The first major public release of what people now call “the Epstein files” came out on 19 December 2025 , when the U.S. Department of Justice posted hundreds of thousands of pages of Epstein‑related documents under the newly passed Epstein Files Transparency Act. A much larger follow‑up release of around three million more documents landed on 30 January 2026 , which officials have described as the last big batch.

Quick date rundown

  • November 18–19, 2025 – Congress passes, and President Donald Trump signs, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, giving DOJ 30 days to release its Epstein records.
  • December 19, 2025 – DOJ posts the first “Epstein files” release: hundreds of thousands of documents, many heavily redacted, plus photos of Epstein with high‑profile figures like Bill Clinton and others.
  • Late December 2025 – Lawmakers and survivors criticize the initial tranche as too limited and too blacked‑out; DOJ later admits more material exists.
  • January 30, 2026 – DOJ publishes roughly three million additional pages, plus videos and images, and says this will be the final major release under the law.

Why people say “Epstein files”

When people online talk about “the Epstein files,” they usually mean this massive trove of DOJ records: investigative files, court materials, emails, flight logs, photos, and videos gathered over years of probes into Jeffrey Epstein and his network. Earlier, smaller releases in civil cases (like the Giuffre‑Maxwell documents in 2024) were important, but the 2025–26 dumps are what turned it into a single, headline “Epstein files” story.

So if you’re asking “when did the Epstein files come out?”, most forum and news discussions are pointing to December 19, 2025 as the key first release date, followed by the huge January 30, 2026 dump.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.