When will the Epstein files be released?

US President Donald Trump signed a bill last month ordering the justice department to release all its files from its investigation into convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The legislation, which calls for the release of the files "in a searchable and downloadable format" within 30 days, was approved overwhelmingly in both chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives and Senate.

Trump signedit into law the next day, setting the clock to release the files by 19 December.

Over the past few days, three federal judges have since ordered the unsealing of secret grand jury transcripts and related materials, citing the newly enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Congress' lower chamber began debating the measurethe morning of 18 Novemberand voted within hours. Several of Epstein's victims spent the day on Capitol Hill advocating for the bill's passage.

Nearly all House lawmakers voted in favour of the resolution, which passed 427-1. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, was the only one who voted against the bill. Two Republicans and three Democrats did not vote. The Senate then passed the resolution.

The House Oversight Committee has already made public thousands of documents from the Epstein estate relating to the late financier, but the resolution covers material currently in the possession of the justice department.

Those records could, in theory, include files about imprisoned Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as figures - including government officials - mentioned in the case. It could also include internal justice department documents.

On 19 November, the Senate confirmed that it had passed the Epstein bill and sent it to Trump.

For months Trump resisted unsealing federal investigation documents, but reversed course and gave his blessing following pressure from Epstein's victims and rank-and-file Republicans.

Later that evening, Trump posted on social media that he had signed it into law.

While the press and others are often invited to witness Trump's bill-signings, this was done out of public view, and the announcement was included in a long post that also blasted Democrats he claimed were tied to Epstein, touted the president's record during this second term, and addressed the two impeachment trials of his first term.

"Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!" he wrote.

He added that because he had asked Republican lawmakers to support the measure "the votes were almost unanimous in favor of passage."

The justice department has been given30 days to release its materials on Epstein.

But there are obstacles to the files being shared.

The House bill said the justice department can hold back any documents that "jeapordise an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary".

That could potentially lead to delays, given that Trump has called for investigations into Epstein's links with prominent Democrats, such as Bill Clinton and Larry Summers, "to determine what was going on with them, and him".

Clinton has strongly denied he had any knowledge of Epstein's crimes, whereas Summers has apologised for his "misguided decision" to continue communicating with Epstein until 2019.

"That's a potential hurdle," Jonathan Entin, a constitutional law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC.

"If, in fact, this is a serious investigation, presumably the prosecutors will not want everything out there while they're sorting out whether they bring charges."

For those who have campaigned for the release of the files, anything short of full disclosure is likely to spark further questions and even outrage.

Several Republican lawmakers have expressed worries that Trump's order to the justice department to investigate Epstein's ties could slow the release of the files.

Thomas Massie, a Kentucky congressman, vowed that he and fellow Republican dissident Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, would "absolutely" go to the floor of the House and read out the names of "some of the men" in the files if the records were not duly released by the justice department.

In addition to possible delays, the public is also likely to see lots of redactions in any release of new Epstein documents.

In the tranche of files released already released by the House Oversight Committee, names and phone numbers were frequently blacked out to protect privacy.

"Simply letting anything out could reveal a lot of private information that's not relevant or appropriate for public consumption," Prof Entin said.

The latest bill says the attorney general can "withhold or redact" records that include victims' names, medical files and other personal information that "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy".

One attorney who handles sexual abuse cases supported Congress improving the provision. But she said releasing the files still might impact Epstein survivors.

"I'm glad in the act itself they put specific language reinforcing the privacy rights of the victims here," said Christine Dunn, co-managing partner at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight's Washington, DC, office.

"I'm torn because I think transparency is almost always a good thing, I don't think things change until someone shines a light on them," she said. "But at the same time for the victims, having to relive this in the media is going to be hard."

The attorney general can also withhold classified material and images of sexual abuse.

The justice department already said that a "large volume" of its 300 gigabytes of data from Epstein investigations includes images and videos of minors and thousands of downloaded videos and images of child sex abuse.

Other information in the documents could be protected by grand jury secrecy rules, which the latest bill does not explicitly address.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Wednesday morning when asked about the Epstein files during an unrelated news conference: "We'll continue to follow the law with maximum transparency, while protecting victims."

Notably, three federal judges have allowed the release of previously sealed materials relating to investigations of Epstein, citing the newly enacted law.

In some cases, judges had kept the records under seal over possible threats to victims' safety and privacy". The legal protections would have kept the files from public view without a judge's approval.

The justice department requested the unsealing of grand jury materials from the 2005 and 2007 investigations into the late financier in Florida, as well as from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case in New York and Maxwell's 2021 sex-trafficking case in New York.

Records from each of those cases were ordered unsealed over the past week.

Kayla Epstein contributed to this report.