Millions more documents in the Epstein files released

The U.S. Justice Department has released many more records from its investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, resuming disclosures under a law intended to reveal what the government knew about the disgraced millionaire financier's activities, and his interactions with rich and powerful people such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.

The U.S. Justice Department has released 3 million pages of documents in the latest Jeffrey Epstein disclosure, along with 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

The documents were disclosed Friday under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law intended to reveal what the government knew about the millionaire financier's sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with the rich and powerful.

The Associated Press' Michael Sisak said: "Among the things we're seeing as we comb through these records are files from court proceedings and investigations into Epstein and Maxwell correspondence that he had with friends and associates, and we're seeing photographs and videos in which some faces are blacked out, redacted."

Some of the people associated with Epstein revealed in the files included celebrities, politicians and ex-U.S. presidents.

Criminal defense attorney, John Day said: "The (Steve) Bannon connection is fascinating because it shows that Epstein's reach was phenomenal. I mean, whether it was people like Woody Allen or Bill Clinton, Steven Bannon, Donald Trump, Epstein was a the centre of a lot of circles, a lot of concentric circles. And that was the American elite of politics, finance and entertainment society. And he's - it just shows that he had something that people wanted."

Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche said the category of documents withheld in this latest release include those that contain personal information of the victims.

Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche said: "The categories of documents withheld include those permitted under the Act to be withheld. Files that contain personally identified information of victims or victim's personal and medical files, and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."