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DOJ releases largest batch of Epstein files
Three million pages from the Justice Department's files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public on Friday. Trial Attorney Kelly Hyman weighs in.
NEW YORK - The Justice Department said Monday that it had withdrawn thousands of documents and media related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers complained to a New York judge that the lives of nearly 100 victims had been "turned upside down" by redactions in the government's latest release of records.
Victims complain of death threats amid Epstein redactions
Big picture view:
On Friday, the department released 3.5 million pages of documents in the latest Epstein disclosure, along with 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
The exposed materials included nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
The Justice Department says it has taken down several thousand documents and "media" that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information after lawyers for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's victims complained of insufficient redact …
The department blamed it on "technical or human error."
Victim says records’ release was "life threatening’
What they're saying:
In a letter to the New York judges overseeing the sex trafficking cases brought against Epstein and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that the department had taken down nearly all materials identified by victims or their lawyers, along with a "substantial number" of documents identified independently by the government.
Clayton said the department has "revised its protocols for addressing flagging documents" after victims and their lawyers requested the changes.
Documents are promptly pulled down when flagged by victims, then evaluated before a redacted version of the document can be reposted, "ideally within 24 to 36 hours."
Two lawyers for Epstein victims wrote the court Sunday seeking "immediate judicial intervention" because of what they described as thousands of instances when the government had failed to redact names and other personally identifying information.
Eight women who identify as Epstein victims added comments to the letter to Judge Richard M. Berman. One wrote that the records’ release was "life threatening." Another said she’d gotten death threats after 51 entries included her private banking information, forcing her to try to shut down her credit cards and accounts.
"There is no conceivable degree of institutional incompetence sufficient to explain the scale, consistency, and persistence of the failures that occurred — particularly where the sole task ordered by the Court and repeatedly emphasized by DOJ was simple: redact known victim names before publication," the lawyers, Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards, wrote.
Some Epstein documents not released to protect victims
The backstory:
On Friday, the DOJ said some documents would not be released to protect minors as part of CSAM, Child Sexual Abuse Material, which refers to sexually explicit content involving a child.
"The categories of documents withheld include those permitted under the act to be withheld, files that contain personally identifiable information of victims or victims' personal and medical files and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Digital. "Any depiction of CSAM or child pornography was obviously excluded. Anything that would jeopardize an active federal investigation, and finally, anything that depicts or contain images of death, physical abuse or injury also not produced."
Practical consequences in an unrelated court case
Local perspective:
At an unrelated sex trafficking trial in New York on Monday, lawyers for two high-end real estate brokers and their brother asked for a mistrial because their names had appeared in some of the Epstein documents.
Deanna Paul, a defense lawyer at the trial of Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, said prosecutors had "destroyed the possibility of a fair trial" by letting documents get out that falsely suggested an association with Epstein. The brothers have pleaded not guilty to drugging and raping multiple girls and women from 2008 to 2021. They aren't accused of having anything to do with Epstein's abuse of underage girls.
Judge Valerie E. Caproni rejected the mistrial request after she individually questioned jurors, all of whom said they hadn’t seen any news about the brothers. Still, she confronted a prosecutor about the matter, asking, "Government, really?"
"Yes, I understand where the court's coming from," replied Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa.
She said the documents had been withdrawn from public circulation.
The Source: This story was reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press, previous FOX Local reporting contributed.