The Department of Justice released a new tranche of files related to the investigation into the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday, continuing the slow-dip document disclosure that began Friday afternoon.
But lawmakers are still smarting over the first drop, which was chock full of redactions and revealed little in the way of new information regarding the rise of the financier and his connections to powerful people.
“People are raging and walking away,” warned outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on X on Friday. She slammed the release as “NOT MAGA.”
The new documents released Saturday included grand jury materials from the investigations into Epstein in Florida and New York. The Justice Department had renewed its requests to federal judges to publicly release the secret materials after the law’s passage, which they granted.
The materials include transcripts of interviews with witnesses and investigators, though appear to offer little revelatory information about the investigations. Judges had initially rejected the administration’s requests to unseal the materials, noting that the information would be sparse compared to the full DOJ cache of information.
“The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,” U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote in a 14-page opinion at the time.
Saturday’s release appeared to include redactions that went beyond just victim information and also included the identity of prosecutors, FBI case agents and other law enforcement personnel who appeared before the grand jury.
The Justice Department missed its Friday deadline to release all the information it had on Epstein, putting it in apparent conflict with a law President Donald Trump signed in November compelling a wholesale release within 30 days.
Even still, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had promised on Fox News on Friday would make available “several hundred thousand documents” in the coming days and weeks. Blanche said Friday that the DOJ would not show favoritism and wouldn’t withhold material “because there’s the name Donald J. Trump or anybody else’s name.”
Overnight, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — one of the lawmakers who pushed for the legislation requiring the Trump administration to release the entirety of the files — said Friday’s drop “grossly fails to comply with the spirit and the letter of the law” that he, alongside Rep. Ro Khanna (R-Calif.), introduced in September.
The Kentucky congressman continued railing against the administration Saturday morning, digging up a 2021 post from then-Sen. JD Vance, in which the now-vice president said: “What possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret? Oh…”
“I miss this version of JD Vance,” Massie said.
Since Friday’s release, the Trump administration has dismissed anger around the disclosures and said it was acting transparently, instead attacking Democrats. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement Saturday that the “Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” adding that the administration is the most “transparent” in history.
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats, meanwhile, are looking to continue pressuring Trump over his ties to Epstein. Trump was once friends with Epstein, but the president has maintained for years that the two had a falling out decades ago. The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing associated with Epstein, and there has been no evidence to suggest his involvement in any criminality in connection with the convicted sex offender.
Congressional Democrats are skewering the DOJ for redacting large portions of the files in Friday’s release, including names, dates, investigative details, and internal deliberations.
“I want to hear from MAGA voters who have stood for transparency on the Epstein files,” Khanna said Saturday morning. “Are you satisfied with the excessive redactions & missing 60 count draft indictment? Or do you want Bondi & Blanchard to release the docs that will hold the Epstein class accountable?” he said, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi and apparently Blanche.



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