According to a federal document examined by Reuters on Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department disclosed that it still has 5.2 million pages of Epstein files to evaluate and need 400 attorneys from four different department offices to assist with the process through late January.
According to the document, this will probably cause the ultimate release of the records to happen considerably later than anticipated following a deadline set by Congress on December 19. Requests for comment from Reuters were not immediately answered by the Justice Department or the White House.
In accordance with a transparency bill passed by Congress last month, the Trump administration ordered the Justice Department to make public the documents related to criminal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein, the late businessman and convicted sex offender who was acquainted with U.S. President Donald Trump in the 1990s.
The paper stated that 400 lawyers are being provided by the Criminal Division, the National Security Division, the FBI, and the US Attorney's office in Manhattan to analyze the files.
This is a more accurate and possibly far higher number than the department's earlier estimations. According to the document, the evaluation will take place from January 5–23.
Incentives for volunteers include telework possibilities and time off awards, according to the paper. Lawyers who help will be expected to spend three to five hours a day reviewing roughly 1,000 documents each day.
Last week, the DOJ announced that it had found over a million more papers that might be connected to Epstein. The disclosures have been highly classified thus far, which has irritated some Republicans and done little to stop a controversy that might jeopardize the party in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections.
Despite Trump's months-long efforts to keep them secret, the statute, which was passed by Congress with strong bipartisan support, mandates that all Epstein-related documents be made public.
The statute required all documents to be made public by December 19 with victim protection redactions. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Trump had a social acquaintance with Epstein. He claims he was unaware of the financier's sexual assault and that their relationship terminated in the middle of the 2000s.
In 2008, Epstein was found guilty in Florida of obtaining a minor for prostitution. In 2019, he was accused with sex trafficking by the Justice Department.
When Epstein was discovered dead in a New York jail in 2019, it was determined that he had committed suicide. "We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible," the Justice Department stated in a statement posted on X last week. This process might take a few more weeks because of the large volume of material."
