India, Dec. 19 -- The US Justice Department faces a December 19 deadline to release a long-awaited trove of records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, under a new law mandating disclosure of most unclassified materials tied to the case.

The deadline follows President Donald Trump's signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19, after the bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.

The law gave the Justice Department 30 days to make public records from the DOJ, FBI and US attorneys' offices concerning Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking-related crimes.

While the Act does not specify an exact time for release, CNN ...