The latest tranche of Epstein files is still full of sloppy redaction failures that show potential victims’ nude bodies, despite repeated warnings about the scale of the blunders.
Donald Trump’s Justice Department had already blazed past the Dec. 19 deadline for release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files and come under fire for failing to redact victims’ information before it uploaded what it said was the final tranche of documents on Friday.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that its reporters found at least 40 images that appeared to contravene the Epstein Files Transparency Act when poring over the latest dump.
The DOJ blamed “technical or human error” and removed thousands of documents from its website.
However, the BBC and Associated Press have reported that the issue persists. The sloppy job has left images of partially clothed young females without redaction, while some people have their identity obscured in one photo but in another they are totally visible.
Nudity is also present, the BBC reported. In a video, a young woman is seen lifting her shirt to expose one of her breasts. As part of the Epstein Transparency Act, officials agreed to scrub all nudity and protect victims’ identities.
As well as nudity, the BBC found that the identities of several people had been revealed in medical information and that legal statements were also published in the files.
“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce making sure every victim—their name, their identity, their story, to the extent that it needs to be protected—is completely protected,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said before the Dec. 19 deadline came and went.
Lawyers for the victims now say that they have been let down. “The damage done is irreparable,” Brad Edwards told the BBC in a statement.
In one shocking blunder, the BBC saw a recording of Epstein being grilled in an interview. In the clip, a lawyer mentioned the name of at least one victim. This went unredacted. AP reported that the names of victims who have never even gone public were accidentally identified by police reports in the files.
“We are getting constant calls from victims because their names—despite them never coming forward, being completely unknown to the public—have all just been released for public consumption,” Edwards added.
“It’s literally thousands of mistakes.”
Both the BBC and AP reported that, as of Wednesday evening, such documents remained online. In two such images, young females appear in various states of nudity, their faces in plain view, AP stated.
Brittany Henderson, a lawyer for one of the victims, said the failure to protect victims is head-scratching. “The failure here is not merely technical,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It is a failure to safeguard human beings who were promised protection by our government.”
Annie Farmer, who testified in court about her alleged abuse at the hands of Epstein and his jailed accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, previously said the development was “extremely disturbing.”
By Wednesday, she had grown angry. “At this point, I’m feeling really most of all angry about the way that this unfolded,” she told NBC News.
Elsewhere, the redaction screw-up descended into farce. AP noted that one young woman had her identity protected in 99 of 100 images in a set. In the last one, her entire face was revealed.
In another document, the name “Joseph” was scrubbed from a photo caption describing a Nativity scene at a church. “A Nativity scene depicting Jesus, Mary and (REDACTED),” it said.
But this wasn’t even the dumbest redaction. That accolade goes to an email in which a dog’s name appears to have been obscured. “I spent an hour walking (REDACTED) and then another hour bathing her blow drying her and brushing her. I hope she smells better!!” the email said.
The DOJ has been asked to comment on the redaction mess.
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