The Trump administration’s promise of transparency around the Jeffrey Epstein case is something that will take years at the current rate. Therefore, a full public release may not happen while President Donald Trump is still in office.
In a court filing this week, DOJ officials said they have released 12,285 documents since Dec. 19, the date Congress set as the deadline for posting all unclassified Epstein records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The department told the court that “more than 2 million documents” remain in “various phases of review,” a volume so large that even a sustained, high-speed release schedule would take years to finish.
That filing has become the backbone of the timeline argument now spreading through Washington. If the government is posting less than 1 percent of what it says it is sitting on, the finish line is nowhere near. Newsweek calculated that, if everything under review ends up being disclosed, the process could stretch beyond eight years, placing a full release outside Trump’s current term.
DOJ says it is throwing manpower at the problem. In the court letter, the department said that, over the next few weeks, “in the range of over 400 lawyers across the Department will dedicate all or a substantial portion of their workday” to compliance. The review effort also includes more than 100 FBI analysts trained to handle sensitive victim material, according to the filing.
The administration has leaned heavily on one explanation: the files are packed with identifying details about victims and witnesses, and scrubbing them is painstaking work. DOJ has repeatedly pointed to the need for legally required redactions and has said it will release documents as quickly as it can while protecting survivors. The department’s filing also noted that it has received “dozens” of inquiries from alleged victims and their representatives asking that items already posted be further redacted, prompting changes to its procedures.
But the slow drip has stirred anger from multiple directions, including survivors and lawmakers who expected a cleaner follow-through after the bill passed Congress and Trump signed it into law on Nov. 19. One of Epstein’s victims described the initial release as “a slap in our faces,” and critics have accused DOJ of moving fast when it wants to and crawling when the material gets uncomfortable.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who introduced the legislation alongside Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, has argued that the main issue is not time, it is what the department is choosing not to put out. In an interview with CNN cited by Newsweek, Khanna said, “I’m less concerned about the timeline and I’m more concerned about them not releasing the key documents.” He added, “The point is this doesn’t take a lot of time, they’re just not releasing it.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also attacked the DOJ for not delivering a report to Congress that, he says, is required to include a list of government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the released materials. “What are they trying to hide?” Schumer wrote in a post on X, according to Time.
The department’s filing comes in a political climate already filled with suspicion. Earlier batches of posted records were criticized for heavy redactions and for temporary removal of some images, including material involving Trump, a move that fed the online belief that the government was curating what the public could see.
Trump, Pam Bondi, and Kash Patel campaigned on releasing the Epstein files before turning back on their word. Now that they have been pressured into signing the release, the excuses keep piling up for full transparency.
