STORY
In a move that has sparked a constitutional firestorm and united bitter political rivals in condemnation, the Trump administration has missed a critical federal deadline to release the full investigative files of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. As of 20 December 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has produced only a fraction of the mandated documents, many of which are obscured by extensive redactions that critics call a blatant attempt to shield the President and his associates from public scrutiny.
The failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation President Trump himself signed into law just one month ago, has left Capitol Hill in a state of uproar. While the law demanded the public release of “all unclassified records” by 19 December 2025, the DOJ instead delivered a “rolling release” that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche admitted would take several more weeks to complete. The initial tranche of documents released on Friday afternoon has been described by transparency advocates as a “mountain of black ink” featuring hundreds of pages that are entirely blacked out.
“This is not transparency; it is a funeral for the truth,” said Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, who co-sponsored the bill. Khanna warned that the administration’s “gross failure” to follow the letter of the law could lead to contempt of Congress or impeachment referrals for top DOJ officials. Even within the President’s own party, the frustration is palpable. Republican Representative Thomas Massie took to social media to highlight the specific language of the statute, noting that the word “all” does not mean “some” or “whatever the administration finds convenient.”