A document included in the US Department of Justice’s release of Jeffrey Epstein files, photographed on Monday, February 2, 2026, shows Epstein’s Florida sex predator/offender registration form for July 2018. | Image Credit: AP
The Justice Department said on Monday (Feb. 2, 2026) that it inadvertently removed several thousand documents and “media” containing victim-identifying information after it began releasing the latest batch of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday (Jan. 30, 2026).
It blamed the release of sensitive information on mistakes made by “technical or human error”, prompting outrage from victims and their lawyers. In a letter to the New York judge overseeing the sex-trafficking cases against Epstein and confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, US Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that the department took all material identified by the victims or their lawyers, along with a “substantial number” of documents independently identified by the government.
Mr. Clayton, who is based in Manhattan, said the department has “repeatedly revised its protocols to address flagging documents” after victims and their lawyers requested changes to the process for reviewing and amending documents posted by them.
Documents are immediately removed from the public website when victims raise concerns that something should be corrected, he wrote. Concerns are evaluated before a revised version of the document is reposted, “ideally within 24 to 36 hours.”
As of Monday (February 2, 2026), the section of the Justice Department’s Epstein Files website, which contains public court documents from Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal cases and civil suits, was no longer operational.
A message was left with the Department of Justice seeking comment on the website issue.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview Sunday (February 1, 2026). ABCThere have been rare errors in his “This Week” redaction or blackout of sensitive information, but the Justice Department has tried to work quickly to address them.
“Every time we’ve heard from a victim or their attorney that they believe their name was not properly redacted, we’ve corrected it immediately. And the numbers we’re talking about, for the American people to understand, we’re talking about .001 percent of all things,” Mr. Blanche said.
Lawyers for two high-profile real estate brokers and their brother Judge Valerie E. The impact of errors in document redactions that were made public without the necessary corrections was highlighted when Caproni was asked for a mistrial.
“The government destroyed the possibility of a fair trial in this case by its own conduct,” said Deanna Paul, a defense attorney at the trial of Tall, Oren and Alon Alexander after the brothers were named in several documents released Friday (Jan. 30, 2026). The brothers have pleaded not guilty to charges of drugging and raping multiple girls and women between 2008 and 2021.
Ms. Alexander said the brothers were now “branded” with “a very toxic association.” Paul said. The judge temporarily rejected the impugned request but still confronted the prosecutor: “Government, really?” “Yes, I understand where the court is coming from,” replied Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa.
She said she was not sure if documents related to Epstein were “trapped in the universe of records” but that at least one document referring to the Alexander brothers had to be “properly redacted” and that the documents had been withdrawn from public circulation.
As he spoke, Ms. Espinosa gave an update on the general release of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department, saying the remaining documents to be released “primarily relate to civil litigation” that would require a judge’s approval to make them public.
Published – February 03, 2026 at 04:46 am IST
