A month after Epstein files deadline, Americans still think government is intentionally holding back info, CNN poll finds
By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
(CNN) — Few Americans are satisfied with the amount of evidence released in the Jeffrey Epstein case, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with most saying they believe the government is intentionally holding back information.
The poll was conducted a little less than a month after the December 19 deadline that Congress gave the Justice Department to release all of its files about Epstein.
The Justice Department estimated earlier in January that it had released less than 1% of its Epstein-related files. Department officials told a court Friday they had enlisted approximately 80 more attorneys from the department’s criminal division to work with prosecutors in New York’s Southern District to review documents related the convicted sex offender.
A two-thirds majority of Americans say the federal government is intentionally holding back some information about the Epstein case that should be released, while just 16% say the government is making an effort to release all information possible. The remainder say they haven’t heard enough about the case to say.
Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats and 72% of independents say the government is intentionally withholding information, as do 42% of Republicans.
Only about one-third of Republicans think the government is making an effort to release information, with the rest not weighing in either way.
Just 6% of Americans say they’re satisfied with what the federal government has released so far, little changed from 3% in a July 2025 survey. A 49% plurality say they’re dissatisfied, with the remainder saying that it doesn’t matter to them or that they haven’t heard enough to say.
Just 12% of Republicans, 3% of Democrats and 3% of independents say they’re satisfied with the information released. But partisan concerns have shifted as President Donald Trump, who pushed Republicans not to vote for the bill establishing the December 19 deadline and rejected the files as a Democratic “hoax.”
Republicans have grown likelier to dismiss the relevance of the amount of information released. A 67% majority say that it doesn’t matter or that they haven’t heard enough to say, up from 56% last summer. And 21% now say they’re dissatisfied, down from 40%.
Democrats, meanwhile, have moved in the opposite direction: Seventy-one percent call themselves dissatisfied, up from 56% in July, while the share who don’t offer an opinion is 27%, down from 41%. Views among independents have barely shifted over that time, with 54% saying they’re dissatisfied and 43% offering no opinion.
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The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS online and by phone from January 9-12 among a random national sample of 1,209 adults. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
