President Donald Trump made a revealing statement during a press conference on Monday about the Jeffrey Epstein files that were released over the weekend.
Trump spoke to reporters at Mar-a-Lago after announcing that his administration is creating a new class of warships, called the Trump Class. One reporter asked him about the appearance of former President Bill Clinton in the released files, prompting an unsolicited yet revealing response from Trump.
"Were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein Files, and can you commit to releasing them in full by the end of the year?" the reporter asked.
"A lot of people are angry about all of the pictures," Trump said. "I think it's terrible. I like Bill Clinton. I've always been nice to him and he's always been nice to me. We've always gotten along. I respect him. I hate to see the photos come out, but this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats and a couple of bad Republicans, are asking for. They gave them photos of me, too."
"Everyone was friendly with this guy. Whether friendly or not friendly, he was all over Palm Beach [Florida]," Trump said, repeating the claim that he "threw [Epstein] out" of Mar-a-Lago.
"I don't like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown," he added. "I don't like any of the pictures being shown. I think it's a terrible thing. I think Bill Clinton's a big boy. He can handle it."
Trump's comments come at a time when his administration is facing growing scrutiny over its handling of the Epstein files. Survivors of Epstein's crimes have accused the administration of mishandling the documents in order to protect Trump from any negative backlash.
On Friday, the Department of Justice released a new trove of documents that some analysts noted were heavily redacted. Others. found there were missing documents that obscured the picture of the files, Axios reported.
Clinton's camp has called for the full release of the files.