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... The Saturday disclosure was designed to be the Justice Department's last word on the files, explaining why any documents were withheld and providing the legal basis for shielding any names.

Instead, lawmakers say the department skirted its legal obligation for greater transparency and muddied the waters by releasing an extensive list of names, ranging from celebrities to politicos, with little explanation accompanying them.

"This is once again the DOJ covering up the truth," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote Tuesday afternoon on the social platform X.

The list, totaling more than 250 names, includes a number of well-known figures, from Mick Jagger to Queen Elizabeth, as well as political figures on both sides of the aisle.

It's unclear what ties, if any, several of the figures have to Jeffrey Epstein. Many appear to simply be referenced in media clips sent by the convicted sex offender or by the FBI as it shared a roundup of news reports that also included clips referencing Epstein.

"To have Janis Joplin, who died when Epstein was 17, in the same list as Larry Nassar, who went to prison for the sexual abuse of hundreds of young women and child pornography, with no clarification of how either was mentioned in the files is absurd," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the sponsors of the bill that required the public release for the files, wrote on X.

"DOJ violated the law by not providing a reason for the redactions, has protected people like Sultan and Les Wexner and many other powerful people Rep. Thomas Massie and I are exposing, and then chose to unredact the names without context," Khanna added. ...