The Department of Justice faces a legally mandated deadline on Friday to begin releasing its criminal investigative files about the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The files’ ordered release comes after months of controversy over the Trump administration’s decision to renege on past promises by top law enforcement officials to make the documents and other evidence public.
In November, Congress overwhelmingly voted to compel the DOJ to release the Epstein files, and President Donald Trump signed that legislation.
Trump, who had been friends with Epstein for years before the two men had a falling out in the early 2000s, had called demands to release the files a Democratic “hoax.”
But some of the leading voices in favor of making the documents public were his fellow Republicans.
