Victims Who Lobbied for Release of Epstein Documents Rage Against Trump Administration Over Delay in Compliance

Justice Department officials defend the slow release, saying they are simply trying to protect the victims by going through a rigorous review process.

Mariam Zuhaib/AP
A protester holds a sign before a news conference on the Epstein files in front of the Capitol at Washington, D.C., on November 18, 2025. Mariam Zuhaib/AP

Alleged victims of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are lambasting the Department of Justice for its failure to comply with a law that required the release of all its information related to Epstein by December 19. Many of the women spent months lobbying Congress to pass a bill which would force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the files with minimal redactions. 

For days, Ms. Bondi, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, and other DOJ leaders have been criticized for missing the deadline to make all of the information publicly available. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates the documents’ release, was passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in November. 

Mr. Blanche says he and his colleagues are simply trying to protect victims by going through a rigorous review process. More than 100,000 pages of files have been published on a website since Friday but hundreds of thousands more remain to be processed.

ā€œThe same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don’t want us to protect victims,ā€ he told ā€œMeet the Pressā€ on Sunday. 

Those victims, however, say the DOJ is clearly violating the law. 

ā€œI am no longer supporting this administration. I [retract] any support I ever gave to [Mr. Trump] and Pam Bondi,ā€ one survivor, Haley Robson, told CNN in an on-air interview on Tuesday. ā€œI am so disgusted with this administration. I think that both Pam Bondi and [FBI director] Kash Patel need to resign.ā€

ā€œI would love to see [Mr. Trump] get impeached over this,ā€ Ms. Robson said. 

On Monday, dozens of Epstein survivors wrote in a statement that the Department of Justice was failing to comply with the law passed last month. 

ā€œThis law, enacted by a nearly unanimous vote in the House and unanimously in the Senate, and signed by the President, was clear. It afforded no permission for delayed disclosure,ā€ they wrote. The survivors noted that some documents are heavily redacted, no financial records were released, and that grand jury materials have been kept from the public’s view. 

ā€œThese are clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law,ā€ they wrote. 

The law, which was authored by Congressman Thomas Massie, a Republican, and Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat, lays out clear guidelines for what information must be released.

Apart from protecting the identities of victims, the law permits material to be redacted only if it contains child pornography, compromises national security, or discloses information about ongoing investigations. Any redactions must come with written explanations for why those omissions are necessary. 

ā€œThis is not a partisan issue. Just as the Epstein Files Transparency Act was supported across party lines, we now ask elected officials from both parties to take decisive action to enforce the law, compel full compliance, and ensure meaningful transparency without further delay,ā€ the victims wrote in their statement. 

Messrs. Massie and Khanna have said they are already working on an inherent contempt resolution targeting Ms. Bondi. If the House adopts such a resolution, the attorney general would be fined for each day she does not comply with the law. 

Republicans have pointed to numerous photos of President Clinton in the documents that have been released so far, though the former president has complained of a campaign of ā€œinsinuationā€ and called on the DOJ to release all additional information concerning him. No files made public so far have alleged that Mr. Clinton committed any kind of crime. 

On Tuesday, the DOJ released another tranche of documents related to Epstein. A number of those records mentioned Mr. Trump, though the Justice Department claimed that allegations of sexual misconduct had been made to the FBI by alleged victims in order to paint the president in a poor light. Some of those accusations were made to the FBI during Mr. Trump’s first term. 

ā€œTo be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,ā€ the DOJ wrote on X.


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