US President Donald Trump has dismissed the release of new photos showing him alongside Jeffrey Epstein saying the images were "no big deal".
"Everybody knew this man," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House last night.
"He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, almost - there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him."
Congressional Democrats released 19 new images from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein yesterday, including photos of Mr Trump, now the US president, as a deadline for an extensive release of documents related to the disgraced financier nears.
Mr Trump is featured in three of the photos shared by House Oversight Committee Democrats, who said they are reviewing more than 95,000 images produced by the estate.
In one black-and-white photo, Mr Trump is seen smiling with several women - whose faces are redacted - on each side of him. A second image shows Mr Trump standing beside Epstein, and a third, less-clear image shows him seated alongside another woman, whose face is also redacted, with his red tie loosened.
It was not clear when or where all of the photos were taken, and there is no suggestion the pictures imply any wrongdoing.
The Epstein case has been a political headache for Mr Trump for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters.
Many Trump voters believe Trump administration officials have covered up Epstein's ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
The Justice Department said in July that there was no evidence to justify investigating any third parties in the Epstein case, and that it had found no "client list" or people who might have been involved in sex trafficking, or any evidence that Epstein had blackmailed anyone.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found that just half of Republicans approve of Mr Trump's handling of the Epstein case, well below his overall 85% approval rating in his own party.
Mr Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and early 2000s, but Mr Trump has said he broke off ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges.
Mr Trump has consistently denied knowing about Epstein’s abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls.
