Trump’s Justice Department releases new cache of Jeffrey Epstein files

Jan 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Friday published a new cache of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Trump administration’s latest effort to comply with a law passed in November that required the department to release all Epstein-related records by December 19, 2025.

Reuters is in the process of reviewing the files.

The department had said at year’s end that it still had more than five million pages to review and needed to re-assign hundreds of lawyers to do so, drawing criticism from some members of Congress that the administration’s slow pace had violated the law.

President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before they had a falling out years before Epstein’s first conviction, had spent months resisting any release until both Democrats and Republicans in Congress advanced the law over his objections.

The law permitted some redactions, including to protect victims and preserve ongoing investigations. But the files released thus far have been heavily redacted, in some cases entirely so, frustrating lawmakers.

Trump has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and he has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Epstein, a New York financier, was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While his death was ruled a suicide, it has engendered years of conspiracy theories, some of which Trump himself boosted to his own supporters during his 2024 presidential campaign.

The Epstein scandal has become a persistent political problem for Trump, who is already facing sagging approval ratings on a range of issues, including his handling of the economy and his immigration crackdown.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Alistair Bell)