DOJ Has Not Responded to European Officials Investigating Jeffrey Epstein, Says Norwegian Prosecutor

Law enforcement agencies across Europe say the U.S. Justice Department has not responded to their requests for help with investigations spun out of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

According to a report in The Washington Post, officials in several countries said their formal requests for cooperation have gone unanswered roughly a year after the first batch of files was released.

The Justice Department has disputed this accusation, saying it hasn't refused to assist any jurisdiction looking into potential crimes connected to Epstein.

Several European officials described a pattern of silence in response to their requests for mutual legal assistance, the formal channel through which foreign investigators seek documents, testimony and other evidence from the United States.

A spokesperson for Poland's National Prosecutor's Office said the country asked in April for unredacted documents relating to any Polish aspects of the case and supposedly never received a reply.

Officials elsewhere echoed that account. A Norwegian prosecutor said her office had not heard back and called the situation unfortunate, while an official with Latvia's state police said several requests had been sent to U.S. authorities with no responses received.

"We are in communication with officials from the Department of Justice, but they have not at this time approved the request," said Marianne Bender, state prosecutor for the Norwegian Okokrim unit, in a statement. "This is very unfortunate for the Norwegian investigation, and Okokrim hopes that the U.S. Department of Justice will approve our request at some point."

The officials said those kinds of requests can normally take weeks or months to process, but described the complete lack of reply as unusual.

The Justice Department has pushed back on the reporting. In a statement, it said it had not refused to assist any jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct tied to Epstein and remained committed to cooperating with countries pursuing such cases. The department separately said it does not comment on legal assistance involving other countries' investigations.

The exchange leaves the two sides describing the situation very differently, with European investigators reporting silence and the DOJ maintaining it simply hasn't declined to help.

Now, it's unclear how long the underlying investigations will take regardless of U.S. cooperation, or whether any will result in charges.

The European probes came from the materials already available from the U.S. files, which detailed Epstein's relationships with influential people around the world. Poland's prime minister said in February that his country was examining possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence. In Norway, several former officials are under investigation over their dealings with Epstein, and authorities in Latvia and other countries have also opened inquiries of their own.

The United Kingdom is one of the highest-profile locations, though. British prosecutors formally requested assistance as part of an investigation into Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the U.S. who was dismissed last year after the extent of his ties to Epstein became public.

Mandelson is suspected of leaking confidential information to Epstein, according to reports, and has denied wrongdoing. British outlets have reported that the case could stall without the U.S. documents.

The requests trace back to a lengthy fight over transparency in the United States. The first batch of files was released in December 2025 after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the product of a bipartisan push led by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.

Lawmakers from both parties have continued to press the Justice Department for fuller disclosure, arguing that documents remain missing and that some released material was excessively redacted. Epstein was arrested on federal s-- trafficking charges in 2019 and died in custody later that year in what officials ruled a suicide.

His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was later convicted of her role in his abuse.