DOJ plans to release new batch of documents

The Department of Justice, which has been criticized for withholding files about Jeffrey Epstein from the public, plans to release a new batch of documents related to the notorious sex offender “fairly soon,” MS Now reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The development comes a day after the House Oversight Committee approved a motion to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to be questioned about the DOJ’s handling of its investigations of Epstein, and documents about him that it is required by law to release to the public.

“AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a post on X on Thursday, when she submitted that motion.

“The Epstein case is one of the greatest cover-ups in American history. His global sex trafficking network is larger than what is being revealed,” Mace said.

“Three million documents have been released, and we still don’t have the full truth,” she wrote. “Videos are missing. Audio is missing. Logs are missing. There are millions more documents out there. We want to know why the DOJ is more focused on shielding the powerful than delivering justice.”

Mace, in a blistering remark about Bondi on Thursday to reporters, said, “I have a lot more questions, and I don’t expect to be talking about the stock market, so she better not bring those notes when she comes to the Oversight Committee.”

That comment referred to Bondi angrily telling members of the House Judiciary Committee last month that they should be talking about a strong stock market when Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., asked her how many of Epstein’s co-conspirators she has charged. Bondi has not charged anyone in connection with Epstein.

The DOJ, in a new statement Thursday, said that “mistakes are inevitable” in a project of the magnitude of searching through millions of documents to determine what is required by law to be released about Epstein and his convicted procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“When flagged by the public, we immediately work to correct any errors that the team may have initially made,” the DOJ said.

“As with all documents that have been flagged by the public, should anything be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it.”

The Epstein Transparency Act, which Congress passed last year, and which President Donald Trump signed after opposing it for months, requires the DOJ to make public all files it has about Epstein.

The DOJ has not done that.

It made about 3.5 million documents public in recent months, but withheld several million more documents. And new reporting has revealed that the DOJ has removed some previously public files from public view.

Some of the files withheld include memos and notes about FBI interviews with a woman who said Trump sexually abused her when she was a minor.

Trump has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with his former friend Epstein. He has also claimed that the files “exonerated” him.

In a post on X later Thursday that responded to a tweet by Mace touting the subpoena for Bondi, the DOJ’s “Rapid Response” account said, “As Congress knows, the Justice Department is not ‘hiding’ anything. We have released more than 3 million documents.”

“Any time a redaction error is flagged, we review and RE-PUBLISH that document,” the account said.

“This is untruthful and lazy, and this as the basis for a subpoena, is laughable. Further, as we explained to CBS, WSJ and many reporters, images from a batch in data set 9 were temporarily pulled down for review due to some flagged for nudity and republished on a rolling basis, including 25,000 yesterday. All will be back in the library by end of day.”

The Oversight Committee this week asked Microsoft founder Bill Gates; Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler; billionaires Leon Black and Ted Waitt, and three other people to testify about their dealings with Epstein.

The committee recently questioned former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, about Epstein.