The Justice Department released hundreds of thousands of pages of records related to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Friday, hours after a top official teased more material would be released in the coming days.
The DOJ webpage holding the files buckled under the weight of millions of search requests once the files were released shortly after 4 p.m. ET. Media outlets and amateur sleuths were herded into a virtual queue — only to be redirected back into line and be told their place was no longer in effect.
Friday was the deadline for the DOJ to comply with a bipartisan law signed by President Trump ordering the disclosure of “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” — as well as classified information to the maximum extent possible — related to Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
However, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told “Fox & Friends” that Friday’s release would not mark the end of the disclosures.
“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim — their name, their identity, their story, to the extent these are protected — is completely protected,” he said.
“And so I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand. And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”
Top Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees were quick to accuse the Trump administration of trying to duck the law’s requirements, which include a Jan. 3 deadline to provide legal explanations for holding back any Epstein-related material.
“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar international sex trafficking ring,” said Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “For months, [Attorney General] Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve … The Department of Justice is now making it clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” Gardia and Raskin added. “The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.”
The bill to release the files, co-sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), had been stalled in the House of Representatives for months before three other Republicans — Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — signed on to a discharge petition forcing a vote over the objections of Republican leadership and President Trump, who Greene recently claimed berated her over the move.
Trump had insisted for months that the push to release the files was a Democrat-led “hoax” meant to distract from his accomplishments, but the commander in chief bowed to political reality and signed the bill after it passed the House, 427-1, and cleared the Senate by unanimous consent.
Among the files expected to be released Friday were grand jury transcripts from the federal investigation into Epstein as well as Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty in December 2021 of sex trafficking conspiracy and other charges.
Judges have also approved releasing grand jury information about a Florida investigation into child sex offenses by Epstein, which led to him taking a sweetheart plea deal in 2008 — under which he served just 13 months in state prison, spending much of that time on work release.
Friday’s release will follow the Nov. 12 disclosure of 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate obtained by the House Oversight Committee. Democrats on the panel have also released dozens of photographs featuring Epstein with some of his famous and powerful friends — including film director Woody Allen; Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; political theorist Noam Chomsky; and former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon.
Public interest in the Epstein case intensified after the FBI and DOJ released a joint memo July 6 concluding that Epstein committed suicide in jail and did not keep a “client list” of rich and powerful men to whom he trafficked girls as young as 14 — contrary to widespread speculation.
