The Department of Justice faces a legally mandated deadline on Friday to begin releasing its criminal investigative files about the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The files’ ordered release comes after months of controversy over the Trump administration’s decision to renege on past promises by top law enforcement officials to make the documents and other evidence public.
In November, Congress overwhelmingly voted to compel the DOJ to release the Epstein files, and President Donald Trump signed that legislation.
Trump, who had been friends with Epstein for years before the two men had a falling out in the early 2000s, had called demands to release the files a Democratic “hoax.”
But some of the leading voices in favor of making the documents public were his fellow Republicans.
Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and has denied having been aware of Epstein’s serial sexual abuse of underage girls and young women over the years.
The files set to be released are related to federal investigations of Epstein over the years.
The first of those probes ended in 2008, when he agreed to plead guilty to state charges in Florida related to prostitution of a person under age 18. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The 66-year-old Epstein was arrested in July 2019 by federal authorities on child sex trafficking charges.
He killed himself in a Manhattan jail weeks later.
Epstein’s former girlfriend, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was charged the following year with crimes related to recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Maxwell was convicted at trial in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.