Justice Department set to release trove of Epstein files today

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said Friday morning that the Justice Department will release "several hundred thousand" documents related to its investigation into Epstein. He told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" that the batch will include photographs and other material, but indicated that there will be some information that is redacted to protect Epstein survivors.

"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, to the extent that it needs to be protected — is completely protected," Blanche said.

He predicted that the Justice Department will release more material in the coming weeks.

"So, today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more," Blanche said. "There's a lot of eyes looking at these, so we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials that we're producing, we're protecting every single victim."

The legislation passed by Congress in November requires the attorney general to make public all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials in possession of the Justice Department, the FBI and U.S. attorneys' offices within 30 days of becoming law. President Trump signed the law on Nov. 19.

The documents would stem from a pair of federal investigations, in Florida and New York, spanning more than a decade. 

The documents could include bank records, witness interviews, and messages or other files retrieved from Epstein's electronic devices. 

Read more here.

The law lets Attorney General Pam Bondi withhold files under narrow circumstances. 

Records can be redacted to remove survivors' personal information, and the Justice Department can hold back documents that include child sexual abuse material or "images of death, physical abuse, or injury of any person." If any materials need to "be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy," those wouldn't come out, either.

The law also allows for the withholding of records that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary."

One of the bill's initial sponsors, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, warned last month that the last category may come into play, as President Trump has directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein's relationships with high-profile Democrats.

"I'm concerned that now he's opening a flurry of investigations, and I believe they may be trying to use those investigations as a predicate for not releasing the files," Massie told reporters.

It isn't clear whether the Justice Department plans to use that provision to withhold files.

The law requires Bondi to provide lawmakers with a list of redacted and withheld records within 15 days of the files being made public. It also says: "No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."

Some case records were impacted by grand jury secrecy rules. But in recent weeks, three federal judges have ordered the unsealing of grand jury transcripts from Epstein's 2019 case, his convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell's 2020 case and an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, following requests from the Trump administration.

Tens of thousands of pages of documents have been released over the past year, in most cases by a House committee that subpoenaed the Justice Department and Epstein's estate. They included emails and text messages showing that Epstein continued to court the rich and famous right up until his 2019 arrest.

Dec. 18, 2025: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a batch of 68 photos from a trove of about 95,000 the committee obtained from Epstein's estate. 

Dec. 12, 2025: An earlier batch of photos from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, obtained from Epstein's estate, included snapshots of prominent figures like President Trump, former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, filmmaker Woody Allen and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The photos do not implicate any of those pictured in Epstein's crimes. 

Dec. 4, 2025: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released 73 photos and four videos of Epstein's estate on the 72-acre private island known as Little St. James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Epstein allegedly exploited underage girls for sex at the island, and he had stakes in businesses in the U.S. territory.

Nov. 12, 2025: The House Oversight Committee released 20,000 records from Epstein's estate, including scores of emails. The disgraced financier's messages often referenced Mr. Trump. Other messages showed him bantering with Larry Summers and attempting to reconnect with Bill Gates, neither of whom is accused of wrongdoing.

Sept. 8, 2025: House Oversight released a tranche of material from Epstein's estate, including a 2003 birthday note to Epstein that appeared to be signed by Mr. Trump. The president has denied penning the message. Republicans have often accused Democrats of cherry-picking documents.

Sept. 2, 2025: The panel released more than 33,000 pages of files from the Justice Department, including court documents, flight records from Epstein's private plane, and a video of Epstein's cell block from before his death that includes a minute missing from earlier videos. Many of the documents had been released before.

Aug. 22, 2025: The Justice Department released a transcript and audio recording of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's interview with convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence.

Feb. 27, 2025: The White House gave a group of 15 conservative influencers binders labeled "The Epstein Files: Phase 1," but the binders contained little new information.

Prior to 2025: Other documents, including contacts, schedules, flight logs and depositions, were made public previously, often as part of Epstein and Maxwell's criminal cases and in connection with civil lawsuits filed by survivors.

Dozens of Epstein's accusers have hailed the effort to release records on the late sex offender.

Annie Farmer, who testified that she was abused by Epstein and Maxwell when she was 16, called the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act a "long-overdue victory."

"It's also bittersweet because of, I think, what it took for us to get to this moment," Farmer said in an interview last month with "CBS Mornings." She added that she's hoping for more information on those who may have enabled Epstein and "people in positions of power that were looking the other way."

Her sister, Maria Farmer, accused Epstein and Maxwell of abuse in the 1990s, and has said the FBI ignored her initial report. In a statement shortly after Mr. Trump signed the bill, she said Congress "finally listened to survivors," but that the bill's passage "doesn't absolve the government and law enforcement's enormous failure to do its job in the past 30 years."

"I hope to see the government make good on its promise of transparency and release the entirety of the files — not bits and pieces, not mass redactions, but the complete truth, removing only child sexual abuse material and victim names and identifying information," she said. 

Before and after the bill passed, dozens of other survivors and their families signed open letters and held rallies pressing for the files to be released — including relatives of Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year.

Many survivors say careful redactions are necessary to ensure their privacy is protected. One law firm criticized the redactions so far as inadequate, writing in a letter last month to a judge who was weighing whether to unseal grand jury transcripts: "transparency CANNOT come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims."