The Justice Department quietly filed a motion in federal court Friday to block a new effort to compel the agency to release its trove of files on Jeffrey Epstein – as it’s required to by law – in a move that sparked fierce backlash among critics.
“Oh my god,” wrote Brett Meiselas, cofounder of MeidasTouch, in a social media post on X to his more than 270,000 followers Friday night in response to the DOJ’s motion.
Signed into law last November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) required the DOJ to release every file in its possession on Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell by Dec. 19, and with redactions limited to those protecting minors or victims. Instead, the DOJ released only a small fraction of its files on Epstein by the deadline, and with redactions beyond what the law permitted.
The DOJ has continued to violate the EFTA, and the two lawmakers who introduced the legislation, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), have recently moved to have a court-appointed neutral arbitrator – known as a special master – compel the DOJ to comply with the law.
On Friday, however, the DOJ filed a motion to block that effort in the Southern District of New York, arguing that courts lack the authority to force the agency’s hand in the matter.
“I’ve never seen a group of people go to such lengths to protect sexual predators,” wrote Shawn Ryan, an influential podcast host and former Navy SEAL to his more than 1.2 million followers on X.
Others, like the anti-MAGA political commentator “CattardSlim,” called out Attorney General Pam Bondi for what they characterized as her hypocrisy on the matter.
“Hours after posting ‘No one is above the law!’ Pam Bondi says she & the DOJ are above the law, & they don't want an independent monitor seeing what they're doing with the Epstein files,” they wrote to their more than 33,000 followers on X.I’ve never seen a group of people go to such lengths to protect sexual predators. https://t.co/AtAXWt4YHK
— Shawn Ryan (@ShawnRyan762) January 17, 2026