Jeffrey Epstein files latest: Trump administration criticized over partial and heavily redacted release

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'What are we hiding here?' asks Virginia Giuffre's brother after limited files released

Virginia Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts tells Reuters he has “mixed feelings” after the partial release of the Epstein files. “What are we hiding here?” he asks.

Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, estimated the tranche of documents released yesterday included only about 10 per cent of the material in the department’s possession.

Giuffre’s sister-in-law Amanda Roberts adds that “nothing the Department of Justice does comes as a surprise”. She claims it has used the case as a “political toy”.

“When there were rumours that potentially the president could be named in there, all of a sudden the story changed,” she says. Then it was “hoax” and there was “nothing to see”, she adds.

Trump is scantly mentioned in the files released yesterday and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Despite this, Sky Roberts tells Reuters his sister would have felt an “overwhelming amount of joy for her survivor sisters” on Friday.

Democrats criticize partial Epstein files release

Since the release of the first tranche of heavily-redacted Epstein files yesterday, Democrats have lined up to criticize the Trump administration and justice department, saying the partial release violates the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

In a post on X last night, Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “Now the coverup is out in the open. This is far from over. Everyone involved will have to answer for this. Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, whole admin. Protecting a bunch of rapists and pedophiles because they have money, power, and connections. Bondi should resign tonight.”

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer accused the Trump administration of breaking the law: “Simply releasing a mountain of blacked out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law … We need answers as to why,” he said in a post on X.

Co-author of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Ro Khanna, posted a video on X arguing the DOJ release “does not comply” with the law.

“Our law requires them to explain redactions. There is not a single explanation,” Khanna said, adding he would look at options like impeachment, contempt or referral to prosecution.

Analysis: trickle release on a Friday signals move to bury Trump ties

The justice department’s partial release of the Epstein files on Friday signaled how the agency is using a variety of tactics to try to bury and obfuscate Donald Trump’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein, writes Sam Levine.

The release underscores how the Trump administration is trying to balance both the demand to release the files – something encouraged in large part by the Maga base – while also obfuscating with a slow trickle of document dumps to prevent any embarrassment to Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before they had a falling out.

Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche has said the department will continue to produce documents on a rolling basis in the coming weeks – a holiday period – a bet that Americans will simply tune out the story as it drags on.

Read Sam’s full analysis here:

Here are some of the photos released in the first tranche of files released by the US Department of Justice.

A number of famous faces feature, including former US President Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, billionaire Richard Branson, and musicians Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.

Billionaire Richard Branson and Jeffrey Epstein in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: US Department of Justice/PA

Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photograph: US Justice Department/Reuters

Former US president Bill Clinton in a partially redacted photo. Photograph: Department Of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for Bill Clinton, said that the Epstein investigation wasn’t about the former president.

“There are two types of people here,” he said. “The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships after that. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”

See more of the images at the link below:

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse condemn justice department for partial release of files

Survivors of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse have expressed disappointment over a document dump that was heavily redacted and only partially released.

Survivors Sharlene Rochard, Jess Michaels, and Annie Farmer react as Sky Roberts, brother of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s late victim Virginia Giuffre, speaks during a press conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act on 18 November 2025. Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters

Epstein survivor Liz Stein told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she thinks the Department for Justice is “really brazenly going against the Epstein Files Transparency Act” – the law which required all documents to be released by Friday.

She says survivors are worried about the possibility of a “slow rollout of incomplete information without any context”. The fight for justice has spanned decades, continents and political administrations, Stein says, adding: “We just want all of the evidence of these crimes out there”.

While the release of documents comes at a “great cost” to victims, Stein is hoping it will be a “path to justice”.

Lisa Phillips was in her 20s when she met the disgraced financier and says she suffered years of abuse from him and people linked to him.

She told CNN that she believes the Department of Justice was “protecting themselves, not the victims,” after Trump officials released only partial files that were heavily redacted.

“I feel like they have so much information to start connecting the dots and for survivors to get justice. But as you’re seeing, we just keep stalling,” she added.

Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer who represents the Epstein survivor Maria Farmer in her lawsuit against the federal government, told our colleague Victoria Bekiempis that one newly released document was important: an FBI report from 1996, documenting Farmer’s effort to report her abuse by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Maria Farmer reported Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes in 1996,” Freeman said. “Had the government done their job, and properly investigated Maria’s report, over 1,000 victims could have been spared and 30 years of trauma avoided.”

Opening Summary

Hello. We are resuming our live coverage of the Department of Justice’s long-awaited release of documents from the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than 15 years.

The first cache of ‘Epstein Files’ were released on Friday evening after months of delay and stalling from the Trump administration. Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told Fox News that he expected the department to release several hundred thousand more files in the coming weeks.

However, significant portions of the files have been heavily redacted. The photos lack crucial context, including dates and locations. Moreover, the justice department appears to be in violation of the law that required the release of all of the Epstein files by a Friday deadline, according to the two congressmen who drafted the legislation, Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican.

Missing documents & ‘over-redactions’:

• Khanna said that the partial “document dump this afternoon does not comply” with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and told CNN, adding: “The most important documents are missing.” Those documents are a draft 60-count federal indictment outlining charges against Epstein, and a detailed memorandum summarizing the evidence that was disregarded by the US attorney, Alex Acosta, who chose instead to offer Epstein an extraordinarily lenient plea deal.

• According to a Fox News report, the justice department redacted the names and identifiers of victims and “the same redaction standards were applied to politically exposed individuals and government officials”. Massie wrote on social media that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, could be convicted by a future justice department of obstruction of justice if she violated a provision of the law by redacting the names of government officials. Massie noted that the law explicitly states that no documents may be “withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official”. Blanche later called Fox News to insist that the justice department is “not redacting the names of any politicians”.

• Instead, the justice department said it may have “over-redacted” the Epstein files in order to “protect victims”. Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in court on Friday that it had blacked out the faces of almost every woman photographed with Jeffrey Epstein, citing issues determining who was a victim of the paedophile. Mr Clayton reportedly noted the approach could be “over-redaction”, but blamed it on the 30-day timeframe Congress set for releasing the documents.

Who is in the Epstein files?

• The files that were viewable included images of Epstein socialising with an array of prominent figures, including entertainers like Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and Diana Ross, and the entrepreneur Richard Branson. The images also show former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

• Peter Mandelson, who was sacked from his job as the UK’s ambassador to the US earlier this year, could be seen in a picture with Epstein who is being presented with a giant birthday cake.

• There were many images of Bill Clinton, but very little about president Trump in the portion of the files released on Friday. But one seemingly innocuous snapshot of Epstein’s bookcase did include a reminder that he and Trump were once close. The image showed Epstein’s copy of Trump’s 1997 book, Trump: The Art of the Comeback, which the New York Times reported in July included an inscription from Trump reading: “To Jeff – You are the greatest!”