House Democrats say they are examining legal options against the Trump administration after an administration official said the Friday deadline to release all of the Epstein files would be missed.

The Justice Department released hundreds of thousands of records related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein before the deadline. Many of the documents were released in the late afternoon on a dedicated page on the Justice Department website. But an unknown number was still being held back.

Among the documents are photos, a lengthy list of court records, and interview transcripts, including a jailhouse interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. Other files had been previously released, including surveillance video from inside the New York City prison on the day Epstein died by suicide in his cell.

Many of the documents appeared to be heavily redacted but a privacy notice on the site warned that because of the volume of information, personally identifiable information or sensitive content may “inadvertently” have been released. The public was asked to notify the Justice Department via email if it found information that should not have been posted.

Traffic from visitors interested in going through the records in the first moments the data went live led to a backup in a virtual waiting room.

The website features a search function that appeared to be severely limited at launch. Queries for “Trump,” “Clinton,” “Maxwell,” and even “Epstein” returned no results.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Friday morning that the administration would not be able to release all of the documents by the legal deadline. 

Mr. Blanche did not disclose how much of the material was going to be held back. The only information Ms. Bondi is legally allowed to keep under wraps includes personal details about victims and other government secrets.

House Democrats are threatening to take the administration to court over the delay.

“For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell,” Congressmen Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin said in a joint statement.

“The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from the DOJ,” the statement continued.

A bipartisan effort to force a disclosure of the files kicked off over the summer after Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a memo in July that no additional files on Epstein would be made public.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act eventually passed the House with only one Republican voting no, while the Senate passed it unanimously. After calling the Epstein saga a “hoax,” President Trump reversed course and signed the bill into law last month.

Congressional Democrats have been releasing batches of documents and images given to them by Epstein’s estate after a congressional subpoena. The materials reveal connections between the rich and powerful and the convicted sex offender before he died in jail awaiting a sex trafficking trial. Several of the photos have featured Mr. Trump as Democrats try to highlight his ties to Epstein.