Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to publicly release flight logs and other government documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, though the files are not expected to reveal new major revelations about the sex trafficking case that has captivated conspiracy theorists.
According to the Justice Department, the first batch of documents—set to be posted online later Thursday—primarily consists of files that have already circulated in public records since Epstein’s death in 2019. Despite high expectations from online sleuths and media observers, the documents set to be released on Thursday are unlikely to offer fresh details about Epstein’s crimes or his connections to powerful figures.
Before the documents’ official release, binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Part I” were distributed at the White House to conservative political commentators with large audiences on X (formerly Twitter). The binders, marked “declassified”, referred to Trump’s administration as “the most transparent”, though it remains unclear if the files were ever classified.
Bondi, in a Thursday letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, suggested that more records had recently been discovered and ordered the FBI to hand over “the full and complete Epstein files” by Friday morning. She also instructed Patel to investigate why her previous order to release all records had not been fully carried out.
Epstein was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. He was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in New York in 2019, more than a decade after striking a secret deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to resolve similar charges.
The case has drawn intense global scrutiny due to Epstein’s ties to high-profile figures such as President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, along with a host of celebrities. His former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in 2021 for trafficking young girls to Epstein and other powerful men.
Over the years, thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein have been released through lawsuits, criminal cases, and public records requests. In January 2024, a court unsealed a trove of evidence collected in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, though much of it had already been publicly known.
Previously released records referenced Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, and magician David Copperfield, among others. A deposition from 2016 described an accuser spending time with Epstein at Trump’s Atlantic City casino, though she did not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing. Trump has previously said that he once considered Epstein a “terrific guy” but later distanced himself from him.
In 2023, the Associated Press obtained thousands of pages of records detailing Epstein’s final days at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. These included emails between jail officials, psychological evaluations and internal memos.
A later report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General found that “negligence, misconduct, and job performance failures” at the Federal Bureau of Prisons allowed Epstein to take his own life in August 2019. The report found no evidence of foul play, dismissing widespread conspiracy theories surrounding his death.
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this article.
This is a developing news article and will be updated as more information is available.
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