A portrait of Jeffrey Epstein appears on a tablet screen next to a page on the U.S. Department of Justice website titled “Epstein Library, February 11, 2026.”
Véronique Tournier | AFP | Getty Images
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog agency announced Thursday that it is investigating the agency’s compliance with laws requiring full disclosure of department files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The audit by the Office of Inspector General comes after months of complaints that the Justice Department was failing to comply with the Epstein File Transparency Act by withholding many files it had on Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Our interim objective is to evaluate the process by which the Department of Justice identifies, compiles, and releases records held by the Department as required by law,” Deputy Inspector General William Breyer said in a statement.
“If the circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider addressing other issues that may arise during the audit,” Breier said.
“Once the work is complete, the OIG will issue a public report with the findings of the audit,” he said.
“It should not have taken this long to begin holding the U.S. Department of Justice accountable, but this audit will bring much-needed temporary relief to many Epstein victims,” attorney Brittany Henderson, who along with partner Brad Edwards represents more than 100 Epstein victims, said in a statement to MS Now.
“We can only hope that this audit is conducted in a meaningful way, one that leads to true accountability and ultimately reparations for the victims who have been re-victimized and harmed by these failures,” Henderson said.
Arik Hudari, another lawyer representing a group of 10 Epstein survivors, told MS Nows: “We look forward to seeing what the audit will recover from this apparent attempt to obstruct transparency and accountability, while hoping that this is not just a partisan performance by the current administration to pretend it cares about Epstein survivors.”
Congress passed the Epstein Files Act in November, months after then-Attorney General Pam Bondi reneged on a promise to release the Justice Department’s investigative files on Epstein.
Epstein, a former friend of President Donald Trump, committed suicide in a federal prison in New York City in August 2019, weeks after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
President Trump reportedly fired Bondi on April 2, dissatisfied with the attorney general’s response to issues related to the Epstein file.
