What specific names and dates appear in the DOJ’s unsealed Epstein files released in late 2025 and early 2026?
Executive summary
The Justice Department began publicly posting Epstein-related materials after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025, but the releases were staggered and heavily contested; the DOJ published a partial tranche on or around December 19, 2025 and a vastly larger dump on January 30, 2026 that the department said included millions of pages, videos and images [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting and official notices confirm that key names tied to the investigations—Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell—appear throughout the released materials, but the publicly available summaries and press coverage do not provide a searchable, authoritative list of every specific name and date contained within the unsealed files [5] [6] [3].
1. What the statutes and the DOJ released say about timing
Congress enacted the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19, 2025, setting December 19, 2025 as the statutory deadline for DOJ disclosures and requiring the department to release investigative records, flight logs, internal communications and any immunity deals tied to Epstein and associated persons [1]. The DOJ acknowledged it posted a small early tranche by that deadline but told a federal judge it had only placed about 12,285 items, roughly 125,575 pages, online at that point and said further work was required to review and redact additional responsive materials [2]. News organizations and the DOJ itself then reported a major additional disclosure on January 30, 2026—described by outlets and DOJ summaries as millions of pages, roughly 3.5 million pages in some accounts, plus thousands of videos and hundreds of thousands of images—marking a dramatic escalation in what was publicly available [3] [4] [7].
2. Which names are explicitly confirmed in reporting and official materials
Public reporting and DOJ press material explicitly reference the principal figures at the center of the investigations—Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell—appearing in released images and documents provided or declassified by the department [5] [6]. DOJ summaries and news outlets also note the files concern “Epstein-related” investigative targets and victims, with the department saying the records relate to investigations into Epstein’s sexual exploitation of underage girls; the DOJ press release from February 2025 cited hundreds of victims in prior declassifications even as it cautioned about redactions to protect victims’ identities [6]. Beyond those central figures, major outlets report redactions and removals of pages, and do not publish a definitive roster of every name in the released troves, so comprehensive lists are not available in the referenced coverage [3] [2].
3. What the releases contained about dates and document volumes
Journalistic accounts and DOJ notices concur that the initial statutory-mandated posting in mid-December 2025 was partial, with the department later discovering and cataloguing more material—Reuters reported the discovery of more than a million potentially responsive documents in late December 2025, delaying additional releases while redactions proceeded [5]. Multiple outlets reported the January 30, 2026 tranche as containing millions of pages, 2,000+ videos and roughly 180,000 images in aggregate, but those reports do not enumerate every specific date stamped inside the files; they summarize scope and format rather than provide a document-by-document index in the public reporting cited here [3] [4] [7].
4. Redactions, removals and the limits of current public accounting
News organizations and the DOJ both acknowledge extensive redactions across released files and, in some cases, unexplained removals of individual records from public portals—The Guardian, Wikipedia and other sources noted that documents were redacted or temporarily disappeared from public pages after uploads, and DOJ communications to the court emphasised ongoing review and narrow exceptions to disclosure [2] [3] [8]. Because the posted tranches were not accompanied by a publicly vetted, exhaustive index of every name and date and because hundreds of pages are blacked out, current reporting cannot produce a definitive, fully enumerated list of all specific names and dates appearing in the unsealed files [3] [2].
5. Where to look next and how to verify specific names/dates
The most direct source for verification is the DOJ’s Epstein disclosures page and the Epstein library on the Justice Department website, which host the posted materials and any searchable indices the department provides; researchers are advised to consult those repositories and to cross-check with primary reporting by outlets that examined the files [9] [10] [7]. Reporters and advocates have noted political friction over the pace and completeness of releases, and that contention should be borne in mind when relying on second‑hand summaries rather than the documents themselves [2] [11].