Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking network and their lawyers have blasted the U.S. Department of Justice over its release of around 3 million documents related to the case, calling the handling shoddy and harmful. Attorneys like Sigrid McCawley and Jennifer Freeman described “ham-fisted redactions” that repeatedly revealed victims’ identities, re-traumatized survivors, and obscured the roles of alleged abusers and enablers. They argue that instead of transparency, the release exposed survivors while shielding powerful individuals mentioned in the files, contravening both the spirit of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the congressional deadline to publish the records. Lawyers and survivor groups insisted that the document dump was more performative than accountable, and some bipartisan lawmakers demanded access to unredacted files to properly assess the Justice Department’s compliance.


The survivors’ representatives also accused the government of one of the largest law enforcement failures in U.S. history, saying the release failed to protect those harmed while leaving alleged facilitators unnamed and unprosecuted. They pointed out that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s strategy of providing girls to elite figures for leverage over them was confirmed in the documents, reinforcing long-standing survivor claims. Bipartisan pressure is building in Congress to review unredacted files and ensure oversight, while DOJ officials have pledged to correct redaction mistakes and defend their process, insisting victims’ identifying information was intended to be withheld.




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source:

Handling of Epstein files is ‘outrageous’, say attorneys of his sex trafficking survivors | Jeffrey Epstein | The Guardian