US lawmakers say files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were improperly redacted ahead of their release by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Members of Congress on Monday were allowed to begin a review of the unredacted versions of the approximately three million pages of files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) since December.
The core issue is that they're not complying with... my law, because these were scrubbed back in March by Donald Trump's FBI, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna told MS NOW.
At least one document has been unredacted since the lawmakers' complaint, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying on X: The DOJ is committed to transparency.
The files' redactions came under scrutiny last week after lawyers for Epstein's victims said the latest tranche of files included email addresses and nude photos in which the names and faces of potential victims could be identified.
Survivors issued a statement calling the disclosure outrageous and said they should not be named, scrutinized and retraumatized.
The DOJ said it had taken down all the flagged files and that mistakes were due to technical or human error.
After viewing the unredacted documents, Massie and Khanna, who co-sponsored the law which compelled the release of the Epstein files last year, told reporters they had a list of about 20 people in which every name was redacted except for Epstein's and his convicted sex trafficker associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Six of the names could even belong to men who are likely incriminated by their inclusion in these files, Massie said outside the DoJ on Monday night, before posting a screenshot of the redacted file online and demanding an explanation.
Khanna stated that names were inappropriately redacted, while Blanche asserted that all non-victim names from this document were eventually unredacted in accordance with transparency commitments.
However, Khanna expressed that the DOJ’s measures taken after the documents' release still do not comply with the EFTA law, which aims to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims.
Despite attempts by the DOJ to address the lawmakers' concerns, the scrutiny continues over how the files have been handled, bringing scrutiny on the DOJ's operations and its past handling of Epstein-related evidence.
