Justice Department Removes Documents from Epstein Files

The Justice Department announced on Monday that it had taken down “thousands of documents and media” from the recently disclosed Epstein files, which had erroneously shared the personal details of the financier’s victims, as noted in court records.

This decision followed discussions with lawyers representing Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who informed two New York judges that the careless editing of portions from over 3 million Epstein files made public last Friday had severely impacted the lives of around 100 survivors. The revealed information included photos, email addresses, names, and sensitive banking details.

In a letter sent on Monday to Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer—who are managing the Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case—Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, indicated that all materials identified by the victims and their lawyers had been removed.

Additionally, the department identified a “significant number” of documents for removal on its own, according to documents obtained by the media.

The Justice Department attributed some of the editing problems to “technical or human error” and mentioned that it has “revised its procedures for handling reported documents.”

“The department has been working all weekend since the initial report. Victim-related concerns were raised,” Clayton emphasized in his communication.

Documents will be removed upon a victim’s report, and a redacted version will be examined prior to reposting, with Clayton mentioning that this should ideally happen within 24 to 36 hours.

Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards, attorneys for Epstein’s victims, sent a letter to the court on Sunday requesting “immediate judicial intervention” regarding the editing errors that have left “Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors in a state of panic around the world.”

“On January 30, 2026, the Justice Department released over 3.5 million documents related to Epstein but failed to redact the names of victims in thousands of instances,” the attorneys pointed out.

This failure, they argued, occurred “despite repeated statements that redactions were the only reason for the delay in publication, and the Department of Justice’s acknowledgment that such oversights would cause extraordinary harm to victims.”

“It is hard to imagine a level of institutional incompetence sufficient to account for the scale, consistency, and persistence of the failures experienced, especially when the sole mandate from the court—and consistently emphasized by the Department of Justice—was simply to redact the names of known victims before publication,” Henderson and Edwards remarked.

The letter to the judges included messages between the lawyers and eight women who had been victims of Epstein, revealing that personal information had been disseminated under the Epstein File Transparency Act.

One victim expressed being in a “life-threatening situation” after having their full address and photo released. Another victim reported receiving death threats, forcing them to shut down credit cards and accounts following the leak of their private banking information.

The Justice Department did not provide an immediate comment on the situation.