WASHINGTON — The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General has opened an investigation into the department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The review will examine how the department identified, collected, produced, and redacted records required to be released under the law.

Deputy Inspector General William M. Blier said the preliminary objective of the probe is "to evaluate the DOJ's processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act." Blier is performing the duties of the inspector general after former Inspector General Michael Horowitz moved to the Federal Reserve last year.

Investigators will also look into the process for addressing concerns raised after the documents were published. The watchdog will publish a public report on its findings, although the timeline is unclear. The audit is the first such effort by the office since the start of President Trump's second term to scrutinize the department's actions.

Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law in November. The law required the Justice Department to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days, a deadline the department failed to meet.

Justice Department officials announced in December that hundreds of thousands of files would be released but then made public only a small fraction of that amount. The department made public millions more files at the end of January. About 200,000 files were held back or redacted for various legal reasons.

The FBI and Justice Department initially said in an unsigned statement they would not release additional records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation, then reversed course after the law was passed and signed. Survivors of Epstein's abuse, lawmakers, and some Trump supporters had called for the publication of documents related to the case.

When the files were released publicly, some victims' personal information was disclosed. Epstein survivors complained that sloppy redactions left their identities exposed, and a group sued the Trump administration and Google over the disclosure of their personal information found in the files.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said it was "horrible" and "inexcusable" that identifying details were made public. He said most of the millions of files withheld were duplicates, and that the case remained open in the United States, encouraging victims to come forward if they had information that could help bring additional charges.

Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. The federal investigation led to just one conviction, that of his accomplice Maxwell. At least nine investigations related to Epstein have opened in eight different countries since the release of the files.