A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official said Sunday that there would be no new criminal charges filed in connection to the agency’s release of a massive tranche of files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I can’t talk about any investigations, but I will say the following, which is that in July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the Epstein files, and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody,” Deputy Attorney General Blanche told CNN’S “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Blanche added that the “entire world can look at and see if we got it wrong,” while he noted that materials released by the DOJ may be disturbing to some.
“There’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him, but that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody,” Blanche told the outlet.
On Jan. 30, Blanche announced the DOJ is releasing 3 million pages of documents, photos, video footage, and other materials related to Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to comply with a law that was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in November 2025.
Attorneys with the department had been going through the files for weeks to issue the necessary redactions to protect witnesses and victims, Blanche said in a news conference last week. There was criticism from lawmakers that the DOJ was slow-walking the release of the files after a deadline to release them passed in December 2025.
“We took great pains, as I explained on Friday, to make sure that we protected victims,” Blanche told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday. “Every time we hear from a victim or their lawyer that they believe that their name was not properly redacted, we immediately rectify that.”
The DOJ had “reviewed over 6 million pieces of paper, thousands of videos, thousands—tens of thousands of images,” before they were released, he said. Lawmakers who took issue with the DOJ’s efforts on Jan. 30 and 31 could not have reviewed all the documents, images, and materials, he noted.
“There is no way they have spent any time looking at the materials we produced. Because I know the materials we produced. We produced them on Friday. By Saturday, they’re already complaining about what we did?” Blanche told the outlet.
Aside from Blanche, federal prosecutors have stated in recent court filings that numerous government attorneys have been reviewing millions of documents, files, and other materials to disclose to the public since the law took effect.
Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019 before he was found dead in a New York City jail cell in August of that year. Medical examiners ruled that his death was a suicide.
Years before those charges were filed, Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. He took a plea deal and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, though he was granted work release after serving three months.
In 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other charges in association with Epstein. The following year, she received a 20-year prison sentence on the charges.
The DOJ said the Epstein and Maxwell files can be accessed through a database on its website.
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