DOJ works through holidays to review Epstein files for public release
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Officials with the attorney general’s office said in a statement Wednesday that they had been working non-stop throughout the holidays to review and organize numerous documents in the Epstein files before they were necessarily released to the public.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a statement on
“This is truly an all-hands-on-deck approach and we are asking as many attorneys as possible to take the time to review the remaining documents,” Blanche wrote in her post. “It takes time to put in place the necessary regulations to protect victims, but this cannot prevent the material from being published.”
Blanche’s update comes amid threats of imminent legal action after the department missed the Epstein Files Transparency Act’s Dec. 19 deadline to release all documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Justice Department released scores of Epstein documents on December 19, after President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
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He has previously argued that there is “settled law” supporting the missed deadline, as other legal requirements in the bill, including redacting victim-identifying information, must be met before publication.
“The attorney general and the administration’s goal is simple: transparency and protecting victims,” Blanche wrote Wednesday.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by President Donald Trump on November 19, required the Justice Department to withhold information that could identify potential victims or jeopardize ongoing investigations or cases.
View of the compound on Epstein Island in the US Virgin Islands. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)
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It also allowed authorities to exclude material deemed sensitive to national defense or foreign policy.
While it remains unclear how many files still need to be reviewed, the Justice Department confirmed last week that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York recently submitted more than 1 million additional potentially sensitive documents related to the sex trafficking cases of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Former President Bill Clinton was seen in photos taken with Jeffrey Epstein as part of the DOJ Epstein files released on Friday, December 19. (Ministry of Justice)
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Officials said the “massive amount” of material could take weeks to review, further delaying the release Blanche has “constantly” promised, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.
