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Nixon says Meta pulled her Latino outreach page mid-rally; it was restored hours later GOP midterm losses could upend Dec. 11 government funding deadline, Democrats warn CBS analysis finds Epstein file gaps and classified items DOJ said did not exist Democrats and some Republicans set up post-election fight over Hegseth, Iran war funding Senate hopefuls in tight races lean on out-of-state cash while pitching local messages DOJ tells court Ilhan Omar home search warrant is only partly carried out Democrats' election task force readies for fraud claims and certification fights Trump grants New Mexico flood emergency but leaves out repayment for local cleanup costs On tape: Van Hollen asks Kash Patel if he knows lying to Congress is a crime. Patel won't say yes. On tape: Abdul El-Sayed on ICE: "I don't think it can be reformed. We have to abolish it and start from scratch." Nixon says Meta pulled her Latino outreach page mid-rally; it was restored hours later GOP midterm losses could upend Dec. 11 government funding deadline, Democrats warn CBS analysis finds Epstein file gaps and classified items DOJ said did not exist Democrats and some Republicans set up post-election fight over Hegseth, Iran war funding Senate hopefuls in tight races lean on out-of-state cash while pitching local messages DOJ tells court Ilhan Omar home search warrant is only partly carried out Democrats' election task force readies for fraud claims and certification fights Trump grants New Mexico flood emergency but leaves out repayment for local cleanup costs On tape: Van Hollen asks Kash Patel if he knows lying to Congress is a crime. Patel won't say yes. On tape: Abdul El-Sayed on ICE: "I don't think it can be reformed. We have to abolish it and start from scratch."

Corruption & Accountability · Report · File No. 261028-578

CBS analysis finds Epstein file gaps and classified items DOJ said did not exist

Documents inside the Epstein files point to classified material that Attorney General Todd Blanche said was not being withheld. A CBS News page count also shows tens of thousands of missing pages, days before the midterms.

By the Investigations Desk · · 3 min read

Every quote in this story (2) was matched word for word against its source. How we work

The Epstein FilesThe full timeline, the official documents and the video, on one page →
Todd Blanche
Todd Blanche. Photo: Ryan M. Biller, Public domain

At least three documents in the released Epstein files indicate that classified information was among the material the Justice Department collected, CBS News reported Wednesday. That sits uneasily with what Attorney General Todd Blanche has said for months. 1

When the releases began last winter, Blanche said "no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis," meaning national security. He added that the department was "actually not withholding anything based upon [national defense information]." 1

Todd Blanche
There's not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we're withholding, we're actually not withholding anything based upon [national defense information]
Todd Blanche, Attorney General, Republican administration (then deputy attorney general)1

What the documents show

One document is an eight-page FBI New York timeline of how its Epstein files were delivered to Washington. It shows that on March 25, 2025, 16 items went to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Two were labeled "Epstein Transparency Project - Classified Material" and "CDs with classified materials (x2)." 1

A same-day email from the chief of the National Security Classification Operations Unit, an office that reviews FBI documents for classification or declassification, said three documents "remain classified." CBS says it is unclear what was classified. It is also unclear whether the email and the list refer to the same material. 1

From Channel GOPBlanche won't say if Trump ordered Alaska lawsuitTodd Blanche · 166 plays · captioned, with the source named

Gaps in the page numbers

CBS also counted the page-numbering codes the department stamped on the files. Each released page carries an "EFTA" number, short for Epstein Files Transparency Act. Many pages also carry older numbers from earlier cases, such as the Ghislaine Maxwell trial or bank records. 1

In tens of thousands of cases, the EFTA number moves up by one while the older number jumps by two or more. That suggests pages were removed. One series of about 4,500 check images from Epstein's accounts is missing 66 images. 1

A separate numbering sequence points to roughly 1.2 million pages removed from one section, mostly emails. CBS says some of those could be legitimate duplicates, since department instructions let reviewers mark earlier messages in an email chain as duplicates. It also says honest mistakes are possible, given hundreds of attorneys working on a compressed timeline. 1

Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said financial records were not allowed to be removed. 1

Barbara McQuade
Financial records were not a permissible category for removal
Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan1

What the Justice Department says

The department says it collected 6 million pages and released over 3 million. It says the rest were unrelated, privileged or duplicates. It did not answer CBS's recent questions. 1

The dispute is not new. In April, Blanche asserted that the department had released all the Epstein files, and that they "should not be a part of anything going forward." Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, called that claim a lie and said only about half the files had been released. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, gave Blanche 30 days to release the rest. 2

Congressional challenges and a lawsuit are now pressing for more of the held-back documents. 1

Why it matters

That matters because the department's explanation rests on one claim: that everything required by law is out. Page counts and the department's own paperwork now test that claim. The department can answer by explaining each gap, and Congress can ask for those answers under oath.

The department has not said what the classified items were or where they are now. Until it does, its statement that nothing was held back on national security grounds is hard to check.

The Record

  1. A document shows 16 Epstein items, including CDs of classified material, delivered to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General 1
  2. Blanche says DOJ has released all Epstein files; Rep. Robert Garcia calls the claim a lie and Rep. Thomas Massie sets a 30-day demand 2
  3. CBS News reports documents indicating classified material and tens of thousands of missing pages in the released files 1

Sources

  1. CBS News, “Classified material missing from Epstein files, documents suggest” (2026-10-28). cbsnews.com/news/epstein-files-classified-material-missing-d
  2. The Hill, “Blanche says Epstein files should not be part of anything going forward” (2026-04-03). thehill.com/policy/national-security/5814657-jeffrey-epstein

Found an error? Tell the newsroom. Corrections are noted at the top of the story.

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