US Justice Department Removes Epstein Files From Website After Victims' Identities Exposed

The US Department of Justice removed thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein from its website after victims said their identities had been compromised in what lawyers described as “the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.”

Lawyers representing Epstein’s victims said a lack of proper redactions in files had “turned upside down” the lives of nearly 100 survivors. Email addresses and nude photographs in which the names and faces of potential victims could be identified were included in the release, sparking immediate outrage and emergency legal action.

Victims Issue Emergency Complaint Survivors issued a statement calling the disclosure “outrageous” and said they should not be “named, scrutinized

and retraumatized” by the very government agency meant to protect them. Attorneys Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards asked a federal judge in New York to order the DOJ to immediately take down the website hosting the files, warning of “an unfolding emergency that requires immediate judicial intervention” due to the department “failing to redact victims names and other personally identifying information in thousands of instances.”

Several of Epstein’s victims added comments to the legal filing, including one who described the release as “life-threatening” and another who said she had received death threats after her private banking details were published online.

Technical Error?
The Department of Justice acknowledged the failures and attributed them to “technical or human error.” In a letter submitted to a federal judge, the DOJ said all documents requested by victims or their counsel to be removed had been taken down for further redaction.

“All documents requested by victims or counsel to be removed by yesterday evening have been removed for further redaction,” the department stated, adding that it was continuing to examine new requests and checking whether other documents require additional redactions. A “substantial number” of independently identified documents have also been removed.

A DOJ spokesperson told CBS News that the department “takes victim protection very seriously and has redacted thousands of victim names in the millions of published pages to protect the innocent.” The spokesperson added that the department was “working around the clock to fix the issue” and that “to date 0.1% of released pages” had been found to contain unredacted information that could identify victims.

Survivors Describe Devastating Impact
Speaking to the BBC, Epstein survivor Annie Farmer said the breach had overshadowed important new information contained in the documents.

“It’s hard to focus on the new information that has been brought to light because of how much damage the DOJ has done by exposing survivors in this way,” Annie Farmer said.

Another victim, Lisa Phillips, said many survivors were “very unhappy with the outcome” of the release and accused the department of playing games.

“The DOJ has violated all three of our requirements,” she said, adding, “Number one, many documents still haven’t been disclosed. Number two, the date set for release has long passed. And number three, DOJ released the names of many of the survivors. We feel like they’re playing some games with us but we’re not going to stop fighting.”