Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has expressed her dissatisfaction with the Department of Justice’s gradual release of documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. In a recent interview with Alaska’s News Source, Murkowski stated she is collaborating with fellow senators to urge the department’s inspector general to investigate whether the law is being properly followed.

“I’m not satisfied,” Murkowski reiterated, emphasizing her concerns over the extensive redaction in documents, which obscures the identities of some of Epstein’s alleged associates. “Just look at the pages that are entirely blacked out,” she noted.

Murkowski voiced her displeasure over the Justice Department’s failure to make public all unclassified documents by the December 19 deadline mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. This legislation was passed with overwhelming support in Congress last month.

Her frustration extends to both the significant redactions and the piecemeal release of records, which have been issued in installments since last Friday.

She expressed frustration both with how heavily the documents were redacted and with the incremental release of records, which have come out in tranches since Friday.

“That’s not what we passed,” she said. “What we passed was you have 30 days to release the files. You have 30 days to open it all up. And yes, we expect the confidentiality of the victims to be respected. But what we didn’t expect is to see the extent of the redaction, but also — again, the fact that it is not coming in a complete way. This is not a surprise here, folks.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has served as the point person for discussing the Justice Department’s handling of the files, said Sunday that the department is carefully reviewing the documents to protect the identities of victims.

Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Justice Department is going through “a very methodical process with hundreds of lawyers looking at every single document and. Making sure that victims’ names and any of the information from the victims is protected and redacted.”

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that officials in New York discovered an additional 1 million documents potentially linked to Epstein that could take “a few more weeks” to be released to the public.

“The Department will continue to fully comply with federal law and President Trump’s direction to release the files,” the department said in a statement.

Murkowski said that Republicans need to challenge Trump and members of his administration if they fail to fully comply with the law requiring full disclosure of the Epstein files or stop on congressional prerogatives in other ways.

“We have to challenge the administration when they either cross the threshold into our jurisdiction under Article I, or if they fail to follow the law. And that requires us as lawmakers to push back and say, ‘No, I may have voted for you, I may respect what goes on in the administration, but on this issue, what you’re doing is not right and it needs to be challenged.’”

Murkowski said she and Senate colleagues will ask the inspector general to ensure the Justice Department is following the law.

“I’m working with a group of colleagues in the senate to ask the IG, the inspector general, to basically review what has been released,” she said.

“And let us know if it has complied with the law, because I don’t believe that they have complied with the law,” she added.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) on Wednesday also jabbed the Justice Department for its extensive redactions in the Epstein files by redacting part of his annual Festivus rant on social media, which he does before Christmas to air his grievances with key players in Washington.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Wednesday said the Trump administration has released “less than 40,000 pages many of them redacted since the deadline on Dec. 19.”

“When they say they’ve released hundreds of thousands it defies credulity,” he posted on social media.

Schumer is pushing the Senate to sue the Justice Department over the partial disclosure of the Epstein files.