The most powerful federal prosecutor office in the country has effectively become the Epstein documents office. Sources and internal memos reviewed by Politico indicate that nearly every prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who isn't currently in court or prepping for an upcoming trial has been drafted to help review and redact more than 2 million files tied to Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking case. That includes senior executives and unit chiefs, many working weekends, with one person noting that they're being "crushed by the work."
The goal: Protect the identities and privacy of victims before more material is made public. "DOJ lawyers from Main Justice, FBI, SDFL, and SDNY are working around the clock through the holidays, including Christmas and New Years, to review documents in compliance with federal law," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X on New Year's Eve. "It truly is an all-hands-on-deck approach and we're asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the documents that remain."
The scale of the effort is so large that it's bleeding into other major cases: Prosecutors working on the high-profile narco-terrorism case against former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro are among those pulled into the review, and some lawyers are considering asking judges for more time in other matters. More than 500 Justice Department employees nationwide are now involved, but there's still no clear timeline for when additional Epstein documents will be released. The department originally had a Dec. 19 deadline to start disseminating them. PBS has more on what's expected next, including how the files might affect the midterms.
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