The US Department of Justice has yanked thousands of documents tied to the Jeffrey Epstein case from its website, following complaints from victims that their personal info was accidentally revealed.
Attorneys for the victims say the botched blackouts in the files dropped last Friday have completely upended the lives of almost 100 survivors.
Things like email addresses and nude photos where people could spot the names and faces of possible victims ended up in the public release.
The survivors put out a statement slamming the whole thing as “outrageous” and insisting they shouldn’t be dragged through the mud, judged, or hurt all over again.
The DOJ claims the screw-ups were from tech glitches or human mistakes, and they’ve taken down all the problematic files.
In a note to a federal judge on Monday, the DOJ said they’d pulled everything victims or their lawyers flagged by the night before, and they’re redoing the redactions.
They’re still looking at new complaints and double-checking for any other files that might need more fixes. They’ve also removed a bunch of stuff they spotted on their own.
This release was required by a law passed by Congress, forcing the DOJ to share the docs but with victim-identifying details blacked out.
On Friday, two lawyers for the victims begged a New York federal judge to shut down the site hosting the files, calling it “the biggest single breach of victim privacy in one day in US history.”
They said there was a crisis needing quick court action because the DOJ messed up redactions on victims’ names and personal details thousands of times.
A few victims chimed in on the letter, with one calling it “life-threatening” and another saying she’d gotten death threats after her private bank info went public.
One survivor mentioned it’s tough to pay attention to any fresh info from the docs because of the harm caused by exposing everyone like this.
Another victim said a lot of the group is really upset with how it all went down.
She pointed out the DOJ broke all their key demands: many docs still aren’t out, the release deadline was blown past, and they leaked tons of survivors’ names.
She added that it feels like games are being played, but they’re not backing down.
A lawyer who’s handled cases for many victims said plenty of names got revealed, including some who’d never gone public before.
In some spots, they just drew a line through names but you could still read them. In others, they showed photos of survivors who’d never done interviews or shared their identities.
A DOJ rep said they take protecting victims super seriously and have blacked out thousands of names across millions of pages to shield the innocent.
They mentioned they’re hustling to sort it out, and so far, only 0.1% of the released pages had stuff that could ID victims without redactions.
Since the law kicked in last year, the DOJ has put out millions of Epstein-related files, including three million pages, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos just last Friday.
That drop came six weeks after they missed the legal deadline, which was pushed by both parties in Congress and signed by the president.
Epstein passed away in a New York jail cell back in August 2019 while waiting for trial on sex trafficking charges.