Stephen Fowler

There are unverified fantastical claims about Donald Trump, Epstein, and others included in FBI tip forms.

fake video purporting to show Epstein's death by suicide in his federal prison cell, and a forged letter that appeared to be written by Epstein for convicted sex offender Larry Nassar that claimed Trump shared a, quote, love of young, nubile girls.

In fact, when the Justice Department posted about the Nassar letter being a forgery, they also said that, quote, just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual.

Well, pretty much.

This outcome of distrust across the board was in some ways inevitable, though.

During the 2024 election, President Trump promised to release the Epstein files.

It was part of a campaign message arguing the government was run by powerful people hiding the truth from Americans.

At the start of 2026, many people agree and believe that President Trump is now one of the powerful few keeping the public in the dark.

The White House disagrees.

And I'll note conspiracies are not limited to Trump supporters.

I've seen recent viral social media posts that use these unverified, salacious allegations and out of context court records to claim without evidence that Trump is accused of criminal wrongdoing and that the government is altering records to cover it all up.

All right.

Three things.

One, what is Congress going to do about the Department of Justice failing to meet the deadline and over-redacting documents, especially since the law doesn't include punishment or enforcement mechanisms?

Two, what actually comes from these million-plus documents that do eventually get published?

And three, what will the political fallout continue to be, especially as President Trump continues to call this a hoax, attacking Democrats and Republicans who disagree with him?

We don't know how many Epstein files are yet to be released, and we don't know when they will be.

But Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch says in a social media post that DOJ lawyers are working, quote, around the clock to review them.

A law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in November directed the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein by December 19th and with minimal redactions.

Neither of those requirements has been met so far, despite about 40,000 new pages published under the law in the last two weeks.