Trump administration’s drip drip drip of the Epstein files continues

The Trump administration has transformed the release of the Epstein files into the 2025 version of WikiLeaks: a slow-drip document dump that could threaten a long list of Washington power players.

And with each newly published tranche, a frenzied press corps will pore over every word for clues about the world leaders, corporate executives and Wall Street titans who helped late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein grow and maintain his influence.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed Friday that the documents would be released on a rolling basis through the holidays — and possibly beyond. And, in court papers filed shortly after Friday’s partial release, the Justice Department emphasized that more files are still undergoing a review and redaction process to protect victims and new Trump-ordered investigations before they can be released.

The daily drip is a remarkable result for President Donald Trump, who has urged his allies to move past the Epstein files — prompting jeers from Democrats who say he’s trying to conceal details about his own longtime relationship with Epstein. Trump has maintained for years that he and Epstein had a falling out years ago, and no evidence has suggested that Trump took part in Epstein’s trafficking operation. Trump advocated for the release of the files only after Republicans in Congress rebuffed his initial pleas to keep them concealed.

A law passed by Congress in November required the release of the files by Dec. 19, but DOJ’s review process ensures that the deadline is only the beginning.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump is no stranger to the political power of intermittent disclosures of derogatory information. In 2016, Trump led the charge to capitalize on the hack-and-leak operation that led to daily publications of the campaign emails of Hillary Clinton and her top allies. The steady drumbeat of embarrassing releases — amplified by Trump and a ravenous press corps — helped sink Clinton’s campaign in its final weeks.

The Justice Department says its sporadic release schedule for the Epstein files is borne of necessity: a laborious, multistep review process to protect the private information and photos of Epstein’s victims.

Blanche told Congress in a Friday letter that 200 Justice Department lawyers — including 187 from the National Security Division — reviewed materials to determine whether they should be disclosed. A second team of 25 privacy and civil liberties attorneys implemented redactions, he said. Then, the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York acted as a backstop, conducting a final sweep for any redactions to protect victims. Additional documents, he said, were withheld to protect the Justice Department’s privileged information.

“The volume of materials to be reviewed … means that the Department must publicly produce responsive documents on a rolling basis,” Blanche wrote. “The Department’s need to perform rolling productions is consistent with well-settled case law that statutes should be interpreted to not require the impossible.”

Blanche also said in TV interviews that while “hundreds of thousands” of documents would be released in the initial round, hundreds of thousands more would be processed over the next few weeks.

That timeline has already opened attack lines for Democrats and Trump critics, who said it was a flagrant violation of the law signed in November by Trump that required the release of the full set of Epstein files by Dec. 19, and in a searchable format. The law also required redactions to protect victims.

“My goodness, what is in the Epstein files?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on X. “Release all the files. It’s literally the law.”