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Washington — The Justice Department's internal watchdog said Thursday that it will audit the department's compliance with the law that required the release of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, following months of bipartisan criticism over how the agency handled the disclosure.
The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General said in a statement that it will "evaluate the DOJ's processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the" Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law last November. The bill required the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of becoming law, a deadline the department failed to meet.
The watchdog office said the probe will review the processes behind the department's "identification, collection, and production of responsive material." It will also examine how the department determined what material would be redacted or withheld under the law, as well as the "processes for addressing post-release publication concerns."
The statement said that the office will issue a public report with the audit's results once the review is complete.
The Justice Department published an initial batch of files within 30 days of the bill being signed, but that release did not encompass the full scope of material covered by the statute. Days later, the department released a massive tranche of more than 11,000 files, totaling nearly 30,000 pages of photos, court records, emails, news clippings, videos and other material.
On Jan. 30, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the Justice Department was releasing more than 3 million pages of records related to its investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, its final disclosure.
Blanche said the Trump administration collected more than 6 million pages in response to the Epstein-related law but withheld a portion of them for various reasons, including because they contain survivors' personal information or would jeopardize an active federal investigation.
"I can assure that we complied with the statute, we complied with the act and we did not protect President Trump. We didn't protect or not protect anybody," Blanche said at a news conference announcing the final release. "There's a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents. There's nothing I can do about that."
Blanche has since been elevated to acting attorney general after the departure of Pam Bondi. In an interview with Fox News after he was elevated to his new role, Blanche said that the Epstein files "should not be a part of anything going forward" at the Justice Department.
A CBS News analysis found that the Justice Department removed tens of thousands of files after they were initially published, leaving the number of public documents at 2.7 million pages. As of late February, the review found that the Justice Department has taken down more than 47,000 files comprising about 65,500 pages. Links to those files now return a "page not found" error on the department's website.
The rolling release and repeated publishing and unpublishing of documents left survivors and members of Congress alike calling for an independent review of the department's handling of the files.
The two lawmakers who led the push to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, have also pushed for an independent review.
In a December 2025 letter to the Justice Department's inspector general, Epstein survivors and a group of Democrats in Congress asked the watchdog office to independently review the files to determine whether any of the records were "tampered" with.
On Tuesday, President Trump nominated a career government attorney, Don Berthiaume, to serve as the Justice Department's next inspector general. Berthiaume had been serving as the department's acting watchdog since late last year.
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