DOJ says it will finish releasing Epstein files "in the near term," but doesn't offer specific date

Top Justice Department officials said Tuesday they expect to finish reviewing and publishing files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein soon, but cannot provide a specific timeline.

A federal law required the Justice Department to release its massive trove of records on Epstein by mid-December. The department has released over 100,000 pages so far, but it has acknowledged that the vast majority of documents that may relate to Epstein still haven't been made public, arguing more time is needed to ensure the files are properly redacted to protect the identities of survivors of Epstein's abuse.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top Justice Department officials updated the judges in Epstein and his convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell's cases on their efforts to scour through the documents in a letter sent Tuesday.

They said they have made "substantial progress," with hundreds of department employees manually reviewing millions of pages of records and, in some cases, conducting electronic name searches to find and redact hundreds of potential victims' identities.

"The Department currently expects that it will complete these processes with respect to substantially all of the potentially responsive documents, including publication to the Epstein Library website, in the near term," said the letter.

The Justice Department said it "is not able to provide a specific date at this time," and warned it may need to make "additional efforts to ensure the protection of victim identifying information."

Earlier this month, the Justice Department told a judge it had released 12,285 documents so far, totaling 125,575 pages, but more than 2 million documents were still "in various stages of review" — meaning it had reviewed less than 1% of its total possible records on Epstein. Some of those still-unreviewed documents may be duplicates, the department cautioned.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed in mid-November, gave the Justice Department 30 days to release files on Epstein and Maxwell. That includes decades-old records from the earliest investigations into Epstein, documents from Epstein and Maxwell's 2019 and 2020 sex trafficking cases and files related to Epstein's death by suicide while in pre-trial custody.

The law allows the government to redact the files under limited circumstances, including to take out victims' names. The judge in Maxwell's case has also required the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan to "personally certify" that any grand jury materials that are released have been "rigorously reviewed" to take out victims' identities.

Some lawmakers have sharply criticized the Justice Department for the pace of its review, given that Congress required the files to be made public by Dec. 12. 

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who cosponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, suggested this month that the judge in Maxwell's case appoint an independent "special master" to ensure the files are made public.

"The Department of Justice is openly defying the law by refusing to release the full Epstein files," Khanna said in a statement. "Millions of files are being kept from the public."

Massie argued the Justice Department "has shown it cannot be trusted with making the disclosures required by law."

The Justice Department pushed back, arguing the law does not give Khanna and Massie the right to seek relief in court. The department has defended its handling of the files, saying "careful, manual review" is needed to protect victims.

The judge overseeing Maxwell's case ruled last week that he didn't have authority to oversee the Justice Department's compliance with the law. He added that nothing is stopping Khanna and Massie from filing a separate lawsuit against the government, and said the two lawmakers raised "legitimate concerns about whether DOJ is faithfully complying with federal law."