Justice Department fails to redact Epstein victims

The newest batch of Epstein files has exposed the names of dozens of his victims, with some appearing more than 100 times, and included dozens of unredacted nude images of young women, some of whom may have been teenagers. A Wall Street Journal report found that 43 names were left unredacted in files released by the Department of Justice. Among them were many individuals who had not gone public with their identities or were minors when they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein. A New York Times analysis also turned up more than 40 unredacted images that appeared to be part of a personal collection. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche downplayed the breach in victim safety, saying that the errors affected “. 001% of all the materials.” “Every time we hear from a victim or their lawyer that they believe that their name was not properly redacted, we immediately rectify that,” he told ABC News on Sunday. A spokeswoman for the DOJ said it “takes victim protection very seriously” and has already moved to correct the errors. “When a victim’s name is alleged to be unredacted, our team is working around the clock to fix the issue and republish appropriately redacted pages as soon as possible,” the spokeswoman told the Journal. However, lawyers for Epstein survivors say their clients needed to find their names themselves, then submit lengthy requests for removal to the DOJ. “We notified them of the problem within an hour of the release,” attorney Brad Edwards said. “It’s been acknowledged as a grave error; there is no excuse for failing to immediately remedy it unless it was done intentionally.” A DOJ spokesperson told the Times the department was “working around the clock to address any victim concerns, additional redactions of personally identifiable information, as well as any files that require further redactions under the act, to include images of a sexual nature.” Caption from article by Garrett Owen, Slate.