The Justice Department has removed thousands of files linked to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from its website, it said in a court filing.
In a Thursday letter to judges in the Southern District of New York, DOJ officials said they had removed approximately 9,500 documents, in part because they originally included information that identified Epstein’s victims.
The letter was signed by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. It was filed in the court docket for the criminal cases against Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Victims’ lawyers had asked judges to ensure the Justice Department would protect their privacy.
The Justice Department said in the letter that the takedowns were “temporary” while the documents were reviewed for additional redactions.
It added that in recent days, following the documents’ release, victims of Epstein and their counsels had identified new names and identifiers for redaction “that were not identified prior to publication.”
“Additionally, many of the documents flagged by victims and victim counsel for further review were not necessarily identifying of a particular victim based on the face of the document, itself, and were not obviously sensitive in nature,” the letter said.
The letter said these documents would be further redacted and then reposted. It requested the judges to “not take any further protective measures” while the department is reviewing the documents.
The DOJ’s letter comes days after the Justice Department, on January 31, released 3 million Epstein-related files to the public. The latest tranche of files included big names from the tech and business spheres, such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Reid Hoffman.
In the court filing, the Justice Department said the hiccups could be attributed to the sheer volume of records “from multiple offices and investigations spanning over twenty years” it needed to prepare for public release following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, as well as the “technical capabilities of the document management systems” and “human error.”
A Justice Department spokesperson told Business Insider that it “takes victim protection very seriously.”
“The Department had 500 reviewers looking at millions of pages for this very reason, to meet the requirements of the act while protecting victims,” the spokesperson said. “When a victim’s name is alleged to be unredacted, our team is working around the clock to fix the issue and republish appropriately redacted pages as soon as possible.”
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