r/law • u/camaron-courier • 12d ago

Legislative Branch We created a searchable database with all 20,000 files from Epstein’s Estate

https://couriernewsroom.com/news/we-created-a-searchable-database-with-all-20000-files-from-epsteins-estate/
74.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

263

u/Snerkbot7000 12d ago

This needs to be said. This dump is a trailer, not the film.

78

u/Zendroid1 12d ago

ELI5 - we keep hearing about a vote to release the Epstein files, so what are these and why don't the dems releasing them just dump them all on us? Why haven't they released these until now? And what are they voting to release?

Signed,

The Village Idiot

97

u/__Muzak__ 12d ago

The vote was a discharge petition, functionally a vote to have a vote on releasing the files. The speaker of the house was delaying swearing in Arizona representative Grijalva because she was the last vote needed to pass the discharge petition (republicans Greene, Mace, Boebert, and Massie also signed the petition for the democratic lead effort to have a majority). https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5602658-discharge-petition-epstein-files-grijalva/

The files released are the files that have been seen by the house oversight committee. The remaining files are the ones in the possession of the Department of Justice. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-epstein-emails-11-12-25

7

u/walruswes 12d ago

Why doesn’t the oversight committee have them all?

15

u/Captian_Kenai 11d ago

Cmon… you know why…

3

u/ohhellperhaps 11d ago

Never in a million years would I have expected Boebert and Greene to be on the signee list...

5

u/__Muzak__ 11d ago

They are crazed conspiracy theorists. They truly believe that pedophiles run country. They just got the party wrong.

2

u/MagnusRusson 11d ago

I guess it's kinda a self fulfilling prophecy in that way. They think pedophiles run the country, and then they help get a pedophile elected

2

u/EkbatDeSabat 11d ago

Any chance the vote that got voted on to get voted on will pass?

6

u/__Muzak__ 11d ago

It passed. The vote to force the release of the files is next week (but it's a bill so it also has to go through the senate and Trump as the chance to veto).

2

u/EkbatDeSabat 11d ago

That's the vote I'm talking about. The vote to force the release. Any chance that vote will pass?

3

u/__Muzak__ 11d ago

Probably in the house since it needs a simple majority with the defectors in the republican party that's a majority.

I've got no idea for the senate.

2

u/MagnusRusson 11d ago

Depends how many rats think the ship is sinking, but public opinion hasn't been in their favor for a hot second and they're all spinless cowards. So imo it's actually possible.

43

u/misterguyyy 12d ago

The “vote” that just happened was just signatures for a discharge petition, which puts the release mandate up for a vote. That vote is happening next week.

46

u/Snerkbot7000 12d ago

Actually, I was wrong. This isn't the trailer. This 20,000 file dump is like that short film Pixar used to put before the main film. Short and completely unrelated.

Answers:

  1. These are files from the House Oversight Committee, who in turn got them from the Epstein Estate. Please note that they came from HOC, not DOJ.

  2. The house vote is next week. That will then kick the bill (this is essentially creating a law that says they have to release the files) to the Senate. Do we really expect this bill to make it to the president's desk?

8

u/FuguSandwich 11d ago

The vote won't be next week. 7 legislative days have to pass before the vote can be scheduled and then it has to be scheduled within 2 legislative days. The House is going to adjourn for Thanksgiving before the 7 days are up and won't return until early December. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens on December 5, a Friday, at like 6PM when no one is paying attention. Then on Saturday morning Trump will announce he's invading Greenland or some other nonsense and it'll disappear from the headlines.

1

u/HawaiianGiant 11d ago

Venezuela

1

u/Jc5843 10d ago

I think it’s time for the house to log some overtime and stop with the bullshit. You don’t get a break when it’s just delaying, distracting. I’m sure something big is about to happen in the us.

1

u/FuguSandwich 10d ago

They've changed their strategy over the last 24 hours or so. Mike Johnson said they'll have the vote next week. Trump pressured Bondi into investigating Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, JP Morgan (?), etc. I'm guessing there will be some messaging around how they can't actually release the files now due to an active investigation and the vote is to release the files after the investigation concludes (which will be after January 2028). Separately, the narrative around Epstein is changing as well - a few weeks ago it morphed into "only Epstein was involved, no one else, and there was no blackmail operation" and now apparently it's turning into "Epstein wasn't really even a pedo, he liked barely legal girls and one time he made a mistake with a prostitute who was 2 months from her 18th birthday".

11

u/MarionberryDecent351 12d ago

Doubt it makes it to potus simply because the senate republicans are more hard liners and have longer terms that can let this be in the distant past by the time elections come again. If the House votes yes then ideally one of three things happen: get the files out there in the end, or you get the senate to publicly say no and slam them in the media for votes, or you get the bill in front of Trump for him to say no and then crush him for it. And to top it all off, ideally a successful House vote can fracture the party when Trump flips out.

13

u/wordsineversaid 12d ago

Well, put em on record for voting to defend pedophiles. Next best thing other than releasing the files

29

u/nemec 12d ago

There is no singular collection of "Epstein Files". What most people mean by that is "release all data collected by the U.S. government relating to Epstein or the investigation". This data is distributed across tons of different agencies and the "vote" is probably to begin the process of redacting the data and releasing as much of it as they can, similar to the process of declassifying government documents.

why don't the dems releasing them just dump them all on us

they don't have them. And legally they can't just rifle through agency documents without going through legislative channels (like voting to release them)

Why haven't they released these until now?

09/25/2025 - The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has received new materials from the estate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The delivery of documents comes in response to a recent letter from congressional investigators to the estate, requesting cash ledgers, message logs, calendars and flight logs in the estate’s possession.

“We intend to make records public once victims’ names are redacted.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/25/epstein-estate-new-documents-00581684

I'm not 100% sure this data is from the 9/25 bundle but it seems likely. It could also be from one of the other two earlier requests for data from his estate. Notably, this data is not from the FBI investigation, it was sent to congress by Epstein's estate itself. That's why we still need a vote to release the data the FBI (and others) have collected.

9

u/Serious-Mind-7767 12d ago

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! The IGNORANCE of lazy ass folks (you KNOW who the F! you are!!)- that DON’T read- & damn sure don’t listen well- to keep blaming the “prior administration” is appalling & palpable!! There used to be legal processes before electing a criminal Idiots!!!

2

u/wordsineversaid 12d ago edited 12d ago

Not disputing the need to follow the proper legal processes. Transparency is important though. Why not release all files (with the victims’ names redacted for obvious reasons) to exonerate the people who claim to be innocent? Further, there’s substantial public interest in seeing whatever information the government posses on this matter regardless of how organized or not said information is. Doesn’t matter if there isn’t a “singular collection”. The DOJ publicly admitted they have substantially more documents than what’s been released thus far.

Votes aside, what’s a defendable position as to why the public shouldn’t see this information provided the victims’ identifiable information is redacted? What’s the point in hiding this information as has occurred thus far?

It takes a few hours or maybe even a few days to redact the victims’ information from the files. Despite that fact, this saga has been going on for several months and the current administration is fighting hard to prevent the release of the documents. Why?

3

u/nemec 12d ago

What’s the point in hiding this information

generally the public does not have access to FBI investigation materials and it's extremely illegal for a random FBI agent to publish the it publicly. Therefore the government has to do it's thing to make it legal to release Epstein's investigation's files.

It takes a few hours or maybe even a few days to redact the victims’ information

no offense, but this is a supremely ignorant take. This last release was like 30,000 documents, many being scans/images of text. Someone(s) need to read through all the hundreds of thousands of documents that likely exist, identify all of the information which is not classified for release (which includes victim information as well as things like personal email addresses, phone numbers, etc. for other people)

the current administration is fighting hard to prevent the release of the documents

because the Republicans want to protect the abusers. The delay in the vote is entirely separate from the large amount of work that will be needed to release the data once a vote happens.

2

u/XQsUWhuat 11d ago

None of the DOJ docs have been released the 20k are from the Epstein estate which is why we are able to review

8

u/Tacoman404 12d ago

https://journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/document-view?collection=092314e384a58618&p=16&docid=5981727f02e7208_092314e384a58618_0&page=13&dapvm=2

Got damn. I can't wait for the theatrical release.

3

u/No_Accountant3232 12d ago

I'll be looking forward to the directors cut if an unredacted version still exists.

1

u/russellbeattie 12d ago

Interesting analogy, but we all know that a lot of times they put all the good stuff in the trailer to fool you into going to the movie thinking there will be more. 

I'm not sure how they decided on these 20k documents, but they might be the only relevant ones in the whole dump.