DOJ Inspector General to audit release of Jeffrey Epstein files

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General announced Thursday that it would audit the department’s release of the files from its investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The audit comes amid active complaints from politicians and the public that the department failed to release all the files on the late Epstein and improperly concealed the names of some people named in the files.

The office “is initiating an audit of DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act,” a statement from Inspector General William Blier said Thursday.

The release said the watchdog will review, “the DOJ’s identification, collection, and production of responsive material; DOJ guidance and processes for redacting and withholding material consistent with the requirements enumerated in the Act; and DOJ’s processes for addressing post-release publication concerns. If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider addressing other issues that may arise during the course of the audit.”

The office will release a report after the audit.

“It should not have taken this long to begin holding the U.S. Department of Justice accountable, but this audit will bring a long-awaited sense of temporary relief to many victims of Epstein,” Brittany Henderson, an attorney who represents more than 100 Epstein victims with her partner Brad Edwards, told MS Now in a statement.

“We can only hope this audit is conducted in a meaningful way -- one that leads to real accountability and, ultimately, reparations for the victims who were re-victimized and harmed by these failures,” CNBC reported Henderson said.

Three million of the 6 million pages of files have been released, and the Justice Department has said the rest are duplicates. But lawmakers have said the department must still release the rest.

After the department released what it said were the last of the files, it released another 16 pages. The pages of notes describe three interviews that the FBI conducted in 2019 with a woman who said she was sexually abused by Epstein and President Donald Trump when she was between 13 and 15 years-old in the 1980s.

The department said it had mistakenly believed the pages were duplicates. Still, several news outlets reported that about 30 pages of those notes were still missing.

Redactions have also been an issue. The department was ordered to redact only the names of victims, but in some cases victims’ names were left visible and others communicating with Epstein were redacted. The Justice Department has said the files arrived with names redacted.

Speaking to Congress before she was fired on April 2, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the department.

“We were given 30 days to review and redact and un-redact millions of pages of documents. Our error rate is very low,” she said.

Billionaire financier Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019.

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