A judge cleared the last sealed Epstein files for release on Aug 11. Will the Justice Department publish them before Aug 31?
76% of users predicted NO — the community got this one right. 21 predictions cast.
On Aug. 11, 2026, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan ruled that additional sealed Epstein- and Maxwell-related grand jury and victim records could be released, rejecting Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to keep them sealed and finding the Epstein Files Transparency Act took precedence over earlier secrecy orders. As of Aug. 31, the Justice Department had not published the newly cleared material.
The delay tracked a broader pattern of DOJ slow-walking in litigation over the department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. On Aug. 13, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, presiding over journalist Katie Phang's separate suit against Attorney General Todd Blanche, pressed government attorneys on whether they had complied with his orders, including one requiring the department to publish justifications for redactions, and warned he had held lawyers in contempt before. By late August, government attorneys still could not give the court a timeline for publishing required redaction justifications in the Federal Register, and a group representing transparency advocates argued the department was dragging its feet.
The episode was one of several delays since the Epstein Files Transparency Act took effect in November 2025, with DOJ releases repeatedly arriving later than statutory deadlines and drawing judicial scrutiny over redactions. The community prediction, with only 24% forecasting Yes, correctly anticipated the department would again miss the deadline.