The Department of Justice has broadened its review of documents linked to the convicted sex offender to 5.2 million while also increasing the number of attorneys attempting to comply with a law that requires the release of the files, according to a person briefed on a letter sent to U.S. Attorneys.
The figure is the most recent estimate in the investigation of Epstein and his longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, which has gone more than a week beyond a deadline set by Congress in the law.
The Justice Department has over 400 attorneys working on the review but does not anticipate releasing more documents until January 20 or 21, according to the person briefed on the letter who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss it.
The White House did not contest the figures presented in the email and pointed to a statement from Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who said the administration’s review was an “all-hands-on-deck approach.”
Blanche said on Wednesday that lawyers from the Justice Department in Washington, the FBI, the southern district of Florida, and the Southern District of New York are working “around the clock” to review the files. The additional documents and lawyers related to the case were first reported by The New York Times.
“We’re asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the remaining documents,” Blanche said. “The necessary redactions to protect victims take time, but they will not prevent these materials from being released.”
Still, the Attorney General is facing pressure from Congress after the Justice Department’s dissemination of information has fallen behind the December 19 deadline for releasing the information.
“Should Attorney General Pam Bondi be impeached?” Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who helped lead the effort to pass the law mandating the document release, asked on social media this week.
Democrats are also examining their legal options as they continue to exploit an issue that has caused divisions within the Republican Party and at times…
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on social media that the latest figures from the Department of Justice “show that Bondi, Blanche, and others at the DOJ have been lying to the American people about the Epstein files since day one” and noted that the documents released so far represent only a small portion of the total.