US authorities have uncovered more than a million more documents potentially linked to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which they plan to release in the coming days and weeks, officials say.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI informed the Department of Justice (DoJ) of the discovery and submitted the documents to legal counsel for review.
“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make legally required changes to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the Justice Department said on social media Wednesday.
The department said that given the volume of material, the process could take “several more weeks.”
The agency said it “will continue to fully comply with federal law and President Trump's direction to release the files.”
The statement did not specify how the FBI and New York prosecutors obtained the additional materials.
The news comes after the Justice Department last week released thousands of documents, some heavily redacted, related to the Epstein investigation.
The files were released after Congress passed the Epstein File Transparency Act, signed into law by US President Donald Trump, which directed the agency to share all documents with the public while protecting the identities of victims.
Many of the documents released last week withheld names and other information, including the names of people the FBI appears to be naming as possible co-conspirators in the Epstein case.
The Justice Department has faced criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over the number of redactions the law allows just to protect the identities of victims and active criminal investigations.
The law, passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump last month, states that names and information that could cause embarrassment or “reputational harm” cannot be redacted.
It specifically asks the Justice Department for internal information and memos detailing who is being investigated, as well as decisions on whether to “charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates.”
The first release of documents included emails apparently exchanged among FBI employees in 2019 that mentioned 10 possible Epstein “associates.”
The emails stated that six members of the group had been served with subpoenas. These include three in Florida, one in Boston, one in New York and one in Connecticut.
Epstein's possible accomplices are the focus of his victims and several lawmakers who are demanding more transparency from the Justice Department.
Previous releases of the Epstein documents included revelations that reverberated across the Atlantic. Peter Mandelson was sacked as Britain's ambassador to the US after details emerged of his friendship with a convicted pedophile and that he told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before Epstein began serving his sentence for soliciting the prostitution of a minor in June 2008.
Lord Mandelson said in a letter to staff that “I deeply regret” the circumstances of his departure from the British embassy in Washington. He said being ambassador has been “the privilege of my life” and he continues to “feel absolutely terrible about my interactions with Epstein twenty years ago and the plight of his victims.”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been stripped of his “prince” title and asked to leave his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, following weeks of scrutiny over his links to Epstein following the publication of a document in October.
In Tuesday's latest episode, a 2001 email sent by a man identified as “A” from Balmoral to Epstein associate and close associate Ghislaine Maxwell, sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for sex trafficking of minors and other offenses, asks: “Have you found me any new inappropriate friends?”
The BBC has contacted Andrew's team for a response. He repeatedly denied his guilt and stated that he “did not see, witness or suspect any behavior of the kind that would subsequently lead to his [Epstein's] arrest and conviction.”
