The Transparency Act and the fight over the files

The pressure came from an unusual alliance: Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, backed by Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace and nearly every Democrat. Their discharge petition bypassed House leaders who had tried to delay a vote. [1][4]

Two days before the vote, Trump, who had called the issue a “hoax,” told Republicans to vote yes. The bill passed 427–1 on 18 November 2025, cleared the Senate by unanimous consent and was signed on 19 November. It required the department to release all unclassified Epstein records within 30 days, with redactions only for victims’ privacy, child abuse material, active investigations and a few other grounds, and barred withholding for “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.” [1][2][3]

By 30 January 2026 the department said it had published about 3.5 million pages, plus videos and images, from FBI, prosecutors’ and prison files. It said material containing claims against President Trump, including tips sent to the FBI, was “unfounded and false,” and that it had published them because the law required it. On 14 February it told Congress it had released everything it was required to. [1][2][5]

The release was riddled with problems. Survivors said the department exposed their names, faces and in some cases nude images while blacking out the names of men. The department pulled thousands of files and blamed technical and human error. Other material turned out to have been withheld or miscoded. [3][4]

In Phang v. Blanche, a records lawsuit in Washington, Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the department in June 2026 to unredact files or justify the redactions. In August the department conceded it had violated the law’s requirements, and Sullivan warned of contempt, saying the public “has a right to know what the hell is going on.” In September he ruled handwritten FBI notes are not duplicates and must be produced to the court. The department appealed. [1][2][3][4]

Meanwhile the inspector general opened an audit of compliance, a second transparency bill gained a discharge petition, and on 16 October 2026 seventeen state attorneys general urged Congress to strengthen the law. This fight is not over; ratings in this collection may change as more comes out. [5][6][7]