Justice Department Is Set to Release Trove of Epstein Files

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department was expected to release hundreds of thousands of documents related to investigations of Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, responding to a deadline set by Congress and reviving a scandal that has dogged the second Trump administration.

The significance of the disclosure was unknown, given the volume of the new material and how much has been previously disclosed. But because the Justice Department said Friday that it plans to withhold some documents by citing ongoing investigations or national security concerns, the release is as likely to reignite the furor over the so-called Epstein files as quell it.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a Fox News interview on Friday morning that the Justice Department would release “several hundred thousand documents” from its investigative files on Epstein. But Blanche suggested that the department would hold back an unknown amount of material, saying that lawyers were continuing to review the documents to redact material and that those files would be released “over the next couple of weeks.”

The public release of the documents was mandated by an act of Congress in November. Although Republican leaders worked for months to stop the legislation, it passed nearly unanimously in the House and Senate and was then signed by President Donald Trump, who ultimately urged its passage after losing a political battle to prevent it.

The president’s signature started a 30-day clock to release the government’s files that expires Friday, but it did not guarantee all of them would become public. The legislation approved by Congress contains significant exceptions, allowing the Justice Department to ensure that many documents would stay confidential.

The White House, fixated on the perils of a never-ending political crisis stoked by its own encouragement of Epstein conspiracy theories, had sought for months to block efforts to release any new information about Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who had a yearslong friendship with Trump.

Little worked. An overhyped document dump in February produced little new material. An unsigned statement from the Justice Department and FBI in July announced that the government had ended its review of the files and would not release more, only for the agencies to reverse themselves after public outcry and condemnation. And the release of more than 20,000 emails related to Epstein and subsequent releases of images only served to renew interest in the case, and the clamor for yet more transparency.

Here’s what else to know.

— Congressional pressure: The Epstein documents are set to become public after clamoring from members of both parties. Many Republicans faced forceful calls from their constituents, who had been primed by officials to expect more disclosures. Democrats, sensing a political opening, tried to stoke the tension. The bipartisan pressure ultimately forced a transparency bill to the floor over Trump’s strenuous objections.

— Epstein’s fortune: A team of New York Times reporters spent months reporting the fullest portrait to date of how Epstein used connections and leverage to amass his fortune, revealing how, again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power.

— Recent releases: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee spent months applying pressure on the government for a fuller release of files related to Epstein by making public materials the committee had obtained from the Epstein estate. Regular disclosures of specifically chosen emails, photos and videos offered windows into his correspondence, his island estate in the Caribbean and his ties to powerful men.