The U.S. Justice Department on Friday released a new cache of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Trump administration’s latest attempt to comply with a law passed in November that required the department to release all Epstein-related records by Dec. 19, 2025.
Reuters currently reviewing the files.
The department had said by year’s end that it still had more than five million pages to review and had to reassign hundreds of lawyers to do so, drawing 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 advanced the law over his objections.
The law allowed some redactions, including to protect victims and preserve ongoing investigations. But the files released so far have been heavily redacted, in some cases to the utter frustration of lawmakers.
Trump has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and he has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein, a New York financier, was found hanged in his prison 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 to 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 number of issues, including his handling of the economy and his immigration response.
