The Justice Department says it has finally done what it promised — open its files on Jeffrey Epstein. On Friday, the DOJ released millions of pages of investigative material tied to the late financier’s sex trafficking case. They called it the final step required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department has now “completed” its review and met its legal obligations.
Yet for many, that answer landed flat as there are still so many unanswered questions. The newly released cache includes more than 3.5 million pages of documents, along with roughly 180,000 images and 2,000 videos, according to DOJ officials. The materials were gathered from federal investigations in New York and Florida, the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, internal FBI records, and inquiries into Epstein’s 2019 jailhouse death.
“Men that abused these girls? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know whether there are men out there that abused these women.”
Todd Blanche gaslights Americans that there are no men in the files who abused Epstein’s victims.#EpsteinFiles pic.twitter.com/fytcROrnS0
— Lincoln Square (@LincolnSquareHQ) January 30, 2026
Accessing the files now requires age verification due to explicit content. Officials say hundreds of attorneys spent months reviewing records to remove victim-identifying details and legally protected information.
Blanche said none of the material was withheld to protect powerful individuals. “We did not protect President Trump,” Blanche told reporters, per The U.S. Sun, denying claims that political considerations shaped the release. He also rejected accusations that the department is sitting on a hidden tranche of documents involving unnamed abusers.
Still, the numbers themselves have fueled skepticism. The DOJ has acknowledged reviewing more than 5 million pages, including duplicates. Only part of that material has been released. Officials say the rest remains redacted or withheld under privacy protections, attorney-client privilege, and internal deliberative exemptions permitted by law.
todd blanche’s redactions in the Epstein Files pic.twitter.com/p7qOKlTRXb
— Lisboncharles (@Lisbonchar4842) January 30, 2026
That gap is where the trust lies. Lawmakers and transparency advocates point to the department’s missed December deadline, the heavy redactions in earlier releases, and the slow drip of documents as evidence that the Epstein Files Transparency Act delivered less than its name promised.
Earlier releases included flight logs, photographs, phone records, and FBI interview transcripts describing how teenage girls said they were recruited and paid to perform s-x acts for Epstein. Some documents confirmed Epstein’s past associations with high-profile figures, including Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. Neither man has been accused of criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and both have denied knowledge of his abuse.
Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019 while awaiting trial, a death ruled a suicide that intensified public distrust in how the case was handled. His longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking-related charges and is serving a 20-year sentence in Texas.
Apparently @EdKrassen went to the DoJ site- copied and pasted the Epstein files to another document, highlighted the redactions and boom-
Here it is. pic.twitter.com/SWOkBQwz7m
— Haters_gonna_hate (@princess_kim_k) December 23, 2025
No other criminal prosecutions followed. And it is precisely that fact that continues to loom over every document release. Survivors and their advocates say that their trauma is extended because of the lack of transparency. Blanche acknowledged that frustration on Friday, saying the victims “have gone through unspeakable pain,” while expressing hope that the disclosures bring some measure of closure.
But the DOJ’s declaration that the review is finished has already triggered renewed backlash because the question was never whether millions of files existed. It was whether the public would ever see the full picture of who knew what, and when. With the department insisting that the process is over, attention is now shifting from Epstein’s crimes to the government’s role in documenting them.
And whether this was transparency, or simply the last word the public is going to get.
