Included among the photos were images of former President Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger, and Michael Jackson at gatherings with Epstein. One collection of photos included a series of nude photographs, redacted so as not to be explicit.

Other images appear to be from Epstein’s Manhattan home, including photos of his bedroom, risque wall art, what appeared to be an effigy hanging from the staircase, and a taxidermied tiger.

“The Trump Administration is the most transparent in history. By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have. And while President Trump is delivering on his promises, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender. The American people deserve answers.” Abigail Jackson WH spokeswoman

The DOJ added several warning notices about its Epstein documents. One advised that “certain portions of this library may not be appropriate for all readers” due to their descriptions of sexual assault.

Another warned that some people’s personal information could be shared, and suggested that it was the fault of the legislation.

“In view of the Congressional deadline, all reasonable efforts have been made to review and redact personal information pertaining to victims, other private individuals, and protect sensitive materials from disclosure,” the homepage reads. “That said, because of the volume of information involved, this website may nevertheless contain information that inadvertently includes non-public personally identifiable information or other sensitive content, to include matters of a sexual nature. In the event a member of the public identifies any information that should not have been posted, please notify us immediately at EFTA@usdoj.gov so we can take steps to correct the problem as soon as possible.”

To access the files, the DOJ established a Ticketmaster-style queue system. However, queue numbers were only valid for 10 minutes before expiring, resulting in the loss of your place in line.

“We are currently experiencing extremely high volume of search requests at this time,” reads a display screen where viewers were forced to wait in line. “We have placed you in a waiting queue and we will process your search request as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience.”

The Department of Justice has released files on Jeffrey Epstein. You can find them here.

The big question is what they contain and whether they are searchable.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier Friday that the DOJ will not release its complete trove of documents on Friday as required by the legislation. He said to expect “several hundred thousand documents today,” including photos, and the rest “over the next couple of weeks.”

In speaking to Fox News on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said to expect at least some photos in Friday’s batch of documents.

“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs and other materials associated with the investigation into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.

In recent weeks, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released new photos they obtained through subpoenas of Epstein’s estate. We’ve seen titans of industry like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Sergey Brin.

Schiff responded to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who told Fox News on Friday morning that the DOJ would “release several hundred thousand documents today,” but would fall short of releasing all files.

“The Epstein Files Transparency Act is clear: while protecting survivors, ALL of these records are required to be released today,” Schiff wrote on Bluesky. “Not just some.”

“The Trump administration can’t move the goalposts. They’re cemented in law,” Schiff added.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law on November 19, states that the documents can be released no “later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act.” According to the law, the attorney general needs to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice.”

In 2019, ahead of Epstein’s arrest and suicide, Steve Bannon filmed what he said were 15 hours of interviews with Jeffrey Epstein.

That footage has remained under wraps. If the footage was on Epstein’s hard drives, however, the DOJ might have obtained it when the FBI seized his electronic devices around the time of his arrest on sex-trafficking charges.

Recently released text messages between Epstein and Bannon have shed some light on the project, which was intended to be a promotional documentary to burnish Epstein’s reputation.

Read that story here:Read full story

Justice Department officials told multiple news outlets earlier today that the files will be released at 3 p.m. ET.

The DOJ has now missed that deadline. By law, it has until midnight tonight to release all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

While the specifics of what will be in the files released on Friday aren’t clear, here is some of what is anticipated:

• Any deals between the government and Epstein associates, including non-prosecution agreements and sealed settlements.
• Records tied to Epstein’s death in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, such as transcripts of interviews with people in neighboring cells the night he died.
• Records into what has widely been criticized as a “sweetheart deal” for Epstein by federal Florida prosecutors.
• Material surrounding calls victims say they made to the FBI as early as the 1990s about Epstein’s conduct, which did not lead to any known law enforcement investigation.
• Additional flight records from Epstein’s private jets.

The Justice Department is pushing back on criticism that it is not meeting the statutory deadline, characterizing it as an “initial deadline” — though the law does not call it that.

“The Trump administration is providing levels of transparency that prior administrations never even contemplated,” the Justice Department’s office of public affairs wrote on X. “The initial deadline is being met as we work diligently to protect victims.”

The White House initially opposed the transparency law until enough Republican lawmakers broke with GOP leadership to join House Democrats, forcing a vote on the bill. After it became clear Congress would move ahead anyway, Trump flipped his stance on the legislation.

During Epstein’s 2019 arrest, the FBI searched his Manhattan townhouse and his home in the US Virgin Islands. In the process, they obtained more than 70 computers, iPads, and hard drives, along with financial documents and binders full of CDs.

Those seized materials form the heart of the “Epstein files,” which could shed even more light on the deepest, darkest secrets of the notorious pedophile.

By law, the Justice Department is required to publish “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” about Epstein and Maxwell.

Those could include more emails and text messages, as well as internal prosecutorial records. The Justice Department has overseen two different criminal investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. The first took place in Florida and led to a widely criticized plea deal in 2008. The second was the Manhattan-based investigation, which led to Epstein’s 2019 arrest and Maxwell’s prosecution.

“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Robert Garcia of California said in a joint statement. “The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.”

Raskin and Garcia serve as the top Democrats on the powerful House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee, respectively. Since Democrats control neither chamber of Congress, their power to force the immediate disclosure of the documents is more limited.

Earlier today, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department would not meet the legal deadline imposed by bipartisan legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law in November that requires the DOJ to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” regarding Epstein and his conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today several hundred thousand and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” Blanche said during an interview on Fox News.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator, was found guilty of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Civil lawsuits involving Epstein, Maxwell, banks affiliated with Epstein, and the US Virgin Islands government have shaken loose even more details about his life. Various drips and drabs have also entered the public domain through Freedom of Information Act requests, government reports, and an inquiry from the Senate Finance Committee.

All of that may pale in comparison to what the Justice Department has in its possession.

Yes. In recent months, the House Oversight Committee has made public Epstein-related documents it obtained through subpoenas, including emails provided by his estate and never-before-seen photos of some of Epstein’s powerful acquaintances, including Trump, Bill Gates, Larry Summers, and Steve Bannon.

Those disclosures have already led to some fallout. Summers, a former Treasury Secretary, has been barred from the American Economic Association for life and is no longer teaching classes at Harvard University, pending an investigation.

Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He was known for rubbing elbows with powerful people — even after he was convicted of soliciting sex from a minor in 2008. Over the years, he has counted Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and other titans of finance, law, politics, and science among his acquaintances.

While a past relationship with Epstein is no indication of wrongdoing, his victims and other members of the public have pushed for the disclosure in hopes that the DOJ’s records might shed light on those relationships and law enforcement’s handling of the case.

It sits along I-80 in Walcott, Iowa, and spans 225 acres. It has 900 parking spots, nine restaurants, 24 showers, and a massive chrome shop.

It’s not in any world record books, though. After decades of folks saying, “This has got to be the biggest truck stop in the world,” the family behind Iowa 80 adopted the name. Now it’s on dozens of signs around the property.

Iowa 80 is in a prime location, along one of America’s busiest highways that connects New York City and Chicago to Des Moines and San Francisco. Plus, as the nation’s top producer of corn and eggs, Iowa is a major agricultural shipping hub.

What sets this truck stop apart, besides its size, is that it’s one of the few mom-and-pop ones still around.

Owned by the Moon family since 1964, Iowa 80 always has parking. Its main restaurant makes a surprising amount of food from scratch. It’s a welcome change, truckers told me, from the big chains, like TA or Pilot, which often have full parking lots and fuel stations and only offer fast food to eat.

I knew it was going to be big. But even I had underestimated the size. When I walked in, I thought, ‘How on Earth am I going to see it all?’

Big guys with their big gulps parted ways under the old-timey truck hanging over the entrance.

Walking in, it felt like a shopping mall, complete with a food court filled with Orange Julius, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell. On the right, the Iowa 80 Kitchen churned out homemade meals that were delicious.

It’s no surprise they’re working with a huge quantity of food. In their 61 years, they’ve gone through 23 million eggs. Bacon is one of the first things to hit the ovens each morning. The staff has to juggle both breakfast and lunch prep early to beat the rush.

For its size, I expected a lot of the food to be frozen. Indeed, the scrambled eggs and biscuits did arrive pre-cooked and frozen. However, most of the main dishes were cranked out by hand.

Chef Chris Han uses her grandfather’s recipe for meatloaf, which includes chopped onions, celery, a tomato sauce mixture, breadcrumbs, and ground beef. She incorporates it all together in a 40-year-old mixer.

The cooks told me they tried to switch to pre-made ranch dressing, but there was an uproar among customers. So they went back to mixing it themselves. Mayo arrives in big buckets. That gets mixed with six gallons of buttermilk and nine packets of ranch seasoning.

Diners have two options at Iowa 80 Kitchen. They can either pay for the buffet for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or they can order off the expansive menu.

The Hungryman is a crowd favorite, with three kinds of meat, hash browns, eggs, and pancakes. When it hit my table, I couldn’t believe people finish it.

These are sweet cream pancakes, which means they’re made with heavy cream instead of milk or buttermilk. This swap felt like a brilliant indulgence to me.

Despite sitting out for a bit while we took pictures, these pancakes had an incredible crisp on the outside. On the inside, they were still fluffy and almost gooey. I loved the unique tang to them.

This dish sang of Midwest comfort. I grew up a few hours south of Iowa 80, and it reminded me of my mom’s recipe (I plead the fifth on which is better). It was warm, melty, and full of interesting textures, thanks to the breadcrumbs and celery.

For breakfast, they had a chef working a choose-your-own-adventure omelette station. That seemed to be where most folks stopped first.

On the lunch buffet, the fried chicken was cleared the fastest. I saw them hand-bread and fry those chicken pieces myself, so I was happy to dig into a crispy leg.

The truckers I spoke to said that it’s easy to get obese working as professional drivers. Most truck stops only have fast food options.

That’s why Iowa 80 Kitchen means so much to them. It’s a warm, home-cooked meal, they said. I wondered if that sentiment would excuse the few things that arrived frozen.

Lee Meier, granddaughter of the founders and the current marketing manager, took me on a tour of the massive truck stop. She explained that they wanted to include all these amenities — like 24 showers, a small gym, a laundry room, and a truck wash — so drivers wouldn’t have to do errands in the precious hours they have at home with their families.

When we poked our heads in around 2 p.m., there was no one in the 60-seat theatre. Disney’s “Cars” played to an empty room.

Seeing the movie selection gave me a jolt of excitement and nostalgia. It felt like I was a kid again, looking at that cool friend’s massive collection of DVDs. I wanted more than anything to stay and cozy up to a movie.

It struck me that if a trucker has a toothache, they can’t pull their rig into a neighborhood dentist. Which is why a dentist at a truck stop could be so valuable.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to the chiropractor, but Lee told me that many drivers experience back pain from being seated for 10 hours a day.

Truckers can get new headlights, fenders, hood ornaments, seats, electronics, and horns. Iowa 80 also has a Truck Service Center that can repair any semi.

And for drivers who might need inspiration for decorating their vehicle, there’s even a trucking museum on the property, featuring over 100 antique rigs on display.

Drivers told me that just to get some sleep, they have to fight for a parking spot at the most common truck stops, like TA and Pilot, but after 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., it’s impossible to find one.

That’s why you’ll sometimes see rigs pulled over on the shoulder of a highway onramp to sleep, which can be unsafe if there’s heavy traffic.

Even with hundreds of trucks settled in by the time we left at 5 p.m., the lot was nowhere near full. I can see why this is an important feature for tired drivers.

Trucking is one of the hardest businesses out there, with one of the worst turnover rates in the US. For every driver that enters the industry, one leaves or switches companies. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) told me that this is because wages are low, drivers can’t get paid overtime, and hours are long.

Lisa Otto has over 20 years, 48 states, and 3 million miles under her belt. Over seven days, she can easily clock in 70 hours of driving. She lives out of her truck, which she bought for $230,000, for weeks at a time. She doesn’t have a toilet or shower in her rig. But she does have her two weiner dogs, Clarice and Phoebe.

I was worried for Lisa being away from her family and home for weeks at a time. But she told me she enjoys traveling for a living, and she’s so introverted, she likes her alone time. She said she sleeps better in the foam mattress in her truck than at home. And she reminded me there’s FaceTime to talk to her grown children.

Out on the road, her dogs keep her company. She says she wouldn’t know how to survive without them. When she’s alone in her rig at night, she feels protected with them around.

Smith used to be a merchandiser for The Coca-Cola Company. But in 2020, he was shot 10 times in the leg as an innocent bystander at a club. He died briefly on the way to the hospital. Doctors had to amputate his left leg to save his life. When he woke up, long-haul trucking was one of the few things he could do that wasn’t on his feet.

I was so moved by his story that I asked how he managed to stay motivated during such a tough time. He credited his family and his co-driver, Latoya “Blu” Howard. They run together, meaning they drive 12-hour shifts, all day and night. One sleeps while the other drives. They only stop for meals and emergency bathroom breaks. If it’s not an emergency, they pee in what looked to be an old plastic nut container.

Smith told me Howard gives him advice and helps keep his mind focused when he gets sad.

Howard lost her son nine years ago. He was accidentally shot by a friend when he was 17. She says she feels her son out on the road.

One day, when driving through a snowstorm in New Mexico, the headlights of a car shone on the trailer in front of her, and she swore she saw a side profile of her son in the lights. It was like he was watching over her. Howard keeps her son’s favorite plush toy in the truck cabin. She rubs its head when she misses him most.

It touched me that Howard and Smith can support each other because they’ve both lost so much.

Howard said that whenever things get too sad in the cab, she knows it’s time to pull over and walk around a mall or find a good truck stop.

On my road trip back home, I took a deep breath and thought twice about every truck I saw. I peered inside the cab, wondering what that person had sacrificed to get us our online shopping order or groceries.

And when I pulled into a gas station and saw a Hulk plushie, I gave it a pat.