US President Donald Trump on Monday (local time) said the release of investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein risks damaging the reputations of people who had “innocently met” him in the past, as the Justice Department began making the material public, AFP reported.Speaking to reporters at his Mar a Lago residence in Palm Beach, Donald Trump dismissed the renewed focus on Epstein as a political distraction. “This whole thing with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has,” he said.Trump made the remarks after former US president Bill Clinton featured prominently in the first batch of photographs released from the Epstein files. Asked about Clinton, Trump said, “I like Bill Clinton. I’ve always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I hate to see photos come out of him.” “There’s photos of me too,” Trump added. “Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein).”The Republican president said he opposed the release of such images, calling it a “terrible thing.” “Bill Clinton’s a big boy, he can handle it,” he said.Trump warned that the disclosures could unfairly harm others who had no involvement in Epstein’s crimes. “But 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,” he said.He added that many people were upset about the release of the photographs. “A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein. But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody,” Trump said.Epstein, a wealthy financier with extensive political and social connections, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide
