Epstein survivors feel 'deep sense of betrayal' by Trump’s DOJ over redaction failures

Survivors of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein feel a "deep sense of betrayal" from the Department of Justice, according to a Thursday report from CNN, ripping the agency for failing to redact pieces of their personal information and accusing it of continuing to cover for their abusers.

The DOJ on Friday released what it said would be the last tranche of files related to its investigation into Epstein and his crimes, well over a month past the deadline set for it by Congress. While the agency claimed that the extra time was needed to properly and completely redact sensitive information, including the details of victims, journalists combing through the new pages have nonetheless found countless pieces of identifying information for numerous victims.

Speaking with CNN, some of these victims and their legal teams ripped the DOJ for this failure.

"To have pieces of my life be out there on display in that way, was really troublesome,” survivor Dani Bensky told CNN during a roundtable discussion. “And I know that I’m public now, yes, it hurts me — but it really hurts our survivor sisters who are still ‘Jane Does’ even more."

Bensky told the network that her name, address and phone number were listed in the new files unredacted. Other survivors have shared similar stories, with fully readable driver's licenses left untouched on some pages. Other pages also contained "dozens" of nude or partially nude images of victims as well, according to the New York Times.

Attorneys for several survivors wrote a letter urging two federal judges in New York to intervene, calling the details leaked in the new files an "unfolding emergency." They also stressed the ease with which the DOJ could have found unredacted information.

"When DOJ believed it was ready to publish, it needed only to type each victim’s name into its own search function," the attorneys explained. "Any resulting hit should have been redacted before publication. Had DOJ done that, the harm would have been avoided."

Victims are also calling out the DOJ for what they claim is a continued effort to protect the men who helped enable Epstein's abuse. Speaking with CNN, survivor Jess Michaels highlighted an FBI form in the latest release that was entirely blacked out.

"It basically outlines everything that this person experienced and shared with the FBI. It was seven pages long and four of them looked like this,” Michaels explained. “What happened to her and who did it is also reacted. So you cannot say in the same sentence: ‘There were no men, there was no list’ and redact this much of a statement. Because if there’s no men, then there’s no reason to redact it. There’s no other reason."

While Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche admitted to many "mistakes" in the latest release regarding the details of Epstein survivors, the DOJ claimed that, despite the outcry from Michaels and others, the names of no additional men were redacted, aside from FBI and law enforcement officials involved in the investigation.

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