The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Justice Department did not say why the files were removed or whether their disappearance was intentional. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.

Scant new insight in the initial disclosures

Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.

Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.

The gaps go further.

The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountability

Among the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.

The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.

There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.

Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the law forced the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.

“I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.

Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked context

Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.

The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.

Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases or freedom of information requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.

Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.

Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions and was no explanation given for why any of them were together.

The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 yet never charged him.

Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.

One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.

Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.

“For every girl that I brought to the table he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are under age, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”

The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.

Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.

He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.

“I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.

“There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.

In a wide-ranging and lengthy press conference to mark the end of his first year as America’s top diplomat, Rubio faced several questions on the Trump administration’s new national security strategy that seeks to re-establish U.S. leadership and dominance over the hemisphere.

The strategy, which sets out a desire to “enlist” countries in the Western hemisphere to carry out U.S. policy goals in the region, has raised alarm bells in Canada about those countries becoming American so-called “vassal states.”

Rubio, who also serves as U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said he was involved in crafting the strategy and said the entire goal was to protect American national interests.

Asked how the strategy will impact relations with other hemispheric powers like Canada and Mexico, Rubio suggested those and other countries in the region have the same goal of safety and security.

“We want to partner with as many people (as we can) — they face the same threats that we do,” he said, pointing to violence and corruption in parts of Mexico as examples of the threat posed by transnational drug cartels — a threat Canada also faces.

“They (Mexico) recognize it, which is why they’re partnering with us. Of course we want to work with other governments in the region to confront this challenge, and in most cases we have cooperative places.”

2:12 U.S. unveils new security strategy focused on own interests

Trump’s strategy for the Western hemisphere has seen recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela, which Rubio repeatedly insisted Friday are focused on stopping drug trafficking, not on ousting President Nicolas Maduro from power.

“It is clear that the current status quo with the Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States, the status quo that they … not just cooperate but partner with and participate in activities that threaten the national interest of United States,” he said. “So yes, our goal is to change that dynamic.

“We have a regime that’s illegitimate,” he added, a comment he made multiple times while pointing to both the disputed presidential election last year and a U.S. indictment against Maduro.

In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Trump would not rule out a war with Venezuela.

Rubio said he would not speculate on whether the U.S. will take any additional actions that, by law, will require congressional approval. He said “nothing has happened” so far that would require that approval “or cross the threshold into war.”

3:20 Trump doubles down on threats of land strikes in Venezuela after U.S. immobilizes alleged drug boat

He wouldn’t directly comment when asked about U.S. media reports that both the United Kingdom and Canada have distanced themselves from lethal — and controversial — boat strikes in the Caribbean against suspected drug smuggling boats by refusing or limiting intelligence sharing, and whether that was harming relations with those allies.

However, he suggested both that the reports were false and that the U.S. doesn’t need outside intelligence to conduct the operations or establish their legality.

“Look, every day I read stuff that’s just not true,” he said, telling the assembled reporters, “You guys are being lied to sometimes.”

“We have everything we need” for the boat strikes, he added, “and it’s one of the reasons why you’ve seen this massive deployment in the region is to be able to gather intelligence and paint a picture that we can justify to lawyers based on the law. So I’m very confident about that effort, it’s been very successful.”

Ottawa has previously said the Canadian military and government is not involved in the U.S. operations.

Rubio’s press conference came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his own year-end review to reporters in Moscow, where he held firm on his stance that the war in Ukraine would end with Russia gaining Ukrainian land by either force or through a negotiated settlement.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials are meeting with Middle East mediators in Miami this weekend for more talks.

1:57 Zelenskyy says Russia could see new peace deal in days

Rubio said there would be no peace deal unless both Ukraine and Russia can agree to the terms, making it impossible for the U.S. to force a deal on anyone. Instead, the U.S. is trying to “figure out if we can nudge both sides to a common place.”

Asked if the U.S. would help defend Europe — where leaders are growing increasingly concerned about Russian aggression and encroachment — from a possible attack, Rubio said the commitment to collective self-defence has not wavered.

“Article 5 in the NATO alliance is important, and the president has reiterated that,” he said. “We think it’s a very strong deterrent against any of these fears or concerns that any of our allies in the region may have. And the president’s been clear that we are committed to NATO, we’re committed to the alliance, and our commitment isn’t just rhetorical.

“The only thing we’re asking for, which is not unfair, is for our partners in the alliance to improve their own capabilities … the truth of the matter is that NATO is the key defence alliance and agreement that has provided stability on the European continent. We believe it is stronger today than it’s ever been.”

Canada joined NATO allies this year in committing to spending five per cent of its GDP on defence by 2035, 3.5 per cent of which will be on core military investments.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has boosted defence spending since taking office in March, and has vowed Canada will reach the past NATO defence spending target of two per cent this year.

Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief.

Investigators believe he is responsible for fatally shooting two students and wounding nine other people in a Brown lecture hall last Saturday, then killing MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro two days later at his home in the Boston suburbs, nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Providence. Perez said as far as investigators know, Neves Valente acted alone.

Portugal’s top diplomat said Friday that the government was taken aback by revelations that a Portuguese man is the main suspect in the mass shooting at Brown and the killing of an MIT professor who was of the same nationality. Police said they were contacted by U.S. authorities Thursday once Neves Valente was named.

Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said Portugal has provided “very broad cooperation” in the case. He said in comments to the national news agency Lusa that “the investigation is far from over.”

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled there as a graduate student studying physics from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001.

“He has no current affiliation with the university,” she said.

1:44 FBI releases new images of Brown University shooting suspect, announces $50K reward for info

Neves Valente and Loureiro previously attended the same academic program at a university in Portugal between 1995 and 2000, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said. Loureiro graduated from the physics program at Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal’s premier engineering school, in 2000, according to his MIT faculty page. The same year, Neves Valente was let go from a position at the Lisbon university, according to an archive of a termination notice from the school’s then-president in February 2000.

Neves Valente, who was born in Torres Novas, Portugal, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Lisbon, had come to Brown on a student visa. He eventually obtained legal permanent residence status in September 2017, Foley said. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017. His last known residence was in Miami.

After officials revealed the suspect’s identity, President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program that allowed Neves Valente to stay in the United States.

There are still “a lot of unknowns” in regard to motive, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students and why this classroom,” he said.

The FBI previously said it knew of no links between the Rhode Island and Massachusetts shootings.

Police credited a person who had several encounters with Neves Valente for providing a crucial tip that led authorities to him.

After police shared security video of a person of interest, the witness — known only as “John” in a Providence police affidavit — recognized him and posted his suspicions on the social media forum Reddit. Reddit users urged him to tell the FBI, and John said he did.

John said he had encountered Neves Valente hours earlier in the bathroom of the engineering building where the shooting occurred and noticed he was wearing inappropriate clothing for the weather, according to the affidavit. He again bumped into Neves Valente a couple blocks away and saw him suddenly turn away from a Nissan sedan when he saw John.

“When you do crack it, you crack it. And that person led us to the car, which led us to the name,” Neronha said.

His tip pointed investigators to a Nissan Sentra with Florida plates. That enabled Providence police to tap into a network of more than 70 street cameras operated around the city by surveillance company Flock Safety. Those cameras track license plates and other vehicle details.

After leaving Rhode Island, Providence officials said Neves Valente stuck a Maine license plate over his rental car’s plate to help conceal his identity.

Investigators found footage of Neves Valente entering an apartment building near Loureiro’s in a Boston suburb. About an hour later, Neves Valente was seen entering the Salem, New Hampshire, storage facility where he was found dead, Foley said. He had with him a satchel and two firearms, Neronha said.

2:05 Brown University shooting hits close to home for Habs coach

Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, had joined MIT in 2016 and was named last year to lead the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, one of its largest laboratories. The scientist from Viseu, Portugal, had been working to explain the physics behind astronomical phenomena such as solar flares.

In Lisbon, he was remembered as a highly regarded researcher and instructor for “all the contributions he gave and what he could still have given, all the equations left unwritten,” said Professor Bruno Gonçalves, head of the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at Instituto Superior Tecnico.

Gonçalves added, “It is difficult to imagine in what context someone would want to harm someone that works in this field.”

The two Brown students killed during a study session for final exams were 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. Cook was active in her Alabama church and served as vice president of the Brown College Republicans.

Umurzokov’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a child, and he aspired to be a doctor.

As for the wounded, three had been discharged and six were in stable condition Thursday, officials said.

Although Brown officials say there are 1,200 cameras on campus, the attack happened in an older part of the engineering building that has few, if any, cameras. And investigators believe the shooter entered and left through a door that faces a residential street bordering campus, which might explain why the cameras Brown does have didn’t capture footage of the person.