The US Justice Department said on Wednesday that it may require “a few more weeks” to complete the release of all records related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after the sudden discovery of more than one million additional potentially relevant documents. The announcement further delays the department’s compliance with a congressionally mandated deadline that passed last Friday.
The disclosure came on Christmas Eve, just hours after a group of 12 US senators urged the Justice Department’s watchdog to investigate why the deadline had been missed. In a letter to Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume, the senators — 11 Democrats and one Republican — said Epstein’s victims “deserve full disclosure” and the reassurance of an independent audit of the department’s actions.
In a post on social media, the Justice Department said that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI had “uncovered over a million more documents” that could be connected to the Epstein investigation. The revelation marked a dramatic last-minute development, particularly after department officials had suggested months earlier that a comprehensive review of all Epstein-related materials had already been completed.
In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a “truckload of evidence” had been produced after she ordered the FBI to deliver the complete Epstein files to her office. She said she issued the directive after learning from an unidentified source that the FBI’s New York field office possessed thousands of pages of documents related to the case.
However, in July, the FBI and Justice Department released an unsigned memo stating they had conducted an “exhaustive review” and concluded that no further evidence should be released. That position represented a sharp reversal from the Trump administration’s repeated pledges of maximum transparency. The memo did not suggest that additional evidence might exist or that officials were unaware of unreviewed material.
The Justice Department’s Wednesday statement did not clarify when officials became aware of the newly uncovered documents.
In a letter sent last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had access to more than 3.6 million records stemming from sex trafficking investigations involving Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Blanche noted that many of those records were duplicates of materials previously turned over by the FBI.
The Justice Department said its lawyers are now working continuously to review the newly discovered documents and to remove victims’ names and other identifying information, as required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law, enacted last month, mandates the public release of government files related to Epstein and Maxwell.
“We will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”
The announcement came amid growing criticism over the Justice Department’s staggered release of Epstein-related records, including from members of Congress and Epstein’s victims.
Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the primary authors of the law requiring the disclosures, said in a post on X that the Justice Department had broken the law by missing the deadline and making what he described as illegal redactions. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California, another architect of the legislation, said he and Massie would continue pressing the department and noted that additional documents were released only after lawmakers raised the possibility of contempt proceedings.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, sharply criticised the timing and substance of the announcement. “A Christmas Eve news dump of ‘a million more files’ only proves what we already know: Trump is engaged in a massive cover-up,” Schumer said. “The question Americans deserve answered is simple: What are they hiding — and why?”
The White House defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein records on Wednesday.
“President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the president’s agenda,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
After releasing an initial batch of documents on Friday, the Justice Department posted additional sets of records over the weekend and again on Tuesday. The department has not provided advance notice of when further releases may occur.
Documents released so far include photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other materials. Many were either already public or heavily redacted, and several lacked sufficient context. Among the newly released records are transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews with girls and young women who said they were paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.
Other documents made public in recent days include a January 2020 note from a federal prosecutor stating that President Trump had flown on Epstein’s private plane more frequently than previously reported. Additional records include emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and a person identified only by the initial “A,” with contextual references suggesting the sender was Britain’s former Prince Andrew. In one message, the writer said: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
The senators’ request for an inspector general audit followed Schumer’s introduction of a Senate resolution that would authorize lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to meet the law’s disclosure and deadline requirements. Schumer described the phased and heavily redacted releases as “a blatant cover-up.”
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Jeff Merkley of Oregon in leading the call for an audit. Other signatories included Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Adam Schiff of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
In their letter, the senators said that given the Trump administration’s past resistance to releasing the files, the politicization of the Epstein case, and the failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, an independent assessment was necessary. Full transparency, they wrote, is essential to identifying individuals who enabled or participated in Epstein’s crimes.