DOJ Chickens Out on Epstein Files Release in Violation of New Law

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will fail to publicly release all of its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by a Friday deadline, violating a new federal law explicitly mandating that the trove of documents be turned over for public scrutiny. 

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the admission Friday morning in an interview with Fox News. 

He said the DOJ would release hundreds of thousands of files later Friday — a fraction of its materials on Epstein — and “several hundred thousand more” documents over the next couple of weeks — a delay that is not allowed under the new law.

Blanche, who was formerly one of Trump’s personal attorneys, claimed that the DOJ needed additional time to redact the files in order to protect victims. However, the law had already given the department 30 days to process the material, and the FBI started an extensive review and redaction process on the documents in March.

The law in question, which Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed last month, requires the department to release all of the material it had gathered over the past two decades through investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.

The materials include “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” it has on Epstein, his associates or entities with ties to his trafficking or financial networks.

Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019, was a longtime associate of Trump’s. 

While he has acknowledged his past friendship with Epstein, Trump denied involvement in, or knowledge of, Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation and claimed they had a falling out in the mid-2000s. 

However, the president, his former attorneys in the DOJ and his allies in Congress have also repeatedly attempted to prevent the release of the Epstein files. Emails from Epstein’s estate released by the House Oversight Committee last month also indicated that the convicted sex offender believed Trump knew of his abuses.

After Blanche’s comments, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), co-sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, posted a copy of the law on social media with the phrase “not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act” and the word “all” highlighted.

Top Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees also slammed the department’s attempt to withhold material past the Friday deadline.

“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,” Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (Md.) said in a statement Friday. “The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.”

“Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law,” they added. “We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.”

Prominent MAGA influencers have long supported the DOJ releasing whatever material it has on Epstein. Attorney General Pam Bondi also initially supported their release shortly after assuming her office.

Asked in a February Fox News interview about the existence of a “list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,” Bondi said it was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Later that same month, she released a “first phase” of declassified Epstein files, though many of the documents had already been made public. 

The attorney general’s attitude toward releasing the files appeared to shift after she informed the president in a May briefing that his name appeared in them. The DOJ and FBI later released a memo in July claiming that a review found no Epstein “client list” and confirmed the disgraced financier died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Before Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Trump repeatedly referred to the Epstein scandal as a “hoax” and attempted to quash the bill by publicly attacking Republican lawmakers who supported the legislation, such as Massie. 

Privately, White House officials pressured Republican detractors to pull their support of the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also attempted to block the bill by refusing to bring it to the floor for a vote. The bill only passed the House after Democrats and a handful of Republicans signed a discharge petition to force a vote.