After the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to fully comply with a law to release all files related to its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a group of his survivors on Monday accused the agency of legal violations and are demanding accountability.
The DOJ faced a Friday deadline to release its massive cache of records related to the federal investigation into Epstein and his associates. However, the release sparked widespread outrage after only a portion of the documents were made public — many of which were heavily redacted.
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A group of 19 women, including two who chose to remain anonymous, said Monday that there is no excuse for the delay.
"The public received a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation," the group said in a statement obtained by Scripps News. "At the same time, numerous victim identities were left unredacted, causing real and immediate harm. No financial documents were released. Grand jury minutes, though approved by a federal judge for release, were fully blacked out – not the scattered redactions that might be expected to protect victim names, but 119 full pages blacked out. We are told that there are hundreds of thousands of pages of documents still unreleased. These are clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law."
The group of Epstein survivors went on to say that the partial release made it nearly impossible for any of them to find documents that were relevant to their particular cases or their search for accountability. They also claim the DOJ didn't communicate to them or their representatives what documents were withheld in the release and why.
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"It is alarming that the United States Department of Justice, the very agency tasked with upholding the law, has violated the law, both by withholding massive quantities of documents, and by failing to redact survivor identities," the group stated. "As women who survived the crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, we call upon DOJ to explain to the public why they have missed a legal deadline and to explain to us or our representatives how we can privately obtain copies of all documents in DOJ possession that identify us by name."
"Moreover we call upon Congress to stand up for the rule of law. We urge immediate congressional oversight, including hearings, formal demands for compliance, and legal action, to ensure the Department of Justice fulfills its legal obligations," the survivors added.
Speaking Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the DOJ's publishing of just a fraction of the Epstein files on Friday but pledged that all material will eventually be made public. He claimed the delay is because the DOJ is still reviewing documents to ensure victims are protected.
"The same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don’t want us to protect victims," said Blanche.
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The fallout over the release has also rippled through Capitol Hill, with some lawmakers threatening to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt for failing to meet the congressional deadline to release all the files.
The law’s co-sponsors — Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. — also said they've began drafting articles of impeachment against Bondi, with Khanna warning that other DOJ officials could also face legal consequences if they played a role in withholding any records related to Epstein.
