Released Epstein Files Show Classified Material Went to Blanche's Office in March 2025

The Justice Department's own Epstein release contains records showing classified material was part of what the FBI handed over to Todd Blanche's office in 2025.

Blanche, now attorney general, was deputy attorney general when the releases began last winter. He told the public the Epstein Files Transparency Act allowed withholding for national security or foreign policy reasons, but said "no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis."

"There's not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we're withholding," he said. "We're actually not withholding anything based upon [national defense information]."

What the released documents show

One file in the release is an eight-page timeline of the FBI's New York office gathering its Epstein material and delivering it to Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

The entry for March 25, 2025 lists delivery of "16 Epstein items to ODAG," the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Item No. 2 is described as "Epstein Transparency Project - Classified Material." Item No. 6 is described as "CDs with classified materials (x2)."

The Epstein Transparency Project is the DOJ's internal effort to review the files and redact, withhold or clear them for release. Each CD could have held hundreds of megabytes of data.

An email from the same day points the same direction. It was sent by the unit chief of the FBI's National Security Classification Operations Unit, the office that reviews FBI documents for classification or declassification. The attachment was labeled "Epstein - Classified Document Memo.docx."

The email says three documents were "identified that remain classified." One is described as an "FBI document which is classified when see-through." A redaction covers the unit chief's description of the other two, and the recipient's name is also blacked out.

By law, material can be classified only for national security purposes. CBS News, whose analysis of the files surfaced these records, counted at least three documents in the release indicating classified information was in the material the DOJ collected.

What is still unknown

The documents do not say what was classified or why. They also do not establish that the classified material was withheld from the public. It may have been declassified, released with redactions, or never part of the review set that went public.

The email and the delivery list may not even refer to the same material.

That gap is narrow but specific. Blanche's statement was specific: nothing withheld or redacted on national security grounds. The files show classified material existed inside the DOJ's Epstein review. Whether those two facts conflict depends on what happened to the material afterward, and the released records do not say.

The size of the release

The DOJ says it collected 6 million pages and released more than 3 million after screening for duplication, attorney-client privilege and relevance to Epstein.

That leaves roughly half the collection unreleased. The Department's stated reasons are the three screens above, not national security.

CBS News also ran an analysis of the numerical coding system used to organize the released documents and says it raises questions about pages that appear to be missing. The segment, reported by Nicole Sganga, notes that questions remain about what may have been left out of the 3 million-plus pages.

Pressure from Congress and the courts

Congressional challenges and a lawsuit are pressing the DOJ to release more of what was held back. They are casting doubt on the department's account of its screening, according to the CBS reporting. The sources do not identify which members of Congress or which plaintiffs are involved.

Blanche has framed the releases as complete in every respect that touches national security. The department has not publicly reconciled that with the March 2025 delivery records.

The open question is specific. Someone at the FBI flagged documents that "remain classified" and shipped classified CDs to Blanche's own office. The lawsuit and the congressional demands for the withheld pages are the likeliest routes to learning whether any of that material stayed out of public view, and on what grounds.