The US Department of Justice is labouring under the weight of hundreds of thousands of additional records linked to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with a team of 200 analysts working to vet the material. This comes amid growing public and political outrage over the limited scope and heavy redactions of files released so far.
Scale of the Task and Initial Releases
According to officials cited by Axios, approximately 750,000 records have already been reviewed and disclosed. However, a further 700,000 documents remain to be examined, though many may be duplicates, potentially reducing the final new count to the thousands. The vetting process is expected to take at least another week to complete.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated on the day of the first release last Friday that he expected "several hundred thousand documents" to be made public, including photographs and other materials from the investigations into Epstein. By Tuesday this week, a third tranche of 30,000 records from probes into Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell had been published.
Content, Controversy, and Conspiracy Theories
The latest document drops have contained notable references to former President Donald Trump. One email from 2020, apparently sent by a federal prosecutor, claimed Trump "traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported", including a flight where the only listed passengers were Epstein, Trump, and a "then-20-year-old".
The releases have also been muddied by false material, including a fabricated letter from Epstein to convicted sex abuser Larry Nassar and a fake video of Epstein's death in his jail cell. In a statement on X, Blanche sought to counter misinformation, stating, "There has been lots of sensationalism and even outright lies... Document production is just that. We produce documents, and sometimes this can result in releasing fake or false documents."
Political Pressure and Demands for Full Transparency
Victims and lawmakers have expressed fury over the limited disclosures, especially with a legal requirement for full disclosure of all Epstein files by 19 December. The documents have shed some light on FBI efforts to identify potential co-conspirators following Epstein's 2019 arrest, though lists remain heavily redacted.
Among the few unredacted names were Ghislaine Maxwell, the late model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, and billionaire Leslie Wexner. A representative for Wexner, who has denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes, stated he cooperated fully and was told he was neither a co-conspirator nor a target.
The redactions have provoked a sharp political response. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer demanded greater clarity, saying, "The Department of Justice needs to shed more light on who was on the list, how they were involved, and why they chose not to prosecute. Protecting possible co-conspirators is not the transparency the American people and Congress are demanding." As the review continues, the department insists the process—and the conspiracy theories—will soon conclude.
