DOJ Releases Partial Epstein Files Amid Criticism Over Missed Statutory Deadline

On Friday, December 19, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) began the public release of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, announcing that "several hundred thousand" records, including photographs, were made accessible. This initial dissemination did not meet the full disclosure mandate established by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required all unclassified materials to be public by midnight of the same day.

United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who began his tenure on March 6, 2025, confirmed the partial release, stating that an additional "several hundred thousand more" documents would follow in the subsequent weeks. The legislation, signed into law by President Donald Trump on November 19, 2025, had set a strict 30-day window for the complete publication of records stemming from federal inquiries in Florida and New York over the past decade. The failure to meet the precise statutory cutoff immediately drew sharp criticism from Democratic leadership.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asserted the administration was "breaking the law" by releasing only a portion of the files, demanding immediate, full publication. House Democrat Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and House Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, echoed this assertion, characterizing the phased release as a violation of federal statute. Deputy Attorney General Blanche defended the staggered release, citing the "arduous work of redacting information to protect victims" as the necessary justification for missing the initial deadline. The Act permits withholding personal information for survivors and materials depicting child sexual abuse but explicitly bars withholding records based solely on the reputational harm to public figures.

The political context surrounding the document release is further complicated by internal Republican dissent. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had publicly supported the transparency measure, announced her resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives, effective January 5, 2026, following a public dispute with President Trump over the files. Greene stated her decision was partly due to the President calling her a "traitor" after she supported the measure, which Trump had initially resisted before signing the bill into law on November 19, 2025. Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney for President Trump, was confirmed as the second-in-command to Attorney General Pam Bondi on March 5, 2025, in a 52-46 Senate vote.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, introduced in July 2025 by Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, passed the House on November 18, 2025, with a 427-1 vote, reflecting rare bipartisan consensus on forcing disclosure regarding the financier who died in federal custody in 2019. Representative Massie indicated that the true measure of compliance would be whether the initial release included the names of any male individuals accused of sex crimes, suggesting that a release lacking such names would signify incomplete adherence to the law. This episode underscores the persistent public demand for accountability concerning the vast network surrounding Epstein, which intersects significant wealth and alleged elite influence.