Exclusive: Frustration mounts at Justice Department as it races to redact some Epstein files, sources say

[demmiblue]

Source: CNN

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 is processing since Thanksgiving week can number more than 1,000 — a time-consuming task that likely will come down to the wire. The sensitivities of executive and legal privacy, victims’ protections and other concerns all could play in to the choices the lawyers must make when it comes to 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 said.

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.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/politics/epstein-documents-redaction-process

[SheltieLover]

1. Shredders running 24/7, but there are other copies

[Marie Marie]

2. Funny how they seemed to have found the personnel and time to go through those same files and

flag all the references to Trump months ago. The only thing that should be redacted now is the names of the victims.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

3. Protecting pedophiles and rapists under the guise of justice might be a tad frustrating.

Maybe releasing the unredacted files might not be so frustrating! Duh.

[Blasphemer]

4. This should have been started years ago.

I’ve done this work and it’s not fun. No doubt Trump’s stooges will screw it up.

[Aussie105]

5. The released documents will be so sanitised that they will be meaningless.

Trump will say . . . nothing to see here, I told you so!

Needs an inside leaker to get unredacted stuff.

[johnnyfins]

8. Guaranteed leaks if these files are at all different

from what victims attorneys and a lot of others have seen.

[popsdenver]

14. What papers are produced

will look like the Mueller report.........90% blacked out............

[Mister Ed]

28. And Bondi, like Barr, should be expected to get out front of it and put a heavy spin on it...

...while Trump claims "total exoneration!".

[slightlv]

16. I'm thinking some of those lawyers that refused to be a part of this

might be where some leaks could come from. This is what... the 2nd or 3rd go-around for sanitizing these files? And yet, victim's names will STILL be listed. Only the criminals will be redacted.

[johnnyfins]

6. Executive and legal privacy?

What the fuck is that? I though only protection of victims was at play?

[Bayard]

7. Wonder if Congress will see any of the unredacted text?

[in2herbs]

9. Too bad. So sad. Each redaction has to be listed out on a separate page with its own reason for the redaction.

According to the Epstein Bill, they're not allowed to simply claim "national security". The DOJ must define/describe what part of national security specifically is applicable.

I don't see how they are going to be done by tomorrow. But I think the House should demand a copy of what they do have. This will at least give an indication of how much effort they have put into the release and whether they're complying with what they agreed to. Bondi will be the first to go.

[Stardust Mirror]

12. Yes, that's what the law says, but

Trump has ignored laws so long that if he actually did follow a law that would be a surprise

[in2herbs]

22. F45 is not the primary figure that will be punished for non-compliance. It will be his administration and they

don't have immunity.

There is very little, if anything, in the Epstein law that allows the USSC to exercise jurisdiction primarily because the law was approved by all but one member of congress and approved by the president, meaning there is no question for the USSC to address.

[Stardust Mirror]

23. Thanks for the encouraging reply

I hope you're correct

[popsdenver]

15. I can only imagine

given the time the Republicans, DOJ, FBI have had, that any really juicy stuff will have been "disappeared", so to speak.
Or, at least stuffed in his ex-wife's coffin buried on Trump's golf course.........

[slightlv]

17. I SO want that coffin exhumed... and a proper burial and funeral done for this woman.

She deserves so much better than what trump gave her. And I just KNOW there's tons of stuff hidden in that coffin that should see the light of day again. No CT... just personal opinion.

[popsdenver]

29. I wondered why

Trump would choose one of HIS golf courses?????????? Then there were reports that the coffin needed more pallbearers than a normal casket due to its weight.
Then I thought that an order to exhume would be much more difficult to pull off??? since it was private property and not a cemetery?????
Also, he could tunnel underground to that coffin, and get anything he stashed there before it was all destroyed by the bacterial breakdown of his ex's body, if that coffin even contained his ex, which is probably questionable knowing the chief MAGAot.

Wasn't even her "death" questionable, with little or no investigation????????

[slightlv]

38. Nail on the head, Pops!

And no, I don't think her body is in there. I've already thought about the tunnel angle, especially as he seems to be getting such a good education rooting out the drug dealers, eh? I don't know if it'd be any harder to get an exhumation order since it's on private property. He gets tax cuts because he claims it as a cemetary. Don't know if that would even make it "private" any longer... at least, that one parcel of ground.

And what WAS up with the weight of that coffin? Even dead weight (pardon the pun), she wouldn't have been that heavy. But binders and binders of heavy manila folders and top rated copy paper could weigh it down. If so, man... that was a LOT of crap he wanted to sneak away with. It can't all be for burying... as in exonerating him on something. I think he had it all planned out... the murder, the burial, the tax breaks, the talk about the stupidity and callousness of the tax breaks and the way she was buried; in addition to the disrespect he shows her every single day by not keeping up the gravesite.

I SO want each and every little thing -- no matter how evil or how very petty -- to finally come out on trump once and for all. I want it ALL out in the open so people can actually SEE just who they supported as president and why they'd do something that immoral. Mainly, I want to oooh and aaah... and pick my chin up off the floor in one big fell swoop... and then never have to hear his name again.

[BattleRow]

18. Buried under new ballroom..lots of balls being juggled..maybe jiggled,too?

[KS Toronado]

10. And what can we do if trumpie's name is nowhere to be found?

[Volaris]

30. Well, we KNOW theres an excel file as an index of every page his name was on,

If THATS not released, I think Pam will be in a whole world of legal trouble.

[bluestarone]

11. I gotta ask, How is anybody gonna know if DOJ does NOT release everything?

The judge ordered all released, so how the he;ll; will we (and the judge) know if they do?

[slightlv]

39. Didn't the Epstein Estate release thousands of unredacted pages

and aren't they doing that still? If so, that should be an easy (tho not quick) task of compare and contrast.

Eventually, we're going to have someone get fed up and release anything and everything they can lay their hands on... the more salacious, the better. He's making lots of enemies as he works to leave what he calls a legacy. Whistleblowers WILL happen. He's becoming way too weak in the public's eyes.

[FakeNoose]

13. Didn't Bill Barr do all that redacting work for you guys ... like ... 5 years ago?

Too late assholes! You knew the release date, and your time is up.

[Wonder Why]

19. Other than for redacting victim names/information, they should be charged with crimes for any

other redacting that involved information on the accused.

[The Mouth]

20. The dumbest thing the Biden administration did (failed to do)

Not releasing *EVERYTHING* except the names of the minors involved.

If they can be destroyed by the files, they NEED to be destroyed by the files; let the chips fall where they may, Democrat or Republican.

If Trumps was implicated in any of them verifiable, President Boden's people were not just fools but absolutely idiotic not to 'leak' it; bringing a dozen donuts to a machine-gun fight idiotic.

[karynnj]

21. I think there were active cases, including an appeal by Maxwell

At most they could have started preparing to release everything and sorted it between things involved with Maxwell and not involved so they could have released that part

Also a lot of this is stuff from the Epstein estate.

[travelingthrulife]

26. They told us they were doing this months ago.

[The Mouth]

43. I'm just saying

If you want a perfect example of where 'going high' screwed up everything, this is it.

The Biden administration could have redacted what any reasonable person would consider enough- that is enough to protect the identities of the girls, before arranging for a 'disgruntled DOJ' worker to leak everything to Wikileaks and the NYT, and done so in days.

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

I've got to say, one of the most compelling arguments MAGAts had was "If there was any hard evidence of Trump doing anything, the Biden administration would have released it". True or not, it was an impactful argument to many.

[slightlv]

40. Face it... trump cowed EVERYONE

but the few of us individuals out here who've fought the good fight for over 50-60 years. Doesn't make any difference what a person's political party, who s/he was, what they did, etc... by sheer dint of PR and mega maga press, they made trump out to be a behemoth than no one dared approach. And everyone fell for it, hook line and sinker.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. I have pulled all-nighters to write term papers that were due the next day.

Yes, I had a whole quarter, or semester, to write them, but I thought we wouldn't actually have to turn them in. I mean, don't they even know who the f I am? I shouldn't have to write term papers just because some damn prof says I do.

What have these justice dept people been doing for the past year? Why is it such a rush now?

[travelingthrulife]

25. Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

What goes through the minds of monsters like Bondi that causes them to protect these men and women? She was Florida's AG from 2011-2019. She has been scrubbing since then already.

[sop]

27. They'll have a hard time redacting this...

[quakerboy]

31. Executive privacy?

interesting.

So Boiling it down.. its a lot of work to try and scrub all the incriminating evidence on Trump and his donors/

[sakabatou]

32. So how much will be whitewashed?

[Wonder Why]

33. The only thing left are 4 "ands", 3 "ors", 37 "thes" and 12,734 "youngs".

[Jimvanhise]

34. VIOLATION!

The law requiring that these files be released prohibited any redactions.

[peppertree]

37. Cheeto's middle name

[peppertree]

35. Our tax dollars at play

A veritable striptease, you might even say.

[azureblue]

36. more than redact --

Bondi's plan was to release anything incriminating Trump at the very last, to order the papers so that everybody else appears first, and trickle out the files.. And the first release confirms this. Nothing that actually proves sexual contact with young girls, just photos of people in groups, in a pool, celeb shots, etc. Bondi's plan is that people will get outraged at thesephotos, that will give teh GOP some foundation to build lies on, and then minimize Trump's rapes and pedophilia..

Note that there is very little attention being paid to the personal and courts testimonies by the victims - some really sick stuff that confirms Trump not one rapes but abuses young girls...

THIS is what we should spread, to thwart Trump's little cover up game

[The Mouth]

41. Fuck redacting *ANYTHING* except the names and faces of minors

Let the chips fall where they may.

[The Mouth]

42. If there was anything on Trump

The Biden administration was incompetent to the point of suicide in not 'leaking' it.