Certain Epstein documents withdrawn after victims complain

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday that it had withdrawn certain documents related to late financier Jeffrey Epstein, after victims complained that sensitive information had been released due to redaction failures.

In a letter filed to federal judges Monday, the department said it had taken down "several thousand documents and media" from its website that "may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information due to various factors, including technical or human error."

The development came after lawyers for Epstein's victims asked the judges late Sunday to urgently order that the DOJ site be taken down because of redaction failures exposing personal information. The lawyers said that the lives of nearly 100 individual survivors "have been turned upside down by the DOJ's latest release."

The DOJ on Friday released a new batch of files on Jeffrey Epstein -- more than 3 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images in total -- over a month after a congressional deadline for the release of all related files.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told a press conference that with the latest release, the department produced approximately 3.5 million pages in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

On Nov. 18, 2025, Congress passed the bill by an overwhelming majority, requiring the DOJ to make public files related to the Epstein case by Dec. 19.

Beginning on Dec. 19, the department started releasing the documents in batches. However, large portions were heavily redacted, and some photos that had just been released were later removed from the DOJ's website.

The first batch of documents contained numerous references to former Democratic President Bill Clinton, prompting accusations that the DOJ was selective in releasing documents. Some major U.S. media outlets interpreted the move as an attempt to shield prominent figures in President Donald Trump's Republican camp.

On Dec. 23, 2025, the department released a new batch of nearly 30,000 pages of Epstein-related documents, many of which involved Trump. The department later said that some of the content in the files was "untrue."