The government says it is working to fix thousands of documents in files related to Epstein that may contain information about the victim

NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday it has withdrawn several thousand documents and “media items” related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers told a New York judge that the lives of nearly 100 victims were “turned upside down” by sloppy redactions in the government’s latest release of records.

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The exposed material included nude photographs showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was not redacted or completely redacted.

The ministry attributed this to “technical or human error.”

In a letter to New York judges overseeing sex trafficking cases against Epstein and his confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, US Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that the administration had removed nearly all of the material identified by victims or their lawyers, along with a “substantial number” of documents the government had independently identified.

Clayton said the department “reviewed its protocols for processing distressed documents” after victims and their attorneys requested changes. Documents are withdrawn immediately when they are reported by victims, and are then assessed before a redacted version of the document is republished, “ideally within 24 to 36 hours.”

Two lawyers for Epstein’s victims wrote to the court on Sunday asking for “immediate judicial intervention” over what they described as thousands of cases in which the government failed to redact names and other personal information.

Eight women identified as Epstein’s victims added comments to the letter addressed to Judge Richard M. Berman. One wrote that releasing the records was “life-threatening.” Another said she received death threats after 51 entries included her private banking information, forcing her to try to close her credit cards and accounts.

“No conceivable degree of institutional incompetence is sufficient to explain the scale, consistency, and persistence of the failures that occurred — especially where the one task ordered by the court and repeatedly emphasized by the Department of Justice was simple: redacting the names of known victims prior to publication,” attorneys Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards wrote.

Berman, who presided over Epstein’s sex trafficking case, is scheduled to hold a conference on Wednesday.

Also on Monday, a section of the Justice Department’s Epstein Files website that contained public court records from Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal cases and civil lawsuits stopped working.

A message was left requesting comment on the problem with the Ministry of Justice website.

Uncensored photos

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that there were isolated errors in redacting or withholding sensitive information but that the Justice Department tried to work quickly to address them.

“Every time we hear from a victim or their attorney that they believe their name was not redacted correctly, we correct that immediately,” Blanche said. “And the numbers we’re talking about, just for the American people to understand, we’re talking about 100 percent of all materials.”

Dozens of AP reporters who have analyzed the files so far have found several occasions in which a name was redacted in one document, only to be left uncovered in another copy of the same file.

In other places, names and email addresses are crossed out but not completely obscured, so they remain visible. Other text redactions can be easily overridden by simply double-clicking on them to reveal the hidden text underneath.

The Justice Department said all nude or pornographic images were deleted from about 2,000 videos and 180,000 photos in the release, even if they were commercially produced, as the agency considered all women depicted in the images to be potential victims.

But New York Times reporters still found dozens of uncensored photos of naked young men with their faces unretouched.

He watches: A former federal prosecutor analyzes the legal questions surrounding the Justice Department’s release of the Epstein files

The newspaper said the images were removed or significantly redacted after it notified the Justice Department. She said some of the photos appeared to have been taken on the beach on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, while others were taken in the bedroom.

In another case, the AP found a collection of more than 100 photos of an unidentified young female lying on a bed, posing on the beach and other summer locations while wearing a crop top.

The photos are almost completely blacked out, so only the person’s arms and legs are clearly visible, except for the last photo, which is a completely unretouched profile photo revealing her face.

Elsewhere in the files, the face of one of Epstein’s alleged minor victims was clearly visible on an organizational chart created by federal investigators.

The bad redactions didn’t just include the victim’s information.

One email showed Epstein’s full credit card number, expiration date, and security code. The interview transcript from the investigation into Epstein’s suicide included the prison worker’s full Social Security number and date of birth. Some email addresses were visible under thin strokes.

The practical consequences in an unrelated court case

In a separate sex trafficking trial in New York on Monday, lawyers for two prominent real estate brokers and their brother asked for a mistrial because their names appeared in some of Epstein’s documents.

Diana Paul, the defense attorney in the trial of Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, said prosecutors had “destroyed the possibility of a fair trial” by allowing the disclosure of documents that falsely suggested a connection to Epstein. The brothers have pleaded not guilty to drugging and raping multiple girls and women from 2008 to 2021. They have not been accused of having anything to do with Epstein’s abuse of underage girls.

Judge Valerie Caproni denied the motion for a mistrial after individually questioning jurors, who all said they had not seen any news of the brothers. However, she confronted the prosecutor about the issue, asking: “The government, really?”

“Yes, I understand where the court is coming from,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinoza responded.

She said the documents had been withdrawn from public circulation.

The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom work together to examine the files and share information about their contents. Each media outlet is responsible for its independent news coverage of the documents.