WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Justice Department began releasing millions of new pages on Friday from the Jeffrey Epstein files along with photos and videos, adding fuel to the politically explosive case that has dogged President Donald Trump.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the White House played no role in the review of the extensive files related to the convicted sex offender, a former friend of Trump.

“They did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what to not redact,” Blanche said at a press conference.

The Justice Department said some of the documents being released contained “untrue and sensationalist claims” about the 79-year-old Trump submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation before the 2020 presidential election.

But Blanche — who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer — dismissed suggestions that embarrassing material about the president had been redacted from the more than three million documents, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos being released on Friday.

“We did not protect President Trump,” he said. “We didn’t protect or not protect anybody.”

Blanche said all images of girls and women were being redacted aside from those of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of trafficking underage girls for Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

However, a statement by survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse claimed identifying information about them still remained in the files, “while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected.”

The letter signed by 19 individuals, some using aliases or initials, demanded “the full release of the Epstein files” and that Attorney General Pam Bondi directly address the matter when she testifies before Congress next month.

A wealthy US financier, Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls. His death was ruled a suicide.