With a court-imposed deadline looming, the Justice Department is expected by Friday to begin releasing long-sought records tied to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and financier whose social circle included some of the world’s most powerful figures. The files are being made public after years of resistance, including efforts by President Donald Trump during his time in office to keep them under seal.
The records are expected to offer the most comprehensive official account yet of nearly 20 years of federal and local scrutiny into Epstein’s abuse of young women and underage girls. For the public, the disclosures represent a chance to better understand how law enforcement handled repeated warnings about Epstein’s conduct and whether any of his wealthy associates were aware of, or involved in, the abuse.
Victims and their advocates have also pressed for answers about a pivotal decision in 2008, when federal prosecutors abruptly closed their initial case and allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges. That episode has remained a source of anger and suspicion for more than a decade.
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Momentum for disclosure accelerated last month after Trump, facing pressure from Republicans in Congress, signed legislation on Nov. 19 giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most records and internal communications related to Epstein. The mandate includes materials connected to the investigation into Epstein’s death while he was being held in a federal jail.
The department has not said precisely when the documents will be released on Friday, only that it intends to comply with the law, according to AP’s report.
Passage of the measure marked an unusual bipartisan breakthrough, ending months of opposition from Trump and Republican leaders. While the statute permits redactions to protect victims’ identities or ongoing investigations, it explicitly bars withholding or censoring records because of “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”
Even before the law took effect, Attorney General Pam Bondi signaled a new direction. On Nov. 14, she said she had instructed a senior federal prosecutor to examine Epstein’s connections to Trump’s political rivals, including former President Bill Clinton. Bondi acted after Trump publicly urged such an inquiry, though he did not specify what alleged crimes he believed warranted investigation. None of the individuals he named have been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.
Trump’s posture on the issue has shifted repeatedly. In July, he derided some of his own supporters as “weaklings” for embracing what he called “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax.” Yet neither Trump nor House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was able to stop the legislation from reaching the floor. Once its passage became unavoidable, Trump reversed course, arguing that releasing the records would clear a distraction from the Republican agenda and allow the party to move on.
The origins of the Epstein case stretch back two decades. In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, opened an investigation after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported that she had been molested at Epstein’s mansion. The FBI later joined the probe, and investigators collected statements from multiple underage girls who said they were paid to give Epstein sexual massages.
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Despite that evidence, prosecutors ultimately struck a deal that spared Epstein from federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges involving someone under age 18 and received an 18-month jail sentence.
For years afterward, Epstein’s accusers pursued civil cases in an effort to overturn that plea agreement. Among them was Virginia Giuffre, who said Epstein arranged sexual encounters for her, beginning when she was 17, with numerous men she described as powerful and well known. She named billionaires, prominent academics, U.S. politicians and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain’s Prince Andrew.
Those men denied the allegations, and prosecutors never filed charges related to Giuffre’s claims. Still, her account helped fuel persistent theories that authorities shielded influential figures from scrutiny. Giuffre died by suicide in April at her farm in Western Australia. She was 41.
Federal prosecutors in New York revived the case in 2019, charging Epstein with sex trafficking. He died in jail about a month after his arrest. The investigation continued with the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, who was accused of recruiting underage girls for his abuse.
Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She was later transferred from a low-security facility in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after being interviewed over the summer by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Her attorneys have maintained that she should never have been tried or convicted.
In July, the Justice Department said it had found no evidence supporting criminal charges against any additional individuals.
Even so, a vast archive related to Epstein is already in the public domain. It includes flight logs, contact lists, emails, police files, grand jury materials, courtroom testimony and deposition transcripts from accusers, employees and associates. Decades of litigation and investigative reporting have steadily added to that record.
Yet interest in what remains undisclosed has not faded. Attention has been especially intense around documents that might shed further light on Epstein’s relationships with prominent figures such as Trump, Mountbatten-Windsor and Clinton.
Trump and Epstein were friends for years before falling out. Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the appearance of a person’s name in investigative files does not, by itself, suggest misconduct.
Mountbatten-Windsor has denied ever having sex with Giuffre. Earlier this year, King Charles III stripped him of his royal titles following the posthumous publication of Giuffre’s memoir.
