A Channel 4 News investigation says the U.S. Justice Department’s public release of Jeffrey Epstein-related records may represent only a small slice of what the FBI seized from Epstein’s properties, raising fresh questions from survivors and transparency advocates. In its reporting, Channel 4 News said it identified internal emails in the released material suggesting the public production could amount to “potentially just 2%” of the information obtained from Epstein’s homes.
The Channel 4 article also suggests that survivors of Epstein’s abuse believe the Trump administration has failed to meet their call for full disclosure of all information related to Epstein. The Channel 4 article suggests that survivors believe “the ‘three million’ or ‘six million’ pages of information discussed in public debate are likely to be just a fraction of what authorities actually gathered – particularly when it comes to digital information from devices and storage systems.”
The Justice Department claims this release marks an important step towards complying with federal law. The Department of Justice announced on January 30 in a press release that it had released more than 3 million additional pages of responsive documents to the public. These included over 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The total public production now exceeds 3.5 million pages.
The DOJ stated that it received these documents from five main sources related to Epstein and related investigations, including Florida and New York cases related to Epstein, the New York case related to Ghislaine Maxwell, investigations into Epstein’s death, a case related to a former butler, FBI investigations, and the investigation conducted by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The department stated that it “erred on the side of over-collecting” and that it had determined categories for non-production, including duplicates, privilege, statutory exceptions, and those that are not related to the Epstein or Maxwell cases. It also stated that it had redacted information to protect victims and their families, although it did not redact information related to notable individuals or politicians.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act is now federal law, which requires the DOJ to ensure that unclassified information related to Epstein is available to the public, with certain protections for victims, etc. According to Congress.gov, there is a requirement that the information be available within 30 days of enactment, including categories of information that are included in this release.
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