Journalism of Courage
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday, November 19, released thousands of files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, just before the deadline to do so was about to expire.
The trove includes hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, recordings of phone calls and videos gathered during state and federal investigations into Epstein.
Given the massive amount of data in its possession, the DOJ has not released all the files linked to its investigation into Epstein, and it is expected to take at least a couple of weeks.
The release of the Epstein documents comes as a welcome relief to the victims of his abuses, who have been fighting for years to make them public.
While some of them expressed satisfaction, others pointed out that there was still a lack of transparency.
Maria Farmer, one of the first people to file a complaint against Epstein, back in 1996, said the release of the documents was amazing.
“This is amazing. Thank you for believing me. I feel redeemed. This is one of the best days of my life. Of course, it’s mixed with the fact that I’m devastated about all the other little girls like Virginia who were harmed because the FBI didn’t do their job,” Farmer said in a statement through her attorneys.
Dani Bensky, who was allegedly sexually abused by Epstein when she was 17 years old, welcomed the release of the documents, but added that she and other survivors hoped for more.
“There’s so much information, and yet not as much as we may have wanted to see,” Bensky told NBC News.
Other Epstein accusers argued that the release of thousands of pages of photographs and heavily redacted documents did little to shed new light on Epstein and his conspirators.
“They are proving everything we have been saying about corruption and delayed justice. What are they protecting? The coverup continues,” Jess Michaels, one of the earliest known victims of Epstein, told The New York Times.
“If everything is redacted, where is the transparency?” another Epstein victim, Marijke Chartouni, told The New York Times.
The DOJ, on Friday, clarified that the Epstein documents were redacted to protect victims, and no politicians’ names are being withheld.
“The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law — full stop. Consistent with the statute and applicable laws, we are not redacting the names of individuals or politicians unless they are a victim,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the Justice Department to redact things that could potentially identify victims who were sexually abused. However, it’s not clear that every redaction in every photo was made to protect a confirmed victim.
