Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s Department of Justice for allegedly violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by withholding critical records related to Epstein’s clients, associates, and potential government involvement.
The lawsuit, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 8, 2025, alleges the DOJ is unlawfully withholding records that could shed light on Epstein’s shadowy network of elite clients and associates—information the American people deserve to know.
Judicial Watch submitted multiple FOIA requests to various DOJ components, including the Office of Information Policy, the Criminal Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and the FBI.
Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests include:
- All communications between AG Bondi and others related to lists of Epstein’s clients.
- All DOJ records related to Epstein’s activities and his death in 2019.
- All FBI records and communications about Epstein and discussions regarding disclosure of his associates.
- All communications involving FBI Director Kash Patel related to the handling or potential release of the Epstein list.
Despite formal acknowledgments of the requests and multiple FOIA tracking numbers being assigned, the DOJ has allegedly stonewalled every effort to secure transparency, forcing Judicial Watch to sue for compliance.
According to the press release:
Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department after it failed to adequately respond to four separate FOIA requests for records concerning Jeffrey Epstein, including a specific request for records “depicting the identities of clients or associates of Jeffrey Epstein.” Epstein document requests were sent to the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy, the Criminal Division, and two separate requests were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Judicial Watch lawsuit references a February 24, 2025, Fox News report, which states that President Trump’s “return to the Oval Office came with the prospect of the public finally being able to see Epstein’s long-awaited ‘black book’ amid inquiries into the deceased financier and sex trafficker.”
Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Justice Department on February 27, 2025, released a long-awaited trove of documents related to Epstein. As stated by the New York Post: “But the much-hyped, roughly 200-page document dump provided no big revelations, instead listing celebrities and politicians who were already known to have palled around with the notorious pedophile.”
“Simply put, the Justice Department needs to respond to public demands for transparency under law and release the Epstein files under FOIA,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
According to the lawsuit, the DOJ claimed that Judicial Watch’s latest request duplicated one filed in 2019—yet after nearly six years, not even that request has been fulfilled.
Judicial Watch is now demanding a federal court order to:
- Order the DOJ to search for all responsive records related to Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests and prove that it used methods reasonably likely to uncover those records.
- Require the DOJ to produce, by a specific deadline, all non-exempt records responsive to the FOIA requests, and provide a Vaughn index explaining any documents withheld and the legal justifications for doing so.
- Enjoin (prohibit) the DOJ from continuing to withhold any non-exempt records that are responsive to the requests.
- Award Judicial Watch attorney’s fees and litigation costs reasonably incurred as a result of the DOJ’s non-compliance.
- Grant any other relief the court deems just and appropriate.
Last month, the so-called “Epstein Files: Phase One” was a colossal disappointment — heavily redacted pages handed over to a select group of MAGA influencers.
Bondi had hyped the release on Fox News with Jesse Watters the night before, promising “flight logs, names, and a lot of information” about Epstein’s depraved criminal network.
Conservatives braced for a bombshell that would finally unmask the elite swamp creatures tied to the notorious pedophile. Instead, they got a dud.
Appearing on Life, Liberty & Levin with Mark Levin, Bondi said she had been misled.
“I was assured 120 pages was all there was,” she told Levin. “I kept saying, ‘There has to be more.’ Kash Patel asked the same thing and got the same line. Then a whistleblower tipped me off—SDNY was sitting on thousands of pages.”
The FBI initially handed over only a few hundred pages, far less than expected. However, a whistleblower alerted Bondi that the bulk of the Epstein files were actually sitting in SDNY. Bondi set a firm deadline for all remaining documents to be turned over.
In another interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Bondi revealed that the FBI has now received a truckload of Epstein-related documents from the SDNY.
Bondi also revealed that she has assigned FBI Director Kash Patel to lead a thorough investigation into why these critical documents were withheld.
Bondi made it clear that victims’ identities and grand jury information would be protected, but the public has every right to see who was involved in Epstein’s sickening network.
In an interview with Rep. Matt Gaetz on One America News Network (OANN) last month, Chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), cast serious doubts regarding Attorney General Pam Bondi’s forthcoming release of the Jeffrey Epstein client list.
For Luna and millions of frustrated conservatives, talk is cheap—and action is overdue.
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