Donald Trump says release of Jeffrey Epstein files risks destroying reputations of people who innocently met the financier years ago.
PALM BEACH: US President Donald Trump warned that people who innocently met Jeffrey Epstein risk having their reputations ruined by the release of investigative files on the convicted sex offender.
Trump made his first comments on the matter on Monday since the Justice Department began releasing documents last Friday.
He dismissed the furor over Epstein as a distraction from his party’s achievements.
“This whole thing with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home.
The president was asked for his reaction after former president Bill Clinton featured prominently in the first batch of photos from the files.
“I like Bill Clinton. I’ve always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I hate to see photos come out of him,” Trump said.
“There’s photos of me too,” he noted. “Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein).”
Trump called the release of pictures of Clinton and others a “terrible thing.”
“Bill Clinton’s a big boy, he can handle it,” he said.
He expressed concern for other individuals pictured with Epstein years ago.
“You probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they’re highly respected bankers and lawyers and others.”
The Republican president said many people are angry about the release of such photos.
“A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein,” Trump said.
“But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody.”
Epstein was a wealthy and well-connected financier who died in a New York jail cell in 2019.
He was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in what was ruled a suicide.
