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The Justice Division stated late Monday it’s nonetheless poring by way of hundreds of thousands of paperwork that could be associated to Jeffrey Epstein, because the Trump administration grapples with a congressional mandate to launch all of its recordsdata on the late intercourse offender.
The authorized deadline to make the data public was Dec. 12. However the division has argued the sheer quantity of paperwork that have to be discovered, uploaded, reviewed, redacted and printed has pressured it to as a substitute launch the recordsdata on-line on a rolling foundation, with a sequence of monumental doc dumps over the course of a number of days in mid-December.
In a authorized submitting Monday, the Justice Division instructed a decide it has launched about 12,285 paperwork to date, totaling some 125,575 pages. Greater than 2 million paperwork which will have to be launched underneath the regulation are nonetheless “in varied phases of overview.”
Which means the division has reviewed lower than 1% of its whole attainable data on Epstein, although it famous that it believes a “significant portion” of the still-unreviewed paperwork are duplicates. It additionally stated the paperwork’ web page counts fluctuate extensively.
The paperwork which are underneath overview embody inner Justice Division and FBI emails, court docket filings, notes from FBI interviews, data from subpoenas and “varied types of media,” the court docket submitting stated.
The Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act, handed in mid-November, gave the Justice Division 30 days to launch a large swath of recordsdata on Epstein and his convicted affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell. That features decades-old data from the earliest federal investigations into Epstein, paperwork from Epstein and Maxwell’s 2019 and 2020 intercourse trafficking instances and recordsdata from the Justice Division’s overview of Epstein’s loss of life by suicide whereas in pre-trial custody.
The regulation permits the Justice Division to redact victims’ private info, youngster sexual abuse materials, photographs that present bodily accidents and a small handful of different classes.
The Manhattan decide in Maxwell’s case, U.S. District Decide Paul Engelmeyer, has additionally required the highest prosecutor within the district to “personally certify” that any grand jury supplies which are launched have been “rigorously reviewed” to take out victims’ identities. The Justice Division’s revelations Monday concerning the variety of recordsdata appeared in a letter to Engelmeyer.
Over 400 Justice Division legal professionals are concerned within the overview course of, the submitting stated.
It isn’t clear how lengthy it’s going to take the division to launch all the recordsdata, or when the subsequent tranche might be made public. The Justice Division revealed on Christmas Eve that it had found over one million new paperwork, and reviewing them may take “a couple of extra weeks.”
The Justice Division has defended its dealing with of the recordsdata, arguing it must launch them on a rolling schedule with the intention to shield victims’ private info.
However the division’s tempo — and the truth that it missed Congress’ deadline — has drawn backlash from congressional Democrats and Epstein survivors. Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer accused the division of a “cover-up” final month.
“The regulation Congress handed is crystal clear: launch the Epstein recordsdata in full so Individuals can see the reality,” Schumer stated in an announcement.
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