The US Justice Department will not release all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison, by its congressionally mandated deadline of Friday, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, has said.
Appearing on Fox News, Mr Blanche said that while the Trump administration would release “several hundred thousand documents” related to Epstein by Friday, officials would make public “several hundred thousand more” in the coming weeks.
“There’s a lot of eyes looking at these, and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing,” Mr Blanche said, “that we are protecting every single victim.”
The delay meant the administration would apparently violate a law signed by US president Donald Trump in November ordering the release of all unclassified materials about Epstein in the justice department’s possession within 30 days, with limited exceptions.
Under the law the administration may withhold records that identify victims that include images of child sexual abuse or are otherwise classified.
The legislation also allows the justice department to withhold records if they would “jeopardise an active federal investigation”.
Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan to investigate ties between Epstein and prominent Democrats shortly after Mr Trump directed her to do so last month.
Mr Blanche, in his interview, said he was aware of the 30-day window, adding that department officials had been “working tirelessly” to review and make public “every single document that we have within the Department of Justice”.
Several members of Congress quickly moved to criticise Mr Blanche, saying the department’s partial release of the Epstein files meant it failed to meet its legal obligations.
[ Trump appears in newly released photographs from Epstein estateOpens in new window ]
Republican Thomas Massie broke from Mr Trump to push for the release of the files. Mr Massie voiced his discontent in a social media post, sharing a photo of the law in which he highlighted the language requiring the department to release “all” of its files by Friday.
“Time’s up. Release the files,” Mr Massie wrote in a follow-up post.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, accused the White House of breaking the law and assailed Mr Trump and attorney general Pam Bondi as being “hell-bent on hiding the truth”.
Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California and one of the lawmakers who introduced the Epstein files law, also criticised the Trump administration, saying it had ample time to prepare for the full release.
But Mr Khanna said if the justice department clarified its timeline to release the rest of the material, it would be “a positive step”.
– This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
