The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has withdrawn thousands of documents and photos related to financier Jeffrey Epstein after errors in redacting victims’ information were leaked. Victims and their lawyers described the incident as life‑threatening, as the released versions included leaked names, photos, and banking details. The department revised its protocols to allow documents to be pulled and re‑released in redacted form within 24 to 36 hours. Although the department said the errors amounted to no more than 0.001% of all materials, an Associated Press report revealed inconsistencies in the redactions.
The mistakenly released materials included nude photos showing the faces of potential victims, as well as names, email addresses, and other identifying information that was not properly redacted or blurred. The department attributed this to “technical or human error.”
In a letter to New York judges overseeing the sex‑trafficking cases against Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that “the department has removed nearly all materials identified by victims or their attorneys, along with a large number of documents independently identified by the government.”
Clayton explained that the department “has revised its protocols for handling documents flagged by victims and their attorneys after they requested changes.” Under the new procedure, documents are immediately withdrawn once reported by victims, then reviewed before a redacted version is reposted—ideally within 24 to 36 hours.
Two attorneys representing Epstein’s victims filed a request last Sunday for “immediate judicial intervention,” citing what they described as thousands of instances in which the government failed to redact names and other personal information that could identify victims.
Eight women who identify themselves as Epstein victims added comments to the letter addressed to Judge Richard M. Berman. One wrote that the release of the records was “life‑threatening.”
Another said she “received death threats after 51 documents included her private banking information, forcing her to try to freeze her credit cards and bank accounts.”
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that “there were isolated errors in the redaction process, but the Department of Justice tried to act quickly to address them.”
Blanche added: “Whenever we receive a report from a victim or her attorney that a name was not properly redacted, we correct it immediately. The numbers we’re talking about, so the American public understands, are no more than 0.001 percent of the total materials.”
However, dozens of Associated Press journalists who analyzed the files found multiple instances where a name was redacted in one document but left visible in another version of the same file.