By Jack Phillips
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is releasing 3 million pages, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos related to the late convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday.
The department was working to issue redactions to protect the names of victims and witnesses, officials have previously said. The disclosure of the files was mandated after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in November.
“We complied with the statute,” Blanche said during a news conference, adding that the DOJ did not work to protect anyone for political reasons.
The deputy attorney general also sought to dispel speculation online that the DOJ is secretly holding onto a collection of unpublished files and that there is no “tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we’re withholding.”
Federal officials identified 6 million pages as “potentially responsive” to the transparency law, which gave a deadline to release files connected to Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, Blanche added.
“The number of responsive pages is significantly smaller than the total number of pages initially collected,” he said. “That’s why I mentioned a moment ago, we’re releasing more than 3 million pages today, and not the 6 million pages that we collected.”
Blanche added the DOJ-redacted photos of every woman in the files, except for Maxwell. No men in the photos were redacted, he said.
“We did not redact images of any men unless it was impossible to redact a woman without also redacting a man,” Blanche said.
Federal prosecutors have said in recent court filings that numerous government attorneys have been reviewing millions of documents, files, and other materials to disclose to the public since the law took effect.
“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the DOJ said in a post on social media last month. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”
Epstein materials were released in batches starting on Dec. 19, 2025, and in the days that followed, drawing criticism from the sponsors of the Epstein-related act, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), along with other House lawmakers.
The initial release of the files late last year contained a number of photos of Epstein, Maxwell, and other individuals, including politicians and celebrities. The files also included email correspondence that Epstein had with a number of prominent individuals on a range of topics.
Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019 before he was found dead in a New York City jail cell in August of that year. Medical examiners ruled that his death was a suicide.
Years before those charges were filed, Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. He took a plea deal and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, though he was granted work release after serving three months.
In 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other charges in association with Epstein. The following year, she received a 20-year prison sentence on the charges.
