The Wall Street Journal has called on the members of Congress who voted to release the Epstein files to apologize to the sex offender’s victims whose identities have been exposed.
The Murdoch paper’s editorial board penned the column after the Justice Department had to take down thousands of documents due to the unredacted release of victims’ names and even nude images of young women. Congress, it wrote, should learn its lesson that “such investigatory materials are usually kept private to protect innocent victims and witnesses.”
“Congress can’t fob off blame for the redaction errors, after it set an impossible deadline,” the board continued, referring to the legally required 30-day window to release the files that closed on Dec. 19. “If lawmakers have a vestigial sense of shame, they can apologize to the victims whose information was posted.”
The final vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act was 427 to 1, with Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins arguing that the legislation “abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure.”
“As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people—witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc,” Higgins wrote on X at the time. “If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt.”
The Journal commended Higgins’ “brave” stance.
The editorial board took called the Epstein files release problematic for another reason: the airing of scandalous, unverified allegations.
“Since Epstein died in 2019, prosecutors have had time to chase real leads. The Epstein emails that show elites privately cozying up to a wealthy sex offender are embarrassing, but the government isn’t supposed to be in the business of posting scandalous raw evidence without a verifiable criminal case,” the board wrote.
Prominent figures who have denied nefarious activities after showing up in the Epstein files include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson, and Elon Musk.
The Journal noted that “neither the Biden Administration nor the Trump Administration was able to bring new charges against Epstein’s associates.” And yet Republicans and Democrats, it said, “have found it useful to engage in cheap posturing” while “innocent people are getting hurt.”
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