For the past few months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has engaged in a sprawling and extremely public investigation of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Keeping track of it all can be hard even for the sharpest observers.
While initial public interest in what Epstein-related documents the federal government has focused on investigative files held by the Department of Justice, the Oversight Committee’s inquiry expands far past that. In addition to subpoenaing the DOJ, the committee has sent letters or issued subpoenas to several other entities, including the US Treasury Department, the Attorney General of the US Virgin Islands, the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein, and multiple banks.
In some cases, those entities were instructed to send separate copies of the same documents to both Democrats and Republicans on the Committee. Those lawmakers have released their own selections of documents to the public, sometimes on the same day and sometimes consisting of overlapping sets of pages.
These releases have varied in format, from screenshots of multiple emails stitched together into a single PDF file, to a Google Drive link containing a 30,000-page dump still in an e-discovery format.
In short, it’s kind of confusing to know what’s been released, what hasn’t, and what’s still expected to come. WIRED reviewed letters and subpoenas sent by the House Oversight Committee, as well as what’s been released so far to the public, to make clear what the many Epstein document releases entail and where the public can access them. And the Oversight Committee isn’t the only part of the government working to release additional documents—the DOJ was recently granted motions to unseal grand jury materials by three different federal judges, and is expected to release an additional dump of documents later this month to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Meanwhile, the Oversight Committee appears to be zeroing in on Epstein’s financial records–in public statements, it has said that both the banks and the Treasury are complying with its requests, but it has yet to release documents from them. WIRED identified three gaps in the Committee’s releases from Epstein’s estate, which a Committee aide confirmed and said included information about Epstein’s bank accounts and cash ledgers.
US Department of Justice
In early August, the Committee subpoenaed Pam Bondi in her capacity as attorney general, requesting documents and communications related to the DOJ’s lawsuits against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the 2007 Florida investigation into Epstein, and Epstein’s death, among other things.
An initial 33,295 pages of “Epstein-related records” were produced to the Committee and later released in September. At the time, committee Democrats claimed that “97% of the pages included information previously released” by various law enforcement agencies. The documents include surveillance footage the night Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, public court filings from the investigations mentioned in the subpoena’s requests for production, and a memo from Bondi to FBI director Kash Patel about releasing the Epstein files. (In other words, documents and communications related to the lawsuits.)
A press release from late November reiterated that the DOJ had produced “roughly 33,000 pages of records to date,” and the Oversight Committee had not released additional documents from the DOJ as of early December. Congress has since passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which will require the DOJ to publish all unclassified records related to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein “in a searchable and downloadable format” (much to the relief of those who plan on poring over what’s released.)
The US Treasury
In late August, US representative James Comer sent a letter to Treasury secretary Scott Bessent requesting Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and “accompanying material” related to Epstein and Maxwell. SARs in particular are closely guarded, and unauthorized disclosure of them is a violation of federal law.
The letter requested documents no later than September 15, 2025. An Oversight Committee press release from late November said that “the Department of Treasury is fully cooperating with the Committee’s request,” but so far no documents have been released to the public.
Others in Congress have been frustrated by how the Treasury has handled past requests related to Epstein. According to a September letter sent by Senator Ron Wyden to Bessent, staffers on the Senate Finance Committee were allowed to do what’s called an “in camera review” of thousands of Treasury records related to Epstein’s financial activities in February of last year, when President Joe Biden was still in office. While the staffers were given a limited time to view these records in person, the Treasury didn’t hand over actual copies. Wyden wrote that not having the records was impeding his office’s investigation into Epstein’s finances, which has been ongoing since 2022.
Wyden recently introduced a bill called Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act that, if passed, would compel the Treasury to produce copies of certain documents to the Senate Finance Committee, including SARs related to Epstein and his associates.
The Estate of Jeffrey Epstein
In late August, the Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein, naming co-executors Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, and requesting 16 categories of documents with an initial deadline of September 8 for them to respond.
On the day of the initial deadline, the Committee released documents related to four of the requests: the 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Epstein’s will, and entries included in Epstein’s equally infamous “Black Book” and “Birthday Book.” The committee later followed up with additional Black Book pages and unredacted versions of two pages previously included in the first release.
From there, things have ramped up, and the committee has started publishing releases in the style of legal e-discovery productions, often including both image and text versions of the same pages. Some of the releases include a load file that, in normal circumstances, contains information about which pages are supposed to be part of what document, along with other metadata that makes it easier to search through the pages using document review software. Other releases do not.
In October, the committee released thousands of additional pages of documents. Then in November, it released an additional tranche of around 20,000 pages. Many of these documents include emails from a Gmail inbox owned by Epstein, text messages, and documents related to court filings.
Notably, because all the pages released so far include what are called “Bates Numbers” in the bottom-right corner, it’s possible to deduce that there are at least three gaps in what the Committee has received so far from the Epstein estate and what it has released to the public. A committee aide confirmed to WIRED that these gaps include non-disclosure agreements and settlement documents, information about Epstein’s bank accounts, and cash ledgers.
J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank
In November, the Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank. The committee only published the cover letters for the subpoenas, so it’s unclear what specific document requests were made. However, the cover letters both note that the committee was aware that Epstein held accounts at each of the banks.
On December 3, Oversight Committee Democrats noted in a press release that the Committee had received records from both entities and intended to release files to the public after review.
The US Virgin Islands Attorney General
Also in November, the Oversight Committee sent a letter to the US Virgin Islands attorney general, Gordon Rhea, requesting all documents the AG’s office has related to any investigations into Epstein and Maxwell. The letter named two matters related to the Epstein Estate, and one case against J.P Morgan Chase.
While the committee Democrats recently released video and images of Epstein’s compound, the committee has not yet released any other documents produced by the AG’s office.
Upcoming Releases
More document releases are expected this month. The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the DOJ to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein by December 19. Those documents are supposed to be released in a searchable format.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee also promised to release records they received from J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank, but didn’t give a specific date to expect them.
Following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the DOJ filed several motions to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits related to matters involving Epstein and Maxwell. As of December 9, federal judges—one in Florida and two in New York—granted three of the government’s motions, but those documents have not yet been released.
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