Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has accused the US Department of Justice of making “mysterious redactions” to documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, which he says obscured the names of abusers while failing to protect the identities of victims. Raskin made the comments on Monday after reviewing unredacted files at a government facility in Washington DC.
Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress in November, the Justice Department has released millions of files concerning Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The law permits redactions only in limited circumstances, such as to protect victims’ names, but Raskin claimed that some released documents still contained identifying details of victims.
Raskin said he observed “tons of completely unnecessary redactions” and accused the department of being “in a cover-up mode” and breaking the law. He noted that the names of victims had been made public, which he described as either “spectacular incompetence” or a deliberate threat to other potential survivors. Among the redacted names Raskin identified was Les Wexner, the Victoria’s Secret founder, whose association with Epstein is already public.
Raskin also reviewed an email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell containing an account of a conversation between Epstein’s lawyers and attorneys representing Donald Trump around 2009. The email quoted Trump as saying Epstein was never a member of his Mar-a-Lago club but was a guest who was never asked to leave, contradicting Trump’s previous statements. Raskin said he plans to raise the redactions with Attorney General Pam Bondi when she testifies before the committee on Wednesday.
Separately, Maxwell refused to answer questions during a deposition by the House Oversight Committee. In the UK, revelations of ties between Epstein and Peter Mandelson, appointed ambassador to the US by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have caused political turmoil. Raskin noted that the files have sparked a scandal in Britain but have not had the same impact in the US, despite Trump being mentioned repeatedly.
