What’s still missing from Epstein files? DOJ begins restoring removed documents
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
The Justice Department has begun the process of restoring tens of thousands of records tied to the federal investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after officials acknowledged errors in their review and explained why a large batch of documents had been temporarily removed from the public archive.
A senior DOJ official said 47,635 files were taken offline for review from a larger batch of roughly 60,000 pages that the department pulled due to sensitive content that needed redactions.
The official said the batch was taken down after researchers and members of the public flagged instances of unredacted nudity, including some material that appeared to contain commercial pornography, prompting the department to remove the files and conduct another round of redactions before restoring them.
DOJ officials have said the large batch of files was never intended to be deleted permanently and would be reposted once the review process is complete.
The records are part of the massive archive released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the government to disclose most investigative materials tied to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
So far, the department has released roughly 3.5 million of the approximately 6 million pages of Epstein-related records in its possession. Officials say the remaining offline records contain material that is impermissible to upload, such as sexually explicit or pornographic images, attorney-client privileged materials, or items that are duplicative. Through an established reading room set up at the DOJ headquarters, members of Congress are permitted to access all duplicate files.
Separately, the DOJ confirmed Thursday that at least 20 documents had been missing from the database due to coding errors during the review process.
According to the department, 16 documents — including FBI “Form 302” interview summaries — were mistakenly coded as “duplicative” during the initial review of the archive. Those materials included additional interview summaries tied to a woman who made allegations involving President Donald Trump.
The latest documents released described a series of interviews agents conducted in 2019 after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
In the interviews, a woman alleged that both Epstein and Trump assaulted her in the 1980s when she was a teenager. The claims have not been corroborated. Trump has denied wrongdoing and previously claimed the Epstein documents …
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
The Justice Department has begun the process of restoring tens of thousands of records tied to the federal investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after officials acknowledged errors in their review and explained why a large batch of documents had been temporarily removed from the public archive.
A senior DOJ official said 47,635 files were taken offline for review from a larger batch of roughly 60,000 pages that the department pulled due to sensitive content that needed redactions.
The official said the batch was taken down after researchers and members of the public flagged instances of unredacted nudity, including some material that appeared to contain commercial pornography, prompting the department to remove the files and conduct another round of redactions before restoring them.
DOJ officials have said the large batch of files was never intended to be deleted permanently and would be reposted once the review process is complete.
The records are part of the massive archive released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the government to disclose most investigative materials tied to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
So far, the department has released roughly 3.5 million of the approximately 6 million pages of Epstein-related records in its possession. Officials say the remaining offline records contain material that is impermissible to upload, such as sexually explicit or pornographic images, attorney-client privileged materials, or items that are duplicative. Through an established reading room set up at the DOJ headquarters, members of Congress are permitted to access all duplicate files.
Separately, the DOJ confirmed Thursday that at least 20 documents had been missing from the database due to coding errors during the review process.
According to the department, 16 documents — including FBI “Form 302” interview summaries — were mistakenly coded as “duplicative” during the initial review of the archive. Those materials included additional interview summaries tied to a woman who made allegations involving President Donald Trump.
The latest documents released described a series of interviews agents conducted in 2019 after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
In the interviews, a woman alleged that both Epstein and Trump assaulted her in the 1980s when she was a teenager. The claims have not been corroborated. Trump has denied wrongdoing and previously claimed the Epstein documents …
What’s still missing from Epstein files? DOJ begins restoring removed documents
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
The Justice Department has begun the process of restoring tens of thousands of records tied to the federal investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after officials acknowledged errors in their review and explained why a large batch of documents had been temporarily removed from the public archive.
A senior DOJ official said 47,635 files were taken offline for review from a larger batch of roughly 60,000 pages that the department pulled due to sensitive content that needed redactions.
The official said the batch was taken down after researchers and members of the public flagged instances of unredacted nudity, including some material that appeared to contain commercial pornography, prompting the department to remove the files and conduct another round of redactions before restoring them.
DOJ officials have said the large batch of files was never intended to be deleted permanently and would be reposted once the review process is complete.
The records are part of the massive archive released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the government to disclose most investigative materials tied to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
So far, the department has released roughly 3.5 million of the approximately 6 million pages of Epstein-related records in its possession. Officials say the remaining offline records contain material that is impermissible to upload, such as sexually explicit or pornographic images, attorney-client privileged materials, or items that are duplicative. Through an established reading room set up at the DOJ headquarters, members of Congress are permitted to access all duplicate files.
Separately, the DOJ confirmed Thursday that at least 20 documents had been missing from the database due to coding errors during the review process.
According to the department, 16 documents — including FBI “Form 302” interview summaries — were mistakenly coded as “duplicative” during the initial review of the archive. Those materials included additional interview summaries tied to a woman who made allegations involving President Donald Trump.
The latest documents released described a series of interviews agents conducted in 2019 after Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
In the interviews, a woman alleged that both Epstein and Trump assaulted her in the 1980s when she was a teenager. The claims have not been corroborated. Trump has denied wrongdoing and previously claimed the Epstein documents …
