New Transparency Law: The U.S. Justice Department has begun making public millions of records connected to the federal investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, following a sweeping document review mandated by a recently enacted transparency law. Officials said the release marks one of the largest disclosure efforts ever undertaken by the department and is intended to meet new legal requirements aimed at increasing public access to historically sensitive case files.
According to senior Justice Department officials, the disclosure includes more than three million pages of material gathered during years of investigative work related to Epstein and Maxwell. The records encompass a wide range of formats, including written documents, emails, interview summaries, photographs, and thousands of video files. Officials said the total production ultimately reached roughly 3.5 million pages once all qualifying materials were finalized for release.
The effort was conducted to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which became law in November 2025. The statute requires the department to systematically review and disclose records associated with the high-profile cases, subject to clearly defined legal safeguards.
The department described the review as an intensive, multi-agency undertaking. More than 500 attorneys and professional staff participated, drawing personnel from the FBI, multiple U.S. attorney’s offices, and other Justice Department divisions. Review teams reportedly worked for nearly 75 consecutive days, holding frequent coordination meetings to ensure consistency and compliance with the law.
Officials said the initial document pool exceeded six million pages. However, the final release was narrowed after applying statutory exclusions, privacy protections, and long-standing legal standards. Department leaders said the approach intentionally favored broad collection at the outset, with careful filtering later in the process.
The released records reflect evidence collected during the criminal investigations into Epstein and Maxwell. Officials noted that a significant portion of the images and videos consist of commercially produced adult pornography or files seized from Epstein’s electronic devices that were not created by him personally.
The department emphasized that the materials are presented as historical investigative records and do not represent new findings or conclusions. Instead, the release aims to provide transparency into the scope and nature of evidence reviewed by federal authorities during the cases.
Certain categories of material were withheld, as allowed under the transparency law. These include records containing victims’ personal or medical information, any content depicting child sexual abuse, materials that could interfere with ongoing investigations, and images involving death or severe physical harm.
Officials said no documents were withheld or redacted for reasons related to national security or foreign policy. Standard legal privileges, such as attorney-client communications and attorney work product, were also applied where required by law.
To protect victims’ identities, all women appearing in released images or videos were redacted, with the sole exception of Ghislaine Maxwell. Men were generally not redacted unless doing so was necessary to prevent the identification of women in the same materials. Justice Department officials said members of Congress may review unredacted records through formal arrangements with the department.
Addressing speculation surrounding the cases, Justice Department leadership said they were not aware of any secret non-prosecution agreements involving Maxwell. Officials also rejected claims that the document review or release was designed to shield any political figures, stating that the department followed the statute as written and applied the same standards across all records.
Separately, officials confirmed the opening of a civil rights investigation into the death of Alex Pretti, describing it as a routine inquiry led by the FBI in coordination with other agencies. Details were not disclosed due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
The department plans to submit a formal report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees outlining which records were released, which were withheld, and the legal reasons for any redactions. Once those explanations are published in the Federal Register, officials said the department’s obligations under the law will be fulfilled.
Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Ghislaine Maxwell was later convicted for her role in recruiting and abusing underage girls and is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence.
