US Justice Dept in race against time as deadline nears for Epstein file release

WASHINGTON, DC: Frustration is mounting inside the Justice Department as it races to redact thousands of pages of files related to Jeffrey Epstein before they must be released Friday, multiple sources familiar with the process told CNN.

A substantial number of redactions are needed, one of the sources said, and the documents each attorney has been processing since Thanksgiving week can number more than 1,000 — a time-consuming task that will likely come down to the wire. Sensitivities around executive and legal privacy, victims’ protections, and other concerns could influence the decisions lawyers must make regarding potential redactions.

Lawyers working on the Epstein files at the DOJ’s National Security Division also believe they aren’t getting clear or comprehensive direction on how to make the most information available under the law, several sources told CNN.

Counterintelligence specialists were asked to drop nearly all of their other work to process the Epstein documents, two people said, but some lawyers declined to participate.

An act of Congress has mandated that the Trump administration release troves of Epstein-related documents — from grand jury records to FBI files and internal Justice Department discussions — by Friday, after months of the Trump administration promising and not delivering transparency, according to CNN.

The situation suggests that the persistent political headache connected to transparency for the Epstein files may not disappear with Friday’s deadline.
Whatever becomes public on Friday, sources said there will still be extensive redactions — the kind of lack of transparency that the American public may continue to scrutinise.

Some legal document specialists are already preparing for the possibility that the Department of Justice’s release of the files will include more redactions than required, and that there may be errors in what’s redacted and what’s made public. Mistakes, especially, could relate to the disclosure of sensitive personal information, because of the volume of documents and the pace at which the lawyers have had to work, the sources told CNN. (ANI)