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WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Almost as soon as the U.S. Department of Justice released three million more Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday, it began clawing thousands of them back.
Lawyers for victims of the deceased sexual predator immediately noted that, despite the department’s promises, some of its published records contained the names or other identifying information of dozens of women who accused Epstein of sex trafficking, abuse and other crimes.
“On January 30, 2026, DOJ committed what may be the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history,” lawyers Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards wrote in a letter that asked two U.S. federal judges to order the government to take down the website hosting the Epstein files.
“There is no conceivable degree of institutional incompetence sufficient to explain the scale, consistency and persistence of the failures that occurred — particularly where the sole task ordered … was simple: Redact known victim names before publication.”
Victims’ nudes, names published
The Justice Department had committed to do its utmost to “ensure that victim privacy is protected to the maximum extent practicable,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. attorney Jay Clayton said days before the release. That included assigning more than 500 lawyers and reviewers to manually vet documents page by page and assess videos, “but also electronic searches for victims’ names or other identifiers.”
The department has had since at least Nov. 19, when the Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed into law, to go over the materials it posted. Despite those claimed efforts, however, the Epstein files published Friday included nude photos of young women — some of whom might have been teenagers — as well as information like victims’ names and birth dates.
CBC News found that among the documents since removed was a 2007 transcript of testimony from an agent assigned to the FBI’s Operation Leap Year, the code name for the agency’s investigation against Epstein.
While there are redactions throughout, the transcript included the agent’s account of one underage victim who was in photographs seized in the investigation. It showed her first name and last initial, date of birth and high school.
Later in the testimony, the special agent went on to detail how the girl had been hired by Epstein for massages, which in future sessions escalated to sexual activity.
There were explicit descriptions of certain incidents, including where Epstein touched her or instructed her to touch him. He also reportedly gave her a vibrator for her 18th birthday.
By Tuesday morning, the document was no longer accessible on the Justice Department’s website.
The U.S. Justice Department is releasing three million more pages from Epstein files today, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche signalled that today’s drop represents the full release of Epstein files, as required by law. The released documents include extensive redactions; Blanche said information about victims was removed before they were released.
‘Botched redactions’ leak victim information
Another document since taken down included salacious claims of potentially criminal behaviour by U.S. President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, including allegations of sex with underage teen girls. Those claims were never substantiated by any investigators.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department wrote in a press release Friday.
Some of Epstein’s alleged victims, through lawyers Henderson and Edwards, pleaded with the judges overseeing the release of records to have their names removed. “I have never come forward! I am now being harassed by the media and others. This is devastating to my life,” said a woman called Jane Doe 5, according to the lawyers’ letter to the court.
In other cases, the release failed to safeguard the personal privacy of those not connected to Epstein investigations. For example, CBC News found that the first name of a prison guard working at the Manhattan jail where Epstein died had been left unredacted at least once, allowing him to be identified in combination with other details.
In yet another example, reviewers failed to black out the personal email address of a young woman whose parents were friends of Epstein, despite redacting it in other places.
A Justice Department spokesperson acknowledged to CBC News in an email earlier this week that 0.1 per cent of the pages it released contained “victim-identifying information unredacted” — meaning more than 3,000 pages have had to be taken down.
“Our team is working around the clock to fix the issue and republish appropriately redacted pages as soon as possible.”
But critics say the gaffes are unacceptable.
“BOTCHED REDACTIONS. VICTIMS LEFT UNPROTECTED. MILLIONS OF FILES MISSING,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X. “WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?”
In a joint statement, survivors of the sexual predator decried how they “should never be the ones named, scrutinized, and retraumatized while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from secrecy.”
“This is not over,” they said. “We will not stop until the truth is fully revealed and every perpetrator is finally held accountable.”
In their court filing, lawyers say the leak of victims’ information was completely preventable, even through a “simple name search.”
“Simply type in a victim name to the search bar, and if there are any results then apply redactions before publishing. DOJ has proven incapable or unwilling to effectuate that basic task.”
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.