The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday it has reviewed and publicly released 12,285 documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while it continues reviewing more than two million additional documents potentially related to him, pushing the government's document release more than two weeks past a congressionally mandated deadline.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in Manhattan, DOJ officials said more than two million documents remain "in various phases of review" under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The act set a Dec. 19, 2025, deadline for the government to release all Epstein-related files in its possession, subject to privacy protections and court-ordered limits.
The DOJ said it began releasing documents from the decades-long Epstein investigation last month, but acknowledged it did not meet the statutory deadline.
The department said the 12,285 documents already released comprise more than 125,000 pages, which it described as less than 1% of the tranche currently in review, with an additional 125,575 pages still under review for potential release.
According to the letter, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton of the Southern District of New York, the DOJ on Dec. 24 identified more than one million files that had not been included in its initial review, saying many appear duplicative but still require "processing and deduplication."
The department said the release effort includes collecting potentially responsive records, uploading them to a review platform, and manually screening materials for "victim identifying information," followed by redactions and quality-control checks before documents are posted to the DOJ's public "Epstein Library" webpage.
"Substantial work remains to be done," the letter said.
DOJ officials said more than 400 department attorneys will spend "the next few weeks" reviewing the remaining records, with at least 100 FBI employees trained in handling sensitive victim information assisting the effort.
The continuing review has become a political flashpoint, with President Donald Trump facing sharp criticism from Democrats over the missed deadline.
The Trump administration has defended its handling of the release, pointing to the need to protect victims and redact sensitive information before additional materials are made public.
AFP contributed to this report.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.