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United States President Donald Trump says people who “innocently met” Jeffrey Epstein in the past risked having their reputations ruined by the release of the investigative files on the convicted sex offender.

Trump, in his first comments since the Justice Department began releasing the files on Friday, also dismissed the furore over Epstein as a distraction from his party’s achievements.

“This whole thing with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Former President Bill Clinton featured prominently in the first batch of photos from the Epstein files released by the Justice Department and Trump was asked for his reaction.

Bill Clinton with an unknown woman. Photo / US Department of Justice

“I like Bill Clinton. I’ve always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I hate to see photos come out of him,” he said.

“There’s photos of me too,” Trump noted. “Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein).”

From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. Photo / Getty Images

Trump said he did not like the release of pictures of Clinton and others, calling it a “terrible thing”.

“Bill Clinton’s a big boy, he can handle it,” he said.

“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.”

The Republican president said 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,” he said.

Epstein and Steve Bannon sit together in an office,

Epstein and Noam Chomsky together on a plane.

Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in what was ruled a suicide.

- Agence France-Presse