Name: Justice Department has released only 1% of Epstein files
Uploaded: 2026-01-06T23:34:44.250Z
Duration: 4 min 43 s
Description: In a new letter filed Monday, the Justice Department says that it has only weeded through 1% of the Epstein investigation documents that need review and release.

In a new letter filed Monday, the Justice Department says that it has only weeded through 1% of the Epstein investigation documents that need review and release.

Washington

The Justice Department has released only about 1% of the documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, despite being legally required to provide all materials by December 19. Officials attribute the delay to the sheer volume of documents—estimated at two million—and the need for extensive review and redaction, with over 400 lawyers and 100 analysts involved in the process.

A five-page letter sent to the judge overseeing the case explained the steps being taken but did not set a new deadline for completion. The released documents span from the mid-1990s to recent years, and the law requires all documents, regardless of perceived importance, to be made public.

Justice Department has released only 1% of Epstein files

IT'S BEEN NEARLY THREE WEEKS SINCE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WAS REQUIRED BY LAW TO TURN OVER ALL DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE JEFFREY EPSTEIN INVESTIGATION. SOME OF THE DOCUMENTS WERE RELEASED, BUT MOST WERE NOT. TRIPTZ NEWS NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT ALEX MILLER IS LIVE IN NEW YORK WITH THE LATEST. ALEX, HOW IS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, PAM BONDI, EXPLAINING SUCH A MASSIVE DELAY WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT MILLIONS OF DOCUMENTS? WE ARE. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL WAS SUPPOSED TO RELEASE ALL OF THE DOCUMENTS BY DECEMBER 19TH. WE GOT A HANDFUL OF THOSE ON THAT DAY AND SOME AFTER THAT, BUT WE ARE NOW LEARNING THAT WE HAVE REALLY JUST SEEN A FRACTION OF THE DOCUMENTS THAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED. THAT NUMBER IS AT ONE PERCENT, AND ESSENTIALLY WHAT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL IS SAYING IS THAT THEY ARE ON DOCUMENT OVERLOAD RIGHT NOW. REMEMBER, THEY HAD AT LEAST A COUPLE OF MONTHS' HEADS UP THAT THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, BUT THEY SAY THAT THEY HAVE STILL ONLY WEEDED THROUGH ONE PERCENT OF THE DOCUMENTS THEY NEEDED. THEY SAY THAT THEY SO FAR HAVE DROPPED 12,285 DOCUMENTS THAT AMOUNT TO SOME 125,000 PAGES. THEN THEY SAY THAT IS OUT OF SOME TWO MILLION DOCUMENTS THAT NEEDED TO BE DROPPED, AND THEY SENT A FIVE-PAGE LETTER TO THE JUDGE WHO JUST UNSEALED THE DOCUMENTS RELATING SPECIFICALLY TO GILLANE MAXWELL'S CASE, EXPLAINING WHY THEY HAVE NOT GOTTEN ANYTHING DONE ALMOST TO THIS POINT. IN THIS, THEY SAY THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO WEED THROUGH THESE DOCUMENTS THAT THEY HAVE SOME 400 LAWYERS RIGHT NOW LOOKING AT THIS FROM MULTIPLE DIFFERENT DIVISIONS, INCLUDING THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK WHERE THE MAXWELL CASE AND ONE OF THE EPSTEIN CASES WAS AS WELL AS THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA, THE CRIMINAL DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, AS WELL AS THE NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION. THEY SAY THAT THEY ALSO HAVE 100 DOCUMENT ANALYSTS ALSO GOING THROUGH THIS, BUT AGAIN, THIS IS HAPPENING NOW MORE THAN THREE WEEKS, OR ROUGHLY THREE WEEKS RATHER, AFTER THE DEADLINE WHEN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO RELEASE THESE DOCUMENTS. THEY DID IN THIS LETTER, WHICH REALLY DOESN'T SAY A WHOLE LOT EVEN THOUGH IT'S FIVE PAGES, THEY LET THEM KNOW WHICH STEPS THEY ARE TAKING TO MAKE SURE THAT THIS IS DONE. IF ANYTHING, THEY SAID THEY SHOULD HAVE REDACTED MORE. I REMEMBER A LOT OF THE CRITICISM WE SAW FROM THAT INITIAL DOCUMENT DUMP WAS THAT ENTIRE PAGES WERE BLACKED OUT. I WANT TO WALK THROUGH WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, HOW THE PROCESS IN WHICH THEY ARE USING TO GO THROUGH THESE DOCUMENTS. THEY SAY THEY'RE FIRST UPLOADING THE DOCUMENTS THAT ARE COVERED BY THIS ACT, THEN THEY'RE UPLOADING THEM TO A DATA REVIEW PLATFORM, AND THEN THEY'RE MANUALLY REVIEWING THE DOCUMENTS FOR VICTIM IDENTIFYING INFORMATION, THE REQUIRED REDACTIONS UNDER THE PRIVACY ACT, AS WELL AS PRIVILEGED INFORMATION, AND THEN THEY SAY THEY'RE MAKING THOSE REDACTIONS, AND THEN ENGAGING IN TWO LEVELS OF QUALITY CONTROL CHECKS. FIRST, THEY CALL IT A GLOBAL QUALITY CONTROL CHECK, AND THEN THEY SAY THERE'S A SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK SPECIFIC CONTROL CHECK. THEN THEY'RE POSTING THE MATERIALS, AND THEN THEY SAY THEY'RE GETTING REQUESTS FROM VICTIMS AND THE PUBLIC. THEY SAY THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE ON A LIST OF WHAT SHOULD BE REDACTED. THEY SAY THAT THEY ACTUALLY WENT INTO THE DOCUMENTS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN RELEASED AND ADDED ADDITIONAL REDACTIONS TO DOCUMENTS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN POSTED, BUT THERE IS NO DEADLINE. IN THIS FIVE-PAGE LETTER, THEY DO NOT SAY WHEN THEY ARE PLANNING TO HAVE ALL OF THIS DONE BY. AGAIN, THREE WEEKS AFTER THE DEADLINE, THEY ARE ONLY REALLY RESPONDING TO THIS ONE SPECIFIC JUDGE WHO UNSEALED THE GRAND JURY MATERIAL SPECIFIC TO GILLANE MAXWELL, SO STILL A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT WE ARE GOING TO SEE AND WHEN. Alex, question before I let you go. The fact that they are having such a difficult time releasing these documents and the volume that they are now talking about, does that fly in the face of earlier statements by the Attorney General that she had reviewed the case, the documents, the files, and that there was, in her words, and I'm paraphrasing here, but really nothing to see here. Yeah, it absolutely does. There was discussion about how many documents there would be, whether or not they were pertinent to the investigation, whether they needed to be seen by the public, and as we saw from the document dump on December 19th, they range decades. We saw documents from just a couple of years ago all the way through 1996 when we saw that first document, and there are still millions that they need to sort through. Remember, not every document gives us a ton of information or a window into every important detail, but all of them need to be sorted through, and the law says no matter how important or seemingly how unimportant, all of them need to be released to the public. Scripps News National correspondent Alex Miller live for us in New York. Alex, as always, we thank you.

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