US justice department reportedly reviewing more than 5m pages of Epstein files | Jeffrey Epstein
The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly reviewing more than 5 million pages of documents relating to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein — an effort that diverts resources from existing cases, according to the New York Times.
This figure represents a significant expansion from previous estimates, which relied on calculations based on 300 gigabytes of data, articles, videos, photographs and audio files held in FBI archives and linked to investigations in Florida and New York.
In addition to the large number of documents that Justice Department prosecutors are still reviewing before their public release, the department is seeking to recruit about 400 lawyers to help with its review, according to the New York Times report.
Justice Department officials told the newspaper that efforts to analyze the voluminous records are attracting prosecutors working on national security and criminal cases, as well as U.S. attorneys’ offices in New York and Florida. The review is expected to last at least until January 20, more than a month after the December 19 publication deadline mandated by Congress.
Last week, the Justice Department said federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI had told it they had discovered more than 1 million additional documents and that processing them for release could take “a few additional weeks.”
In a Christmas Eve post on
“We have attorneys working around the clock to review and make legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible. Due to the massive volume of documents, this process may take a few additional weeks. The Department will continue to fully comply with federal law and President Trump’s instructions to release the records,” the message said.
The department said it brought in additional Justice Department lawyers to work over the Christmas break to help a team of 200 departmental analysts from the National Security Division already assigned to review the documents.
Documents released so far have shown that the FBI was alerted to Epstein’s activities involving minors at least ten years earlier than expected. There have also been false leads, including a fake letter from Epstein to convicted sex offender and former Olympic gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, and a fake video of Epstein committing suicide in his prison cell.
An image of a desk with an open drawer containing other photos, including at least one of Donald Trump, was removed from the Justice Department’s website and then restored, apparently after prosecutors warned that Epstein’s victims could be exposed.
“There has been a lot of sensationalism and even outright lies in recent days about the ‘Epstein files,'” Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on
