The Government Accountability Office will open its own investigation into the Justice Department’s handling of redactions while releasing materials in the Epstein files, the government watchdog told Forbes on Tuesday—the second review announced of the Trump administration’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The congressional watchdog will investigate the DOJ’s process for “reviewing, redacting, and releasing” the Epstein files.
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The investigation was first announced by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who said the congressional watchdog said it had “accepted” his request to review the Justice Department’s handling of the case as “within the scope of its authority.”
Sarah Kaczmarek, managing director of the GAO’s Office of Public Affairs, confirmed to Forbes the watchdog office would investigate the Justice Department’s process in “reviewing, redacting, and releasing” the files.
This is the second major government office reviewing the Justice Department’s compliance with the bipartisan bill mandating the files’ release, coming only days after its Office of the Inspector General opened its own audit into the department’s process of "identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession.”
The GAO told Merkley it would work with the inspector general’s office to make sure it was not “duplicating efforts.”
Merkley, as well as other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.), previously asked the GAO to review the Justice Department’s practices in redacting information in the Epstein files in March.
It is unclear when the GAO’s report on the Justice Department’s work will be released. “The first thing GAO does once it has accepted work is determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used,” Kaczmarek told Forbes in a statement. “At this time, we cannot provide any estimates on a completion date.”
Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act last November with bipartisan support, President Donald Trump signed the bill into law that same month, following months of debate and scrutiny over the Justice Department’s first aborted effort to release the files earlier in 2025. The Justice Department began the process of redacting and releasing millions of files related to the investigations and prosecutions of the disgraced financier, although the effort took longer than the 30 days mandated in the bill. Even after releasing the documents, the Justice Department still faced criticism from leaders in Congress and the public over extensive redactions, while other reports found the identities of survivors were not adequately protected. Merkley and his colleagues requested in March the GAO review the redaction process, writing in a letter to the watchdog “it is critical to understand what led to DOJ’s failure to redact the victims’ information and re-victimize those individuals while violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act in its redactions of information related to their alleged abusers.”
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