The Justice Department released a portion of the Jeffrey Epstein files to meet the Friday deadline established in a congressional bill with a series of downloadable files related to the convicted sex offender.
They include a host of photos and completely redacted files.
The information can be accessed on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) website. Files can be accessed under the following categories: Court Records; DOJ Disclosures, Including Disclosures Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405); Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Disclosures.
The webpage for each category then leads the user to access information under several subcategories, which each carry several PDFs of documents, photos, criminal records and more.
The DOJ stated on the webpage that “all reasonable efforts have been made to review and redact personal information pertaining to victims, other private individuals, and protect sensitive materials from disclosure.”
“That said, because of the volume of information involved, this website may nevertheless contain information that inadvertently includes non-public personally identifiable information or other sensitive content, to include matters of a sexual nature,” the page indicates.
The DOJ urged the public to contact the department if there is any “information that should not have been posted,” and officials will “take steps to correct the problem as soon as possible.”
The page also notes that the site will be updated if the DOJ identifies more documents for release.
Members of the public may be met with an alert telling them they are in a waiting queue to access the page due to “experiencing extremely high volume of search requests at this time.” After an anticipated wait time, a musical cue will notify the person that they will be directed to the “Epstein Library.”
The DOJ released a portion of the Epstein files to meet the Friday deadline established in the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress almost unanimously passed, with only one lawmaker voting against, and President Trump signed into law last month. The department had 30 days to release the files and was required to redact any information that identified victims or anyone under potential investigation in connection with Epstein.
But not all of the files will be released Friday. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department would release “several hundred thousand” documents Friday. “And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” he continued.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called Friday’s batch of documents the “first phase” while acknowledging that not all the documents would be immediately released.
Some lawmakers accused the administration of breaking the law by not complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act in releasing all the files in full. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pushed for the House to vote on the files’ release, posted a screenshot of the bill on social platform X showing the bill’s text where it says the DOJ had a 30-day deadline.