AG Pam Bondi Says All Epstein Files Have Been Released

The US Department of Justice says it has now released every document required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but some members of Congress aren’t convinced that the job is finished.

In a letter sent on Saturday to members of the US Congress, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy said that the department had complied with the law and turned over all required material tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“In accordance with the requirements of the Act, and as described in various Department submissions to the courts of the Southern District of New York assigned to the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions and related orders, the Department released all ‘records, documents, communications and investigative materials in the possession of the Department’ that ‘relate to’ any of nine different categories," the letter read.

The letter includes a list of more than 300 high-profile names who “are or were a government official or politically exposed person and their name appears in the files released under the Act at least once”. Among them are Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, all of whom have acknowledged that they had been in contact with Epstein but denied any involvement in his crimes. The list also includes public figures such as Janis Joplin, Prince Harry and Elvis Presley.

The department stressed that being named in the files does not automatically suggest wrongdoing. According to the letter, individuals appear in the files in a “wide variety of contexts.” Some had “extensive direct email contact with Epstein or Maxwell” while others were mentioned in news clippings or unrelated documents.

Bondi also wrote that no material was kept back “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

The Justice Department had already released millions of pages earlier this month, though officials said that about three million pages were not made public because they contain personal medical information, graphic child abuse material or details that could affect ongoing investigations. The redaction process, the letter said, was “extensive,” and included discussions with victims and their lawyers to remove identifying details.

Still, critics are arguing that key documents still haven’t been released.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who co-wrote the transparency law with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, said on ABC’s This Week that “it is clear that their work is not done here yet.” “They are citing ‘deliberative process privilege’ in order not to release some of the documents,” Massie said. “The problem with that is the bill that Ro Khanna and I wrote says that they must release internal memos and notes and emails about their decisions on whether to prosecute or not to prosecute, whether to investigate or not investigate.”

Massie has called for the release of internal DOJ communications explaining past decisions on whether or not to prosecute people mentioned in the files, including why Epstein secured a non-prosecution agreement in 2008. He also claimed some documents were temporarily taken offline before lawmakers could review unredacted versions.

Khanna criticized how the list of names was presented, accusing the DOJ of “purposefully muddying the waters on who was a predator and who was mentioned in an email”.

“To have Janis Joplin, who died when Epstein was 17, in the same list as Larry Nassar, who went to prison for the sexual abuse of hundreds of young women and child pornography, with no clarification of how either was mentioned in the files is absurd,” Khanna wrote on X. He added: “Release the full files. Stop protecting predators. Redact only the survivor's names.”

The letter sent by Bondi was addressed to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, ranking member Dick Durbin, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and ranking member Jamie Raskin. It includes information on a broad range of material, including investigative files on Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, civil settlements, internal DOJ emails and memos about investigation decisions, and records related to Epstein’s detention and death. 

Despite the department’s claim that it has fulfilled its legal obligations, pressure from both Republicans and Democrats suggests the fight over what should and shouldn’t be public is far from over.