The Justice Department on Friday released an initial tranche of records related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, beginning a document rollout mandated by the newly enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act but falling short of a full disclosure by the statutory deadline.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the release marks the first phase of a broader production that is expected to continue into the coming weeks, as officials review and redact sensitive material involving Epstein’s victims and open legal matters.
The documents included flight logs, a contact list, footage from the Bureau of Prisons, and other Justice Department documents. It was not immediately clear which records were previously unreleased and which had already been in the public domain.
The documents were released at around 3 p.m. ET on Friday, following days of mounting pressure from lawmakers and survivors’ advocates demanding full compliance with the law, which required the DOJ to make public all unclassified Epstein-related records in its possession by Dec. 19.
Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month after a bipartisan discharge petition forced a vote over the objections of House leadership, and it was subsequently signed by President Donald Trump. The law compels the DOJ, the FBI, and U.S. attorneys’ offices to release investigative files stemming from Epstein’s federal cases in Florida and New York, with narrow exceptions for victim privacy, graphic material, national security, and temporarily for active investigations.
Blanche said earlier Friday that the department would release “several hundred thousand” pages in the initial tranche, with additional batches expected over the next several weeks.
“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce making sure every victim — their name, their identity, their story — is completely protected,” Blanche said in a televised interview.
Scope of records
The newly released material appeared to include some from the trial of Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence.
The documents also included court records tied to Epstein’s 2008 prosecution in South Florida and his 2019 federal prosecution in the Southern District of New York.
In recent weeks, multiple federal judges approved the unsealing of certain grand jury materials after the Trump administration petitioned the courts, clearing a major legal obstacle that had previously shielded portions of the Epstein record from disclosure.
Lawmakers react
Democratic leaders sharply criticized the Justice Department’s decision to stagger the release, arguing that anything short of a full production by Friday violates the statute.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the administration was “hellbent on hiding the truth,” while Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Robert Garcia (D-CA) said they are examining legal options to force compliance.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a lead sponsor of the law, has also warned that the public will be able to tell quickly whether the DOJ is withholding substantive material, particularly FBI interview records, commonly known as FD-302s, that reference alleged co-conspirators.
Massie made a 14-minute video explaining that one way the public will know if the DOJ is withholding key information is by relying on “people who have covered this case for years.”
“The victims’ lawyers have been in contact with me and, collectively, they know that there are the names of at least 20 men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI. These would reside in the FD-302 forms,” Massie said.
“So if we get a large production on Dec. 19th and it does not contain the name of a single male accused of a sex crime or, sex trafficking … then we know they haven’t produced all the documents,” he continued.
Although the 302s from the Epstein case have long been sought by journalists and others with a deep interest in Epstein’s crimes, it is important to note that claims on 302 documents are not definitively true or corroborated by additional evidence, which is why the FBI typically does not release such records.
Survivors and transparency
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have largely welcomed the release effort while stressing the need for careful redactions to protect victims’ identities.
Annie Farmer, who testified that she was abused by Epstein and Maxwell as a teenager, previously called the law’s passage a “long-overdue victory,” while emphasizing that transparency must not come at the expense of survivor safety.
The law also requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to provide Congress with a detailed accounting of any redacted or withheld records within 15 days of the public release. It explicitly bars withholding documents on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.
Many lawmakers, including Massie, have dangled the threat of lawsuits if the records are not released by the end of the day on Friday. But the department’s promise to continue the release of files in the weeks ahead will likely moot any of these potential suits, in part because the records release could be completed before courts have a chance to determine whether the DOJ failed to comply with the law.
Additionally, Bondi announced last month that, at the direction of Trump himself, she would be directing the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to reopen an investigation into high-profile individuals allegedly linked to Epstein.
Trump demanded that Bondi look into whether Epstein had deeper ties to former President Bill Clinton or other prominent Democrats, but the investigation effectively gives the DOJ a clear line of defense to avoid sharing completed files or redacting some others due to a long-standing policy that bars publicly releasing information that is tied to an active investigation.
The Justice Department has not yet said when the next tranche of Epstein files will be released, though Blanche indicated additional batches are expected in the coming weeks as review continues.