Epstein’s alleged victims accuse DOJ of legal violations over state of files released

(NEW YORK) -- A group of alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein accused the Department of Justice of missteps, including violations of the law, in its partial release of files related to the disgraced financier's abuse of young women and girls. 

The DOJ faced a Friday deadline imposed by Congress to release a massive cache of records gathered during government investigations into the sex offender, who died in jail in 2019. 

Justice officials released thousands of files -- ranging from investigative documents to grand jury testimony to snapshots taken by Epstein and his friends -- but said it would fail to fully release all the files by the deadline.

"Instead, the public received a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation," a group of 19 women, including two Jane Does, said in a statement released on Monday. "At the same time, numerous victim identities were left unredacted, causing real and immediate harm."

The statement, which was released early Monday by attorneys representing the women, also pointed to what they said was missing from the files. Omissions by either redactions or unreleased pages amounted to a failure, they said.

"No financial documents were released," the statement said. "Grand jury minutes, though approved by a federal judge for release, were fully blacked out -- not the scattered redactions that might be expected to protect victim names, but 119 full pages blacked out. We are told that there are hundreds of thousands of pages of documents still unreleased."

"These are clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law," the statement added. 

Some documents disclosed on Friday with significant redactions were reposted early Saturday with some or all of the redactions lifted, according to a review of the files by ABC News.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on social media on Friday, as the initial files were being released, that "[a]dditional responsive materials will be produced as our review continues, consistent with the law and with protections for victims." The DOJ on Sunday released a similar statement, adding that reviews of the material would continue "as we receive additional information."

President Donald Trump in November had signed a bill that gave the Justice Department 30 days to release the materials.

The statement from alleged victims noted that DOJ officials had structured the release of documents in a way that made it "difficult or impossible" for Epstein's alleged victims to find information that may be important to their cases. And they said they hadn’t been contacted about potential redactions or withholdings prior to the documents' release. 

"It is alarming that the United States Department of Justice, the very agency tasked with upholding the law, has violated the law, both by withholding massive quantities of documents, and by failing to redact survivor identities," the women’s statement said. 

The women called for "immediate" oversight from Congress "to ensure the Department of Justice fulfils its legal obligations."

Separately on Sunday, Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards -- attorneys who represent more than 200 survivors of Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell -- had told ABC News that since the Epstein files were posted on Friday, they had been hearing from clients who have seen their names or other identifying information un-redacted documents in the DOJ's disclosure.

Henderson and Edwards said they had been working through the weekend with federal officials in New York and D.C. to take down documents containing personal information of alleged victims, many of whom have never had their names disclosed in any context connected to Epstein.  

In one instance, Henderson and Edwards said, a sealed document from settled civil litigation containing the names of more than two dozen alleged victims -- was posted without redactions. That document was among those that have been removed from the DOJ's site, the lawyers said.

The attorneys said that about 15 documents had by Sunday been pulled from the site -- at least temporarily -- as a result of their consultations with the government.

DOJ officials said in a social media statement on Sunday afternoon that they had "received incoming from individuals alleging to be victims and their lawyers, requesting that certain information be removed. Out of an abundance of caution, the material is temporarily removed for review and will be released again with appropriate redactions, if legally required."

Blanche said earlier on Sunday in an interview on NBC News that the DOJ would be responsive to concerns raised by victims about potential exposure of identifying information and insisted, despite the slow release of materials, that DOJ is complying with the law.

"The statute also requires us to protect victims and—and so the reason why we are still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that to protect victims," he said. "So the same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don't want us to protect victims.”

"The reality is anybody, any victim, any victim’s lawyers, any victim rights group, can reach out to us and say, 'Hey, Department of Justice, there’s a document, there’s a photo, there’s something within the Epstein files that identifies me,'" he added. "And we will then, of course, pull that off and investigate."

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