A senior Justice Department official announced Friday that the department will not release all investigative files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, but will extend the release over several weeks.
The plan unveiled by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to partially release the initial file, which includes hundreds of thousands of documents, appeared to run afoul of the Epstein File Transparency Act, which set a deadline for all files to be released on Friday.
Hours after Blanche’s remarks, Democrats in Congress denounced the plan, as did President Donald Trump.
“President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are violating federal law,” Congressman Robert Garcia and Congressman Jamie Raskin said in a joint statement. “We are currently considering all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”
“We expect hundreds of thousands of documents to be released today,” Blanche said in an interview on Fox News.
“We expect many more documents to be released in the coming weeks. Hundreds of thousands today and in the coming weeks,” Blanche said. “We expect hundreds of thousands more.”
Blanche said the Justice Department is reviewing each file to redact the names and identities of Epstein’s victims.
“There are a lot of eyes on these and we want to make sure that all victims are protected as we develop the materials that we are producing,” he said.
CNBC has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment on Blanche’s remarks.
After the press conference, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Justice Department, Branch, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying, “This is nothing more than a cover-up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.”
“The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was crystal clear: The Trump administration had 30 days to release all of the Epstein files, not just some,” Schumer said in a statement.
“Failure to do so is against the law. This only shows that the Department of Justice, Donald Trump and Pam Bondi are hell-bent on hiding the truth,” he said.
“Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being hidden by Pam Bondi,” Schumer said. “We will not stop until the whole truth is revealed.”
The text of the Epstein Files Act states: “Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall, pursuant to subsection (b), make available in searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office, relating to: (1) Jeffrey Epstein;
It is unclear whether there will be any legal repercussions if the Justice Department fails to meet the release deadline, as the Justice Department will decide whether to prosecute criminally or civilly for violations of the law.
Blanche is the second-highest-ranking Justice Department official after Bondi. Blanche previously served as Trump’s criminal defense attorney.
“For months, Pam Bondi has ignored the Oversight Committee’s subpoenas, denying survivors the transparency and accountability they want and deserve,” Garcia, D-Calif., and Raskin, D-Md., said in a joint statement.
“The Justice Department has made clear that it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star status to convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell,” they said, referring to the fact that Maxwell was transferred to a less restrictive federal prison earlier this year after meeting with Blanche for two days.
“If the Department of Justice is producing authentic documents of interest that have not been overly redacted, and there is a clear timeline for their full production, that is a positive step,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who co-sponsored the Epstein Files Act, said in a statement after Blanche’s interview.
“They are producing 10 times more than they have submitted to our oversight committee, but ultimately they have to make everything public,” Khanna said. “The North Star is justice for survivors and holding accountable the rich and powerful who raped girls and covered up their abuse.”
“The law requires us to release all unclassified information by today and provide an explanation of our redactions in the federal registry,” Khanna said.
“They spent months preparing this, but they continued to refuse our requests to meet with them about this and to meet with the survivors’ lawyers about logistics,” Khanna said.
“That being said, there are millions of pages of documents that need to be examined in order to protect the identities of victims and redact graphic material. The fact that they are even releasing hundreds of thousands of documents is a historic moment for our nation’s survivors.”
The order to release the files comes after months of controversy over the Trump administration’s decision to violate past promises by top law enforcement officials to release documents and other evidence.
In November, Congress overwhelmingly voted to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, and President Trump signed the bill despite urging Republicans in Congress to oppose it.
