The US Department of Justice does not plan to file new charges in the Jeffrey Epstein case, despite the release of millions of pages of documents.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the decision on February 2 during appearances on CNN's State of the Union and ABC's This Week.
"There is a lot of correspondence. A lot of emails. A lot of terrible photographs that appear to be taken by Epstein himself or people around him. But that doesn't give us a basis to prosecute anybody," Blanche said. According to him, while Epstein's victims "want justice," that "doesn't mean that we can manufacture evidence or manufacture a case that isn't there."
Blanche also declared that the Justice Department's review of the files is "complete," noting: "We have reviewed over six million documents, thousands of videotapes, tens of thousands of images."
However, the architects of the Epstein Files Transparency Act—Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie—rejected this assertion. Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press on February 2, Khanna called Friday's release "significant" but "insufficient," noting that only about 3.5 million of the more than 6 million identified documents had been made public. Khanna described the Epstein affair as "one of the biggest scandals in the history of the country" and confirmed readiness to pursue impeachment or inherent contempt proceedings against Attorney General Pam Bondi if the remaining documents are not released. Massie, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, added that they are already drafting a resolution that would impose fines on Bondi for every day of delay.
Blanche remained defiant in the face of these threats: "Not even a little bit. Bring it on."
Meanwhile, a parallel scandal has erupted regarding a leak of victims' personal data. Attorneys representing over 200 of Epstein's victims petitioned federal judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer on February 2, demanding the immediate shutdown of the DOJ website hosting the files. In a letter obtained by ABC News, lawyers Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards described the situation as an "unfolding emergency." They reported identifying "thousands of redaction errors" affecting nearly 100 victims within 48 hours of Friday's release—including unredacted full names (some of whom were minors at the time), banking details, and home addresses. The letter cited one survivor: "I never went public! I am being hounded by media and others. This is destroying my life... Please, I beg you, remove my name!!!"
Blanche countered that the errors affect "about 0.001% of all materials," though he acknowledged that with such a volume of documents, such instances are inevitable.
Beyond the US, the files have already triggered political fallout. Lord Peter Mandelson, the former British Ambassador to Washington who was fired from his post in September 2025 due to his ties to Epstein, resigned from the Labour Party on Sunday night. The move was prompted by bank statements found in the new files indicating three payments from Epstein totaling $75,000 between 2003 and 2004. Mandelson stated he does not recall these payments and questions the documents' authenticity, but is leaving the party to avoid causing it "further embarrassment." On February 2, Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanded Mandelson resign from the House of Lords and ordered an urgent review of all contacts the former ambassador had with Epstein during his tenure in public office.
Starmer also urged Prince Andrew (Mountbatten-Windsor) to testify before the US Congress. Friday's files included photographs showing the Duke of York on his hands and knees over a woman lying on the floor (whose face was redacted), as well as correspondence in which Epstein offered him a meeting with a "26-year-old Russian" and received an invitation to dinner at Buckingham Palace.
The released materials also include a nearly two-hour video interview conducted by Steve Bannon with Epstein. In it, Bannon asks directly: "Are you a category three sexual predator?" The date of the recording is not specified.
In Slovakia, Miroslav Lajčák, the national security advisor to the Prime Minister, resigned following the publication of the files. Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, whose name appears in the documents several hundred times, issued a statement calling her contacts with Epstein "simply disgraceful."
BACKGROUND:
Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier convicted of sexual offenses. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in Florida and received a lenient sentence through a plea deal. In 2019, he faced new charges of sex trafficking of minors but was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August of that year. The official ruling was suicide. His associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in 2021 for aiding in sex trafficking.
In November 2025, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, mandating the DOJ publish all investigation documents by December 19, 2025. The release proceeded in stages with delays. The largest tranche—over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images—was unveiled on January 30, 2026. The documents feature the names of numerous politicians, business leaders, and celebrities; however, mention in the files does not, in itself, imply involvement in criminal activity.
