Trump has urged the release of the Epstein files. Here’s what we know about them
By Haven Orecchio-Egresitz, Kara Scannell, Evan Perez, CNN
(CNN) — The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday to force the release of records amassed by federal prosecutors during the sex trafficking investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The question of what is actually in those pages — and whether the public will ever see all of those documents — has become a headache for President Donald Trump and his administration.
On November 12, the House Oversight Committee released 20,000 more pages of records it received from Epstein’s estate, including emails in which Epstein insulted Trump and appeared to coordinate his response with Maxwell to a lawsuit brought by accuser Virginia Giuffre.
The documents were released just hours before the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva as the House’s newest Democrat, which had been long delayed amid the government shutdown. Immediately after being sworn in, Grijalva became the decisive 218th member in support of the effort to force the House to vote on the release of this different set of documents — all of the Epstein documents that the Justice Department has access to.
The vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but that alone won’t trigger the release of the documents. If the measure passes, it will still face an uncertain future in the Senate — even after Trump reversed his previous position Sunday and publicly urged for the release of the documents.
At this point, though — six years after Epstein died in his New York prison cell — the public has gotten its hands on many records related to the disgraced financier and his alleged child sex trafficking ring.
Some documents have come from the criminal trial and case file of Maxwell, Epstein’s onetime girlfriend. Some, like those in Wednesday’s release, came from Epstein’s estate, which provided the records to the House Oversight Committee in response to a subpoena.
It’s unclear what new information, if any, is stuffed in the boxes of evidence within the Justice Department.
Some of it, such as records that detail the physical and sexual abuse of women and girls, may never be released.
The Epstein files are made of over 300 gigabytes of data, paper, video, photographs, and audio that live within the FBI’s main electronic case management system, “Sentinel.” These records would include investigative reports and records from the FBI Miami field division’s original Epstein investigation. The bulk of the records would come from the second investigation carried out by the FBI’s New York Office, including memorandums about the investigation and potential targets, locations to be searched, records to be subpoenaed, and hundreds of pages of “302s,” which are the forms that FBI agents use to memorialize what witnesses, victims and suspects said in interviews with investigators.
The case has continued to fascinate the public, years after Epstein’s death, due to his ties to powerful people. Politicians, including Trump, and celebrities have been publicly linked to Epstein for years — sometimes by appearing in flight logs or at events — and all have denied any wrongdoing.
Epstein’s death by suicide before trial launched conspiracy theories and deprived many of his accusers a public airing of his conduct. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors following a four-week trial in 2021.
Trump, after the most recent release of estate records Wednesday, announced he was asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to many other high-profile Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman — as well as the bank JPMorgan Chase.
Bondi later announced on X that Jay Clayton, the US attorney in Manhattan, will lead the federal investigation.
It’s unclear whether opening a new criminal investigation would prevent the release of the highly anticipated Justice Department records.
Here’s what we do and don’t know about the Epstein records:
Grand jury
The Justice Department had asked federal judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts from Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal cases. Former federal prosecutors say the transcripts likely contain a miniscule amount of evidence from the investigations.
Federal prosecutors in New York generally call law enforcement agents to testify before the grand jury to present just enough evidence they need to support an indictment. Other witnesses, including accusers, are rarely called in to testify before federal grand juries in New York.
The judges overseeing the two cases in New York asked DOJ for more legal argument for why they should unseal grand jury material, which is rarely done. In August, two federal judges in New York declined Justice Department requests to unseal grand jury information in Epstein and Maxwell’s cases.
A federal judge in Florida also denied DOJ’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from its 2005 and 2007 investigations into Epstein, stating the department didn’t meet the legal hurdle to do so under the rules governing the circuit.
Search warrants
Federal prosecutors and the FBI obtained a trove of information during the searches of Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York and Little Saint James, Epstein’s private Caribbean island. That information is under the control of DOJ and is not blocked from public release by secrecy rules.
FBI officials recovered thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young females, including at least of one minor, in a search of his Manhattan mansion in the days following his arrest. Binders of CDs containing the photos were seized. Agents used a saw to open a safe that had more than $70,000 in cash, 48 loose diamond stones, one as large as 2.38 carats, and a large diamond ring.
They also collected documents from the New York home, including notes, messages with names and contact information for certain victims, and phone records.
A search of Epstein’s private island was conducted days after he was found dead in a jail cell about one month after his arrest. By then the investigation had shifted its focus to any co-conspirators of Epstein.
In February the Justice Department provided an index of evidence it has. The index includes over two dozen computers, numerous hard drives, at least two cell phones, and four iPads. The index says there are boat trip logs potentially of who traveled to his private island — that information has not been made public.
The Justice Department does not release child pornography so those records would not be expected to be made public under any circumstance.
Florida DOJ case file
Federal prosecutors in New York obtained the investigative record from the earlier investigations into Epstein conducted by their counterparts in Florida in 2007 and 2009. Any of those records that were not covered by grand jury secrecy rules could be released.
Civil lawsuits
Much of the public record relating to Epstein has derived from civil lawsuits brought by accusers, some filed under their own names and others using Jane Doe pseudonyms. Judges have ordered the release of thousands of pages of documents, including depositions taken under oath.
Among the famous names referenced in those documents are Trump, Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, American investor Glenn Dubin, and Leslie Wexner, the CEO of L Brands. Not all of them were accused of wrongdoing, and all of them have denied any wrongdoing.
Maxwell trial
Maxwell’s four-week criminal trial was a public airing of her close relationship to Epstein and her role recruiting, grooming and at times participating in the sexual abuse of minors with Epstein. Four women testified about being sexually assaulted when they were minors.
Epstein’s former pilot testified and identified people he saw on Epstein’s plane, including Trump, former Sens. John Glenn and George Mitchell, Prince Andrew, actor Kevin Spacey, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The pilot said he never saw any wrongdoing.
Gawker first published a copy in 2015 of Epstein’s so-called black book with names and phone numbers of his contacts. The Justice Department released a redacted version of it earlier this year as well as copies of the flight logs that were made public during Maxwell’s criminal trial.
The release was criticized by some of Trump’s supporters because the information was already public — and did nothing to answer lingering questions.
The estate
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee released about 20,000 pages of documents it received from Epstein’s estate through a subpoena — materials the Department of Justice said it didn’t previously have access to.
The documents included emails sent by Epstein. In one dated April 2, 2011, Epstein emailed Maxwell: “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. REDACTED spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there.” GOP members of the House Oversight Committee identified the person as Giuffre. In one January 2019 email, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff: “trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. . of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” The emails also showed an apparent effort between Epstein and Maxwell to coordinate how they would respond to a lawsuit from Giuffre.
Wednesday was the second time that the House Oversight Committee released documents from Epstein’s estate.
In September, the committee put out a tranche of records, including a reported collection of birthday letters gifted to Epstein.
The panel has been investigating the case and had subpoenaed the estate for documents as part of its probe.
In a social media exchange last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed that law enforcement did not have access to the estate documents at the time of his interview with Maxwell this summer.
A version of this story originally published in July 2025.
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