DOJ says it has released less than 1% of its Epstein files and is still reviewing more than 2 million documents

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department on Monday said it has released 12,285 documents – less than 1% – of its Jeffrey Epstein-related files, with more than 2 million documents still being reviewed.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told a federal judge in a Monday court filing that “substantial work remains to be done.”

Looking to update the court on their progress, they told Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York that the 12,285 documents the department has already released contain roughly 125,575 pages.

“There are more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act that are in various phases of review,” they added.

It comes after Congress passed a law in November – with near-unanimous support – giving the Justice Department a December 19, 2025, deadline to release all of its files about Epstein, the convicted sex offender who was accused of abusing dozens of underage girls. Epstein died by suicide in 2019.

The files are made up of papers, videos, photographs and audio files that live within the FBI’s main electronic case management system and largely originate from the FBI’s two major investigations into Epstein, in Florida and New York, spanning decades. A July 2025 FBI memo said that the department had uncovered “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence” during a review of the investigative materials.

“This work has required and will continue to require substantial Department resources,” the Justice Department wrote to the judge in the Monday court filing.

“We noted in our prior letter the hundreds of attorneys dedicated to the review at the time of that letter. Currently, and anticipated for the next few weeks ahead, in the range of over 400 lawyers across the Department will dedicate all or a substantial portion of their workday to the Department’s efforts to comply with the Act.”

Trump appointees at the Justice Department have said they’re acting in good faith to release as much material as fast as possible, while also going through the painstaking work of reviewing every file to make sure victims’ identifies are shielded, as required by the law.

In a letter to Congress released on December 19, Blanche said the department was working “diligently” to meet the deadline but that the “volume of materials” meant it “must publicly produce responsive documents on a rolling basis.”

The Justice Department announced in late December that there were more than a million more newly discovered documents potentially related to Epstein – and that they would take “weeks” to review and release them.

And as CNN previously reported, the Justice Department’s leadership also asked career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer over the the holidays to help redact the documents.

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