Democrats Pledge to Push Back as DOJ Delays Some Epstein Files

Democratic lawmakers said they plan to explore “all legal options” after the Justice Department announced it will not release all documents about the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein by the Friday deadline, threatening to prolong a high-stakes political fight as the midterm elections come into view.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche earlier in the day told Fox News the department will release hundreds of thousands of files on Friday and “several hundred thousand more” in the coming weeks. Doing so, Democrats countered, violates the law set in bipartisan legislation President Donald Trump signed last month.

“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring,” Democratic Representatives Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin said in a joint statement on Friday.

Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden called the department’s decision an “insult to the intelligence of the American people,” saying the administration has had “plenty of time” to redact files in compliance with the law.

The law required the release of investigative records, flight logs, travel documents, immunity deals, internal department communications and papers related to Epstein’s death in 2019. But the measure, which had overwhelming support in both the House and Senate, also includes protections for survivors and allows exceptions for ongoing investigations.

Trump’s signature marked a reversal for the president, who spent months trying to block the measure. The president had previously criticized the effort by some Republican lawmakers to require the release of the government’s files on Epstein, a convicted sex offender who was facing federal charges of trafficking underage girls when he died in jail.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Emily Birnbaum in Washington at ebirnbaum3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Megan Scully at mscully32@bloomberg.net

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