How The MAD Act Addresses the Epstein Files

Congress passed a near-unanimous transparency law; DOJ violated it five documented ways. The MAD Act's structural overhaul is a direct response to each specific failure.

• Missed the mandatory 30-day disclosure deadline. The statute established a clear schedule. The Department of Justice produced documents in piecemeal waves instead — in direct violation of that schedule. A GAO review letter dated March 11, 2026 and a congressional letter dated January 8, 2026 formally documented these violations.
• Asserted privileges the Act did not permit. DOJ invoked deliberative process privilege and work product doctrine — common law privileges that the statute expressly did not authorize. Congress finds these assertions were legally without foundation under the Act's plain text.
• Redacted politically exposed persons in violation of the express statutory prohibition. The Act prohibited withholding records to protect politically exposed persons. DOJ applied those redactions anyway. Congress finds this constitutes willful non-compliance, not bureaucratic error.
• Released materials that exposed minor victims' identities. The statute's primary victim protection mandate was the one protection DOJ violated — inadvertently revealing the identities of minor victims in released materials, causing the precise harm the statute was designed to prevent.
• Congress finds the failure was structural, not personal. The violations do not require a finding of individual bad faith — they reflect the predictable operation of structural incentives that make executive compliance with politically sensitive disclosure mandates systematically unreliable absent independent oversight. An Attorney General who over-redacts or misses a deadline faces no personal consequence under the existing framework. The MAD Act changes that structure.

Every Record of the Epstein Network must be submitted on a rolling tranche schedule, reviewed by the Unit, and published on GovInfo.gov with cryptographic hash verification — with October 15, 2028 as the absolute, unextendable publication ceiling.

• All Records of the Epstein Network must be publicly released — not to Congress, directly to the public — subject only to three narrow enumerated exceptions: minor victim identities, a Presidential Postponement Certification on strictly limited grounds, and five specific national security carve-outs. No other withholding is permitted. "Records of the Epstein Network" means any document, file, recording, database entry, communication, photograph, or financial record in the possession of any federal agency relating to Epstein, his associates, properties, or finances; any investigation or non-prosecution of Epstein or his network; any Covered Individual's association with, presence at, or financial relationship with Epstein or Maxwell; or the circumstances of Epstein's death on August 10, 2019. The term includes both classified and unclassified records.
• October 15, 2028 — the hard publication ceiling, four weeks before the November 2028 election. Every record the Federal Unit for Managing Epstein Documents has cleared must be published by October 15, 2028. This date cannot be extended by executive order, agency directive, Presidential Postponement Certification, or any mechanism other than an Act of Congress. Congress finds that October 15, 2028 is the last practicable date for full disclosure with sufficient time for meaningful public deliberation before voters exercise their franchise.
• Rolling submission tranches — no batch production on the final day. Day 60: agencies submit certified inventories with SHA-256 hash manifests. Day 300: all unclassified records submitted. Day 600: all records requiring declassification review. Day 850: all records requiring mosaic analysis. Day 851 or July 16, 2028 (whichever is earlier): final submission. Any agency submitting records after July 16, 2028 enters the Degraded Review Regime — records publish on October 15, 2028 with only minor victim PII redacted, with no combination protection, no mosaic analysis, and no Presidential Postponement Certifications accepted.
• SHA-256 cryptographic hash verification of every published record. Each record published on GovInfo.gov is accompanied by its SHA-256 hash value, generated at the moment of publication and publicly posted. Any member of the public can verify a downloaded record has not been altered since publication by computing the hash and comparing it to the published value. Any alteration causing a hash mismatch constitutes falsification of government records under 18 U.S.C. § 1519. The originating agency receives the hash of each transmitted record and may report any discrepancy to the court — a hash mismatch triggers an immediate judicial inquiry and suspension of publication of the affected record.
• The Privacy Act, executive orders, deliberative process privilege, and law enforcement privilege cannot be used to block disclosure of Records of the Epstein Network. This matters most for Covered Individuals — anyone who held federal or state elective office, a Senate-confirmed federal position, or served as a senior officer of a federal intelligence agency in the preceding thirty years. Under ordinary law, such individuals could invoke the Privacy Act to resist disclosure of records about them. The MAD Act removes that protection entirely with respect to their association with, presence at, or financial relationship with Epstein or Maxwell. Whistleblowers disclosing those records, and the Unit publishing them, cannot be blocked by Privacy Act claims from Covered Individuals. The one narrow exception to this no-withholding rule is the identity of a confidential human source currently active in an ongoing criminal investigation unrelated to the Epstein Network.

An independent congressional disclosure body established within NARA, staffed by career archivists, and insulated from executive direction — serving as the sole authority between originating agencies and the Government Publishing Office for all Epstein records.

• Established within NARA. No political appointee, no employee hired on or after January 20, 2025, and no contractor without prior continuous NARA career service as of January 19, 2025 may perform any substantive review or redaction function within the Unit. The Unit draws from career employees across all NARA components — the National Declassification Center, the Information Security Oversight Office, the Office of Research Services, and others — with a minimum floor of 15 qualified career staff performing active review functions at all times.
• Unit Head appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States. The appointment authority is grounded in the "Courts of Law" clause of the Appointments Clause and mirrors the mechanism by which the Chief Justice designates members of specialized courts and tribunals. No executive agency official — including the Archivist — may direct, veto, delay, or interfere with the Chief Justice's appointment. The Unit Head reports directly and exclusively to both Judiciary Committees.
• The Unit is the sole redaction authority. No originating agency may pre-redact, withhold pages, or modify records before submission. Every redaction the Unit applies is compelled by a specific, enumerated congressional criterion — or it does not occur. The Unit has no discretion to expand or narrow any criterion Congress has established. This ministerial, non-policymaking function is the constitutional basis for its independence from executive direction.
• Staff removal requires 45 days' written notice to both Judiciary Committees. Any attempt by an executive official to remove, reassign, or transfer Unit staff without the required notice is void and of no legal effect. Any attempt to interfere with the Unit's substantive review decisions must be immediately reported to both Judiciary Committees and constitutes obstruction under 18 U.S.C. § 1503. The Unit Head certifies with each personnel action that it was not taken in retaliation for any redaction decision — a false certification is perjury and obstruction.
• Funded through a direct congressional appropriation — not NARA's general operating budget. The Archivist cannot redirect or impound Unit funding. The Unit's independent legal counsel is funded from the United States Courts appropriation, ensuring legal support is not subject to executive budget pressure. If the Unit's appropriation is specifically and intentionally eliminated by Congress, all mandatory disclosure obligations automatically extend by one additional calendar year per defunded year, and records release directly without any redaction other than minor victim PII.

The President may personally delay release of specific records — but only by signing and publicly releasing a written certification stating one of two narrow grounds. No other official, agency, or privilege can authorize withholding.

• The President may postpone specific records by personally signing and publicly releasing a Presidential Postponement Certification. Only two grounds are permissible: (1) disclosure would reveal the identity of a confidential human source currently active in an ongoing criminal investigation unrelated to the Epstein Network; or (2) disclosure would directly and imminently endanger a named individual's physical safety. No other grounds — general national security, foreign policy sensitivity, institutional embarrassment, or any interest relating to concealing conduct by a Covered Individual — are permissible.
• A Certification is void ab initio if it fails to identify specific records, relies on an impermissible ground, is issued by anyone other than the President personally, covers records whose sole basis for postponement is embarrassment or political sensitivity, or is filed after September 1, 2028. September 1, 2028 is the absolute hard cutoff for all Certifications — no last-minute wave of Certifications in the days before the election is possible.
• No single Certification may cover more than 5% of any agency's submitted inventory without triggering mandatory in camera judicial review by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia within 30 days. The court determines whether the Certifications represent genuine grounds or a de facto wholesale postponement. If the court finds wholesale postponement or bad faith, the Certifications are void and the records release on the standard mandatory schedule. The President cannot circumvent this threshold by issuing successive rolling Certifications — a court that finds a series of Certifications was structured to avoid the 5% threshold while covering substantially all of an agency's records may void the entire series.
• Maximum duration: 180 days, renewable once. All postponed records release automatically upon expiration of the final postponement period — no further presidential action required.

Rather than a general "release all files" mandate, the MAD Act identifies each agency by name and specifies exactly which records it is expected to hold — leaving no ambiguity for the executive to exploit.

Any current or former IC or independent-agency employee who discloses Epstein Network records in good faith is immune from Espionage Act prosecution the moment they disclose — no prior approval, clearance, or review required.

• The Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. § 793) is amended to carve out Epstein Network disclosures. Any current or former employee, contractor, or detailee of any independent agency within the executive branch, or any element of the Intelligence Community, who discloses Records of the Epstein Network in good faith is immune from prosecution under the Espionage Act. The immunity is self-executing — no prior authorization, certification, review, or approval is required. It attaches at the moment of disclosure. Good faith is presumed; the government bears the burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence.
• Immunity is not defeated because a foreign adversary might already know the information. Congress found that foreign adversaries who possess information about misconduct by U.S. officials that has not been disclosed to the American people can exploit that informational asymmetry as a tool of leverage, coercion, or blackmail. Public disclosure corrects that asymmetry and eliminates the leverage that concealment creates. A Qualified Disclosant is not denied immunity solely because the disclosed records relate to individuals whose conduct may already be known to foreign intelligence services.
• A Qualified Disclosant who faces retaliation may sue in federal court. Upon showing a Protected Disclosure was made and an adverse action followed, a rebuttable presumption arises that the adverse action was retaliatory. The burden shifts to the employer to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the action was entirely independent of the disclosure. Remedies include reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages, attorney's fees, and double back pay where the retaliation was willful or in bad faith.
• Non-disclosure agreements and secrecy oaths are rendered unenforceable as applied to Records of the Epstein Network. No civil suit by any federal agency or officer in their official capacity may be brought against a Qualified Disclosant for a Protected Disclosure. No security clearance may be revoked on account of a Protected Disclosure.
• The immunity does not cover: fabrication or material falsification of records; theft of records not subject to mandatory disclosure; disclosure of the name or identity of any minor victim; or disclosures made primarily for the purpose of providing intelligence to a foreign adversary. The immunity does not protect disclosures made primarily to weaponize reputational harm against a Covered Individual based on fabricated allegations or their lawful private conduct unrelated to the Epstein Network.

Maxwell must appear before the joint intelligence committees within 60 days, testify under oath, and cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment — receiving immunity only for information the government does not already possess, with her 20-year sentence completely unaffected.

• Maxwell must appear before Congress within 60 days of enactment. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, jointly with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, shall convene a deposition pursuant to their subpoena authorities. Transport from FCI Tallahassee is arranged by court order from the presiding judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York — directing USMS to execute transport — not by any executive agency directive. The Attorney General may not direct, supervise, or control the transport arrangements.
• The deposition scope includes, at minimum: the full scope of Maxwell's knowledge of the identities of all individuals who participated in, facilitated, or had knowledge of the sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors by Epstein or his associates; the identities of all Covered Individuals who were present at any Epstein-associated property or attended any gathering organized by Epstein or Maxwell; the nature and extent of Maxwell's cooperation with federal law enforcement; and any knowledge Maxwell possesses concerning the circumstances of Epstein's death on August 10, 2019.
• Maxwell receives act-of-testimony immunity — but only for Novel Testimony. Maxwell cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment. In return, she receives Kastigar immunity limited strictly to information that does not already appear in the Pre-Deposition Evidence Certification — the sealed, sworn inventory of all government evidence filed by the Attorney General before the deposition begins. The immunity applies only to Maxwell's own criminal exposure. It confers no immunity, protection, or legal advantage on any co-conspirator, associate, or third party she names. Her existing 20-year sentence is completely unaffected.
• The deposition transcript is public within 15 days of its conclusion. The only permitted redactions are the names and personally identifying information of minor victims, and the names of active undercover law enforcement personnel. No other redaction is permitted. The tolling of statutes of limitations for any offense first revealed through Novel Testimony runs for five years from public release of the transcript.
• Maxwell must be served with the immunity grant 21 days before testimony and has a minimum of 14 days to consult with counsel. These are minimum constitutional requirements under Kastigar and may not be waived. Maxwell's counsel of record in U.S. v. Maxwell must be personally served simultaneously.

Every quarter, an unannounced Special Master drawn from a multi-circuit pool conducts fingerprint, photographic, and forensic anthropological verification of the person held under Maxwell's Federal Register number — and the results, including photographs, are published publicly on the federal court docket.

• The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York shall appoint a pool of 3–5 Special Masters drawn from at least three different federal circuits, with no more than one from the Eleventh Circuit (where FCI Tallahassee is located) and at least one from the Second Circuit (which handled the Maxwell prosecution). At least one must hold current certification in latent fingerprint examination or forensic biometrics from the International Association for Identification. At least one must hold board certification in forensic anthropology from the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.
• Each quarterly visit is unannounced until 24 hours before departure. The Special Master and visit date are not disclosed to any party until that 24-hour mark. BOP is notified only to require production of the individual. BOP must produce the individual within two hours of credential presentation. Any refusal, delay exceeding two hours, or condition placed on production constitutes obstruction under the criminal penalties of this Section.
• Each visit includes four biometric procedures: (1) ten-print ink-and-roll fingerprint on a court-provided FBI Form FD-258 card, sealed in a tamper-evident envelope by the Special Master and physically transported to the Clerk within 48 hours; (2) ten-print digital LiveScan fingerprint transmitted directly to the court's sealed electronic docket via CM/ECF, never through any executive agency network; (3) two Verification Photographs — one full-face frontal and one strict 90-degree right-profile — taken to FBI Criminal Justice Information Services standards, with all equipment court-provided and court-sealed, and the memory card sealed into the tamper-evident envelope with the FD-258 card; and (4) a forensic anthropological comparative assessment of skeletal landmarks against the Baseline Biometric Record.
• The Baseline Biometric Record is compiled from original physical fingerprint cards, booking photographs, dental records, and DNA profiles from every arresting and incarcerating agency — FBI, USMS, and BOP — with physical originals transported to the Clerk under a two-person tamper-evident USMS chain-of-custody protocol. Letters Rogatory are simultaneously transmitted to the UK National Crime Agency and the French Direction Générale de la Police Nationale requesting any biometric records they hold, transmitted directly to the Clerk through diplomatic channels — not through any executive law enforcement agency.
• The presiding judge publishes a public Summary Order within 72 hours of each visit, stating exclusively "IDENTITY VERIFIED" or "IDENTITY UNVERIFIED — [specified discrepancies]." Simultaneously, both Verification Photographs from that visit — the frontal and profile — are published on the court's public PACER docket in full resolution, freely downloadable by any member of the public, without redaction, degradation, or restriction by any court order, administrative rule, or BOP policy.

Interference with the verification regime — from identity substitution to obstructing a Special Master's access — carries mandatory federal prison terms ranging from 3 to 15 years, with venue assigned by the Chief Justice to a district with no prior Epstein connection.

• Venue: Any prosecution under this Section shall be brought in a federal judicial district assigned by the Chief Justice of the United States, which district shall have no prior connection to any Epstein-related proceeding. Any person convicted is additionally subject to a private civil cause of action by any Epstein Network victim for compensatory and uncapped punitive damages.
• Death or incapacitation protocol: If the individual held under Federal Register Number 02879-509 dies or is seriously incapacitated, a court-appointed independent forensic pathologist with no prior connection to any federal agency or BOP shall conduct an independent examination within one hour of notification to the presiding judge. No death certificate may be finalized and no remains may be released, cremated, or disposed of until the presiding judge has issued a public Summary Order confirming identity.

Congress must convene at least two fully televised public hearings within 90 days, with independent forensic pathologists and complete document production, to formally examine whether all evidence is consistent with the official finding of suicide.

• Within 90 days of enactment, at least two public hearings must be convened by the Senate Judiciary Committee or a designated joint committee. The hearings must address: the findings and methodology of the medical examiner's autopsy; the surveillance footage gaps and camera failures at MCC New York on the night of August 9–10, 2019; the circumstances under which both guards assigned to monitor Epstein's cell were asleep during the hours in question; the chain of custody and completeness of all evidence collected at the scene; and the question of whether all evidence is consistent with the official finding of death by suicide.
• At least two independent forensic pathologists not employed by the federal government must testify. Each expert witness is entitled to the threat assessment and personal security protections under the Judicial Security Act of 2022 for the duration of their preparation, testimony, and for not less than two years thereafter. This protection attaches by operation of law upon designation and requires no public disclosure of the expert's identity as a condition of receiving protection.
• All hearings are open to the public and televised in full. No witness may appear in closed session unless the presiding member makes a specific, individualized finding that testimony would reveal the identity of a minor victim. No general classification or national security claim permits closed testimony.
• The Attorney General must transmit all records relating to Epstein's incarceration, monitoring, and death within 30 days of enactment. Each producing agency's Inspector General must file a written certification of production completeness within 45 days. Where an IG position is vacant or held by an acting official appointed within the preceding 12 months, the agency head certifies personally — and Congress treats that certification as presumptively less reliable, warranting heightened congressional scrutiny.

Within 30 days of enactment, the FBI Director must publicly explain every plausible interpretation — including any known criminal usage as coded language — of seven specific terms appearing in the already-released DOJ Epstein files.

• Within 30 days of enactment, the Director of the FBI must transmit to Congress and simultaneously to the public a written report addressing every plausible and documented explanation for the presence in the publicly released DOJ Epstein files of the following terms: "whoops," "pizza," "hot dog," "cheese pizza," "grape soda," "pasta," and "cream cheese" and "cheese" appearing in conjunction.
• For each term, the report must: identify every document and page on which it appears; provide complete surrounding textual context; and set forth every plausible explanation, including ordinary colloquial usage; FBI internal slang or investigative shorthand used in Epstein-related files; documented usage by criminal networks as coded language for child sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, blackmail, or the commercial sexual abuse of minors; documented usage by traffickers, blackmailers, or individuals engaged in child sexual abuse material; and documented usage identified in any law enforcement case file, academic criminological study, or forensic linguistic analysis known to the Bureau.
• The report must also identify whether any investigation was opened, extended, or discontinued based on the occurrence of each term; whether any interpretation was communicated to any superior, congressional oversight body, or the public prior to enactment; and whether any term was the basis for an investigative inquiry, whether opened, continued, or discontinued. The Director may submit a classified annex to the relevant congressional committees — but the existence of any classified annex must itself be publicly disclosed.