More than six years after his death in jail, Jeffrey Epstein is still alive and well in the public discourse.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act after months of pressure from members of Congress, including some in his own party.
The law requires one of the most radical acts of transparency in the Justice Department’s history, requiring it to make public its records related to Epstein, the notorious and well-connected pedophile financier who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The department has 30 days to comply, setting a deadline of Saturday, December 19.
Epstein counted Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and other titans of finance, law, politics, and science among his acquaintances. His alleged victims and other members of the public hope the files will shed light on those relationships and law enforcement’s handling of the case.
Here’s what sets this release apart:
Haven’t we already seen a whole lot of ‘Epstein files’?
In recent months, the House Oversight Committee has made public Epstein-related documents it obtained through subpoenas, including emails provided by his estate.
Other documents have been made public through the federal prosecution of Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Civil lawsuits involving Epstein, Maxwell, banks affiliated with Epstein, and the US Virgin Islands government have shaken loose even more records about his life. Various drips and drabs have also entered the public domain through Freedom of Information Act requests, government reports, and an inquiry from the Senate Finance Committee.
All of that may pale in comparison to what the Justice Department has in its possession.
US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York
OK, so what’s new here?
The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to publish “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” about Epstein and Maxwell.
Those could include more emails and text messages, as well as internal prosecutorial records. The Justice Department has overseen two different criminal investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. The first took place in Florida and led to a widely criticized deal where Epstein pleaded guilty to a single sex offense in 2008. The second was the Manhattan-based investigation, which led to Epstein’s 2019 arrest and Maxwell’s prosecution.
During Epstein’s 2019 arrest, the FBI searched his Manhattan townhouse and his home in the US Virgin Islands. In the process, they obtained more than 70 computers, iPads, and hard drives, along with financial documents and binders full of CDs.
Those seized materials form the heart of the “Epstein files,” which could shed even more light on the deepest, darkest secrets of the notorious pedophile. According to The New York Times, the FBI had already prepared 100,000 pages for public release before the Justice Department decided to keep them secret earlier this year.
That’s pretty wild. Is there anything else the Justice Department might release?
Yes! A whole bunch of stuff, including:
- Any deals between the government and Epstein associates, including non-prosecution agreements and sealed settlements.
- Records tied to Epstein’s death in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, such as transcripts of interviews with people in neighboring cells the night he died.
- Records into what has widely been criticized as a “sweetheart deal” for Epstein by Southern District of Florida prosecutors.
- Material surrounding calls victims say they made to the FBI as early as the 1990s about Epstein’s conduct, which did not lead to any known law enforcement investigation.
- Additional flight records from Epstein’s private jets.
That’s a lot? Is there anything the government isn’t releasing?
While the law requires the Justice Department to make its records publicly available, other federal agencies are off the hook.
The Treasury Department, for example, is in possession of more exhaustive records related to Epstein’s finances, including Suspicious Activity Reports some banks filed about his fund transfers. A separate bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden would force more transparency there.
The Federal Aviation Administration possesses flight records that it has so far kept from the public. And to the degree that intelligence agencies like the CIA or National Security Agency have anything, the bill doesn’t cover them.
Tom Brenner/Reuters
Doesn’t the DOJ have loopholes to keep this stuff secret?
The Epstein Files Transparency Act permits the Justice Department to redact or withhold documents for victim privacy and for national security purposes.
‘National security’? That sounds fuzzy.
Well, sure, but there are limits.
Four people who have had access to the seized material previously told Business Insider that nothing in them indicated Epstein had any kind of domestic or foreign intelligence role. Nothing in the discovery process or court proceedings for Maxwell’s criminal case, which involved those records, indicated that there was anything of national security importance.
Furthermore, the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires all redactions to be accompanied by a written justification submitted to Congress.
The law specifically prohibits the Justice Department from withholding, delaying, or redacting any documents “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.” It also requires the department to produce material “concerning the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment” of Epstein-related records — meaning Congress wants to know if there are signs of a cover-up.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
What about that new investigation I heard about?
A provision in the law allows the Justice Department to withhold records that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.”
Days before the bill’s passage, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into the links between Epstein and JPMorgan Chase, as well as a slew of perceived political enemies. Bondi handed the investigation over to the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
But even if the Justice Department withholds any of those records from the public, it’s still required to hand them over to the House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed them.
Any perceived attempts by the Justice Department to use this investigation as a shield could lead to backlash from both Congress and members of the public. A number of Epstein’s victims have pushed for the release of the files, seeking to understand more about the circumstances of their own abuse and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.
