United States Department of Justice has removed thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein from its website after victims said flawed redactions exposed their identities.
Lawyers representing Epstein’s survivors said files released on Friday contained email addresses and explicit images in which names and faces could still be identified, upending the lives of nearly 100 victims. In a joint statement, survivors called the disclosure “outrageous,” saying they should not be “named, scrutinized and retraumatized.”
The DOJ said it had taken down all flagged documents, blaming the failures on “technical or human error.” In a letter to a federal judge, the department confirmed it had removed all files requested by victims or their counsel and was continuing to review additional material. It also said a “substantial number” of documents had been pulled after being independently identified as problematic.
The mass release was mandated after both chambers of Congress approved legislation compelling publication of Epstein-related records, with strict requirements to redact any information that could identify victims. On Friday, attorneys Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards asked a New York judge to order the DOJ to take down the hosting site entirely, calling the rollout “the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.”
Several survivors submitted statements to the court, including one who described the exposure as “life-threatening” and another who said she received death threats after private banking details appeared online.
Speaking to BBC, survivor Annie Farmer said the damage caused by the release made it hard to focus on any new information contained in the files. Another victim, Lisa Phillips, said many survivors were “very unhappy with the outcome,” adding that names had been disclosed, deadlines missed, and key documents still not released.
Prominent victims’ rights attorney Gloria Allred said some names were readable despite strike-throughs and that photos of survivors who had never gone public were included.
A DOJ spokesperson told CBS the department had redacted thousands of victim names across millions of pages and that about 0.1% of released pages were found to contain identifying information, adding staff were working around the clock to correct errors.
The latest batch followed earlier disclosures totaling millions of pages, images and videos. The releases came weeks after the DOJ missed a statutory deadline signed into law by Donald Trump under bipartisan congressional pressure.
Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
