The U.S. Justice Department revealed it has 5.2 million pages of Epstein files left to review and needs 400 lawyers from four different department offices to help with the process through late January, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters on Dec. 30 This is likely to extend the final release of the documents to much later than expected after a December 19 deadline set by Congress, the document said. The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Trump administration ordered the Justice Department to release the files tied to criminal probes of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, who was friends with U.S. President Donald Trump in the 1990s, in compliance with a transparency law passed by Congress last month. Collectively, the Criminal Division, the National Security Division, the FBI and the US Attorney's office in Manhattan are providing 400 attorneys to review the files, the document said, a more precise, and potentially much larger, figure than previous estimates from the department. The review will occur between January 5-23, the document added. Department leaders are offering telework options and time off awards as incentives for volunteers, the document said, adding that lawyers who assist will be expected to devote three to five hours a day to review about 1,000 documents a day. The DOJ said last week it had uncovered more than a million additional documents potentially linked to Epstein. So far, the disclosures have been heavily redacted, frustrating some Republicans and doing little to quell a scandal that threatens the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The law, approved by Congress with broad bipartisan support, requires all Epstein-related files to be made public, despite Trump’s months-long effort to keep them sealed. Under the statute, all documents were to be released by December 19, with redactions to protect victims. Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. He has said their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier's sexual abuse. Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. The Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking in 2019. Epstein was found dead in 2019 in a New York jail and his death was ruled a suicide. In a message shared on X last week, the Justice Department said, "We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible. Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks."

A federal judge on Dec. 30 rejected a claim by President Donald Trump's administration that it is legally barred from securing funding for the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, noting that a court order already bars the administration from shutting the agency down. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson came as the CFPB faced the imminent exhaustion of funds. The Trump administration has denied the CFPB additional funding since taking control of the agency in February. Officials say cash on hand could be exhausted in early 2026. CFPB representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency's supporters say that without it the public will be more exposed to predatory lending practices, scams and other abuse. Trump and others have accused it of politicized enforcement and called it a burden on free enterprise. The agency was started to protect financial services consumers after the financial crisis of 2008. It announced last month that an administration legal opinion held that, under the CFPB's governing statute, it could not seek additional funding from the Federal Reserve so long as the central bank is losing money. In her ruling on Dec. 30, Jackson rejected this as outcome-driven reasoning without basis in the law and said it would violate her March injunction against shutting down the agency so long as a lawsuit plays out in court. "It appears that defendants’ new understanding of 'combined earnings' is an unsupported and transparent attempt to achieve the very end the court’s injunction was put in place to prevent," she wrote, adding that the administration's "unilateral decision" to decline further CFPB funding was therefore a violation. Unlike many federal agencies, the CFPB is funded by the Federal Reserve, rather than through a budget set annually by Congress. But lawmakers this year slashed the CFPB's maximum allowable funding, meaning the agency may face tighter funding constraints regardless.

The man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington the night before the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack confessed to the FBI and told investigators he thought the 2020 election had been “tampered with,” according to a court filing from federal prosecutors. Brian Cole, 30, of Virginia admitted to planting the devices, neither of which exploded, outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees following his arrest earlier this month, according to the filing, which was made public on Dec. 28. Cole told FBI agents “something just snapped” and that he wanted to do something “to the parties” because of their influence in U.S. politics, adding “I really don’t like either party at this point,” according to excerpts of his interview cited in the filing. Prosecutors revealed new details about the investigation as they argued that Cole should be detained while awaiting a trial. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 30 in Washington federal court. Cole is facing two explosives-related charges. He has not yet entered a plea. Cole’s arrest nearly five years after the incident came after top officials at the FBI ordered a fresh look at a case that had long vexed investigators and became fodder for right-wing theories tied to the Capitol riot. Cole denied in the FBI interview that the placement of the bombs on January 5, 2021 was connected to the certification of the election in Congress on the following day. The pipe bombs were not discovered until about 1 p.m. on January 6, diverting police resources just as a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump surged into the Capitol. He initially denied planting the devices, telling the FBI that he had been in Washington to attend a protest to support Trump's false claims that his defeat in the 2020 election was the result of rampant voter fraud. Cole told the FBI that powerful people needed to speak out if “something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with.”