US Justice Department faces deadline for Epstein files – DW – 12/19/2025

US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch said not all documents related to Jeffrey Epstein will be released on Friday as the deadline for their publication approaches.

Blanch told conservative Fox News broadcaster that several million documents would be released on Friday.

“In the next few weeks…I expect several hundred thousand more films to be released,” said Blanch.

Blanch’s comments were sharply criticized by many MPs.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, “The Trump administration had 30 days to release all of the Epstein files, not just some. Failing to do so is breaking the law.”

Democratic lawmakers Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia issued a joint statement accusing Trump and the Justice Department of “violating federal law”, and said they were “examining all legal options” to deal with the alleged violations.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who announced late last month that she would resign in January over disagreements with the Trump administration, also urged the release of all files.

“Oh my God, what’s in the Epstein files? Release all the files. It’s literally the law,” he said in a post on X.

The deadline for the US Justice Department to release documents related to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is approaching.

The deadline was established by The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by US President Donald Trump in late November after the bill’s near-unanimous passage in Congress.

Democratic lawmakers published 68 images from the Epstein estate ahead of the deadline.

Releasing Epstein-related documents was one of Trump’s campaign promises during the November 2024 election, which he later attempted to ease early in his term, a move that drew outrage from his own base.

Stay tuned for DW’s coverage of the Epstein-related documents and their release.