An internal email of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, included in the Epstein Files, shows that on March 17, 2025, FBI personnel were seeking guidance on how to redact images featuring unknown and unidentified victims with “former US Presidents and Secretary of States and other celebrities”. The document reveals a disorganised redaction process and technical limitations, as the software does not have “IA facial recognition to assist with the identification of some public officials and celebrities”.
“IMD-RIDS needs clear and specific guidance to redact those photographs. Some photographs depict: victims, unknown-unidentified females and males, former U.S. Presidents, the Secretary of State, and other celebrities. The software does not have IA facial recognition to assist with the identification of some of the public officials and celebrities,” read the mail.
Screenshot EFTA01649154 Photograph: (DOJ)
Screenshot of EFTA01684203 Photograph: (DOJ)
The agents were requesting specific instructions on how to “redact”, “who is protected under this transparency task?” The document reviewers at the DOJ were supposed to black out victims’ identities and information, which they failed horribly on numerous occasions, but they further failed to explain the rationale behind cases when they redacted public figures, government officials and other information from the documents.
Another such email from March 12, 2025, reads, “As we were not provided with a list of names to be redacted, all names, phone numbers, DOBs, and email addresses were redacted, except for those relating to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Attorney names and other organisation names were also redacted. Sensitive law enforcement techniques were also redacted.”
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Screebshot of EFTA02712416 Photograph: (DOJ)
There were several occasions on which the DOJ did a sloppy job in redaction. It redacted the email ID of the individual who is instructing Jeffrey Epstein to kill someone on June 30, 2014. “I give you permission to kill him.” Something of this nature should warrant investigation. On another such ocassion a very public image of US President Donald Trump with face blacked out was spotted in a chat of Steve Bannon with the link to a Politico magazine article, but if you open the link to the article, you see the image of Donald Trump, so there is no rationale behind this redaction.
According to another email on March 11, 2025, the FBI Director Kash Patel asked to determine if there are any images of individuals on any videos which should be considered for prosecution. The Southern District of New York gave a lengthy reply implying that no one other than Epstein and Maxwell participated in the sexual abuse of victims, and there was no evidence of video recording of the abuse. Later, it mentioned that it found child sexual abuse material in one of Epstein’s devices, which were allegedly obtained over the internet, not recorded or produced by him.
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