Overview
- In a six-page letter to congressional judiciary leaders, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche said the department has released all records required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act and appended a roster of roughly 300 government officials and politically exposed persons named at least once.
- The DOJ stressed that appearances in the files span a wide range of contexts and do not by themselves indicate wrongdoing, and it said nothing was withheld to prevent embarrassment or political harm.
- Officials defended redactions to protect victims’ privacy and said withheld material reflects deliberative-process, work-product, and attorney-client privileges, with a small set of documents still in limbo pending court decisions.
- Key advocates of the law, including Reps. Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie, and Nancy Mace, rejected the release as vague or incomplete, pressed for unredacted internal memos on prosecutorial decisions, and pointed to pages that remain fully blacked out.
- Confidence in the rollout has been dented by reports that DOJ tracked lawmakers’ searches during secure reviews and by earlier mistakes, such as names later linked to a photo lineup with no known ties to Epstein.