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By Brian Daitzman
A new law ordered the DOJ to publish unclassified Epstein records by Dec. 19. The first trove arrived heavily redacted, including at least 550 pages that CBS News said were entirely blacked out.
The Justice Department released a new tranche of records tied to Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, but hundreds of pages in the material were rendered unreadable by full-page blackouts, according to a review by CBS News.
CBS said it found at least 550 pages that were entirely redacted in the release, which arrived on Dec. 19, the deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Even as the law set a 30-day window for disclosure, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department would keep producing records on a “rolling basis,” CBS reported.
The blackouts included a run of three consecutive documents totaling 255 pages, each covered by a black box, CBS said. Another file, a 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY,” was also fully redacted, CBS reported.
CBS said it was unclear what proceeding the “Grand Jury-NY” document stemmed from. The outlet reported that the item immediately preceding it on the file list was a transcript in which a prosecutor asked a grand jury in 2020 to consider evidence for a superseding indictment of Ghislaine Maxwell, whom CBS described as Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator.
Taken together, CBS’s review described a release that included fully blacked-out documents, fully obscured pages embedded inside otherwise partly redacted files, and partially redacted photographs.
The statute requires the Justice Department to publish “all unclassified” Epstein- and Maxwell-related records in its possession within 30 days of enactment and bars withholding, delaying or redacting material on the basis of “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.” It also requires the attorney general to make the covered materials publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format.
CBS said the blackouts extended beyond fully redacted files. It reported that at least 180 completely obscured pages appeared inside files that were otherwise only partly redacted, sometimes following a cover page or other material that was not fully redacted.
In other instances, CBS reported, redactions were more limited. The outlet pointed to a 96-page police report tied to a Florida investigation into Epstein in the mid-2000s that redacted victims’ names and other details while leaving many details visible.
CBS also reported that some of the thousands of photos in the release were partially redacted, with some people’s faces obscured. It said photos including former President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson had partial redactions in some images while Clinton and Jackson themselves were fully visible.
The law permits limited withholding or redaction in certain circumstances, including to protect victims’ personally identifiable information, to withhold child sexual abuse material, and to temporarily withhold information that would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution if the withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary.
It also requires that redactions be accompanied by a written justification published in the Federal Register and submitted to Congress. And it calls for a list of government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in released materials that, under the law’s ban on redactions for political sensitivity, may not be withheld on that basis.
CBS reported that some Friday redactions appeared to black out survivors’ names, but that it was not clear in every case why information was blacked out.
The Justice Department said on X that no politicians’ names were redacted from the files, CBS reported. Blanche told Fox News Digital: “The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law — full stop,” CBS reported.
CBS also reported that Blanche said in a letter to Congress that more than 200 Justice Department lawyers reviewed the documents for survivors’ names and other redactions.
Lawmakers from both parties criticized the breadth of the blackouts, CBS reported, including Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Khanna called it an “incomplete release with too many redactions” in a video posted to X and said he was “exploring all options,” CBS reported. Massie said the release “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law,” CBS reported.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, criticized what he called a “mountain of blacked out pages,” CBS reported, and pointed to the fully redacted 119-page “Grand Jury-NY” document.
Under the statute, the Justice Department must, within 15 days of completing the release, report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on categories of records released and withheld and summarize redactions and their legal basis. CBS reported that Justice Department officials indicated additional releases to come and said it had reached out to the department for comment on the criticism.
References
CBS News | December 19, 2025 | “[link removed] —” New Epstein files include photos, documents with redactions as DOJ releases initial trove of records”| [link removed] [ [link removed] ]
GovInfo | November 19, 2025 | “H.R. 4405 (RDS) — An Act To require the Attorney General to release all documents and records in possession of the Department of Justice relating to Jeffrey Epstein, and for other purposes.” | [link removed] [ [link removed] ]
Congress.gov | July 14, 2025 | “All Info - H.Res.577 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Demanding the immediate release of all Federal documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.” | [link removed] [ [link removed] ]
Brian Daitzman is the Editor of The Intellectualist [ [link removed] ]. Read the original article here. [ [link removed] ]

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