From Jagger to Michael Jackson, new Epstein docs stir controversy

New Jeffrey Epstein files are seeing the light of day after the Justice Department released thousands of documents and photos to meet a a deadline imposed by Congress, a pivotal moment in the years-long saga that has emerged as one of the most explosive issues of President Donald Trump's second administration.

The records became available Friday, Dec. 19, with DOJ publishing an "Epstein Library" on its website. Though the significance of the trove is not fully known, the release set off a race to dig through the files for information that could shed new light on a case that has generated intense public interest.

• Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News that "several hundred thousand" documents were being released Friday, with more to come next week − an acknowledgement that the Justice Department would not meet the legal obligation to make public the entirety of its Epstein files by the deadline.
• Bipartisan lawmakers behind the Jeffrey Epstein Files Transparency Act accused the Trump administration of failing to comply with their law by not releasing all the documents Friday.
• Many documents in the files were heavily redacted or had already been made public. But newly released material included photos of former President Bill Clinton and a number of other famous names.

Follow along for the latest updates below.

Clinton spokesperson says Trump administration is 'shielding themselves'

Former President Bill Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff Angel Ureña dismissed the inclusion of photos of Clinton in the release, saying Clinton’s friendship with Epstein ended before his crimes were known and hinting that President Donald Trump’s did not.

“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want but this isn’t about Bill Clinton,” Ureña said in a social media post.

−Sarah Wire

Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, more stars seen in photos

In addition to former President Bill Clinton, several prominent celebrities appear in photos that were among the newly released Epstein files, including actor Kevin Spacey and comedian Chris Tucker, as well as music icons Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.

It's unclear in what context the images were captured, and none of those stars are accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

One photo shows Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, alongside Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. Both men are seen wearing suits and the date, location and context are not stated.

Another image shows the former royal with Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell. In that photo, Mountbatten-Windsor is seen lying across the laps of five women, whose faces have been obscured. Earlier this year, the former Duke of York was stripped of his royal titles following reports of his association with Epstein and a sex-abuse lawsuit filed against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year.

−Anthony Robledo

Democrats cry foul over incomplete release

The Justice Department's decision to release the documents on a "rolling basis" has enraged high-profile Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, called the materials "a fraction of the whole body of evidence." To demonstrate his point, he pointed out that 119 pages of one document were entirely redacted.

"Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law," Schumer said in a statement. "We need answers as to why."

−Zachary Schermele

Documents detail original Epstein investigation in Florida

The Justice Department document release includes a 96-page incident report detailing each step of the Palm Beach Police Department’s original investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

The investigation began with a anonymous call from the parent of one of Epstein’s victims, and includes details of what police obtained by seizing his garbage and how they found other girls who alleged Epstein paid them to massage him while nude.

−Sarah Wire

Blanche tells Congress review of documents could take weeks longer

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the demand to release such a large volume of sensitive information was “historic” and that lawyers are continuing to review the documents to divulge more on a rolling basis.

“Just this week one of the Department’s components provided additional victim information requiring updated review of materials, and in the last few weeks multiple courts have granted the Department’s unsealing motions, requiring detailed review of thousands of pages of investigative and grand jury material,” Blanche told Congress in a letter.

“Because of the volume of the material and the requirement that every page of every document be reviewed for potential redactions under the Act, final stages of review of some material may continue,” Blanche added.

A federal judge in New York put additional limits on releasing documents. Blanche said that review could take two weeks.

−Bart Jansen

'I have a female for him'

Among the documents are several mostly redacted pages from Epstein’s missed calls log.

Two missed calls from November 2004 and January 2005 that have the caller's name redacted each came with a note for Epstein stating, “I have a female for him.”

−Sarah D. Wire

DOJ says it withheld 'limited' information due to legal privilege

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told members of Congress that the Justice Department withheld and redacted “a limited amount of information” covered by legal privileges from the document release.

The restrictions covered documents that detailed how lawyers deliberated about their decisions, the work lawyers produced within the department and communications between lawyers and their clients.

“These privileges are based in common law – not statutes – and Congress is fully aware of them,” Blanche wrote. “Although the Act broadly categorizes items required to be produced, the Act does not include language expressly requiring the Department to produce privileged materials.”

−Bart Jansen

Release includes many documents that were already available

At first blush, many of the files in the "Epstein Library" were documents that had already been made public. Documents under the library's "DOJ disclosures" were posted in five sections:

• The Epstein Files Transparency Act is the law that forced the release.
• The First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files is what the department released in February.
• A section about Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has the transcript and recordings of her meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
• And “memoranda and correspondence” is a collection of previously released watchdog reports.
• A section of new material features video from the Bureau of Prisons. But hours of footage show a stairwell with little action other than the occasional passing staffer.

−Bart Jansen

Files are not all publicly searchable as Congress required

The files released Friday are, by law, supposed to be publicly searchable so that the public can access the massive trove of investigative files, evidence recovered during searches of Epstein’s properties and other evidence from criminal investigations.

But basic searches of what DOJ calls the “Epstein Library” show that even basic queries – such as for "Trump" or "Clinton" – come up blank.

Some of the specific files that are downloadable from DOJ’s website can be searched. But when Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, it required that they be released “in a publicly searchable format.”

But reporters looking for new information in the files were forced to go one by one through the files in many cases while looking for news.

−Josh Meyer

Newly released photos include Bill Clinton, celebs

Former President Bill Clinton appears in photographs amid the cache of thousands of newly unsealed images.

Clinton is depicted in several newly unveiled photographs in a portion of the files labeled “Epstein Files Transparency Act.”

In one set, Clinton appears with Ghislaine Maxwell at the Winston Churchill War Rooms in London. Actor Kevin Spacey and comedian Chris Tucker also appear in the same trip photos.

In other photographs, the former president is depicted in a hot tub. In another, he poses with a woman whose face has been obscured by the Department of Justice.

Clinton, who sometimes flew aboard Epstein's private plane, has previously been listed repeatedly in Epstein documents.

−Nick Penzenstadler

An online queue to get to DOJ's Epstein files site

The DOJ website housing the Epstein files was immediately swamped with users being sent to a waiting queue.

Once the documents could be accessed, a note at the top warned: "Note on Search Functionality: Due to technical limitations and the format of certain materials (e.g., handwritten text), portions of these documents may not be electronically searchable or may produce unreliable search results."

The law Congress passed in November required the documents to be made public in a searchable format.

−Sarah Wire

Trump declines to take questions ahead of release of Epstein files

President Donald Trump declined to take any questions from reporters during a White House event ahead of the Justice Department’s release of the first trove of Epstein files.

“There’s no way I can take questions that are anywhere comparable to what you just witnessed,” Trump said after announcing a favored-nation pricing plan aimed at lowering costs of certain drugs.

“I really don’t want to soil it up by asking questions, even questions that are very fair questions that I’d love to answer,” Trump said. “I think we have to just stop right here.”

Trump walked away from his podium without addressing shouted question from reporters.

Trump is set to travel later on Friday to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where he’s set to deliver a speech on the economy at 9 p.m. ET.

−Joey Garrison

A fire Trump couldn't put out

The Trump administration tried to close the book on the Epstein case in July, when the Justice Department released a memo reaffirming Epstein died by suicide, saying no evidence of a sex trafficking client list had been found and no more records would be released. Trump and Epstein were friends for more than a decade during the 1990s and early 2000s; their friendship ended before 2008, when Epstein pleaded guilty to child prostitution charges in Florida. The president has decried interest in Epstein as a Democratic "hoax."

After years in which members of Trump's inner circle stoked conspiracies of an Epstein cover-up, the MAGA base revolted and Congress pushed to obtain the records, with key GOP lawmakers aligned with Trump signing on to legislation requiring disclosure. After initially berating his supporters for focusing on Epstein, Trump relented and supported the legislation.

Now attention turns to how the administration will handle disclosure. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the Department of Justice will "follow the law" when it comes to Epstein documents.

Trump and members of Congress will be leaving town as the files filter out. Trump is speaking in North Carolina, while lawmakers are heading home for the holidays. Follow along with USA TODAY's live coverage of the Epstein files.

Huge trove of documents

Even if some documents are withheld, the sheer volume of the Justice Department's records dump could be extraordinary.

In total, the FBI and Justice Department have said more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence from the Epstein investigation exists. So far, according to Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, the Justice Department has disclosed only 1 gigabyte of the material.

"They've released 1/300th of what (FBI Director) Kash Patel himself has said (exists)," Khanna said.

−Joey Garrison

House Dems 'examining all legal options'

Two senior House Democrats vowed to go to court to force the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein files after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said more documents would be released next week.

"Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law,” said the joint statement by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia of California and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin of Maryland. “We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”

Blanche told Fox News the Justice Department would only "release several hundred thousand documents today."

"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, that we are protecting every single victim," Blanche said.

Garcia and Raskin said that’s not good enough. “The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ," they said in their joint statement.

−Josh Meyer

Epstein survivor 'nervous' about document release delay

Danielle Bensky, who has said she was 17 when she met Epstein in 2004, told MSNBC that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s comment that hundreds of thousands of documents will be released over the coming weeks, rather than all Friday as required by law, makes her “really nervous.”

“We had hoped that we would see everything today … the fact that we still haven’t seen anything feels a little nerve-wracking,” she said.

Survivors were a major force behind pressuring Congress to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein documents.

−Sarah D. Wire

Will DOJ release the full Epstein files?

Already on Friday, Dec. 19, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Fox News that only a portion of the Justice Department's files on Jeffrey Epstein will be released Friday, despite that being the deadline for the full release.

However, lawyers for victims and some members of Congress are also concerned the department won't release any materials it might have that are politically inconvenient.

Survivors "are now being asked to trust a process that has no independent verification from an agency that's being dictated to by a president who has been included in the documents themselves," Spencer Kuvin, a Florida lawyer who has represented several alleged Epstein victims over nearly two decades, told USA TODAY.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is allowed to shield material that identifies a victim, depicts abuse, would jeopardize an ongoing investigation, or is classified for foreign policy or national defense reasons.

Some fear the exceptions could be stretched to withhold information that Congress meant to be disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which ordered the release of files by Dec. 19.

−Aysha Bagchi

Dem warns of prosecution for 'excessive redaction' of Epstein files

Rep. Ro Khanna, the Democratic lead sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, warned that Justice Department officials could face prosecution if they withhold or heavily redact Epstein files that are required to be publicized under the new law.

Ahead of Friday’s expected release of the Epstein files, Khanna, D-California, called for “full transparency and justice for the survivors” in a video posted on X.

“Let me be very clear: We need a full release,” Khanna said. “Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents, or engages in excessive redaction, will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice."

“We will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee. We need full transparency and justice for the survivors,” he said.

Under the bipartisan law that overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress in November, the Justice Department is permitted to withhold documents that contain identifiable information of victims and those that would "jeopardize an active federal investigation." The Justice Department has 15 days to produce a report detailing the reasons for withholding or redacting documents.

Khanna’s co-sponsor, Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, tweeted a copy of the law showing that “all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” must be released.

Khanna said it’s time to finally hold accountable “rich and powerful men who raped underage girls or who covered up for this abuse.” He added: “The Epstein class needs to go.”

−Joey Garrison and Erin Mansfield

'Several hundred thousand' documents to be released

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News the Justice Department expects to release “several hundred thousand documents today.”

“Those documents will come in all different forms – photographs and other material associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein,” he said. He said the department has focused on protecting victim information in the documents.

“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected," he said.

Blanche, a former criminal defense attorney for President Trump, traveled to Florida in July to personally interview Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. According to a transcript of the interview, she said she knew of no wrongdoing by Trump. Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal sentence for sex trafficking conspiracy.

Blanche told Fox the Justice Department expects to release several hundred thousand more documents over the next couple of weeks − a suggestion that DOJ won't fully meet the Dec. 19 legal deadline for releasing its Epstein files.

−Sarah D. Wire

What's in the Epstein files?

The Justice Department likely has materials that go far beyond already-released records from court proceedings and from Jeffrey Epstein's estate.

Federal law enforcement investigated Epstein as far back as the mid-2000s, and should have materials from interviewing an array of witnesses for that Florida-based investigation and a later investigation that was spearheaded in New York.

The materials could show investigative trails that didn't lead to formal charges. Those might involve not just Epstein or his already-convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, but potentially other associates.

The documents could also include embarrassing material that doesn't involve actual or potential criminal activity.

Already, former Harvard University President Larry Summers stepped back from his public responsibilities after emails released by the House Oversight Committee in November showed him communicating with Epstein about romantic troubles up until Epstein's arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019. That was many years after Epstein was convicted of two Florida prostitution offenses, one involving minors.

−Aysha Bagchi

What time are the Epstein files coming out?

The Epstein Files Transparency Act that cleared Congress and was signed by the president on Nov. 19 requires the government to release records "Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act."

Bondi has until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 19 to release the Department of Justice records. The exact timing and method of the release is unclear. The law states that the documents must be released in a "searchable and downloadable format."

Huge trove of documents

Even if some documents are withheld, the sheer volume of the Justice Department's records dump could be extraordinary.

In total, the FBI and Justice Department have said more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence from the Epstein investigation exists. So far, according to Khanna, the Justice Department has disclosed only one gigabyte of the material.

"They've released 1/300th of what (FBI Director) Kash Patel himself has said (exists)," Khanna said.

−Joey Garrison

New British envoy replaces Epstein-tainted ambassador

Britain named Christian Turner as its next ambassador to the United States, handing the veteran diplomat one of the country's most prestigious and politically sensitive postings at a pivotal moment for transatlantic ties.

The Dec. 18 appointment of a career diplomat to the high-profile post represents a shift in strategy from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after his decision to send in political appointee Peter Mandelson to build relations with the Trump administration backfired earlier this year.

Mandelson was fired in September over supportive emails he sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that came to light, revealing a much closer than previously acknowledged relationship.

−Reuters

What Epstein records have already have been released?

Considerable information already has come out about Epstein over the course of two decades of state and federal criminal investigations.

Epstein was first indicted in 2006, eventually pleading guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution. He became a registered sex offender. He was back in court in 2019 facing charges of sex trafficking, with the indictment alleging he "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes."

Recent efforts by Congress to obtain records have produced more information about Epstein's lifestyle and associations. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a copy of a birthday letter to Epstein, written inside the outline of a woman's body, that they said shows Trump's signature. He has denied writing the note. Democrats on the committee also released emails where Epstein talked about Trump, including one saying Trump "knew about the girls."

Other records released recently by the committee from Epstein's estate mention billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, MAGA leader Steve Bannon, Prince Andrew and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The committee also released photos from the estate showing Trump, former President Bill Clinton and other VIPs, and emails that include correspondence between Epstein and former Harvard University president and U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. The disclosure prompted Summers, who served under Clinton, to step away from his public positions and teaching job at Harvard.

What files are the Justice Department required to make public?

The law passed by Congress requires Bondi to release "all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice."

There are exceptions, though. Bondi can hold back information that identifies victims, shows abuse, is classified or would "jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution."

The means some information won't be disclosed.

"There is zero chance we will get 100% of the documents," said Eric O'Neill, a national security lawyer and former FBI counterintelligence operative.

Lawmakers will be watching closely to make sure records aren't improperly withheld.

"What I want is a good-faith effort to at least get the vast majority of the files out there," said U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, a lead sponsor of the Epstein files measure.

How has MAGA responded to Trump's handling of Epstein case?

A majority of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month.

The July DOJ memo caused considerable backlash within Trump's MAGA base that the president has struggled to contain, exposing the limits of the president's considerable sway with his followers.

After the issue flared, Trump took to social media to declare that Epstein was being used to tarnish his administration and his supporters shouldn’t “waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

But Trump’s usual tactics haven’t quelled GOP dissent. A pressure campaign to get Republicans to oppose legislation releasing the files failed when top Trump allies such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, and Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, resisted. With the Epstein bill poised to advance, Trump folded and said he would sign it.