DOJ releases first round of the Epstein Files. Here's what we know so far

After nearly two decades, the Justice Department on Friday finally released at least a portion of its files on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — but a very small one.

The documents are part of the voluminous government files gathered by the DOJ through four presidential administrations, which officials have said number in the hundreds of thousands. Yet only roughly 4,000 were published on the DOJ website by Friday evening, some heavily redacted.

Friday was the deadline for the DOJ to release the trove. The disclosure was forced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who authored a new law, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, requiring the government make the Epstein case material public.

For months, President Donald Trump criticized the intense public focus on the documents, amid wide scrutiny into his friendship with Epstein. But on Nov. 19 he signed the act into law, giving the Attorney General 30 days to release the files.

But early Friday, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News that he expected several hundred thousand files would be released first, then “several hundred thousand more” in following weeks.

Congressional leaders slammed the DOJ for Blanche’s statement that only some of the files would be released on time.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, a co-sponsor of the Epstein files legislation, posted a photo on social media of the law highlighting the word “all.”

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-CA, and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, released a joint statement threatened legal action.

“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring,” they wrote. “We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”

The names of victims and their identifying factors, as well as materials deemed part of an open criminal investigation will be scrubbed from the files. However, the names of people suspected of being involved with Epstein are supposed to be made public.

Representatives who sponsored the act have warned that any violations of the measure could lead to prosecution. The act does not specify any penalties, but notes that the Attorney General must submit to the House and Senate Committees on the Judiciary a summary of redactions and their legal basis within 15 days.

“Anyone who tampers with these documents, or conceals documents, or engages in excessive redaction, will be prosecuted, because of obstruction of justice,” said California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna on social media on Thursday. “Finally, rich and powerful men who raped underage girls, who covered up for this abuse, will be held accountable.”

Unsealing the Epstein Files capped years of intense political debate in Washington which began in 2018, when the Miami Herald published an investigation into the case that raised questions about whether the deal prosecutors gave Epstein was legal.

Seven months later, Epstein was arrested by prosecutors in New York. He died a month later in federal prison. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

In the wake of the scandal, the U.S. Attorney in Miami who signed off on the deal, Alex Acosta, resigned as labor secretary under President Donald Trump.

The DOJ opened a probe into the deal in 2019, concluding that while Acosta had executed “poor judgment” neither he nor any of the prosecutors committed professional misconduct. A federal judge, however, ruled that the deal Epstein was given violated the federal Victims’ Rights Act.

The case continued to attract more scrutiny in 2021 as the DOJ successfully prosecuted Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Then, as Trump campaigned to return to the White House in 2024 he and his supporters made the case part of the campaign. Trump indicated he would release at least some of the case files, and his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, promised full transparency.

But Bondi failed to fulfill that promise, causing a public outcry that only grew after she and FBI Director Kash Patel reversed course in July in a memo and closed the case, noting that there was no “credible” evidence that Epstein had blackmailed prominent individuals, or evidence to investigate anyone, other than Epstein, for committed crimes.

Trump confidant Elon Musk then abruptly announced on his social media platform X that the reason the files weren’t being unsealed was because Trump’s name was in them. Trump tried to distance himself from Epstein, denying he had much of a connection to the sex trafficker, other than in passing at parties and events.

Donald Trump is shown next to six unidentified women, in an undated photo provided by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to the House Oversight Committee.

Those statements seemed to fall flat after the House Oversight Committee earlier this year opened an investigation and began requesting files from the late financier’s estate. Among the files was a “Birthday Book,” that contained an intimately worded drawing and poem, purportedly written and signed by Trump in 2003. Trump has denied the drawing – and the signature – were his.

“Our government conspired with him and, in doing so, failed to protect hundreds of girls who would never have been harmed had our government simply done its job,” a group of over 20 survivors wrote in a November letter to Congressional representatives.

Undated photograph including Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell from the Epstein estate’s document production to the House Oversight Committee. House Oversight Committee Democrats

Epstein maintained relationships with powerful men: from tech titans like Bill Gates, to director Woody Allen, to former Harvard President Larry Summers, and even heads of state – including former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and United States presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

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