Justice Department won’t meet Friday deadline to release all Epstein files

WASHINGTON— The Justice Department will miss a legal deadline Friday to release all files from its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a senior official said, prolonging a scandal roiling the Trump administration.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, explicitly required the department to release its entire trove of files by midnight Friday — 30 days since its passage.

The department has committed to releasing hundreds of thousands of records by that deadline. But hundreds of thousands more were still under investigation and weeks until releasesaid assistant attorney general Todd Blanche.

“I think we’ll be releasing more documents in the next few weeks, so a couple hundred thousand today and a couple hundred thousand more in the next few weeks,” Blanche told Fox News on Friday.

The delay drew immediate condemnation from Democrats who hold key oversight posts.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, blamed President Trump and his administration. In a statement on Friday They charged that they “violated federal law by continuing to suppress facts and evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar international sex trafficking ring” and said they were “exploring all legal options.”

Efforts by Congress to force the FBI to release documents from its investigations into Epstein have already uncovered a trove of emails and other records from the disgraced financier’s mansion.

Some referenced Trump, adding to a long-developing portrait of the social relationship that Epstein and Trump shared for years before what Trump described as a breakup.

In an email in early 2019, during Trump’s first term in the White House, Epstein wrote to author and journalist Michael Wolff that Trump was “knowing about the girls.”

In a 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later convicted of conspiring with Epstein to help him sexually abuse young girls, Epstein wrote: “I want you to understand that the dog that doesn’t bark is trump. [Victim] “I spent hours with him in my house… he was never mentioned.”

Maxwell replied: “I was thinking about it…”

Trump vehemently denied any wrongdoing and downplayed the significance of the files. He has also intermittently tried to block their release, even though he has publicly said he would not oppose it.

The administration’s resistance to releasing all FBI files and its inability to find justification for withholding the documents were overcome only when Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in passing the transparency measure.

The resistance also angered many in the president’s base; The intrigues and furies of the dossiers were stickier and harder to shake for Trump than other political vulnerabilities.

It remained unclear what additional revelations would come from the dump, which was expected Friday afternoon. It was expected that the disclosed files would include extensive redactions to protect victims, as well as references to individuals and organizations that may be the subject of ongoing investigations or national security matters.

That could include mentioning Trump, who was a private citizen throughout his infamous friendship with Epstein until the mid-2000s, experts said.

Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in Florida in 2008, but spent only 13 months in custody in what was considered a sweetheart plea deal that spared him a potential life sentence. He was accused of sex trafficking in 2019 and died in federal custody while awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail. It was alleged that Epstein molested more than 200 women and girls.

Many of his victims argued in support of the release of the documents, but administration officials cited their privacy as the primary excuse for delaying the release of the documents; Blanche reiterated this on Friday.

“There are a lot of eyes watching these, and we want to make sure that we protect every single victim when we produce the materials we produce,” Blanche said, noting that Trump signed the law just 30 days ago.

“And since that day, we have been working tirelessly to make sure that we have received, reviewed, and made available to the American public every single document we have within the Department of Justice,” he said.

Trump had aggressively lobbied against the Epstein Files Transparency Act and unsuccessfully pressured House Republican lawmakers to abstain from joining a habeas corpus petition that would have forced a vote on the issue, at the requests of House Speaker Mike Johnson. He ultimately signed the bill into law after it passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), who introduced the bill requiring the release of the files, warned that the Justice Department in future administrations could take legal action against current officials who try to block the release of any files contrary to the letter of the new law.

“Let me be very clear, we need the full version,” Khanna said. “Anyone who tampers with, conceals or over-redacts these documents will be prosecuted for obstruction of justice.”

Given Democrats’ desire to keep the issue politically alive and the intense interest in the issue from voters at both ends of the political spectrum, the Justice Department’s failure to meet a full Friday deadline is likely to fuel ongoing agitation for the release of the documents in the coming days.

In their statement Friday, Garcia and Raskin lashed out at Trump administration officials, including the attorney. General Pam Bondi – for allegedly interfering with the release of records.

“For months, Pam Bondi denied survivors the transparency and accountability they demanded and deserved and defied the Oversight Committee subpoena,” they said. “The Justice Department is now making clear that it intends to challenge Congress itself.”

Among other things, after meeting with Blanche in July, they called out the Justice Department’s decision to move Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, to a minimum-security prison.

“The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, their collaborators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve full transparency from the Department of Justice,” Garcia and Raskin said.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in response to Blanche saying not all files would be released Friday, said the transparency law “is clear: while protecting survivors, ALL of these records must be released today, not just some of them.”

“The Trump administration cannot move the goalposts,” Schiff wrote of X. “These are fixed by law.”