Epstein survivors slam ‘extreme redactions with no explanation’ in DOJ’s release of files

<i>Annabelle Gordon/Reuters/FILE via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Jess Michaels holds up her picture as she speaks during a press conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November.

By CNN Newsource

Published December 22, 2025 9:47 AM

By MJ Lee, CNN

(CNN) — Jeffrey Epstein survivors are slamming the Justice Department’s partial release of the Epstein files that began last Friday, contending that contrary to what is mandated by law, the department’s disclosures so far have been incomplete and improperly redacted — and challenging for the survivors to navigate as they search for information about their own cases.

More than a dozen survivors — along with family members of the late victim Virginia Giuffre — raised a myriad of concerns in a new statement issued Monday, including over “abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation,” some victims’ identities that were left unredacted “causing real and immediate harm,” as well as the absence of any financial documents. The survivors said they have found it “difficult or impossible” to search for materials relevant to their own experiences, they said.

CNN reported on Friday in the immediate aftermath of the DOJ’s release that survivors were struggling to navigate the agency’s online “Epstein Library,” and not having much luck finding information about their own cases.

“There has been no communication with survivors or our representatives as to what was withheld from release, or why hundreds of thousand of documents have not been disclosed by the legal deadline, or how DOJ will ensure that no more victim names are wrongly disclosed,” the statement says. “While clearer communication would not change the fact that a law was broken, its absence suggests an ongoing intent to keep survivors and the public in the dark as much as possible and as long as possible.”

Jess Michaels, an Epstein survivor and a lead writer of the group statement, told CNN in an interview Monday morning that the DOJ’s handling of the release of the files represents “the opposite of transparency.”

“There was no one that approached us and said, ‘Hey, we want to do the right thing by survivors. Let’s have a conversation about this,” she said. “It’s that black and white. It’s: the Department of Justice broke a law signed by the president, period.”

The DOJ has said that the agency is continuing to work through necessary redactions, and that hundreds of thousands more documents would be released in the coming weeks.

“We’re going through a very methodical process with hundreds of lawyers looking at every single document and making sure that victims’ names and any of the information from victims is protected and redacted, which is exactly what the (Epstein Files) Transparency Act expects,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

Michaels, who is in close touch with a number of other Epstein survivors, said she was not aware of any example of a fellow survivor finding new information from the DOJ’s files about their own experiences that they were looking for – with the single exception of Maria Farmer, whose 1996 complaint about Epstein was included in Friday’s disclosure.

Asked what actions, if any, the survivors might take next, she said: “We just want to pause right now and assess.”

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, said on X Monday morning that “the DOJ must stop protecting rich & powerful men who were not charged or those who sabotaged the prosecution.”

Khanna called on the DOJ to release, among other things, FBI witness interviews that name other men, and Epstein’s emails seized from his computer.