The Justice Department says about 5.2 million pages of Epstein-related material remain to be reviewed and will require 400 attorneys from four DOJ offices working between Jan. 5 and Jan. 23. That workload is expected to push public release past the Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress. The DOJ recently located over 1 million additional documents, and heavy redactions so far have intensified political scrutiny ahead of the 2026 midterms.
DOJ to Review 5.2 Million Epstein Pages — 400 Lawyers Deployed, Public Release Likely Delayed
An email between Ghislaine Maxwell and a user known as The Invisible Man is shown in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 23, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS
The U.S. Justice Department disclosed it still has roughly 5.2 million pages of material related to Jeffrey Epstein that must be reviewed, and that it will deploy 400 attorneys from four DOJ offices to complete the work through late January, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters.
Details of the Review
The document says the review is scheduled to take place between Jan. 5 and Jan. 23 and will be staffed by personnel from the Criminal Division, the National Security Division, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. That collective total is a more concrete — and potentially larger — figure than earlier department estimates.
Department leaders are offering telework options and time-off awards to encourage volunteers. Attorneys who sign up are expected to spend about 3–5 hours a day reviewing material, with an individual target of roughly 1,000 documents per day.
New Documents, Heavily Redacted Releases
The DOJ said it recently located more than 1 million additional documents that could be linked to Epstein. So far, documents released publicly under the new law have been heavily redacted — a practice that has frustrated some lawmakers and done little to quiet political controversy.
"We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible. Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks," the Justice Department said in a message shared on X.
Legal and Political Context
The production follows a Trump administration order that the department comply with a new bipartisan transparency law requiring the release of all files connected to Epstein-related criminal probes. The statute set an initial deadline of Dec. 19 for public release while allowing redactions to protect victims; the scale of material now documented makes meeting that deadline unlikely.
Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution, and federal sex-trafficking charges were filed against him in 2019. Epstein was found dead in a New York jail in 2019; his death was ruled a suicide. Former President Donald Trump has acknowledged knowing Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s, saying their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of Epstein's sexual abuse.
The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for additional comment. The scale of the document review and the heavy redactions released so far have heightened scrutiny and political debate ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
