Newly disclosed documents suggest that classified material was included in files collected by the United States Department of Justice regarding disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, contradicting official assertions that no national defence information was withheld.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as deputy attorney general when document releases began, has long maintained that the Epstein files contain no national security secrets and that no materials were withheld or redacted on that basis, reports CBS News.
However, internal records indicate that at least three documents collected by the Department of Justice (DOJ) contained classified information.
According to an eight-page Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) timeline from its New York office, 16 items were delivered to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) on 25 March 2025.
These included two items explicitly listed as “Epstein Transparency Project – Classified Material” and “CDs with classified materials (x2)”.
An internal email sent on the same day by the unit chief of the National Security Classification Operations Unit stated that three documents were “identified that remain classified”, including an FBI document described as “classified when see-through”, though descriptions of the remaining two documents and the recipient’s identity were redacted.
The DOJ collected six million pages of material and released over three million pages under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), maintaining that non-released files were duplicative, privileged, or irrelevant. However, an analysis of the department’s numerical Bates coding system reveals extensive missing documentation across the released files.
The missing material includes tens of thousands of pages of financial records, such as 66 missing check images from a series of 4,500 images, as well as documents previously collected from financial institutions including JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank.
Barbara McQuade, former US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, noted that financial records were not a permissible category for removal under the law and pointed out that Bates numbers exist specifically to flag such gaps.
Furthermore, an analysis of an “R1” code sequence across nearly 995,000 released pages demonstrated that approximately 1.2 million pages of emails were removed between initial processing and the final public release. The omitted email exchanges involved Jeffrey Epstein, his assistant Lesley Groff, associate Ghislaine Maxwell, business associates, and young women who later accused Epstein of abuse.
Although DOJ guidelines permitted attorneys to remove earlier interstitial messages in email chains to eliminate duplicates, duplicate emails remain present throughout the files, suggesting potential errors or accidental deletions by review teams working under a tight timeline.
The gaps have sparked congressional challenges and legal action, including a lawsuit filed by independent journalist Katie Phang seeking the appointment of a special master to review the files.
The DOJ has previously acknowledged several errors, including the temporary removal and subsequent restoration of a 2012 photograph showing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Epstein’s island, as well as an incorrect claim regarding a missing minute of jail cell security video from the night of Epstein’s death.
Stanley Brand, a veteran litigator and distinguished fellow in law and government at Penn State Dickinson Law, stated that the government’s handling of the process has undermined public trust and fuelled widespread suspicion surrounding the undisclosed materials.
