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After years of speculation, DOJ to release 'several hundred thousand' Epstein files documents

By James Hill and Alexander Mallin, ABC Audio
he Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Department of Justice is required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein today. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
By James Hill and Alexander Mallin, ABC Audio

(WASHINGTON) -- After years of legal battles and online speculation, the Justice Department on Friday is set to release what a top DOJ official says are "several hundred thousand" documents from the investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose connection to the rich and powerful and 2019 death by suicide has generated scores of conspiracy theories.

The DOJ faces a Friday deadline for the release of all remaining Epstein files after Congress last month passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act following the blowback the administration received seeking the release of the materials.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview Friday morning on Fox and Friends, said, "I expect that we're going to release several hundred thousand documents today ... and then over the next couple of weeks I expect several hundred thousand more."  
"The most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims, and so what we're doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected," Blanche said. "Those documents will come in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein."
The Epstein Files Act says the Justice Department "may withhold or redact" the identities of Epstein's victims, and contains exemptions that would allow the DOJ to withhold records that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution." 
Blanche said "there's a lot of eyes" looking over the documents to ensure victim identities have been redacted. The Justice Department in recent weeks has enlisted scores of attorneys from the National Security Division to conduct the review, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

He further suggested in the interview that the administration's review has been partially hamstrung by a ruling from a judge in the Southern District of New York that demanded the administration verify that its review is fully protecting the identities of victims. 

When asked whether the American public should expect any additional criminal cases to come in the wake of the release of the files, Blanche said, "Look, as the president directed, it's still being investigated, and I expect that will continue to happen. So we, as of today, there's no new charges coming but, but we are investigating." 

President Donald Trump recently directed the Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats associated with Epstein, a task that Attorney General Pam Bondi then referred to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  

The Justice Department and FBI announced in July that they would be releasing no additional Epstein files, after several top officials -- including Patel and outgoing FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino -- had, prior to joining the administration, accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.

The Senate subsequently voted to approved the Epstein transparency bill passed by the House, after which President Donald Trump signed it into law.

Critics of Trump have speculated about the degree to which the president, who had a friendship with Epstein until they had a falling out around 2004, appears in the Epstein files, while Trump has accused several well-known Democrats of having ties to the disgraced financier.

"Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!" Trump wrote on social media after signing the bill. 

Epstein owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands and large properties in New York City, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida, where he came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.

In 2019, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein on charges that he "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations," using cash payments to recruit a "vast network of underage victims," some of whom were as young as 14 years old.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.

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