Most SDNY Prosecutors Pulled Off Cases to Review 2M Epstein Documents, NYT Reports
Most prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office are now primarily working on Jeffrey Epstein’s files as the Justice Department struggles to meet mandated release requirements.
The New York Times says an overwhelming number of assistant U.S. attorneys in the Southern District of New York have been reassigned to sift through Justice Department documents tied to the Epstein investigation, raising concerns about the impact on other federal work.
According to Bloomberg Law’s summary of The New York Times reporting, SDNY has dedicated more than 125 lawyers — part of a broader group of roughly 400 DOJ attorneys — to review an estimated 2 million-plus documents that remain unreleased.
So far, the department has only published about 12,285 documents (approximately 125,575 pages) thats roughly less than 1% of the total contents, despite a federal law requiring full disclosure by late December 2025.
The slow pace and heavy redactions have drawn bipartisan criticism from lawmakers and victims’ advocates, who argue the backlog undermines transparency and accountability in the Epstein case.
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“In terms of scale and sensitivity, this is one of the most complex document productions ever attempted,” said a legal expert familiar with SDNY’s operations.
The document review has become a dominant task inside the Manhattan office, diverting resources from other prosecutions and day-to-day federal enforcement.
Justice Department officials say the review must continue to ensure victim privacy and compliance with the transparency law’s requirements.
DOJ has not provided a firm timeline for completing the full release of all Epstein-related files.
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