Oh my!”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor also appeared in the first trove of documents, including a picture of him lying in black tie around the laps of five women, below.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor also appeared in the first trove of documents, including a picture of him lying in black tie around the laps of five women, below.
Maxwell is also seen outside 10 Downing Street. Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson are also pictured with Epstein and his associates.
Ghislaine Maxwell standing outside 10 Downing Street
Clinton with Mick Jagger
The picture of Clinton’s hot tub showed the former president lying half-naked with a red-faced woman.
Gates McGavick, an employee of the justice department, claimed that the woman whose face was blocked was a victim of Epstein.
Another photograph, below, which appeared to have been taken on the same occasion also showed Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking teenage girls to Epstein, in a dimly lit swimming pool with Mr Clinton.
Dozens of photos of Mr. Clinton with Epstein have been released by the Trump administration, including one showing him topless in a hot tub and swimming with Ghislaine Maxwell.
The former president was photographed with his arms around a young blonde woman sitting on his lap in a red velvet chair on a separate occasion. The woman is one of many women in Epstein’s files whose face has been redacted.
Clinton is pictured with his arms around a woman in another image from the release of the Epstein files
A similar picture showed Mr Clinton in a red hooded sweatshirt with his arm around a blonde woman.
The furniture in the background appeared to match that of Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express” because of allegations the businessman used it to traffic underage girls to his island in the US Virgin Islands.
More images released on Friday showed the 42nd president and Epstein pictured side by side with their arms around each other in twin-patterned shirts at a dinner function, below, as well as one of Mr Clinton with Michael Jackson.
Clinton and Epstein wear shirts with similar designs
Clinton with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross
The segment of images also included a framed caricature of Mr Clinton and Epstein preparing to board a plane alongside two unidentified men. The drawing was hanging in a bathroom, believed to be Epstein’s.
Mr Trump has sought to draw attention to Epstein’s relationship with Mr Clinton as scrutiny has intensified over his own links to the pedophile.
Susie Wiles, Mr Trump’s own chief of staff, said this week in an interview with Vanity Fair that her boss was “on the file” but that “he is not on the file doing something horrible”.
Mr Clinton’s spokesman has repeatedly said the former President was unaware of Epstein’s crimes and cut ties with him before his arrest in 2019. He has never been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
In one image, Clinton appeared with his hands on actor Kevin Spacey’s shoulders
The politician was previously photographed with Epstein on a number of occasions in the early 1990s.
He and Maxwell were pictured talking to the then-president in September 1993 at an event for donors to a White House restoration project.
Epstein made two $1,000 donations to Mr. Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.
Through a spokesman, Mr Clinton described Epstein in 2002 as “both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist”.
A picture of Epstein and Mr. Clinton together in Brunei in 2002 appeared in Vanity Fair, around the time he was making trips on the sex offender’s private jet.
Mr. Clinton’s spokesman said after Epstein’s arrest for sex trafficking in 2019 that the former president made four trips on the jet between 2002 and 2003, including “stops related to the work of the Clinton Foundation” in Africa.
The 2019 statement confirmed that the two men met at Epstein’s office in Harlem and his New York apartment. Mr Clinton is also alleged to have contributed to Epstein’s 50th birthday book in 2003.
Clintons incited
James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House oversight committee, called both Bill and Hillary Clinton to provide personal depositions in the panel’s Epstein investigation.
The committee is offering the former president and the former secretary of state new deposition dates in January and threatening possible contempt proceedings if they do not comply.
The Clintons were first subpoenaed in August and have been involved in a legal argument over whether they need to appear in person.
Epstein also kept a cartoon of himself and Mr Clinton on what appears to be his toilet, the new files show.
Jeffrey Epstein also kept a cartoon of himself and Bill Clinton on his toilet, the new files show
The photo shows a framed drawing of a muscle-bound Epstein alongside the former president outside of a private jet.
The Democrats on Friday evening demanded answers from the Department of Justice why so many redactions were made in the documents.
Ro Khanna, the congressman behind the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said the initial files protect the identity of “rich and powerful men” complicit in the activities of pedophiles.
Mr. Khanna claimed that Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, could be prosecuted or impeached after “living for months”.
A document from a New York grand jury has 119 pages “completely black”, with no explanation for the redactions as required by the Act, even though a federal judge had agreed to his release, he said.
Fox News reported that the same editorial standards were applied to politically exposed individuals and government officials as they were to victims.
White House officials, meanwhile, criticized Mr. Clinton for his released images with Epstein and several women.
Steven Cheung, a White House communications adviser, said under one picture: “Slick Willy! Bill Clinton is still breaking, without a care in the world. Little did he know…”