US justice department says it may need ‘a few more weeks’ to process 1m more Epstein documents for release | Jeffrey Epstein

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI have told it they have discovered more than a million additional documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case and that processing them for release could take “a few more weeks.”

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“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 statement comes after it was reported earlier Wednesday that there were hundreds of thousands of additional records related to Jeffrey Epstein to review — a process that involves a team of 200 departmental analysts and will take another week.

According to Axios, citing unnamed Justice Department officials, about 750,000 records have been reviewed and released, and about 700,000 more remain to be reviewed. However, many of these may be duplicates, so the remaining number of records may only be several thousand.

“This will end soon,” an official told the outlet. “Conspiracy theories won’t do it.”

Last Friday, the day of the first disclosures, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “I think we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all sorts of forms, photographs and other documents associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein.”

Over the weekend, victims were outraged and faced legal threats over the limited initial release of Epstein’s files, despite the law requiring full disclosure of all Epstein files by December 19.

The push to complete the review and release the Epstein documents comes as lawmakers Ro Khanna of California, a Democrat, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, have threatened to hold contempt hearings against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Justice Department’s failure to fully meet the Dec. 19 deadline. CNN reported that the Florida Department of Justice’s office has asked career prosecutors to volunteer over the “coming days” to help redact the remaining unreleased records.

“We have an obligation to the public to release these records and before we can do so, certain redactions must be made to protect the identities of the victims, among other things,” the leadership of the Southern District of Florida wrote in an email Tuesday, CNN reported, adding that it was “aware that the timing could not be worse. For some, the holidays are about to begin, but I know for others, the holidays are coming to an end.”

On Tuesday this week, in a third drop in records since Friday, the Justice Department released 30,000 records from investigations into Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

The releases contained more mentions of Donald Trump than in previous versions, including a 2020 email, apparently sent by a New York federal prosecutor, that said Trump “traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously reported (or known to us),” including one where the only passengers listed were Epstein, Trump and a “then 20-year-old.”

The latest post contained notable false leads, including a fake letter from Epstein to Larry Nassar, a convicted sex offender and former Olympic gymnastics coach, and a fake video of Epstein committing suicide in his prison cell.

“There has been a lot of sensationalism and even outright lies in recent days about the ‘Epstein files,'” Blanche said in a statement on

Blanche showed the letter and the video. “The so-called letter from Epstein Nassar is clearly FAKE – poor handwriting, wrong return address, and postmarked three days after Epstein’s death. Fake videos of Epstein in his cell. Photos with no explanation. Sensational stories and lies from random people. These are not reality. We will continue to produce all documents required by law. Let’s not let the Internet rumor engines overtake the facts.”

The latest release of the Epstein files has shed light on the FBI’s efforts to identify and contact other possible “conspirators.”

One document, an email from an FBI employee in New York, identified the names of 10 potential “co-conspirators” after Epstein’s arrest in July 2019. But only three names are not redacted in the document: Ghislaine Maxwell; Jean-Luc Brunel, a modeling agent who died by suicide after being accused of rape and sexual harassment in France; and Leslie Wexner, a billionaire Epstein client who said he severed ties with Epstein in 2007 and later accused the financier of embezzlement. Wexner, 88, has consistently denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes and is not the subject of any known ongoing investigations related to Epstein.

“According to Mr. Wexner’s legal representative, the assistant U.S. attorney investigating Epstein said at the time that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor a target in any respect,” a representative for Wexner said in a statement to Bloomberg on Monday. “Mr. Wexner cooperated fully in providing background information about Epstein and was never contacted again.”

The mention of potential conspirators in FBI communications, despite redactions and lack of additional context, provoked a political backlash.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement demanding transparency. “The Justice Department needs to shed more light on who is on the list, how they were involved and why they chose not to prosecute. Shielding possible co-conspirators is not the transparency that the American people and Congress demand,” he said.