U.S. Justice Department releases thousands of records in Epstein case, including photos, call logs

U.S. Justice Department releases thousands of records on Jeffrey Epstein case on Friday (December 19, 2025) afternoon, including photos, call logs; some heavily redacted.

The convicted sex offender and wealthy financier was known for his connections to some of the world’s most powerful people, including President Donald Trump, who had long tried to keep the files sealed.

Among the thousands of records released by the Justice Department are photos, call logs, grand jury testimony and interview transcripts. Many of the documents have been redacted and at least some have already been in the public domain.

Some of the photos and transcripts feature Epstein and his longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Ms. Maxwell was charged with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year-prison sentence.

The files also included video clips from inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City from the day Epstein died in his jail cell. The video clips had already been released previously by the Justice Department and officials have said for years they showed no one else entering the area around Epstein’s cell before he was found dead.

High interest led the Justice Department to regulate access to its Epstein files website for a time.

The webpage went live Friday afternoon with a waiting room-type queue akin to what concertgoers sometimes see when they go online to purchase tickets.

Visitors were greeted with the message: “You are in line for Department of Justice web content. When it is your turn, you will have 10 minutes to enter the website.”

The webpage then refreshed to reveal a landing page with various categories of documents, including court records and other disclosures.

Justice Department on redactions

The Justice Department said “all reasonable efforts have been made to review and redact personal information pertaining to victims, other private individuals, and protect sensitive materials from disclosure.”

However, in a notice posted with the files, the department warned that some may have been missed as it rushed to get records online. Because of the volume of information involved, the release “may nevertheless contain information that inadvertently includes non-public personally identifiable information or other sensitive content, to include matters of a sexual nature,” the notice said.

The department asked members of the public to notify it promptly of any information that should not have been posted “so we can take steps to correct the problem as soon as possible.

”The law mandating the release, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, requires the Justice Department to make such redactions.

White House on Epstein files release

The White House said the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which began Friday afternoon, shows how the administration is the “most transparent in history.”

“By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” said a White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson.

Jackson pointed to other Democrats who have had ties to Epstein, such as Delegate Stacey Plaskett, who had received text messages from Epstein during a 2019 House hearing with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer.

In a post on X on Friday, the Justice Department wrote that “the Trump administration is providing levels of transparency that prior administrations never even contemplated.”

Not mentioned was that the department in July had determined after a lengthy review that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” That angered conservatives and led to a push by Republicans in Congress to pass a bill mandating the release of the files.