Fact Check: Did the FBI and DOJ spend nearly $1M in overtime to redact Jeffrey Epstein files?

WASHINGTON, DC: In November 2025, a rumor circulated online claiming that FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the head of the Department of Justice, spent nearly $1 million in overtime pay to redact files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The rumor initially surfaced on social media platform X and soon circulated to other platforms, such as Instagram. But is there any truth to this? Let us find out below.

Claim: FBI, DOJ paid nearly $1M in overtime to redact Epstein files

On November 28, a user on X shared a post which read, "The FBI quietly poured roughly $1M into overtime hours to scrub and redact the Epstein files, working under a project they literally labeled the 'Special Redaction Project'. This is treason."

Similarly, a different version of the claim appeared on Instagram, where a user said in a video that Patel and Bondi spent $1 million to "pull Trump's name out of the Epstein files".

In another X post, a user said that the FBI "spent nearly $1 million for redaction training for the Epstein files," and cited The Daily Beast.

True: FBI documents confirm the rumor to be true

The claims made in the online rumors are true, as FBI documents confirm the agency spent more than $850,000 on overtime pay for agents tasked with processing and redacting files related to the Epstein case.

However, the available documents neither confirmed nor disproved the related claims that the overtime pay was for removing Trump's name from the files or that all of the money went to "redaction training". 

The claim originated from a report by Jason Leopold, an investigative reporter at Bloomberg News. In his November 25 edition of the newsletter, he linked to a 71-page PDF that included a letter that bore a seal of the FBI in response to "Civil Action No.: 25-cv-2848" and regarding the "Epstein Transparency Project 2025". 

These documents showed that the FBI paid $851,344 in overtime to process the Epstein files, though the documents did not specify what information was being redacted. 

Moreover, the records showed 934 agents worked a total of 14,278 hours in "premium pay" on the files. Leopold said in his report that these numbers corresponded to the period between March 17 and March 22, 2025.

He also told Snopes, "The files I shared online are the complete files. They [the FBI] released this just to me in response to my lawsuit and emailed my attorney the records", while referring to the attorney who represented him and Bloomberg in the lawsuit they filed following his FOIA request.

Michael Wolff urged Epstein to attack Trump for 'political cover'

The emails related to Jeffrey Epstein, which were released last month, showed that the disgraced financier's biographer, Michael Wolff, urged him to publicly criticize President Donald Trump as a way to gain political cover.

Wolff repeatedly contacted Epstein, and at times discussed his reputation and suggested that bashing Trump could help improve it. 

As per the documents, Wolff wrote to Epstein in February 2016, "NYT called me about you and Trump. Also, the Hillary campaign is digging deeply. Again, you should consider preempting."

Meanwhile, a month later, the duo discussed strategy ahead of the release of James Patterson's 'Filthy Rich,' a true-crime book about Epstein, who was the author's neighbor in Palm Beach. 

Wolff suggested to Epstein that "becoming an anti-Trump voice gives you a certain political cover which you decidedly don't have now."