WASHINGTON — Five members of Congress from both parties and both chambers are asking Attorney General Pam Bondi for a briefing and status update by the end of the week on the legally mandated release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Congress overwhelmingly passed a law requiring the Justice Department to release the documents within 30 days of the Nov. 19 enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“In light of the short 30 day deadline to release the Epstein Files, we are particularly focused on understanding the contents of any new evidence, information or procedural hurdles that could interfere with the Department’s ability meet this statutory deadline,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Bondi dated Wednesday and first obtained by NBC News.
The signatories are Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., as well as the law’s lead authors, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. They expressed in the letter a “shared interest in supporting the Department of Justice’s efforts to carry out the provisions of this critical new law.”
The lawmakers noted that the Justice Department announced an investigation into Epstein’s connections to numerous prominent figures, including former President Bill Clinton and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, citing new information, in response to a request from President Donald Trump.
“In the interest of transparency and clarity on the steps required to faithfully implement the Epstein Files Transparency Act, we request a briefing either in a classified or unclassified setting, to discuss the full contents of this new information in your possession at your convenience, but not later than Friday, December 5th, 2025,” the lawmakers wrote.
They added that the law should be “fully implemented with critical safeguards to protect survivors,” as is written into the statute, and urged the Justice Department to coordinate with victims and their lawyers to appropriately redact names and protect their privacy.
The new law is far-reaching in scope, requiring the public release of “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” possessed by the Justice Department and the FBI regarding Epstein, entities with known or alleged ties to the deceased sex offender, travel records, internal government communications about him and records about his death.
It prohibits any information from being withheld on the basis of “political sensitivity” or to prevent embarrassment for public figures. It contains limited permitted grounds for withholdings, in order to shield the identity of victims and protect active investigations or prosecutions.
However, the law says that any decision to withhold documents that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution” must be “narrowly tailored and temporary.”
