A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday said the Justice Department had agreed to quickly fix errors that led to the publication of victims’ names in the latest batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender.
The judge, Richard M. Berman, also canceled a hearing scheduled for Wednesday to address complaints by lawyers for a group of Mr. Epstein’s victims. Those lawyers said they found thousands of references to nearly 100 victims that should have been redacted when the Justice Department released three million documents related to Mr. Epstein on Friday. They had asked the judge to order that the government website housing the files be shut down until the redaction failures could be addressed.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Brad Edwards, one of the lawyers, said that while the issues were not completely resolved, “there was considerable progress made today, with assurances that all corrections are being made quickly.”
“The damage done is irreparable, and D.O.J. could mitigate those damages if it cares to,” he said. “We will see.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a court filing on Monday, said that the department had worked through the weekend and “taken down several thousands of documents and media that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information due to various factors, including technical or human error.”
As recently as Tuesday, New York Times journalists found numerous records that left the names of victims unredacted. Journalists also encountered more than 150 unredacted photos that showed not only nude bodies but also the faces of the people portrayed.
The explicit photos appeared to be from a personal collection, with some taken on a beach that appeared to be on Mr. Epstein’s private island and others in bedrooms. The people in the photos appeared to be a variety of young women or potentially teenage girls. The photos were largely removed after The Times began notifying the Justice Department.
Those redaction failures were in stark contrast to other parts of the Epstein files, in which officials redacted the identities of some of Mr. Epstein’s business associates. In one case, a news photo of President Trump included a redaction box over his face.
Mike Baker, Julie Tate and Dylan Freedman contributed reporting.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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