The Justice Department said Monday that it withdrew several thousand documents and “media” tied to Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers told a New York judge that mistakes in the government’s latest release may have exposed victim information. In court papers, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said the exposed materials included nude photos in which faces of potential victims were not properly obscured, along with names, email addresses and other identifying details that were either not redacted or not fully blocked.
Clayton wrote in a letter to the judges overseeing the sex trafficking cases against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell that the department had removed nearly all materials identified by victims or their lawyers, as well as a “substantial number” of documents identified independently by the government. The department blamed the exposure on “technical or human error,” and said it revised its handling of “flagging documents,” including a process in which documents are promptly pulled down when flagged by victims and then evaluated before a redacted version is reposted.
The letter said the department’s revised workflow aims to restore corrected versions “ideally within 24 to 36 hours.” It followed a request from two lawyers for Epstein victims, filed Sunday, asking for “immediate judicial intervention” after they described thousands of instances in which the government allegedly failed to redact names and other personally identifying information. In response to the request, Judge Richard M. Berman scheduled a conference for Wednesday.
In addition to the lawyers’ request, the court filing included comments from eight women who identify as Epstein victims, including claims that the release posed serious safety risks. One woman said the disclosure was “life threatening.” Another wrote that she received death threats after entries contained her private banking information, prompting her to try to shut down her credit cards and accounts.
The court fight also reflected scrutiny outside the government’s filings. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told ABC’s “This Week” that errors in redaction occurred but that the department worked to correct them quickly after victims or their lawyers raised concerns. In the interview, Blanche said: “Every time we hear from a victim or their lawyer that they believe that their name was not properly redacted, we immediately rectified that,” adding, “we’re talking about .001 percent of all the materials.”
While the department described the scope as small, multiple reporters analyzing the files described problems that they said extended beyond isolated redaction mistakes. The Associated Press reported that it and other journalists analyzing the files found names that were redacted in one version of a document but left exposed in another version, along with instances where names and email addresses were crossed out but still visible. The AP also reported that certain text redactions could be overridden by double-clicking to reveal hidden text.
The Justice Department said it redacted nude or pornographic images from the release, describing the approach as treating women depicted in the images as potential victims. However, the AP reported that the New York Times found uncensored photos of naked young people with their faces unredacted, and that after the newspaper notified the Justice Department, the images were largely removed or redacted. The AP said the New York Times described some images as appearing to have been taken on the beach at Epstein’s private Caribbean island, while others were shown in a bedroom setting.
The government’s alleged redaction failures also reached beyond victim identifiers, according to the AP. The news organization reported that one email showed Epstein’s full credit card number and other payment details, and that an investigation-related interview transcript included a jail worker’s full Social Security number and date of birth. The AP also reported that some email addresses were visible under thin cross-outs.
The ripple effects appeared in courtrooms not connected to Epstein. In an unrelated sex trafficking trial in New York on Monday, defense lawyers for three people—including two high-end real estate brokers and their brother—asked for a mistrial after their names appeared in some Epstein documents. Deanna Paul, a defense lawyer at the trial of Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, argued prosecutors had “destroyed the possibility of a fair trial” by allowing documents to circulate publicly in a way that falsely suggested the defendants’ association with Epstein. The brothers have pleaded not guilty, and they are not accused of involvement in Epstein’s abuse of underage girls.
Judge Valerie E. Caproni rejected the mistrial request after she individually questioned jurors, all of whom said they had not seen any news about the brothers. Caproni then confronted prosecutors about the matter, asking, “Government, really?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa responded that prosecutors withdrew the documents from public circulation.
Separately on Monday, the AP reported that a section of the Justice Department’s Epstein files website that had contained public court records from Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal cases and civil lawsuits was no longer functioning. A message seeking comment on the website issue was left for the Justice Department.