The U.S. Justice Department’s latest release of documents on its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein includes the personally identifiable information of dozens of sex-trafficking victims, according to new analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper found that 43 of 47 victims’ full names appeared unredacted in materials the government posted online Friday, with several women’s names appearing more than 100 times. The department’s keyword-search tool enabled users to find victims’ full names along with other personal details, including home addresses, according to the Journal, which also noted that more than two dozen of the named victims were underage at the time they were trafficked.
Victims’ attorneys Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson told the Journal that they provided DOJ with a list of 350 victims on December 4 to support redaction and were alarmed the department did not perform a basic keyword search to verify that names were consistently removed.
As a result, victims are being forced to locate every instance of noncompliance and submit individualized redaction requests, the newspaper said. One victim found that the department had published an image of her driver’s license.
“Much of the information disclosed was drawn from notes taken by federal agents in preparation for my testimony,” she told the Journal. “I cooperated with the United States government when it asked for my help, and now it has failed me—and other survivors—by demonstrating a profound disregard for the safety, protection, and well-being of victims of crimes like these.”
The law requiring the publication of the Epstein files expressly prohibits the department from revealing personal details of the deceased sex trafficker’s victims. The files separately include a wealth of data on Epstein’s financial dealings with various banks and other institutions, including a forensic analysis of suspicious activity believed to be linked to his sex-trafficking operation.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal
