US lawmakers accuse justice department of ‘inappropriately’ redacting Epstein files
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.
These names were “inappropriately” redacted, Khanna said on MS NOW.
In response to their concerns, Blanche said his department “just unredacted all non-victim names from this document. The DOJ is committed to transparency.”
He linked to what appears to be a new version of the file – which he said contains the names of Epstein victims, whose identities the EFTA law orders the government to conceal – with only two names now blacked out.
Blanche also responded to two other files highlighted by Massie, saying those files do not obfuscate any substantive information.
But Khanna said those measures taken after the documents’ release are still not in compliance with the EFTA law, which passed nearly unanimously in Congress and was signed by President Trump in November.
“Trump’s FBI scrubbed these files in March,” Khanna said on social media. “The documents (the Department of) Justice [received] had the redactions that the FBI made back then.
“They need to unscrub the FBI files so we know who the rich and powerful men are who raped underage girls.”
Massie said the incorrect redactions show the justice department “need to do a little more homework” in their handling of the files.
“What we found out is those 302 forms were redacted before they got to the DOJ,” in contradiction of the law’s order for the FBI – which is part of the DOJ – to un-redact information before sending it to Blance and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office.
Among the redactions flagged by Massie on Monday night was a document appearing the show an email exchange between Epstein and an unknown person discussing a “torture video” and travel between China and the United States.
Massie claimed that “a Sultan seems to have sent this” and demanded the hidden identity be revealed.
Blanche quoted Massie’s post on X, saying the blacked-out text is an email address.
“The law requires redactions for personally identifiable information, including if in an email address. And you know that the Sultan’s name is available unredacted in the files,” he said.
“Stop grandstanding,” he added.
Massie also complained that the name of a “well known retired CEO” was missing from the publicly available version of an FBI document listing potential Epstein co-conspirators.
Within hours, Blanche said that name – which already appears elsewhere in the files – had also been uncovered.
“DOJ is hiding nothing,” he wrote.
Macron urges Europe to start acting like world power
French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to assert itself on the world stage, saying it is time to start acting like a “power”.
In the face of growing threats from China, Russia and now the US, he told a group of European newspapers that the continent faced a “wake-up call”.
“Are we ready to become a power? This is the question in the field of economy and finance, in defence and security, and in our democratic systems.
“In another era we might have said it is the moment to ‘assume our majority’,” he said ahead of an EU summit in Brussels later this week.