Justice Department scrambling to find holiday volunteers to redact the Epstein files, internal DOJ email says

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/23/politics/justice-department-redactions-review-epstein-files

The Justice Department’s leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer over the “next several days” to help redact the Epstein files, in the latest Trump administration push toward releasing the hundreds of thousands of photos, internal memos and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A supervising prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida’s US Attorney’s Office emailed the entire district office on Tuesday — two days before Christmas — announcing an “emergency request from the [Deputy Attorney General’s] office the SDFL must assist with,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by CNN. “We need AUSAs to do remote document review and redactions related to the Epstein files,” the email said.

295 points · 22 comments · view on lemmy.world

22 Comments

shittydwarf@piefed.social · 85 pts · 231d (6 replies)

I'm kind of getting the feeling that a few insiders in the DOJ are repulsed by this pedo shit and not doing a thorough job on purpose

P00ptart@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 231d (4 replies)

That would be ideal, but let's be real... Everyone who sees those files have been handpicked by a team of DOJ dirt diggers and psychologists.

asteriskeverything@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 231d (1 reply)

Idk... that takes way more effort and foresight than what has been demonstrated by this administration so far.

P00ptart@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 231d

Anything for their fuhrer.

apftwb@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 231d

They would have selected a group of Trump loyalist to do their redactions. However it would be very hard to guarantee that every censor would remain a loyalist after reading "and then Trump had sex with the child" for 8 hours every day.

shittydwarf@piefed.social · 7 pts · 231d

This is most likely the case

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 231d

We can only hope.

deegeese@sopuli.xyz · 50 pts · 231d (1 reply)

Come spend your Christmas covering up Donald’s kiddy diddling instead of celebrating with your family.

Insekticus@aussie.zone · 11 pts · 231d

*now without pay!

aesviation@lemmings.world · 49 pts · 231d (1 reply)

Literally working overtime to protect pedophiles.

What the fuck is happening, lol.

Typhoon@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 231d

The US is a racist corpo-fascist state protecting the ruling oligarchs and the population is too passive to do anything about.

ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 44 pts · 231d

The Christmas-week request, from a top career prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office, attempts to entice volunteer attorneys to work on the files now, in exchange for days off later.

Guys, they'll even throw in a pizza party.

kingofras@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 231d (1 reply)

Me! I’ll do it!

nulluser@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 231d

"I couldn't find a sharpie, so I used a highlighter."

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 231d

lol

lmao, even

Edit: this is clearly an exercise in getting loyalists to go on the record. This is wild.

kelpie_returns@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 231d
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MuttMutt@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 231d

That's why they are so messed up... using incompetent volunteers with bad instructions. Someone has already un-redacted some of the files.

https://github.com/leedrake5/unredact?tab=readme-ov-file

And someone else gave it a gui

https://github.com/KingBarker/unredactGUI

pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 231d (1 reply)

That doesn't sound like volunteering to me:

the SDFL must assist with

JollyBrancher@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 231d

But it's just a "request," right?!

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 231d

I'm in Florida, maybe I should volunteer, then do a piss poor job of redacting, so that anyone can remove the redaction and see the original text.

"Oops! Did I do that? Sorry, I was only a volunteer. You get what you pay for."

Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 230d
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JollyBrancher@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 231d

Hot take(?): If you're willing to do extra, unpaid work for free - partisanship aside - should you be allowed to do this at all in any non-elected/appointed, bureaucratic job? Especially with a "request," with the descriptor of "emergency," before it? Breaks my heart. *Edited to correct grammar

maccentric@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 231d (1 reply)

I would love to see the instructions on how they are supposed to accomplish this task; exactly what is to be redacted and whom.

MuttMutt@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 230d

It's obviously not enough. Since someone already figured out how to undo part of what has been released.