WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Friday published a new and final cache of millions of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, under a law passed in November that required the release of all Epstein-related records.
Reuters is in the process of reviewing the files.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said at a press conference that Friday’s massive batch of files marked the end of the Trump administration’s planned releases under the law. The new cache includes more than three million pages, 2000 videos, and 180,000 images, he said.
The files include “extensive” redactions, he said, given the law’s exceptions permitting certain documents to be blacked out, including identifying information of victims or materials related to active investigations. Previous releases have been heavily redacted, drawing criticism from some members of Congress.
Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before they had a falling out years before Epstein’s first conviction, spent months resisting any release until both Democrats and Republicans in Congress forced his hand by advancing the law over his objections.
Trump has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and he has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. But the scandal has dogged him for months, in part because he promised to release the files during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Blanche said the department has also withheld some files based on legal privilege, including work product and attorney-client privilege. Some lawmakers have said those withholdings appear to run counter to the law, which required the department to produce internal communications related to decisions on whether to charge or investigate Epstein or any associates.
The Justice Department will provide Congress a report that includes a summary of all redactions and withheld documents, as required under the law, Blanche said in a letter sent to Congress on Friday.
In a press release announcing Friday’s document production, the Justice Department wrote, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
Epstein, a New York financier with ties to high-profile political and business figures, was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While his death was ruled a suicide, it has engendered years of conspiracy theories, some of which Trump himself boosted to his own supporters during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Blanche expressed frustration with accusations that the Justice Department had declined to pursue associates of Epstein who may have participated in illegal activity.
“There’s this built-in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about, that we’re covering up, or that we’re not we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case,” he said.
The Epstein scandal has become a persistent political problem for Trump, who is already facing sagging approval ratings on a range of issues, including his handling of the economy and his immigration crackdown.
Blanche defended the slow pace of releases, saying that the voluminous files required hundreds of attorneys to work day and night for weeks to review and prepare them for public release. The law had set a deadline of December 19, 2025, but officials said they needed more time to review the files.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Julia Harte, Brad Heath, Jason Lange, Susan Heavey and Ryan Jones; Additional reporting by Katherine Jackson; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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