The Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a six-page letter to Congress on Saturday explaining redactions that were made in the Jeffrey Epstein files and listed "government officials and politically exposed persons" referenced in them, prompting immediate pushback from lawmakers who have led efforts to force a full disclosure.
Listed in the letter, among many others, included former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat.
Multiple prominent figures in various industries have been named in a series of released documents relating to Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financer. Earlier this year, the DOJ published more than 3 million pages of material under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was spearheaded by Massie and Khanna and signed into law by President Donald Trump in November. The tranche of documents includes 2,000 videos and 180,000 images making the total production nearly 3.5 million pages released, in compliance with the act. Appearing in the Epstein files is not indicative of criminal wrongdoing and there haven't been any arrests or charges filed against those named.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
The dispute over the scope and transparency of the files as well as the Trump administration has intensified after the DOJ's letter claimed a full release while also describing redactions and listing high-profile figures referenced in the files.
In their letter, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the department "released all 'records, documents, communications and investigative materials in the possession of the Department' that 'relate to' [Epstein]."
The DOJ letter appended a list of prominent people referenced in the files, including President Donald Trump, former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Tucker Carlson, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Kathryn Ruemmler, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Steve Tisch, among many others.
Greene, who signed a discharge petition to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files, wrote on X on Saturday evening that Bondi and Blanche "sent a letter to Congress naming tons of people in the Epstein files," adding that some names "don't make sense like Janice Joplin who died in 1970, and all kinds of politicians including those of us who fought the hardest to release the files like me, Thomas Massie, Ro Khanna, and Nancy Mace."
The former congresswoman continued: "Supposedly Jeffrey Epstein 'committed suicide' in 2019. I ran for Congress in 2020 and became a member of congress in 2021. My mentions in the files are basically stories unrelated to Epstein like me criticizing Covid masks rules and covid vaccine passports. Why are stories about my refusal to comply with Covid tyranny and other news stories unrelated to Epstein about me listed in the Epstein files??? What kind of files are the FBI and DOJ keeping on us? What is actually going on?"
Mace, who also signed a discharge petition to force a House vote on releasing the files, weighed in on the letter, criticizing the DOJ's legal rationale.
"Despite the memo released by DOJ last night, not all the Epstein files have been released. And the excuses provided for not releasing all the files will not hold up in a court of law. This isn't going away until people go to jail," the congresswoman wrote on X.
In another post, Mace wrote: "If the DOJ isn't going to do their job and arrest predators, then we will do their job for them. If in this case, the closest we can get to justice for the victims is shaming these people out of civil society and out of existence, then that's what we're going to do. Hold the Line."
Khanna wrote in a Saturday X post that the Justice Department "is once again purposefully muddying the waters on who was a predator and who was mentioned in an email."
He added: "To have Janis Joplin, who died when Epstein was 17, in the same list as Larry Nassar, who went to prison for the sexual abuse of hundreds of young women and child pornography, with no clarification of how either was mentioned in the files is absurd. Release the full files. Stop protecting predators. Redact only the survivor's names."
Massie, an outlier in his party and a critic of Trump, appeared on ABC News' This Week on Sunday and said, "Donald Trump told us that even though he had dinner with these kinds of people in New York City and West Palm Beach, that he would be transparent. But he's not. He's still in with the Epstein class. This is the Epstein administration, and they are attacking me for trying to get these files released."
Republican lawmakers who pushed for transparency signaled they will continue to scrutinize DOJ's redactions and the completeness of the release.
It remains unclear whether Congress will seek additional documentation from DOJ or request unredacted materials in camera.