The Justice Department sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers summarizing redactions in the so-called Epstein Files, as political pressure swirls around decisions to withhold some information.
The explanation for redactions was required by a law passed last year that has forced the public release of millions of pages of material. Although that legislation required a broad swath to be made public, it allowed for redactions or the withholding of information in certain instances.
In its six-page letter to leaders on the House and Senate judiciary committees on Saturday, the department said it didn’t redact or withhold documents to protect anyone’s reputation or over political sensitivities. Officials moved to redact materials to protect victims privacy and for other specific reasons allowed for by the law, according to a copy of the letter seen by Bloomberg News.
While reams of material related to Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell have been released since December, some lawmakers have blasted the department for heavy redactions. The Justice Department says that it hasn’t improperly withheld information.
A representative for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter also included a list of dozens of government officials, celebrities and so-called politically exposed people whose names appear in the files. The names ranged from President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton to Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. The department didn’t include context of how the names are referenced in the material.
Inclusion in the so-called Epstein files doesn’t mean that someone engaged in wrongdoing.
In its letter to the lawmakers, the department explained that peoples’ names appear in a variety of contexts. For example, the department said, some people had direct email contact with Epstein or Maxwell, while others are just mentioned in press articles and in ways that appear unrelated to matters involving either of the sex offenders.