The U.S. Department of Justice has disclosed that its review of documents connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein involves an unprecedented volume of over two million files, significantly exceeding initial estimates. This revelation comes more than two weeks after the December 19 deadline established by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
In a formal communication to a federal judge on Monday, Justice Department officials detailed the extensive scope of the ongoing document review process. The department acknowledged that approximately 12,285 documents totaling more than 125,000 pages have been released to date—representing less than one percent of the total documents currently under examination.
The complexity of the task intensified on December 24 when investigators identified an additional one million files that were not included in the initial assessment. These documents require meticulous processing and deduplication, even when appearing to be duplicates, according to the Justice Department’s communication.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior officials signed the letter emphasizing that “substantial work remains to be done” in this massive undertaking. The department has mobilized more than 400 attorneys who will dedicate “the next few weeks” exclusively to the document review process. Additionally, over 100 specially trained FBI personnel with expertise in handling sensitive victim information will provide crucial support.
The delayed release has sparked significant political controversy, with Democrats criticizing President Donald Trump’s administration for failing to meet the statutory deadline. The administration has defended its cautious approach, citing the imperative to protect identifying information of victims throughout the document review process.
Justice Department officials emphasized that each document requires manual examination to redact victim-identifying information, contributing to the extensive timeline for full public disclosure.