A federal judge ordered the FBI and the Justice Department on Tuesday to dramatically accelerate their release of records related to the government’s handling of the Epstein files — rebuking both agencies for proposing production rates she described as “unacceptably deficient.”
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, in a minute order filed June 17 in the case Democracy Forward Foundation v. Department of Justice, directed the FBI to process its remaining fewer than 1,000 pages by July 17, 2026. She ordered the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy to produce at least 750 pages by the same date and maintain that pace every 30 days until production is complete.
The FBI had proposed processing 250 pages per month; the DOJ’s office had proposed 350. The court called it “absurd” to permit agencies under an expedited court order to move more slowly than they would on routine requests. Both sides must file a status report with the court by July 21 and every 30 days thereafter.
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The order marks the latest escalation in a case that Democracy Forward filed in August 2025, seeking internal DOJ and FBI communications about the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course on the release of the Epstein files.
The nonprofit pressed for records that could show whether AG Pam Bondi misled the public when she said a client list was “on her desk and ready for review,” whether Trump’s name appearing in the files drove the reversal, and whether the DOJ covered up its reasons for withholding documents.
Judge Chutkan — an Obama appointee who previously presided over Trump’s criminal case tied to January 6 — granted expedited processing in November 2025 after finding the requests met the standard for matters involving possible questions about government integrity. The agencies responded by proposing the rates that the court has now rejected.
In July 2025, the FBI and DOJ issued a joint memo declaring that there was no justification for revisiting the Epstein file disclosures and no evidence of criminal activity by uncharged individuals — reversing the administration’s earlier public pronouncements.
The White House reportedly held Situation Room meetings specifically to manage the Epstein files politically, then-Deputy AG Todd Blanche conducted a closed-door interview with Ghislaine Maxwell shortly before her controversial prison transfer, and the DOJ quietly changed its prison transfer policy in a manner that retroactively legitimised that move.
Read: New Book Reveals White House Held Situation Room Meetings Over Epstein Files—With One Goal: Spin
Chutkan’s order forces production of the internal records that could reveal how and why those decisions were made.
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