A U.S.-based transparency and pro-democracy nonprofit has launched a provocative temporary pop-up exhibition in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, centered entirely on a complete physical printout of every Jeffrey Epstein-related document released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Organized by the Washington D.C. Institute of Primary Facts, the exhibition, officially named “The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room,” houses roughly 3.5 million pages of court and investigative files, bound into 3,437 individually numbered volumes arranged floor-to-ceiling on custom shelves. The display comes as a direct outcome of the 2024 Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the public release of all government-held records connected to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
On the institute’s official website, the organization frames the physical installation as a confrontation against opaque government record-keeping, stating plainly: “The truth is hard to deny when it’s printed and bound for you to see.” While registration is open to any member of the public wishing to visit the space, access to the bound volumes remains heavily restricted. A processing error by the Department of Justice left the names of multiple Epstein victims unredacted in the released files, barring general public access per privacy regulations. Only accredited journalists and legal professionals working on related cases are granted permission to review the documents on-site.
A secondary focal point of the pop-up is a dedicated exhibit exploring the decades-long public relationship between former President Donald Trump and Epstein, who died by suicide in a federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges. Court records and public accounts confirm the pair moved in overlapping social circles for years before a reported falling out over a 2004 real estate transaction, after which Trump publicly distanced himself from Epstein. Since the full release of the Epstein files began, Trump’s repeated appearances in the records have sparked widespread speculation, though the former president has consistently denied any improper conduct connected to Epstein or his activities.
Project co-creator David Garrett explained the installation’s core mission in an interview with Agence France-Presse, noting the group’s focus on in-person public education to highlight perceived systemic corruption and threats to U.S. democratic norms. Garrett argued that the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein file release has been marked by unnecessary delays and intentional obfuscation, with many critics accusing senior justice department officials of covering up the full extent of Trump’s ties to Epstein. “We’re a pro-democracy organization, with the goal of educating the public using these kinds of sort of pop-up museums and other in-real-life experiences to help people understand the corruption in the United States, the dangers to democracy,” Garrett said. He added that the group aims to spur sustained public pressure to force full accountability for the handling of the Epstein case and related records: “there needs to be real public outcry” over the government’s conduct, he said, “and what we attempted to do here was to create, or help to create public outcry to have real accountability.”
The temporary exhibition will remain open to the public at its Tribeca location through May 21.