The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday released a new cache of files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Trump administration’s latest effort to comply with a law passed in November that required the department to release all records related to Epstein by Dec. 19, 2025.
Reuters It is in the process of reviewing the files.
The department had said at the end of the year that it still had more than five million pages to review and needed to reassign hundreds of lawyers to do so, prompting criticism from some members of Congress that the administration’s slow pace had violated the law.
President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before they fell out years before Epstein’s first conviction, had spent months resisting any release until both Democrats and Republicans in Congress passed the law despite his objections.
The law allowed for some redactions, including to protect victims and preserve ongoing investigations. But the files released so far have been largely redacted, in some cases completely, frustrating lawmakers.
Trump has not been formally charged with any crimes in connection with Epstein and has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein, a New York financier, was found hanging in his cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While his death was ruled a suicide, it has spawned years of conspiracy theories, some of which Trump himself promoted among his own supporters during his 2024 presidential campaign.
The Epstein scandal has become a persistent political problem for Trump, who already faces declining approval ratings on a range of issues, including his handling of the economy and his crackdown on immigration.
