The Justice DepartmentĀ released thousands of new recordsĀ on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, but at least 550 pages in the documents are fully redacted, CBS News has found.
The newly released files included photos of several prominent people in Epsteinās orbit, images from his homes and investigative records that detail disturbing allegations against the late sex offender. But the heavy redactions in many of the records have drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, as the department defends its handling of the files.
One series ofĀ threeĀ consecutiveĀ documentsĀ ā totaling 255 pages ā is entirely redacted, with each page covered by a black box. A fourthĀ 119-page document labeled āGrand Jury-NYā is also entirely redacted. Itās unclear what proceedings it stemmed from, but theĀ documentĀ listed immediately before it is a transcript in which a prosecutor asks a grand jury in 2020 to consider evidence for a superseding indictment of Epsteinās convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
I am Jackās complete lack of surprise.
Honestly, did we expect anything else?
I often found myself asking that; whatās left of the original files by now? If they were damning for people up top, surely those parts wouldāve been removed by now, either ālegallyā redacted or otherwise tampered with.
Unless we pried them from Epsteinās dead, nasty hands Iād find it a little hard to trust anything in there, redacted or not.