Jamie Raskin alleges DOJ cover-up over ‘inexplicable’ redactions in Epstein files

WASHINGTON, DC: Rep Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, raised serious concerns after reviewing unredacted Justice Department files related to the late offender Jeffrey Epstein.

He claimed the DOJ appears to have violated the law in how it handled redactions. Lawmakers were recently allowed by DOJ to review the files for the first time, prompting renewed scrutiny of the its compliance with legal requirements governing public disclosure.

Jamie Raskin raises concerns over DOJ redactions of Epstein files

Raskin said that after reviewing the unredacted Epstein files, he believes the DOJ flouted the law by concealing various names in documents that should not have been shielded. Lawmakers had questioned whether the DOJ fully complied with a law mandating the public release of the files, which permits only narrow redactions.

According to Raskin, the publicly released versions of the documents appear to have wrongly concealed individuals who spent time with Epstein, allegedly to spare them “potential embarrassment, political sensitivity or disgrace of some kind.”

He said, “We didn’t want there to be a cover up and yet, what I saw today was that there were lots of examples of people’s names being redacted when they were not victims."

At the same time, Raskin said the DOJ failed to redact the names of victims who were supposed to be protected, “I was able to determine, at least I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that’s troubling to us." 

He emphasized that the scope of Epstein’s crimes suggested the involvement of others beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. “There’s no way you run a billion-dollar international trafficking ring with just two people committing crimes,” Raskin said, adding that understanding other conspiracies and co-conspirators is critical.

Raskin further pointed to redactions that he said lacked any legal justification. Among them was a discussion from Epstein’s lawyers that contradicted assertions by President Donald Trump, “Epstein’s lawyers synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mar-a-Lago, but he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago."

He claimed, "he had never been asked to leave, and that was redacted for some indeterminate, inscrutable reason. I know it seems to be at odds with some things that President Trump has been saying recently about how he had kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club or asked him to leave.”

Jamie Raskin details review process and DOJ accountability questions

Lawmakers were permitted to view the unredacted files only within the DOJ offices, without staff assistance, and using just four computers. The total volume of documents is roughly 3 million pages.

During several hours of review, Raskin said he was able to examine only 30 or 40 documents, underscoring how slow and painstaking the process is. “This is going to be an extremely time-consuming and painstaking process,” he said.

He described the redactions as “puzzling” and “inexplicable,” calling for an explanation from the DOJ about its process. Raskin also said he viewed one government document related to former Victoria Secret CEO Les Wexner that DOJ redacted.

Raskin said it struck him as “strange” because Wexner is not a victim. Wexner is expected to be interviewed by the House Oversight Committee later this month.

A staffer for Raskin said he plans to continue reviewing the files, but Raskin acknowledged, “There is no way before Attorney General Bondi arrives on Wednesday that we’re going to have the opportunity to go through every reduction in order to ask thorough questions.”