FBI push for Epstein files’ release with victim, witness details exposed

Hundreds of FBI employees have been working long shifts examining documents from the bureau’s investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, making only limited redactions.

US Attorney-General Pam Bondi ordered a review of Jeffrey Epstein documents. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Hundreds of FBI employees have been working long shifts examining documents from the bureau’s investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, making only limited redactions that some officials worry will expose sensitive information on sex-abuse victims and witnesses, people familiar with the matter said.

Attorney-General Pam Bondi ordered the review after a first batch of Epstein files she released in February fell short of expectations. She had promoted the earlier release for days but the material contained few new revelations, drawing criticism from right-wing influencers.

Bondi promised there was more to come, saying a source in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York field office had told her the bureau withheld thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents. FBI director Kash Patel promised “no stone left unturned”.

“We’ve received a truckload of documents, of evidence, and Kash is going to give me a deadline on when he can go through that to protect … the victims of sex trafficking who are wrapped into this,” Bondi said on Fox News last week.

Some on the right have suggested the government concealed information about a list of men who abused some of Epstein’s victims, which they believe would include powerful Democrats. No evidence has surfaced that such a list exists. Women who were trafficked by Epstein have named more than 20 men as alleged participants in sexual exploitation or abuse, according to a lawyer representing many of those women.

Under pressure from Patel, agents and other FBI employees in New York and at headquarters in Washington have been pulled from other duties to work 12-hour shifts to pore over the material, sources said. They have been instructed to redact only a list of victim names and their personally identifiable information, like phone numbers and social media handles, the people said. A victim’s city and state must be disclosed, under the terms of the review.

Reviewers were told not to blacken entire chunks of text and that no other third-party names would be protected, sources said, meaning details of witnesses, victims’ relatives and people close to them could become public. If reviewers find nude photos of victims, they can redact the entire body, but if the victim is clothed, they are instructed to black out only the victim’s face.

Many of the people doing the redactions have no experience with such sensitive work. Some employees involved in the review worry that victims will be identifiable through other details, and that sensitive information will be compromised, sources said. They worry the documents will inadvertently expose the names of people who weren’t identified among the listed victims.

Current and former officials said the process was a break from normal procedures designed to safeguard sensitive witness and victim information.

The Justice Department referred questions to the FBI. An FBI spokesman said Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino, at Bondi’s direction, “have prioritised transparency with the Epstein files. All appropriate administrative and legal requirements are being adhered to.”

A Wall Street Journal investigation found Epstein’s sexual exploitation and abuse didn’t end with his 2008 conviction in Florida state court – as many of his famous associates later said they believed – but continued until his second arrest by federal authorities in 2019. He lured dozens of women by promising to use his connections to powerful people to get them jobs or other opportunities. He then groomed most of the women for his personal sexual exploitation.

He killed himself in prison in 2019, according to the New York City medical examiner, while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking.

Much of the information under FBI review was examined as part of the federal prosecution of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of a decade-long scheme to help Epstein. She received 20 years in prison.

The Wall Street Journal