The DOJ’s Jeffrey Epstein Files Are Here

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Well, they’re finally here. On Friday, the United States Department of Justice released a large trove of files related to infamous convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The release comes just eight hours before the deadline mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month.

For the Trump administration, Epstein has been “a guy that never dies,” in the words of Trump himself. Since the start of Trump’s second term, the DOJ and FBI have been scouring the agencies’ investigative holdings and releasing portions of that in spurts. While Friday’s release marks the largest trove of Epstein-related documents to date, the DOJ did not release all the documents in its possession, potentially setting off a legal fight that could lead to impeachment or even prosecution of department officials under the law.

In July, a joint memo from the DOJ and FBI said that after an “exhaustive review” of records, it had uncovered “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence.” Not all of that is part of today’s release. The DOJ is allowed to withhold or redact certain categories of information from public disclosure, including information that would identify victims (the memo noted that a large portion of the evidence included images and videos of victims) and illegal child sex abuse material (which the memo said was also included in the holdings.) The DOJ will have to submit a report to Congress within 15 days listing the categories of records released and withheld, as well as a summary of redactions made and their legal basis.

The release includes materials gathered as part of DOJ investigations into Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for crimes related to Epstein. That includes logged physical evidence, scans of call logs, an entire scan of Massage for Dummies, and more.

As part of their compliance with the Epstein transparency law, DOJ attorneys filed several motions to unseal grand jury materials in matters related to Epstein and Maxwell. Those motions were granted earlier this month.

In addition to those materials, the law requires the DOJ to release other types of information in its possession, including those related to individuals and organizations with known or alleged ties to Epstein and his criminal networks, internal communications about decisions on whether to investigate or charge Epstein, and records related to his death while in his cell.

The law only implicates the DOJ, and does not compel other agencies or entities to release anything. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform, for example, has also sent letters or subpoenas to the US Virgin Islands attorney general, Epstein’s estate, and J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank. Senator Ron Wyden is also trying to pass a bill called the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act, which would force the Treasury to produce records it has related to Epstein and his associates.

Time and again, people have complained that the material being released by the DOJ isn’t all that new or helpful.

One of the judges who granted this month’s motions reiterated his skepticism that the grand jury materials would be useful in furthering the public’s understanding of Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, quoting a previous opinion he wrote in which he said the public “would come away feeling disappointed and misled” if they looked at them.

After the House Oversight Committee received over 33,000 pages of documents from the DOJ in August, committee Democrats complained that “97 percent of pages included information previously released by the Department of Justice, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office.”