The Legal Basis for Redactions: DOJ Explains Its Epstein File Edits In A Letter To Congress (2/16/26)

The letter outlines the Department of Justice’s obligations under Section 3 of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates that within 15 days of completing its required document release, the DOJ must submit a detailed report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. That report must identify all categories of records that were released and all categories that were withheld, provide a summary of any redactions made to the released materials along with the legal justification for those redactions, and compile a list of all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the disclosed documents.


In the correspondence, the Department states that it is acting “consistent with Section 3 of the Act” and is now providing the required information to Congress. The letter frames the submission as statutory compliance with the transparency requirements set forth in the law, formally accounting for how records were handled, what information was withheld or redacted, and which public officials appear in the materials tied to the Epstein case.


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source:

efta-final-letter.pdf