The Department of Justice on Friday released a long-awaited and huge tranche of documents detailing its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a major development in the lengthy saga that turned into one of the biggest political setbacks Donald Trump has suffered since his re-election last year.
While significant portions of the files are redacted, those that were viewable included images of Epstein socializing with an array of prominent figures, including entertainers like Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and Diana Ross, and the entrepreneur Richard Branson. Bill Clinton appears in several photos, including one in which he is in a swimming pool along with Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The images also show former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Another cache of documents showed photos of evidence gathered including drives and computers but did not reveal details as to the contents. There was also a photo of what appeared to be a dog in a garbage bag, placed inside a box.
In a letter to Congress, Todd Blanche said that the documents, which date back to 2006, when Epstein was investigated on child prostitution charges, were only the first set of what is planned for release. “The volume of materials to be reviewed … means that the department must publicly produce responsive documents on a rolling basis,” the deputy attorney general wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News.
He also acknowledged an array of redactions, including the identifying details of more than 1,200 victims and their family members.
US justice department releases heavily redacted cache of Jeffrey Epstein files
Congressional Democrats accused the Trump administration of failing to adhere to the letter of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the justice department to release all “unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” in its possession related to the financier’s cases by 19 December. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors.
The law also requires the justice department to publish any materials from the investigations that relate toMaxwell, who was found guilty in 2021 of aidingEpstein’s sex trafficking of teen girls and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
US launches airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria
The US military launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on US personnel, two US officials said on Friday.
The attacks come after Donald Trump vowed to hit back after an attack last weekend in Syria by a suspected Islamic State member.
Revealed: FBI opened domestic terrorism investigations into anti-ICE activity
The FBI has launched “criminal and domestic terrorism investigations” into “threats against immigration enforcement activity” in at least 23 regions across the US, according to an internal report shared with the Guardian.
The two-page FBI document, dated 14 November, says some of the investigations are related to the “countering domestic terrorism” memo issued by Donald Trump in September.
Trump strikes deal with US drugmakers to cut Medicaid medicine costs
Donald Trump and nine major pharmaceutical companies on Friday announced deals that will slash the prices of their medicines for the government’s Medicaid program and for cash payers, in his latest bid to align US costs with those in other wealthy nations.
Border officials pressure immigrant children into returning home
Border officials are pressuring unaccompanied children who arrive in the US as undocumented immigrants to quickly agree to return to their countries of origin, even if they express fear for their safety there – or else face “prolonged” detention and other consequences, a federal government document reveals.
Trump and top aides refuse to rule out war with Venezuela
Donald Trump and his top advisers have refused to rule out the potential for open conflict with Venezuela as Nicolás Maduro urged his navy to escort oil tankers defying the largest US fleet deployed in the region in decades.
In an interview broadcast on Friday morning, Donald Trump told NBC News that going to war with Maduro’s regime remains on the table. “I don’t rule it out, no,” he said in a phone interview with the network.
TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban
TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened to ban the social media platform over privacy and national security concerns, a move that further strained relations with China.
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, has signed a deal with Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX that will allow it to retain control of its core US operations.
What else happened today:
The Kennedy Center has begun adding Donald Trump’s name to the building, a day after the president’s handpicked board voted to rename it “the Trump-Kennedy Center” and despite questions around the legality of a name change.
The non-profit group that Robert F Kennedy Jr built into a giant of the anti-vaccine movement is defending its old boss even as the US health secretary presides over the worst year for measles in more than 30 years.
Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade, has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns, in what appears to be an attempt to export what critics call its hard-right Christian theocratic values beyond US borders.
Pope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, now pastor of a predominantly Hispanic church in the Queens borough of New York City, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 18 December 2025.
