Last month, President Donald Trump signed a bill directing the Department of Justice to publicly release all its Jeffrey Epstein-related files. The deadline to do so is this Friday.
It isn’t clear how the Justice Department will release the related files or if the information will remain tied up in ongoing investigations.
Here’s what you should know:
What are the Epstein files: The Epstein files are made of over 300 gigabytes of data, paper, video, photographs and audio that live within the FBI’s main electronic case management system, “Sentinel.” These records would include investigative reports and records from the FBI Miami field division’s original Epstein investigation.
Why there’s interest in the case: The case has continued to fascinate the public years after Epstein’s death due to his ties to powerful people. Epstein’s death by suicide before trial launched conspiracy theories and deprived many of his accusers a public airing of his conduct. Division between Republican lawmakers mounted this year, with some calling for transparency from Trump and the Department of Justice.
House Oversight Committee: In November, the House Oversight Committee released 20,000 pages of documents the GOP-led panel received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. He mentioned Trump by name multiple times in emails over the last 15 years with an associate and an author in Trump’s orbit. It’s unclear what new information, if any, is stuffed in the boxes of evidence within the Justice Department set to release this week.
Photos released: Last week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released photos from Epstein’s estate showing the many powerful figures in the late sex trafficker’s orbit, including Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and others. In a statement, a White House spokesperson said House Democrats were “selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.”
The Epstein legislation: The bill, formally titled the Epstein Files Transparency Act, was passed by the House in November by a vote of 427 to 1. The Senate then agreed through unanimous consent to deem the bill passed as soon as it was received from the House. Upon announcing his signing of the bill, Trump framed the release of the files as a transparency effort he pushed through Congress and using the moment to criticize Democrats over their past associations with Epstein.
What Americans think: A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll asked whether Americans believed that Trump was not aware of Epstein’s alleged crimes before they became public. Just 18% said it was “somewhat” or “very” likely that Trump didn’t know. Fully 60% said it was “not too” or “not at all” likely that Trump didn’t know. Even among Republicans, slightly more felt Trump was probably aware (39%) than leaned toward him not knowing (34%). Trump, again, has not been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case, and has denied involvement.
CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg, Alejandra Jaramillo, Haven Orecchio-Egresitz, Kara Scannell, Evan Perez, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Julia Benbrook, Alayna Treene, Annie Grayer, Kaitlan Collins and Aaron Blake contributed reporting.