Attorney General Todd Blanche has repeatedly insisted the Justice Department isn’t hiding any national security secrets in the Jeffrey Epstein files, but CBS News reported the department’s own records show classified material related to late sex offender was delivered to the office he ran.
“There’s not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we’re withholding, we’re actually not withholding anything based upon [national defense information],” Blanche said when the document releases began last winter, when he was deputy attorney general.
He also noted that the Epstein Files Transparency Act allowed the department to withhold material for national security or foreign policy reasons, but said “no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis.”
At least three documents in the released files indicate otherwise, according to CBS.
An eight-page FBI timeline shows that on March 25, 2025, the bureau’s New York office delivered “16 Epstein items to ODAG,” the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Two of those items were described as “Epstein Transparency Project - Classified Material” and “CDs with classified materials (x2).”
The same day, the unit chief of the FBI’s National Security Classification Operations Unit sent an email with an attachment labeled “Epstein - Classified Document Memo.docx.” The email said three documents had been “identified that remain classified.” One was described as an “FBI document which is classified when see-through.” The descriptions of the other two, and the identity of the recipient, were redacted.
By law, material can only be classified for national security purposes. What was classified, and why, remains unclear, and it isn’t known whether the email and the delivery list refer to the same material.
CBS also analyzed the numbering system the department used to organize the roughly 3 million released pages and found evidence that tens of thousands of pages of Epstein’s financial records appear to be missing, including 66 images from a series of checks drawn on his accounts.
“Financial records were not a permissible category for removal,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Michigan.
The analysis also found that entire email chains, many involving Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and young women who later accused him of abuse, appear to have been removed between an earlier review and the final release. Department instructions allowed attorneys to drop earlier messages in an email chain as duplicates, which could explain some of the gaps, but duplicates still appear throughout the files.
The Justice Department did not respond to CBS News’ inquiries but has previously said everything required by law has been released.
Independent journalist Katie Phang is suing for more documents and an explanation of the redactions. A federal judge has ruled in her favor several times, and the department is appealing.
“If it wasn’t intentional, then was it gross negligence? Were you just lazy?” Phang told CBS.
“At the end of the day it just makes the DOJ look bad,” she added.
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