Republicans and Democrats have bashed President Donald Trump for “moving the goalpost” and only initially releasing some of the government documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by the set deadline.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News earlier Friday that it would take a “couple of weeks” to release everything the Justice Department must produce. Federal law states all the files must be released by Friday.
“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.
“So today, several hundred thousand, and then, over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” he added.
Around 4 p.m. Friday, the Justice Department released thousands of documents and images from criminal investigations into Epstein.
News that the government was withholding documents after a hard-fought battle on Capitol Hill to force the Trump administration to give the public more insight into the crimes and associates of the wealthy financier who was accused of sexually abusing women and girls for years has made lawmakers even more frustrated.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act is clear: while protecting survivors, ALL of these records are required to be released today. Not just some,” Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote on X. “The Trump administration can’t move the goalposts. They’re cemented in law.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene — a Georgia Republican who recently had a public falling out with Trump, in part due to her support of the releasing of the Epstein files — wrote, “My goodness, what is in the Epstein files? Release all the files. It’s literally the law.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press team asked what Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were “hiding,” and then called to “RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES.”
White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended the government’s handling of the Epstein files, telling The Independent, “The Trump Administration is the most transparent in history. By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have.”
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia of California and House Judiciary Ranking Member Jamie Raskin of Maryland said in a joint statement that Trump and the Justice Department “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.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement, “The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be – the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some. Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth.”
Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who led the charge with Democrat Ro Khanna to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, simply shared a photo of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The text of the law reads: “Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall…make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorney’s Offices, that relate to: Jeffrey Epstein…”
Trump announced on November 19 via Truth Social that he had signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The president strongly opposed the legislation at first and has continued to call the controversy over the documents a “hoax.”
But after House Republicans signaled that they were going to support the measure when a vote on it was forced by Democrats and a few GOP congress members, Trump decided to back it.
There are some documents the Justice Department does not have to release, including anything that could reveal a victims’ identity, anything depicting the sexual abuse of children and anything that could jeopardize an active federal investigation.
In a follow-up X post Friday, Massie said, “Time’s up. Release the files.”
The Independent has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
