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DOJ says it may need a 'few more weeks' to finish releasing Epstein files

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 04:32:33 No.1469161 View View Reply Original Report

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https://www.npr.org/2025/12/25/g-s1-103685/doj-says-few-more-weeks-epstein-files

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it may need a "few more weeks" to release all of its records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents, further delaying compliance with last Friday's congressionally mandated deadline.
U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on December 15, 2025 in Washington, DC.

The Christmas Eve announcement came hours after a dozen U.S. senators called on the Justice Department's watchdog to examine its failure to meet the deadline. The group, 11 Democrats and a Republican, told Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume in a letter that victims "deserve full disclosure" and the "peace of mind" of an independent audit.

The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI "have uncovered over a million more documents" that could be related to the Epstein case — a stunning 11th hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.

In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a "truckload of evidence" had been produced after she ordered the FBI to "deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office." She issued the directive after saying she learned from an unidentified source that the FBI in New York was "in possession of thousands of pages of documents."

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 04:35:31 No.1469163 Report

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In July, the FBI and Justice Department indicated in an unsigned memo that they had undertaken an "exhaustive review" and had determined that no additional evidence should be released — an extraordinary about face from the Trump administration, which for months had pledged maximum transparency. The memo did not raise the possibility that additional evidence existed that officials were unaware of or had not reviewed.

Wednesday's post did not say when the Justice Department was informed of the newly uncovered files.
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building on Dec. 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

In a letter last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, though many were copies of material already turned over by the FBI.

The Justice Department said its lawyers are "working around the clock" to review the documents and remove victims names and other identifying information as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and Maxwell.

"We will release the documents as soon as possible," the department said. "Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks."

The announcement came amid increasing scrutiny on the Justice Department's staggered release of Epstein-related records, including from Epstein victims and members of Congress.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, one of the chief authors of the law mandating the document release, posted Wednesday on X: "DOJ did break the law by making illegal redactions and by missing the deadline." Another architect of the law, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he and Massie will "continue to keep the pressure on" and noted that the Justice Department was releasing more documents after lawmakers threatened contempt.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 04:36:31 No.1469165 Report

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"A Christmas Eve news dump of 'a million more files' only proves what we already know: Trump is engaged in a massive coverup," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the DOJ's announcement. "The question Americans deserve answered is simple: WHAT are they hiding — and WHY?"

The White House on Wednesday defended the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein records.

"President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the President's agenda," spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

After releasing an initial wave of records on Friday, the Justice Department posted more batches to its website over the weekend and on Tuesday. The Justice Department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

Records that have been released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. Records that hadn't been seen before include transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.

Other records made public in recent days include a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier's private plane more often than had been previously known and emails between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial "A." They contain other references that suggest the writer was Britain's former Prince Andrew. In one, "A" writes: "How's LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?"

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 15:39:48 No.1469211 Report

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So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/trump-epstein-files-justice-department-redactions/685455/

Nearly two years ago, Donald Trump kicked off the presidential-campaign season with a declaration: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island,” he posted on Truth Social in January 2024. Reports to the contrary, he insisted, were the fault of AI—and of his political rivals: “This is what the Democrats do to their Republican Opponent, who is leading them, by a lot, in the Polls.”

But this week, the documents released by Trump’s own Justice Department—including flight logs and emails—told a different story. Federal prosecutors determined in January 2020 that Trump had been a passenger on the notorious private jet owned by Jeffrey Epstein—who would later be charged with sex trafficking—far more often than they had realized.

Many of the flights on what came to be known as the Lolita Express took place “during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case,” a federal prosecutor in New York told colleagues. Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was subsequently convicted and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in the sex-trafficking operation, including using the plane for “transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts.”

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 15:40:48 No.1469213 Report

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There are many other mentions of Trump. The president’s name appears more than 100 times in files released yesterday as part of the DOJ’s compliance with legislation requiring it to disclose everything it has on the Epstein case. Trump fought Congress’s demand for transparency for months before abruptly pivoting and endorsing the bill once he realized he had lost. Although many references to Trump are clearly from news reports or from seemingly unverified tips to the FBI, one conclusion from the files is that Trump’s relationship with Epstein, a former friend, was of interest to federal law enforcement for years.

A White House official told me that Trump was never contacted by law enforcement regarding his interactions with Epstein during the time period for which Epstein and Maxwell were charged. The president has denied wrongdoing, though his characterizations of his relationship with Epstein—including about his presence on the plane—have shifted over time. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, declined to answer questions about the discrepancy between the president’s prior statements and the material released by the DOJ but said in a statement, “The truth remains: Donald Trump did nothing wrong.”

Trump has also insisted that he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity—though his critics have questioned how that could be true given their close relationship and history of chasing women together. Members of Congress from both parties have said they will continue to probe the issue in the upcoming year. Representatives I spoke with told me their takeaway from reading the files is that top officials in the Trump administration have not been honest about what was in them, and that they intend to press Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for more information.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 15:41:49 No.1469215 Report

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“Although the files are overly redacted, they’ve already demonstrated that the narrative painted by Patel in hearings, Bondi in press statements, and Trump himself on social media wasn’t accurate,” Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-authored the Epstein legislation, told me. “A complete disclosure consistent with the law will show there are more men implicated in the files in possession of the government.”

Representatives and staff on the House Oversight Committee told me they were drafting subpoenas in response to the documents released yesterday, seeking more information related to law enforcement’s identification of 10 alleged “co-conspirators” shortly after Epstein’s arrest in July 2019. The case that prosecutors were building related to those unnamed co-conspirators appears to have been substantial. One document released yesterday is a November 2020 overview presented to the deputy attorney general from an acting U.S. attorney titled “Anticipated Charges and Investigative Steps.” But what, if any, next steps were taken remains a mystery: The rest of the page is redacted.

Oversight Committee members are also drafting a contempt resolution to penalize Bondi for not ensuring that the DOJ fully complied with the law. The resolution, spearheaded by Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, will give Bondi 30 days to fully release all of the remaining Epstein materials, then fine her $10,000 each day that she doesn’t release them after that. They told me they expected to introduce the resolution when Congress returns in January. They are also moving ahead on articles of impeachment for Bondi, and said they were optimistic that they could get them passed in the House.

Khanna told me that there was an emerging “coalition of the right and left to fight for justice.” That alliance, he added, “has proven to be the kryptonite that marks the beginning of the end of the Trump era.”

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 15:42:50 No.1469216 Report

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The files released yesterday—and Trump’s prominence in them—appear to have changed the calculation for senior Democratic Party leaders as they prepare for the midterm elections. Party leadership had previously sought to convince junior members not to focus on Epstein. But this week Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will push for the Senate to hold the DOJ accountable for not fully complying with the legislation, citing a missed 30-day deadline for all files to be released and excessive redactions in those that have been.

“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,” Schumer said in a statement.

The Justice Department has acknowledged there are still many more files to be released—and the known backlog grew longer today when the DOJ announced that the FBI and New York prosecutors had uncovered “over a million more documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case” and that the process of reviewing them could take “a few more weeks.” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had earlier said on Meet the Press that the delay was due to the need for additional redactions in order “to protect victims.” Behind the scenes, his office has requested additional “emergency” help from U.S. attorneys’ offices to continue reviewing and redacting Epstein-related material over the Christmas and New Year holidays, CNN reported.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 15:43:50 No.1469217 Report

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The DOJ did not respond to my questions, but on X, the department’s public-affairs office has sought to downplay mentions of Trump in the files, saying that yesterday’s documents “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

When asked if the president still has confidence in his attorney general’s handling of the release of the Epstein files, Jackson said, “The president’s entire Cabinet, including AG Bondi, has done a great job implementing the president’s agenda.”

Survivors of Epstein’s abuses reacted with both excitement and anger as they reviewed the new files, lighting up group chats. Some were working retail jobs on one of the busiest days of the year; others were caring for children home from school. Lisa Phillips told me that there were still too many unanswered questions, but that the months of work she and other Epstein survivors had put into lobbying Congress were finally delivering results. “This is the first news that has made me feel like we are making headway,” she told me.

Sigrid McCawley, an attorney who represents several of Epstein’s victims, said it would take time to know the true impact of the “avalanche” of new documents released yesterday. But she told me that one thing is clear: “These brave survivors were absolutely correct that the government was withholding critical information from the public.”

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 26 Dec 2025 16:23:07 No.1469222 Report

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So do we actually have him yet or is it just the same flight logs between Miami and New York with a couple of trips to Atlanta, we've all seen, which stopped happening in the early 2000s?

Two more weeks I guess... But I'm sure the Democrat circle jerking on this is jerking plenty of knees!

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DOJ says it may need a 'few more weeks' to finish releasing Epstein files