Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the Jeffrey Epstein files—despite Congress legally mandating full disclosure over a month ago.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress with bipartisan support, required the DOJ to release all investigative files on the late sex trafficker by December 19, 2025.
One month past that deadline, Trump’s justice department has released just 12,285 documents—roughly 125,575 pages—while acknowledging that over 2 million documents are still “in various phases of review.”
That’s a drop in the bucket. And the files that have been released? They’ve done essentially nothing to explain how Epstein operated with impunity for years while powerful people looked the other way.
THE DETAILS: Bipartisan lawmakers are furious. Representatives Ro Khanna (D) and Thomas Massie (R), who co-sponsored the act, wrote to federal judge Paul Engelmayer asking him to appoint a special master to force compliance. Their assessment of Trump’s DOJ was blunt: “The DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act.”
The congressmen pointed out multiple violations: missing the deadline, claiming privileges the law doesn’t allow, and applying “extensive redactions that appear inconsistent with the Act’s expressed prohibition on withholding or redacting records to protect politically exposed persons.” The DOJ also failed to submit a legally required report explaining what’s being withheld and why.
Trump’s justice department, for its part, has asked the judge to reject the special master request.
BUT BUT BUT: Remember when Trump campaigned on releasing the Epstein files? Remember the endless promises of transparency? Instead, his administration has been too busy with—well, everything else. Executive orders on ice cream scoops, feuds with foreign allies over Greenland, social media meltdowns about ratings. Meanwhile, documents about a sex trafficking operation that victimized children sit locked away.
WHY IT MATTERS: “For survivors of Epstein’s abuse, this delay is not procedural—it is personal,” said attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represents dozens of Epstein survivors. “These files are not abstract government records; they are evidence of how institutions failed children. Continued secrecy retraumatises victims and undermines public confidence in the justice system.”
A special master could potentially cut through the DOJ’s stalling, but even that isn’t a guaranteed fix. If Judge Engelmayer decides he lacks authority, the whole thing moves to another court—more delays, more litigation, more waiting.
BOTTOM LINE: Congress passed a law. Trump’s DOJ is ignoring it. The files that could expose how powerful people enabled a child sex trafficker remain hidden. As Kuvin put it: “Transparency doesn’t fail because statutes are unclear—it fails when institutions choose protection over accountability.”