Extensive redactions and the partial release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have angered some Republicans and done little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.US President Donald Trump, a Republican, touted the release of the so-called Epstein files on Friday (local time) as a show of transparency. But a handful of Republican politicians and right-wing media figures joined Democrats in criticising the disclosures as inadequate and possibly in violation of a law that prompted their release.While the criticism fell short of a broader party backlash, it underscored that the Epstein controversy was far from being put to rest and was likely to linger into next year, when Republicans will be fighting to keep control of Congress.
The release of files, starting Friday and followed by a second, much smaller batch released Saturday, is intended to comply with a bipartisan law passed by Congress in November that mandated the disclosure of all Epstein files held by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
That was despite a months-long effort to keep them sealed by Trump, who once counted Epstein as a close friend.Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing and has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes. The new disclosure represented only a fraction of the total data the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DOJ have said they possess related to Epstein and was heavily redacted, including hundreds of pages that were entirely blacked out.
Instead, the released files extensively featured former president Bill Clinton, a Democrat and political foe.
Former US president Bill Clinton, pictured here with Mick Jagger and an unidentified woman, featured heavily in Friday’s release. Source: US justice department
Adding further controversy, one file with a photo of Trump appeared to have been removed on Saturday from the dataset released.Its absence was noted online by Democrats in the House of Representatives, who demanded an explanation from the administration.
Later on Saturday, that picture was part of up to 16 photos that had been deleted from the DOJ website, according to the New York Times, NPR and the Associated Press.
‘People are raging and walking away’
Democrats and Republicans alike criticised the Trump administration for not releasing all the files and for the extensive redactions.
Democrat Ro Khanna, who co-authored the law requiring full disclosure, floated possible impeachment of attorney-general Pam Bondi over the failure to release the files on time.
Republican Thomas Massie also believed that Bondi violated the law, warning in a post to X that she and others could face criminal charges in the future when the DOJ was in Democratic hands.
“People are raging and walking away,” she wrote on X.
Some conservative commentators also criticised the DOJ’s decision not to disclose more.Owen Shroyer, a podcaster who was pardoned by Trump for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021 — but has since become a critic of the president — said he believed the DOJ was intentionally slow-walking disclosures.”They covered up the Epstein Files. No other way to put it now,” Shroyer wrote on X after Friday’s release.