Trump Provides Update on Release of Classified Epstein and JFK Files

‘The bottom line is the records are getting out,’ the president said in a new interview.

President Donald Trump speaks as he prepares to sign executive orders in the Oval Office on March 6, 2025. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump said in a recent interview that his administration is still on track to release files related to notorious child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Interviewer Sharyl Attkisson asked Trump in an interview released on March 15 about the progress the Department of Justice (DOJ) has made in releasing files related to Epstein, Kennedy, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

“The Kennedy records are getting out. Those are the ones they really wanted to see the most with the Kennedys,” he said, also referring to the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

“During my [first] administration, as you know, I released a lot of them, but then a lot of people started coming in, people that I respected, people that worked for the administration, asked me not to release the rest. I respected that. They gave me certain reasons, but I respected that. I did say, I must tell you, I said that I probably wish I did release the whole thing because I have no idea what’s in there.”

Since that time, more than 2,000 documents on Kennedy were discovered. The release of those files is “moving along, and it’s moving along pretty rapidly,” Trump said, adding that they will be released in several weeks.

The DOJ and FBI received some pushback on social media about how the initial rollout of the Epstein files was handled as Attorney General Pam Bondi said that she asked the FBI for all files related to Epstein, who died in 2019 in a New York City jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. But she said last month that her request yielded only about 200 pages of documents and that a source told her that the FBI’s New York office withheld thousands of other pages.

The files the FBI previously handed over comprised documents that had already been leaked and made public, including logs from Epstein’s flights.

“The first phase of files released today sheds light on Epstein’s extensive network and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability,” Bondi said as she released the files.

Earlier this month, Bondi told Fox News that her office received a “truckload of evidence” related to Epstein and that they “got them all,” referring to the files.

Previously, the attorney general said her department was working on protecting the personal information of more than 250 victims connected to Epstein, a financier who was also convicted in 2008 on sex trafficking charges. Epstein was known to be associated with a number of high-ranking business officials, royal family members, politicians, professors, and other luminaries.

One of the most high-profile people associated with Epstein was Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was forced to step aside from public duties in 2019 over his friendship with the financier. The prince has denied any accusations of wrongdoing. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also confirmed that he had multiple meetings with Epstein but said in several interviews that meeting with him was “a mistake.”

Bondi was confirmed as attorney general by the Senate on Feb. 4 following Trump’s victory in the November 2024 presidential election. She has faced pressure from Republican lawmakers to release documents related to the Epstein case.

After taking office in January, Trump signed an order to declassify files related to the assassinations of King and the Kennedys. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the assassinated senator, has long said that he does not believe that Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted in his father’s death, was the lone assassin.

Reuters contributed to this report.