New York Times reporters are sifting through the material and providing updates and analysis.

The latest release of Epstein material was mandated by an act of Congress, which set a deadline of midnight Friday. Though Republican leaders worked for months to stop the legislation, it passed the House and Senate nearly unanimously in November and was then signed by President Trump. Mr. Trump had opposed any release of new information for months and had pressed Republicans to block the bill requiring it. But, facing a revolt among his supporters, he reversed himself and urged its passage.

The files made public on Friday appeared to include only rare mentions of Mr. Trump, but they did feature numerous photographs of people known to have associated with Mr. Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton; Mr. Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell; Prince Andrew of Britain and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson; and celebrities, journalists and musicians like Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and Diana Ross.

The context of the photographs, the locations where they were taken and their connection to Mr. Epstein was frequently unclear.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said Friday that the Justice Department had planned to release “several hundred thousand” Epstein-related documents from its investigative files. But he also said the government would hold back an unknown amount of material while its lawyers continue to comb through it.

In a letter to members of Congress obtained by The Times, Mr. Blanche said that the Justice Department had identified 1,200 names of victims of Mr. Epstein or their relatives, and that its lawyers needed more time to redact or withhold materials that could reveal their identities.

In the letter, Mr. Blanche promised the release of more documents over the next two weeks, and said the Justice Department “will inform Congress when that review and production are complete by the end of this year.”

Here’s what else to know.

• Document review: A preliminary review by Times reporters suggests that much of the Epstein materials derive from three investigations into his interactions with young women and girls: an initial inquiry opened by the police in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005; a subsequent investigation conducted by federal prosecutors in Florida that ended in 2008 with a plea deal for Mr. Epstein; and a final inquiry by prosecutors in Manhattan in 2019 that was never resolved because he died in prison while the case was proceeding.

• Focus on Clinton: The documents appeared to focus heavily on Mr. Clinton, at a time when Republicans are trying to shift public attention from Mr. Epstein’s friendship with President Trump. Dozens of photos released on Friday include one of Mr. Clinton in a hot tub and another showing him swimming in a pool with Ms. Maxwell. Mr. Clinton is one of the few people whose faces were not redacted, along with Mr. Epstein himself and Ms. Maxwell.

• Epstein and Trump: White House officials have acknowledged that Mr. Trump appears in the Epstein files, and his name appeared in a trove of emails released in November. But his name is rarely mentioned in Friday’s release, and most of the photos in which he appears were already public, including shots of him and his wife, Melania, with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell.