The bill to release the files now needs President Trump's signature.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 427-1 on a bill to compel the Justice Department to publicly release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, after which the Senate agreed to unanimously approve it, sending it on to President Donald Trump's desk, who has said that he would sign it.
If that happens, it means that potentially a substantial cache of documents -- in addition to those already made public, which include thousands released last week by the House Oversight Committee -- could be made public about the late multi-millionaire financier, who died by suicide in 2019 while in federal custody after being indicted for alleged sexual trafficking of minors.
Those files would include witness statements, plus electronic and physical evidence, gathered by federal agents and prosecutors during the course of two major investigations of Epstein.
Shortly after the Senate approved and sent a bill to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files to President Donald Trump's desk on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi faced questions on how the administration will respond.
"We have released over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we will continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency. Also, we will always encourage all victims to come forward," Bondi said at a news conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and other officials on an unrelated law enforcement action.
The exact nature of the documents yet to be released, what information they may include and how redacted the documents may be, remains to be seen. However, there are indications to be found based on the documents and other information already made public.
When Attorney General Bondi released Epstein-related files in February, in what she called the "first phase," included in that disclosure was a three-page document that stood out from all the other documents, almost all of which were previously made public. That document, called the "Evidence List," is a catalog of material apparently obtained through searches of Epstein's properties in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands after his arrest in 2019, and a search of his Palm Beach mansion more than a dozen years earlier.
That little-noticed index, which lists the evidence inventoried by federal law enforcement during the multiple investigations into Epstein's conduct, offers a road map to what could be included in the materials that President Donald Trump's administration has so far declined to release, including logs of who potentially visited Epstein's private island and the records of a wiretap of Maxwell's phone.
According to the evidence list, the remaining materials include 40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs, and six recording devices - all of which hold more than 300 gigabytes of cumulative data, according to the Justice Department.
The evidence also includes approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photographs, travel logs and employee lists, as well as multiple documents related to two islands Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands: Little St. James, where his compound was located, and Greater St. James. They include a Little St. James logbook as well as multiple logs of boat trips to and from the island - documents that could shed light on who visited the island.
Further evidence noted in the index includes multiple lists, one vaguely described as a "document with names" and an employee contact list. Investigators also recovered pages of handwritten notes, multiple photo albums, an Austrian passport with Epstein's photograph, and more than a dozen financial documents.
The records also include three discs containing the outcome of "court authorized intercept[s]" of a phone number previously belonging to Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein associate who's currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming the underage girls whom Epstein sexually abused.
Additional indications of what may be included in the yet-to-be-released Epstein files is an unsigned Justice Department statement from July, when the government determined that there would be no further files made public. That statement said the DOJ and FBI had conducted an "exhaustive review of investigative holdings" pertaining to Epstein, which they said included "a significant amount of material, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence."
Included in that evidence, according to the DOJ statement, is "a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography."
"Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial," the DOJ statement further said, adding that the information was sealed "to protect victims and did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing" and that a "systematic review revealed no incriminating 'client list.' There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties."
A third repository of evidence collected from Epstein investigations is already publicly available but mostly unknown. The FBI maintains what is essentially an online repository of evidence that was unsealed in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, dating from prior to the current controversy that has engulfed the Trump administration.
In 2017, the website Radar Online filed a lawsuit against the FBI after its requests for access to FBI records on Epstein were largely denied. In the course of that litigation, the FBI started posting, on a rolling basis, thousands of pages of heavily redacted documents to the FBI website known as The Vault, which the investigative agency describes as "our FOIA Library."
The Vault contains hundreds of pages of heavily redacted documents posted in 22 separate batches - redactions so extensive as to render most of the records incomprehensible. The government often cites exemptions to public disclosure statutes to redact the names of uncharged third parties to protect their privacy.
The FBI's disclosures in response to the Radar Online lawsuit ceased in 2019 when the DOJ reopened its investigation into Epstein and FOIA requests were subsequently denied. Also cited by the government for its denial of new FOIA requests was the criminal prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell and her appeals that followed.
It's possible that if all of the government's Epstein files are in fact released, they could include some of the FOIA documents in the FBI Vault with at least some of those redactions lifted. However, those Vault materials wouldn't include anything that post-dates the renewed investigation of Epstein in 2018-19 nor would it include anything recovered from searches of Epstein's residences after his arrest in 2019.
The DOJ can also withhold material that "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" or "depicts or contains child sexual abuse," according to the bill.
However, the bill does contain language that stipulates, "no record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."
The measure also states the Attorney General may withhold or redact info that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary."
For any materials it chooses to withhold or redact, the DOJ is required, within 15 days of their public release, to outline its justifications for doing so.
The bill's exception regarding an "active investigation" could include the new probe of any connections top Democrats had to Epstein that Trump ordered Bondi to pursue last Friday.