Justice Department Says It Found Over a Million More Epstein Documents

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and the FBI had told it they have uncovered “over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case,” a discovery that will push back the remaining releases required by federal law, CBS News and NBC News reported.

In a post on X, the department said it had received the documents for review and that, “due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.” It added: “We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible.” The department did not say when it was told of the new records, CBS News reported.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed last month, required the department to release all unclassified records by Dec. 19, with exceptions to protect survivors. The department released a first batch that day and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the rest would follow on a rolling basis, according to CBS News. A second batch came Saturday, and on Tuesday the department released another large set, which CBS News described as more than 11,000 files totaling nearly 30,000 pages.

The partial releases have drawn criticism from survivors and lawmakers, as CBS News reported earlier in the week. Many documents were heavily redacted, including whole pages. The department also took down more than a dozen files without initial explanation, then said the files would be “reviewed and redacted consistent with the law.” Sen. Chuck Schumer introduced a resolution on Monday that would direct the Senate to take legal action against the department, and a group of survivors said the government had released “a fraction of the files.”

The new trove adds to what has already been disclosed: thousands of photos, court records, grand jury transcripts, FBI and Justice Department documents, emails, news clippings and videos, CBS News reported. Epstein died in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges in the Southern District of New York. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, NBC News noted.

Two members of Congress who led the push for the law, Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie, have threatened contempt charges against Attorney General Pam Bondi over the delay, NBC News reported. The department said it would “continue to fully comply with federal law and President Trump’s direction to release the files.”