The Department of Justice deadline to release all relevant files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation has come and gone without the agency fully completing its task. This has the sponsors of the bill requiring them to do so threatening to call Attorney General Pam Bondi before a judge.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all files pertaining to the case by Friday but does not include any punishments if the department refuses to do so.
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Of the documents that were released Friday, some unredacted images show several high-profile people, including former presidents, business executives and musicians.
A list of a few of the people identified in the photos and documents is below:
- Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
- Ghislaine Maxwell
- British supermodel Naomi Campbell
- Modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel
- Former President Bill Clinton
- Musician Michael Jackson
- Musician Mick Jagger
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Friday evening that the document dump was entirely insufficient.
“The Justice Department’s document dump this Friday afternoon does not comply with Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act,” he said in a post to X. “They released one document from a New York grand jury of 119 pages totally blacked out.”
This comes, Khanna said, despite a federal judge ordering them to release the grand jury document. He also noted that the redactions don’t carry explanations, something the law also requires.
“Thomas Massie and I are exploring all options. It can be the impeachment of people at Justice, inherent contempt or referring for prosecution those who are obstructing justice,” Khanna said.
Fox News Digital reported the Justice Department used the same redaction standards for politically exposed individuals as they used for victims. The Epstein files law explicitly prohibits this.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., agreed with Khanna, saying in a separate post that the Friday release “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law” he and Khanna sponsored.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Friday morning that more will come in the following weeks.
The White House on Friday said the release of files related to the Epstein investigation shows that the Trump administration is the “most transparent in history.”
“By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, according to The Associated Press.
Background
The Epstein Files Transparency Act passed through Congress with near unanimous support before being signed by President Donald Trump on Nov. 19. The law gave the DOJ 30 days to release its records, only allowing for redactions to protect victims.
A federal judge granted the DOJ’s request to unseal records of the federal grand jury investigation into Epstein. Usually, grand jury records are kept private, but a federal judge in Florida ruled the Epstein Files Transparency Act “supersedes the otherwise secret grand jury materials.”
A separate judge granted a similar request on Dec. 9 regarding grand jury documents in Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell’s case. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Epstein died before he could be tried for those crimes.
