Attorney General Bondi Releases First Phase of Declassified Epstein Files, Initiating Multi-Phase Document Releases Through November 2025

On February 27, 2025, Attorney General Pamela Bondi released the first phase of declassified files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his sexual exploitation of over 250 underage girls at residences in New York, Florida, and other locations. This initial release marked the beginning of a multi-phase declassification process that extended through November 2025, revealing previously secret documents about Epstein’s criminal network.

February 27, 2025: First Phase Release

The Department of Justice, in conjunction with the FBI, publicly released approximately 200 pages of documents. According to the DOJ press release, Attorney General Bondi stated: “This Department of Justice is following through on President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on Epstein’s disgusting actions and his co-conspirators.”

The documents included evidence lists, flight logs (previously released in U.S. v. Maxwell across six parts), a redacted contact book, and a redacted masseuse list. Critically, these materials “largely contain[ed] documents that have been previously leaked but never released in a formal capacity by the U.S. Government,” representing the first official government publication of materials already in the public domain through court proceedings.

AG Bondi subsequently discovered that the FBI had withheld thousands of additional pages related to Epstein’s investigation and indictment. She requested the FBI deliver all remaining documents by 8:00 AM on February 28 and tasked FBI Director Kash Patel with investigating why the original document request was not fully fulfilled.

August 22, 2025: First Wave to Congress

The Justice Department delivered thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents to the House Oversight Committee in response to a congressional subpoena issued earlier that month. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) confirmed receipt and announced the committee would conduct its own review of materials, separate from the DOJ’s redaction process.

September 2, 2025: Mass Document Release

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released 33,295 pages of Epstein-related records provided by the Department of Justice. The massive document dump followed Chairman Comer’s August 5 subpoena for records related to Jeffrey Epstein. According to the committee’s announcement, “the Department of Justice has indicated it will continue producing those records while ensuring the redaction of victim identities and any child sexual abuse material.” The documents were made publicly available through Google Drive and Dropbox.

November 12, 2025: Emails Suggesting Trump Knew

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released additional documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including three emails that referenced Donald Trump and suggested his knowledge of Epstein’s activities. Most significantly, a 2019 email from Epstein to author Michael Wolff stated explicitly: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”

In another email from 2011, Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a sex trafficking victim, identified by Republicans as Virginia Giuffre (who had consistently stated Trump was not among the men who victimized her before her death earlier in 2025).

The White House quickly dismissed the emails, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stating they “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.” On the same day, House Republicans released an additional 20,000 pages of documents from the Epstein estate, bringing the total released through Congress to over 53,000 pages.

Significance

This multi-phase release process represented the most comprehensive public disclosure of Epstein-related documents in U.S. history, though critics noted that much of the material had been previously leaked or released through court proceedings. The releases occurred amid sustained bipartisan pressure for full transparency, culminating in a discharge petition that reached 218 signatures on November 12, 2025, forcing a vote on legislation to compel release of all DOJ Epstein files within 30 days.

The November emails proved particularly significant as they provided Epstein’s own contemporaneous statements about Trump’s knowledge of “the girls,” though the exact meaning of this phrase and its legal implications remained disputed. The phased releases demonstrated both increased government transparency under political pressure and the limitations of that transparency, as many documents were heavily redacted and some materials remained classified.