AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The House Oversight Committee says it has received more than 95,000 photos from the Jeffrey Epstein estate. The committee says it has reviewed about 25,000 of those images so far, and today they have released 19 of them. They include images of President Trump, former President Clinton and former Prince Andrew. We're going to talk about the significance of these disclosures with Hailey Fuchs, Congress reporter for Politico. Welcome.
HAILEY FUCHS: Thanks for having me.
CHANG: So can you just first describe, Hailey, some of the photos that were released today?
FUCHS: So what we're seeing today are photos from Epstein's estate that show various powerful men that had connections to Epstein over the years. And I think what they really underscore is Epstein's long-standing relationship with some of the most powerful people in American society and beyond, in various industries.
CHANG: Right. And we should mention that President Trump is in some of these photos, and so are several other high-profile men. But just being in these photos does not immediately establish wrongdoing, right?
FUCHS: Mm-hmm.
CHANG: So what can we take away from this collection that's been released?
FUCHS: I think the timing is notable because last month, Congress passed a law that compelled the Justice Department to release all the files in its possession around the Epstein case, and the deadline is December 19. And so these photos that show Trump and girls and Trump beside Epstein add some pressure on the administration to release what they have.
CHANG: Right. And by the way, a number of faces have been redacted in these photos that were released. What do we know about who those people are?
FUCHS: We don't know much, but we do know that Congress has been redacting victims. And so, you know, it's likely that some of these women were victims of Epstein's trafficking.
CHANG: Do we have a sense of when the rest of these photos might be released?
FUCHS: It's unclear. Robert Garcia, who's the top Democrat on the oversight panel - he said that his staff is going to take likely days or weeks to go through the over 95,000 images that his staff had received.
CHANG: And did he explain why they chose these specific 19 to release at this moment, today?
FUCHS: I don't believe he explained that, but obviously these are some notable people. You know, we have Bill Gates. We have formerly Prince Andrew. We have Alan Dershowitz. And they do add to kind of this larger narrative around Epstein's ties to powerful people.
CHANG: Let's talk a little bit about that larger narrative. How do you think the release of these particular photos today fits into the overall strategy that Democrats are using when it comes to the Epstein documents?
FUCHS: I think the Democrats have been trying really hard to stoke division among the president's base because so many of the president's voters have said they want to see the release of the Epstein files. And so as Democrats create this case that Trump has been connected to Jeffrey Epstein, it kind of adds political pressure to the administration to prove that they're not trying to cover something up or withhold anything.
CHANG: You mention the deadline next week for the Justice Department to release all the files related to the Epstein case. How do you expect that release might be different or add to what the House Oversight Committee has released today?
FUCHS: So what the House Oversight Committee released today was from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. So this did not come from the Justice Department or the government. I think there's a lot of questions around how the government's release of the files will happen. It still remains to be seen whether or not they actually will release things by the deadline. Also there are means for the administration to redact certain materials or to decline to disclose certain materials. So there's kind of a lot of questions about what we might even see.
CHANG: That is Hailey Fuchs, Congress reporter for Politico. Thank you so much, Hailey.
FUCHS: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
