The Justice Department now expects to finish its review and public release of government files related to Jeffrey Epstein “in the near term,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in court filings on Tuesday in Manhattan.
Ms. Bondi said she was not yet able to provide a specific date for the completion of the work, which she said had involved reviewing and redacting several million pages of materials in the files of the department, the F.B.I. and U.S. attorney’s offices.
A law enacted in November required the department to release the materials by Dec. 19, 2025, after redacting the names of the victims of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme. But in recent weeks, with only a fraction of the materials made public, Ms. Bondi has made it clear in filings with the court that the administration felt more time was needed.
The New York Times reported recently that nearly all of the 200 lawyers in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York were involved in the Epstein files review, except those who were handling current trials or on vacation. Even prosecutors involved in the case of Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president who was brought to Manhattan for prosecution, were directed to turn their attention to reviewing the files, the report said.
Ms. Bondi’s letter was also signed by her deputy, Todd Blanche, and Jay Clayton, the Southern District’s U.S. attorney. The letter was submitted to the federal judges who oversaw the cases of Mr. Epstein, who was found hanged in his jail cell while awaiting trial in August 2019, a death ruled a suicide; and Ghislaine Maxwell, his co-conspirator, who was tried and convicted of sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year sentence.
In the filing Tuesday evening, Ms. Bondi said her agency’s efforts had involved hundreds of department attorneys, agents and others conducting a page-by-page review of millions of pages of documents, and electronic searches for victims’ names and other identifying information.
The delays in releasing the materials have led to criticism in Congress and elsewhere. Two members of Congress — Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of California — recently accused the department of a “flagrant violation” of the new law in failing to meet the Dec. 19 deadline.
Mr. Massie and Mr. Khanna, who wrote the law, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, asked the judge who has overseen the Maxwell case to order the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure the department followed the law.
The judge, Paul A. Engelmayer, denied the request last week, saying his role did not give him the authority to supervise the department’s compliance with the Epstein law, a civil statute.
The judge noted that he had also received letters and emails from victims of Mr. Epstein supporting the request for a neutral monitor and said the questions raised by the representatives and the victims were “undeniably important and timely.”
He noted that Mr. Massie and Mr. Khanna could initiate a separate lawsuit that would seek appointment of a monitor, and that they could use “the tools available to Congress” to seek oversight of the department’s compliance.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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