Jeffrey Epstein, JFK files: When will they be fully released?

(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his third day in office that directed the release of records related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, but those files have yet to be released.

The U.S. Department of Justice did release hundreds of Jeffrey Epstein files to a group of conservative influencers on Thursday, but Attorney General Pam Bondi says there are more.

Trump has been saying he will have classified records related to the assassination of Kennedy released since he was on the campaign trail.

The executive order also called for the declassification of files related to the assassinations of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pressure to release Jeffrey Epstein, JFK files

In February, the FBI said it found 2,400 new records related to the assassination of Kennedy and is working on transferring those files to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.

Bondi is now being pressured to release Epstein’s flight log for his private jet and helicopter, according to The Hill.

“The American people deserve to know exactly who was affiliated with this network. As you know, over the course of many years, Jeffrey Epstein built a heinous global sex trafficking network that caused irreparable harm to countless women,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. 

Democrats have not said much regarding the release of these files.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told Chris Cuomo she wanted the Epstein and Kennedy files to be declassified. Luna said a plan should be presented soon on how to declassify these documents.

“That will lay out the process in which declassification will take place,” she said. “We met with the National Archives today… If everything goes as planned, these will be publicly available as soon as we get them. The American people will also be getting them.”

Bondi said the files were “sitting on her desk” and that she was reviewing them. Luna posted on X, saying, “On Feb 11 & Feb 19, house oversight sent a letter to the DOJ asking for status on releasing the Epstein files as well as JFK etc. The DOJ has not responded.” She then tagged Bondi, asking her the status of these documents.

Why is there pressure to release Jeffrey Epstein, JFK files?

Many are citing transparency as the reason for releasing these files.

Blackburn said Democrats have undercut efforts to “crack the Epstein trafficking ring wide open.” In a post on X, Blackburn said, “The time for transparency is now.”

Another Republican senator, Mike Lee of Utah, also said on X that it is time for the American people to “be given access to” these files, according to Yahoo! News.

Some files released exclusively to conservative influencers

The Department of Justice released some Epstein files to conservative influencers on Thursday. The influencers were seen leaving the White House with binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.”

It is unclear why this group of conservative influencers was the first to receive the files.

Pam Bondi demands release of ‘full and complete’ Jeffrey Epstein files

On Thursday, Bondi sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, saying, in part, “I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents.”

The documents released Thursday contained information about Epstein’s personal contacts, flight logs for his private plane and a list of victims’ names and phone numbers. However, Bondi found out there were “thousands of pages of documents” that she hadn’t seen, according to her letter to Patel.

Bondi is now demanding Patel start an investigation into why her order was not followed by the FBI. She said she wants any findings within 14 days.

Luna posted on X on Thursday and said, in part, “(Neither) I nor the task force were given or reviewed the Epstein documents being released today…. This is not what we or the American people asked for and a complete disappointment.”

Patel also posted on X on Thursday, saying, in part, “There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned… If records have been hidden, we will uncover them.” It is not known what this could mean for other files that Trump has requested to be declassified, like files on the assassination of Kennedy.

As of Friday morning, the FBI has not officially commented on whether or not there are additional files to be released.

Jeffrey Epstein case

Investigations against Jeffrey Epstein started in March of 2005, when a 14-year-old girl said she was molested at his mansion. Later, multiple underage girls would tell police Epstein hired them to give sexual massages.

Epstein was found dead in his jail cell of an apparent suicide back in 2019. He had been awaiting trial for allegedly creating a child sex trafficking ring with Ghislaine Maxwell.

In December 2023, a federal judge ordered the court documents to be unsealed, which would reveal the names of dozens of Epstein’s associates. In January 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said the documents would be unsealed on a rolling basis.

The first batch of those documents was released on Jan 3, 2024, and more were unsealed in the following days. However, not much was learned from those unsealed documents. In February 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that made more documents from the 2006 investigation public.

Once those documents were released in July 2024, they showed that the prosecutor in the case had painted the alleged underage victims as drug addicts, liars, prostitutes and thieves.

Now, it is alleged that there is a “list of clients” of Epstein that could be released, according to Newsweek. It is rumored that this list could implicate high-profile figures in various sex crimes.

JFK’s assassination

Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, and there are still questions about what happened. He was shot in the back of the head while traveling in a motorcade and was later pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for murdering a police officer and Kennedy. However, there have been theories that suggest Oswald was a fall guy, and some withheld documents from the government have been fueling speculation that the public doesn’t know everything about the 35th president’s death.

Trump has said since his election campaign that he would release all remaining documents related to Kennedy’s assassination. However, according to the Associated Press in November, even though there are likely many government records that haven’t been released, the public should not expect profound revelations.

In September 2024, previously unreleased footage showed Kennedy’s motorcade racing through Dallas after he was fatally shot. The video was auctioned off by RR Auction for $137,500.

What are the theories related to JFK’s assassination?

In 2023, actor and director Rob Reiner, who has a podcast series titled “Who Killed JFK?” told NewsNation he had proof there were four men involved in the assassination.

A private investigator who has spent much of his life studying Kennedy’s assassination told NewsNation he thinks there were two shooters involved.

“One of those shots was fired too close to the other two to have come from Oswald’s rifle,” Josiah Thompson said.

He doesn’t believe there will ever be a true answer for what happened on that day in Dallas.