Two million Epstein files still not released, says DOJ

The US Department of Justice has said it is still reviewing more than two million documents potentially related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The department began releasing documents from the decades-long investigation into the late disgraced financier last month but failed to meet the 19 December deadline mandated under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

In a letter to a federal judge, DOJ officials said more than two million documents remained "in various phases of review.".

About 12,285 documents comprising more than 125,000 pages, the letter said, had already been publicly released in response to the law - less than 1% of the tranche currently in review.

The DOJ said it identified on 24 December more than one million files not included in its initial review.

Some of those documents appeared to be duplicates but would still need "processing and deduplication", the letter noted.

"Substantial work remains to be done," said the letter, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and others involved.

More than 400 DOJ attorneys will spend "the next few weeks" reviewing the documents, the officials said.

At least 100 FBI employees trained in handling "sensitive victim information" will assist the effort.

US President Donald Trump is facing strong pushback from Democrats for failing to release all files related to Epstein in a timely manner.

The Trump administration has defended its handling of the documents, stating the need to protect sensitive information about victims.

In the letter, the DOJ officials said they must "manually" review the documents for "victim identifying information".

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