‘Incomplete Release’: DOJ Chickens Out on Epstein Files in Violation of New Law

The Department of Justice (DOJ) failed 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, Republican and Democratic lawmakers said.

In a video statement, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said the thousands of heavily redacted Epstein-related documents the DOJ disclosed Friday failed to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which he co-sponsored with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The law, which Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed last month, required Attorney General Pam Bondi to reveal all of the material the department had gathered over the past two decades through investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.

“It is an incomplete release,” Khanna said, adding that he and Massie were exploring possible responses, including bringing impeachment charges against DOJ officials.

Responding to Khanna’s video on social media, Massie said the release “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”

Before the deadline, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche admitted in a Fox News interview that Friday’s production of documents would be incomplete. 

He said the DOJ would release hundreds of thousands of files — 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 required the department to disclose “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” it had 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 on Fox News, Massie 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 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.

“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,” they added.

After the DOJ released an initial batch of documents, Blanche told Congress in a letter that the department would release additional material “on a rolling basis” after the 30-day deadline.

“The Department has worked diligently to meet the Act’s deadline. But the volume of materials to be reviewed — many of which continue to be produced to [Justice Management Division] — means that the Department must publicly produce responsive documents on a rolling basis,” Blanche wrote in the letter.

“The Department’s need to perform rolling productions is consistent with well-settled case law that statutes should be interpreted to not require the impossible,” he claimed.

The DOJ withheld the names and identifiers of victims in its initial release using an internal redaction standard. However, the department also applied that same standard to “politically exposed individuals and government officials,” according to Fox News Digital.

It’s unclear why the DOJ applied a redaction standard to politicians or government officials when the law states that “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.”

In statements on social media, the DOJ said it would be in compliance with the law, which it claimed “had a carveout to protect victims.”

While the law indeed allows the attorney general to “withhold or redact the segregable portions of records” that contain personally identifiable information of victims or graphic content, it does not say whether the department can withhold documents past the deadline in order to process material, as Blanche suggested.

The department is also required to send Congress written justification for any redactions, as well as a follow-up report with a summary of all redactions and the legal basis for them.

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.