Some 3 million pages of documents involving sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, including thousands of videos and photographs, were released Friday by the Department of Justice.

The trove of files included an FBI document, compiled by the agency’s child exploitation division, that listed a number of graphic sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and other powerful people. The list of uncorroborated tips was put online, then pulled by the DOJ, which later republished them after it was clear they had already been widely disseminated online.

The cache also included the 32-count indictment drafted by federal prosecutors in South Florida in 2007. The indictment, which had not previously been made public, was drawn up to be filed against Epstein and three unnamed conspirators.

But the indictment was scrapped in favor of giving Epstein federal immunity — a deal that allowed him to escape federal prison and go on to sexually assault hundreds of other victims over the next two decades.

The Epstein file release Friday is the largest thus far under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by the president in November.

It also comes more than a month after the Dec. 19 deadline for the government to release the files under the new law.

The release did little to quell the speculation and conspiracies surrounding the case, as users on social media platforms posted some of the most salacious documents and other pages that had large swaths of material blacked out.

In several of the FBI interviews with Epstein survivors released in the new files, the names of other men who allegedly sexually abused them is redacted.

It also appears that millions more pages were not made public at all.

At a Friday morning news conference, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department initially identified 6 million pages as potentially responsive to the law — but would only be releasing 3 million. “We erred on the side of over collection of materials from various sources to best ensure maximum transparency and compliance,” he said. “Which necessarily means that the number of responsive pages is significantly smaller than the total number of pages initially collected.”

Epstein’s survivors accused the DOJ of withholding documents and over-redacting others, while at the same time, failing to shield victims’ names, some of which still appeared in the files.

“This is not over,” the victims’ statement said. “We will not stop until the truth is fully revealed and every perpetrator is finally held accountable. As we have always said, this is not about politics. We hope Democrats and Republicans will stand with survivors in continuing to demand the full release of the Epstein files.”

Congressmen Ro Khanna of California, a Democrat, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, who co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, sent a letter to Blanche on Friday requesting a meeting to review the unredacted records.

The letter sent to Congress by the DOJ stated that about 200,000 pages had been withheld or redacted, and as outlined in the law, a detailed list of reasons for redactions will be sent to lawmakers within 15 days. Exemptions to the law include deliberative process privilege, the work-product doctrine and attorney-client privilege.

But some lawmakers were skeptical.

“They intend to withhold approximately 50%, or half, of the Epstein files, while claiming to fully comply with the law,” said House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., in a video posted to his social media account. “This is outrageous and incredibly concerning.”

The document referencing sex parties, attached in an email from a member of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, included graphic and violent descriptions of alleged sexual assaults and rapes with minors. It’s not clear whether any of them were investigated or proven.

Many of the allegations were directed at Trump, and in one email exchange among what appeared to be FBI agents, an individual sent a redacted list of “Trump accusers.”

The White House, in response to questions from the Miami Herald about the accusations, referred reporters to a press release on the DOJ website.

“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the press release stated. “To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

The volumes of new Epstein material also came with the warning that many of the documents could contain pornographic images. The government website asked visitors to verify that they are over the age of 18.

The files also showed emails between Elon Musk and Epstein in 2012 and 2013, discussing Musk’s visit to Epstein’s island off the coast of St. Thomas. In one, Musk asks: “What day or night will be the wildest party on the island?”

Another email shows Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, making plans to have lunch with Epstein on his island with another couple and their young children in 2012. Lutnick, who was Epstein’s next-door neighbor in Upper Manhattan, had previously said he refused a tour of Epstein’s mansion in 2005 because he and his wife were revolted by Epstein.

The Department of Commerce and Musk’s companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reached by The New York Times, Lutnick said: “I spent zero time with him.”

Trump is mentioned thousands of times, although most of those references are copies of news stories about him. Epstein, however, frequently mentioned Trump in emails, including many he wrote to GOP strategist Steve Bannon. Several of those conversations disparaged Trump.

“Trump’s stupidity could sometimes be made into a virtue,” Epstein wrote in a text message in May 2019 to an individual whose name was redacted — two months before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges in the Southern District of New York.

Blanche reiterated that Trump ended his relationship with Epstein decades ago at his news conference Friday morning.

“You have a situation where for many, many years, nobody even breathed a word about Jeffrey Epstein, and then all of a sudden it was all anybody would talk about going into the last spring and summer,” Blanche said. “President Trump has said for years what I think everybody will find to be exactly true, which is detailing his relationship and lack thereof with Mr. Epstein and what he thought about Mr. Epstein.”

Some documents have been withheld under exceptions outlined in the act, Blanche said, but he added that none were withheld for national security reasons. The identities of victims and images of women were redacted, he said, with the exception of Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

No men were redacted from the images unless it was impossible to redact the women pictured without also redacting the men, he said.

“There’s not some tranche of super secret documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that we’re withholding,” Blanche said, in response to a question about any withheld documents.

The department also encouraged victims and the public to reach out regarding any errors in redactions at EFTA@usdoj.gov.

Asked about the identities of additional men involved in Epstein’s abuse, Blanche said, “I don’t know whether there are men out there that abused these women, If we learn about information and evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will.

“I don’t think the public or you all are going to uncover men within the Epstein files who abused these women, unfortunately,” he said.

The fight to publish the files has embroiled the Trump administration in controversy, after the president campaigned in 2024 on releasing the trove and abruptly reversed course in July 2025.

The documents detail the scope of DOJ investigations into a sex trafficking ring led by Epstein for decades. The department estimates that his victims number over 1,000.

In a Jan. 5 court filing, Blanche and Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the department had already released approximately 12,285 documents and had 2 million other “potentially responsive” files.

Many of the documents released in December 2025 were heavily redacted. Some pages with mention of Trump were abruptly removed, and then re-uploaded after reporting of their disappearance. The slow release and redactions have prompted outrage from victims and threats of legal action from Congress.

Epstein harbored close relationships with powerful men across the world, including Trump, who has said that the men ended their friendship in the early 2000s. Many of the men have appeared in photos and documents in the files — including renowned academics, foreign leaders, Trump and former Clinton.

The men have previously denied knowledge of the abuse, or connection to it.

The files detail abuse spanning decades and continuing across the world. In 2007, despite evidence that he was sexually abusing dozens of young girls, Epstein reached a deal with federal prosecutors in South Florida, and pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges to settle accusations of sexual abuse leveled by dozens of teenagers.

Epstein served 13 months in the Palm Beach County Jail, but was allowed to leave regularly and continued to abuse girls.

It wasn’t until 2019, after the Miami Herald published its "Perversion of Justice" series detailing the incredibly lenient plea deal and Epstein’s continued abuse of girls, that he was arrested by the FBI and faced new sex charges. After a month in federal prison, he was found dead in his cell in August 2019. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Indeed, in a Feb. 23, 2019, email from Epstein to his criminal defense attorney, Martin Weinberg, he frets about the reporting.

“Should we share the julie brown text with alan,” he wrote. “she’s going to start trouble. asking for vicitms (sic) etc.”

In 2021, Epstein’s accomplice and ex-girlfriend Maxwell was found guilty of five counts related to sex trafficking. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Texas, and reportedly seeking a commutation from the president.

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(Reporters Brittany Wallman and Linda Robertson contributed to this story.)

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