Justice Department struggles to handle massive Epstein file release – The Washington Post
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an undated photo released by the Justice Department. (U.S. Department of Justice / AP)
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With more than a million pages to go, Justice struggles with Epstein files
Days after the deadline for release of the Epstein files, the Justice Department is far from its goal.
December 24, 2025 at 3:31 p.m. EST, Yesterday at 3:31 p.m. EST, 7 min
By Perry Stein
On Dec. 22 — three days past the congressionally mandated deadline for the Justice Department to release the entire trove of Epstein files — a top prosecutor in Florida sent an emergency request to employees in the Miami U.S. attorneys office.
The Justice Department immediately needed prosecutors over Christmas week to volunteer to review and redact information on documents from the sex-trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein so the materials could be released to the public.
“We have an obligation to the public to release these documents and before we can do so, certain redactions must be made to protect the identity of victims, among other things,” the email read, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. “I am aware that the timing could not be worse.”
That urgent request reflects the Justice Department’s choppy and often frenetic rollout of the massive Epstein investigatory files. In mid-November, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which ordered the release of nearly all unclassified government files on Epstein by Dec. 19, with necessary redactions to ensure that the identities of victims are protected.
The Justice Department building in Washington on Friday. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
Nearly a week past the deadline, the department appears to still be struggling to get its arms around the massive project and find an orderly way to make the files available to the public.
Officials announced on Wednesday that the FBI and prosecutors in New York had discovered “over a million” documents potentially related to the Epstein case, further dimming hopes for a quick process.
Asked about recruiting more prosecutors to review the documents, a Justice Department official said Wednesday that “we are whole heartedly committed to releasing everything to the public as quickly as possible.”
Follow Trump’s second term
Justice Department officials have defended their process, saying they are following the law by releasing all the files. That includes files that they say contain false allegations against the president and others that they say are fabrications. On Tuesday, they said that a card Epstein purportedly wrote from jail shortly before his death, which was included in Monday’s release, is fake.
Officials have acknowledged missing the deadline but said that protecting the identities of victims trumps releasing all of the documents by Dec. 19.
“We are doing everything we’re supposed to be doing to comply with this statute,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
The files stem from the 2008 and 2019 sex-trafficking investigations of Epstein, a convicted sex offender, whose 2019 death while in federal custody was ruled a suicide, and the 2021 conviction of his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell on sex-trafficking charges. Some of the files are based on an investigation that occurred in the Southern District of Florida.
The laborious process to review and redact what may be as many as a million pages of documents has required about 200 attorneys from the Justice Department’s National Security Division to work around-the-clock since Thanksgiving, according to two people with knowledge of the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
But it hasn’t been enough.
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