A federal judge has asked the Justice Department to provide information on what materials are subject to protection and how it will protect victims of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as documents get released.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman of the Southern District of New York has requested “a detailed description of all materials subject to the Protective Order, dated July 25, 2019.”
His late Wednesday night request also seeks “a detailed description of the privacy process, including any redactions, the Government seeks to employ to protect the rights of Epstein victims.”
The information is to be provided by noon on Dec. 1.
The order comes after a letter from Epstein victim attorneys Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson said that documents released by the House Oversight Committee “have exposed the identities of victims and consequently caused significant emotional distress for our clients.”
The committee has released over 20,000 documents received from the estate of Epstein.
The president signed legislation earlier this month that forces the Justice Department to release all the files it has regarding Epstein.
The House voted overwhelmingly on the legislation and the Senate quickly followed suit before the bill made its way to the president. The Epstein files have been at the forefront of many minds as Democrats and Republicans have pointed fingers at each other over who is in the files.
The letter from the attorneys, though, warned that a politically motivated rush to release files can damage victims.
“Transparency CANNOT come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims, especially these survivors who have already suffered repeatedly, both at the hands of their abusers as well as by the actions of the media and inactions on the Government,” they wrote.
They wrote that the release of the documents caused “wide-spread panic amongst survivors of Jeffrey Epstein all over the world.”
The letter included statements from three victims reacting to the release of the documents. One said she has “been unable to mentally and emotionally function or sleep.”
Another said she doesn’t “understand how this is happening again,” and that the situation is “very scary.”
The lawyers also said they received calls from at least six victims who have been contacted by the press after their names were released in the documents.
“The situation is already dire, we have diligently and repeatedly brought this issue to Congress, and the source of the problem, we are told, lies with the Department of Justice.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and a problem that must be rectified prior to the public release of any additional documents.”
President Trump broke the logjam in Congress earlier this month by coming out in support of releasing the documents, though this was a flip-flop as he had remained adamant that the files shouldn’t be released.
The president has his own ties to Epstein, though he has maintained that while he had been friends with the disgraced financier, the two had a falling out.
He has denied all wrongdoing and no Epstein victim has accused him of abuse.
The bill he signed requires the Justice Department to release everything related to Epstein, along with info about the investigation into his death in 2019 while he was in jail awaiting trial. The information needs to be released within 30 days.
