Washington, 31 January 2026 (dpa/MIA) - The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has released many more investigation files on the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The files released on Friday contain more than 3 million pages of documents. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the release included more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. They also include pornographic material that Epstein possessed but did not record himself.

Immediately after publication on the DoJ's website, it was still unclear whether new findings would emerge in the case. Eleven data sets are now available there.

Blanche said that personal data of victims had been removed in order to protect their privacy. Pornographic material depicting children and anything that could hinder federal investigations was also withheld.

With Friday's publication, the review and verification of the documents has been completed, Blanche added.

The deputy attorney general stressed that insists that no-one, including President Donald Trump, was protected in the release of the Epstein files.

"I can assure that we complied with the statute, we complied with the act," Blanche told reporters. "We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect or not protect anybody."

According to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Department of Justice was legally required to release all Epstein files by December 19.

In a statement regarding the documents released on Friday, the Department of Justice said: "Some pornographic images, whether commercial or not, were redacted, given the Department treated all women in those images as victims. Notable individuals and politicians were not redacted in the release of any files."

For years, Epstein, a multimillionaire from New York, operated an abuse ring that victimized dozens of young women and minors.

Epstein died in prison in 2019 at the age of 66 before he could face a possible further conviction.

The DoJ should have published all the files by mid-December, apart from a few exceptions granted by law.

At a press conference, Blanche repeatedly defended the fact that significantly less material had been published and that it had been published late. He said that much more material than necessary had been collected and that only relevant material was being published.

He also said that time was needed to ensure the protection of victims.

Epstein had excellent contacts in high society, which led to much speculation about the potential scope of the scandal and the possible involvement of prominent public figures.

Trump also knew Epstein well, as shown by earlier photos of the two of them. However, there is no evidence of his involvement in the scandal.

Trump had long resisted the release of the files.

He came in for criticism because he had called for the files to be released during his presidential election campaign, but then resisted doing so after taking office.

This did not go down well with everyone in his own camp. The pressure grew until Trump finally signed a bill pushed through by Congress in November requiring the release of the files.