Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that the Department of Justice’s review of more than six million files related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was effectively “over” after the latest document dump on Friday.
The remarks, part of a spate of Sunday show appearances by Blanche, appeared to confirm that millions of files would not be released.
Democrats, who have long been pushing for the release of the DOJ’s full collection of documents related to Epstein, were incensed by the development.
Rep. Ro Khanna, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning said the Justice Department has “released at best half the documents.”
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“We need to understand who were some of the associates of Jeffrey Epstein,” Khanna continued. “Those names haven’t come out. In fact they were covered up. We need to understand who may have abused or raped under-age girls.”
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Khanna said should the rest of the DOJ’s files not be released, he and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican who alongside Khanna sponsored a measure to force the DOJ to release its files, “are prepared to move on impeachment or contempt.”
“They’re still withholding names of the men that Epstein trafficked women to, so unfortunately we’re not done,” Massie posted over the weekend. He added that what remains missing includes draft indictments and “files summarizing victim and witness statements.”
In a separate interview with “Meet the Press” on Sunday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “it will not be over until there is full and complete transparency as demanded by the survivors.”
“There are more than 3 million documents that are being withheld by the department of injustice,” Jeffries continued. “And so the question that has to be questioned, that the American people are asking is, what are they hiding from the American people and who are they protecting?”
On Friday, the Justice Department released 3 million additional documents related to Epstein, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 photos. Early analysis of the documents revealed new allegations against President Donald Trump, Epstein’s psychological evaluations from the months leading up to his death and draft indictments.
What was missing from the release, House Democrats said over the weekend, were victim interviews and “hundreds of thousands of emails and files from Epstein’s computers.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer estimated that the number of unreleased documents stands at around 3 million — though he acknowledged that even Congress has not received a full accounting of the total number of files.
“The DOJ’s numbers keep changing. They say they collected 6 million pages, but they’re only releasing 3 million. What happened to the other 3 million? What’s in them?” Schumer asked during remarks on the Senate floor Friday.
Despite the outrage from Democrats — and some Republicans — Blanche said that the Trump administration had done its job in reviewing and releasing the current set of documents.
“You know it’s interesting. Leadership on the Hill, Congressman Massie, Senator Schumer are quick to complain,” Blanche told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “There is no way they have spent any time looking at the materials we produced because I know the materials we produced, we produced them on Friday. By Saturday, they’re already complaining about what we did.”
“We have nothing to hide,” he added. “We never did. And our doors are open if they want to come and review any of the materials we produced.”
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