The U.S. Justice Department announced it has 5.2 million pages of documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein still under review, requiring 400 attorneys across multiple DOJ offices to complete the work through late January, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters.
The disclosure indicates the release of the files will likely extend past the December 19 deadline set by Congress. The documents are being released under a new transparency law mandating that all Epstein-related files, previously sealed, be made public, with redactions allowed only to protect victims.
Lawyers from the Criminal Division, National Security Division, FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan will participate. The review is scheduled between January 5 and 23. Volunteers are being offered telework options and time-off awards, and are expected to review roughly 1,000 documents per day, the document said.
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The Justice Department has already uncovered more than a million additional documents potentially linked to Epstein, whose sexual abuse scandal has continued to draw public scrutiny. So far, the documents released have been heavily redacted, a move that has frustrated some lawmakers.
In a post on X last week, the DOJ said:
“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible. Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”
Epstein, who was convicted in Florida in 2008 for procuring a minor for prostitution and later charged with sex trafficking in 2019, died in a New York jail that same year. His death was ruled a suicide. Former President Donald Trump, who knew Epstein socially in the 1990s, has said their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was unaware of Epstein’s abuse.