UPDATE 1-US Justice Department will release Epstein files within 30 days, Bondi says

The U.S. Justice Department will release files from its investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Wednesday, after Congress voted nearly unanimously to force President Donald Trump's administration to make them public. The material could shed more light on the activities of Epstein, who socialized with Trump and other notable figures before his 2008 conviction on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution.

The U.S. Justice Department will release files from its investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Wednesday, after Congress voted nearly unanimously to force President Donald Trump's administration to make them public.

The material could shed more light on the activities of Epstein, who socialized with Trump and other notable figures before his 2008 conviction on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution. The scandal has been a thorn in Trump's side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein's ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he faced federal sex trafficking charges. At a news conference, Bondi confirmed that the Justice Department will release its Epstein-related material within 30 days, as required by legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday.

"We will continue to follow the law and encourage maximum transparency," she said. But that release may not be comprehensive, as the legislation passed by Congress allows the Justice Department to hold back personal information about Epstein's victims and material that would jeopardize an active investigation. Trump last week ordered the agency to investigate

several Democratic figures who associated with Epstein, and officials could decide not to release any information tied to those people.

The department regularly cites the need to protect ongoing investigations when withholding other information from the public. Courts also previously rejected requests by Trump's Justice Department this year to unseal transcripts of proceedings before grand juries that investigated Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

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