The US Justice Department has found more than a million more documents potentially tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, delaying a full release for weeks while officials redact details to protect victims, DOJ said on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump's administration began releasing files related to criminal investigations of Epstein, the late American financier who was friends with Trump in the 1990s, to comply with a law passed by Congress last month.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress passed the law over Trump's objections, requiring that all documents be released by December 19 while allowing partial redactions to protect victims.
Releases so far have contained extensive redactions, angering some Republicans and doing little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
In a message shared on social media on Wednesday, the Justice Department said more than a million additional documents potentially related to Epstein had been uncovered by the FBI and the US Attorney's office in Manhattan, without elaborating on when or how the documents were found.
"We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible," the department said.
"Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks."
The US Justice Department released an image on Tuesday of a card that makes a crude reference to Trump, purportedly written by Epstein to Larry Nassar, who is serving a life sentence for sexually abusing hundreds of girls.
Reuters could not determine whether the card is authentic.
The postmark on its envelope is Virginia, not New York, where Epstein was jailed, and indicates the envelope was processed three days after his death in August 2019.
The return address on the envelope misidentifies the jail where Epstein was being held and does not include his inmate number, which the Bureau of Prisons policy manual requires be included on outgoing mail.
Trump flew on Epstein's jet, Justice Dept. documents reveal
Trump flew on Epstein's private jet "many more times than previously has been reported," according to an email from a New York prosecutor that forms part of a new batch of documents about Epstein released Tuesday by the US Justice Department.
In an email dated January 7, 2020, the unidentified prosecutor wrote that flight records showed Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet eight times during the 1990s. Among those were at least four flights on which Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was also aboard. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping late financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
In a social media post in 2024, Trump said he "was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island." There was no allegation in the prosecutor's email that Trump had committed any crime. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the email.