The Division of Justice stated in a new court filing Monday evening that there are greater than 2 million paperwork “doubtlessly responsive” to the Epstein Information Transparency Act which can be presently in varied phases of evaluation.
Federal prosecutors stated that “within the subsequent few weeks forward” about 400 division attorneys in Washington, D.C., New York and Florida “will dedicate all or a considerable portion of their workday to the Division’s efforts to adjust to the Act.”
The hassle will faucet DOJ attorneys from the Felony and Nationwide Safety Divisions and also will embody help from greater than 100 FBI analysts skilled with dealing with delicate sufferer supplies, based on the letter from Jay Clayton, the U.S. Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, to U.S. District Choose Paul Engelmayer.
“Lots of the attorneys devoted to this evaluation from the Division have expertise in victim-privacy associated issues, which is critical given the character of the supplies and the sorts of paperwork that require cautious redaction,” Clayton wrote. “Whereas the dedication of Division personnel to this effort has been substantial in breadth and spectacular in effort, substantial work stays to be achieved.”
FILE – Audrey Strauss, appearing U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of New York, factors to a photograph of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, throughout a information convention in New York on July 2, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP
The letter doesn’t point out a complete web page depend for the tens of millions of information beneath evaluation and offers no particular time-frame for when the DOJ expects to finish the work or when to count on its subsequent public disclosure. The deadline set by Congress for the discharge of all of the Epstein-related investigative information was Dec. 19.
So far, the DOJ says it has posted to its “DOJ Epstein Library” 12,285 paperwork totaling about 125,000 pages.
The submitting from the DOJ follows ABC News‘ reporting final week that the DOJ had not too long ago recognized over 5 million information that could be topic to disclosure beneath the legislation.
In a footnote to the court docket submitting Monday, the DOJ signifies that it expects {that a} “significant portion” of about 1 million newly recognized FBI information could also be duplicative of others already collected by the DOJ for evaluation, however these paperwork “nonetheless nonetheless have to endure a technique of processing and deduplication.”
Clayton’s Monday letter additionally notes that the DOJ has obtained “dozens” of inquiries from alleged victims and their representatives requesting that supplies already posted to the DOJ’s web site be additional redacted to guard the privateness pursuits of the victims.
The DOJ can be modifying its procedures going ahead “to higher make sure the safety of sufferer figuring out info,” based on the court docket submitting.
“The Division stays dedicated to offering as a lot safety to the privateness pursuits of victims and their family members as is practicable,” the letter states.
