Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department would release "several hundred thousand documents" from its Jeffrey Epstein investigative files on Friday — but that there's still much more to come.
“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche told Fox News.
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” he said. “So today, several hundred thousand, and then, over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”
Blanche suggested the delay was in part to comply with the law requiring information about victims to be redacted.
“What we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim — their name, their identity, their story — to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected,” Blanche said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the delay violates the Epstein Files Transparency Act — the law passed last month that's the reason the Justice Department is making the documents public.
The law gives the attorney general 30 days to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice” involving Epstein, “including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters.”
The law allows for limited exceptions, including to protect the victim’s identities or to avoid jeopardizing any active investigation.
Schumer said in a statement the law is “clear as can be — the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some. Failing to do so is breaking the law," Schumer said in a statement. "This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth," Schumer added.
Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. and the ranking member on the Oversight Committee and Jamie Raskin, D-Md. and the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, said in a joint statement that, "We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law." The Oversight Committee, which had been separately investigating the Epstein case , had already released thousands of records from both the DOJ and Epstein's estate.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blanche said the DOJ has been “working tirelessly” since Trump signed the law requiring the release of the files “to make sure that we get every single document that we have within the Department of Justice, review it and get it to the American public.”
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a co-author of the bill, appeared unmoved by Blanche's arguments, tweeting out a screenshot of the law shortly after the interview aired and highlighting the deadline to release the files and the word "all."
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Massie's co-author, said that even a partial release was a "positive step" but that the government must give a "clear timeline for the full release."
"If DOJ is producing real documents of interest that are not overly redacted, and if they are clear about a timeline for full production then that is a positive step," Khanna said in a statement.
There "are millions of pages of documents they need to go through to protect victim’s identities and redact graphic materials. The fact they are even releasing hundreds of thousands of these is a historic moment for survivors across our nation," Khanna said, but the agency "must today offer a clear timeline for the full release."
"The key is they release the names of all the powerful men in question who abused underage girls or covered it up. They must provide a clear framework to the survivors and the nation by when we will have everything public,” he said.
In an interview with NBC News earlier this week, Khanna outlined some of the repercussions the Justice Department officials could face if they did not comply with the law.
While they likely would not face charges during the current administration, “they could be subject to prosecution given the federal law, and the statute of limitations will likely run into a new administration,” Khanna said.
They also “could be hauled in front of Congress, the Oversight Committee,” and “there could be federal lawsuits” by victims over any inaction.
