The Epstein files released by the Department of Justice on Friday included at least a few dozen unredacted nude photos and names of at least 43 victims, according to news reports.
The DOJ missed a December 19 deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act by more than a month, but still released the files without fully redacting nude photos and names of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. The New York Times reported yesterday that it found “nearly 40 unredacted images that appeared to be part of a personal photo collection, showing both nude bodies and the faces of the people portrayed.”
While the people in the photos were young, “it was unclear whether they were minors,” the article said. “Some of the images seemed to show Mr. Epstein’s private island, including a beach. Others were taken in bedrooms and other private spaces.” The photos “appeared to show at least seven different people,” the article said.
The Times said it notified government officials of the nude images and that the pictures have since been “largely removed or redacted” from the files available on the DOJ website. The DOJ told the Times and other media outlets that it is making “additional redactions of personally identifiable information” and redactions of “images of a sexual nature. Once proper redactions have been made, any responsive documents will repopulate online.”
A DOJ spokesperson told Ars today that the department “takes victim protection very seriously and has redacted thousands of victims’ names in the millions of published pages to protect the innocent. The Department had 500 reviewers looking at millions of pages for this very reason, to meet the requirements of the act while protecting victims. When a victim’s name is alleged to be unredacted, our team is working around the clock to fix the issue and republish appropriately redacted pages as soon as possible. To date, 0.1 percent of released pages have been found to have victim identifying information unredacted.”