US : Justice Department is running out of time as the Epstein file release deadline approaches
US: According to several people familiar with the process who spoke to CNN, the Justice Department is becoming more frustrated as it rushes to redact thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein-related papers before they have to be made public on Friday.
According to one of the sources, a significant number of redactions are required, and each lawyer has been processing over 1,000 papers since Thanksgiving week. This is a laborious procedure that will probably come down to the wire. Lawyers’ choices on possible redactions may be influenced by sensitivity to issues such as victims’ rights, executive and legal privacy, and other issues.
According to several people who spoke to CNN, attorneys working on the Epstein files at the DOJ’s National Security Division also feel they aren’t receiving thorough or unambiguous guidance on how to make the most material public under the law.
According to two persons, counterintelligence experts were ordered to put aside almost all of their other tasks in order to analyze the Epstein papers, but several attorneys refused to take part.
After months of the Trump administration promising and failing to provide openness, an act of Congress has ordered the release of troves of Epstein-related papers by Friday, including FBI files, grand jury records, and internal Justice Department talks, CNN reports.
The circumstances imply that Friday’s deadline may not end the ongoing political issue related to disclosure for the Epstein papers.
There will still be significant redactions, according to sources, regardless of what is made public on Friday. This is the type of lack of openness that the American people may continue to examine.
The prospect that the Department of Justice would disclose the files with more redactions than necessary and that there could be mistakes in what is blacked and what is made public has already prompted some legal document professionals to be ready. Given the amount of papers and the speed at which the attorneys have had to work, errors may particularly pertain to the release of private information, the sources told CNN.