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If Ministry of Justice (The Justice Department) wanted to release all the Jeffrey Epstein-related documents they had in the case, they had the firepower to do it, a former assistant U.S. attorney argued.
The Justice Department faced bipartisan criticism over its initial release of heavily redacted Epstein files, which lawmakers said did not meet the requirements of a recently passed transparency law.
“The Department of Justice has all the resources in the world, right? I mean, if they wanted to put 1,000 lawyers on this case to review the documents and prepare them for production, they could do it,” Sarah Krissoff said.
“And it looks like they didn’t,” she added.
Sarah Krissoff, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, pictured next to Jeffrey Epstein. (Fox News; US Department of Justice/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Krissoff, who spent nearly 14 years as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, described key differences between the Epstein files and the normal redaction process that lawyers face. These differences make it unclear who would have the final say on information that the U.S. Department of Justice released on Friday as the agency attempted to comply with requirements outlined in the Epstein File Transparency Act.
This law, passed by Congress last month and signed President Donald Trump on November 19 gave the Justice Department just 30 days to release documentation about Epstein. It included some exceptions to protect the identity of victims.
Despite the thousands of files that became public late last week, the Justice Department's initial discovery drew criticism from some lawmakers and online viewers angry that the department did not release them all at once.
“They are hiding a lot of documents. That would be very helpful in our investigation,” Rep. Suhas Subrahmanyam, D-Va., a member of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN on Monday morning.
SCHUMER ACCUSES US DOJ OF VIOLATION OF LAW OVER EDITED EPSTEIN FILES
The Justice Department released a trove of Epstein documents on Dec. 19 after President Trump signed the Epstein File Transparency Act in November. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
While she remains skeptical of the department's efforts, Krissoff noted that what the Justice Department has been asked to do goes well beyond the disclosure norm.
“There is no real mechanism in the law for the public to have access to documents just because they have an interest in them, right? In this case, this law requires the Department of Justice to make these things public because so many members of Congress are interested in this issue,” Krissoff said.
In the cases she's been involved in, Krissoff said redacting usually came down to careful negotiations between the prosecution and defense. Sometimes the reflections went deeper into individual sentences or words.
“This situation is a little different because it's unclear, you know, who from the original team on the case is still working on it. So the question is, who at the Department of Justice reviewed them in relation to the redactions here?” – said Krissoff.
She said the full record of a case is rarely made public except for what is contained in court documents, and what is contained there usually serves the narrow purposes of the prosecution. In Epstein's case, the public's interests extend beyond any potential conviction of Epstein himself. Epstein died in 2019 while in custody on suspicion of sex trafficking of minors. His death, ruled a suicide, ended his prosecution and left behind questions about whether he facilitated illicit sexual encounters within his vast social network.
The photographs released by the Department of Justice last week lack context and do not on their own implicate anyone depicted in wrongdoing.
Former President Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein in photographs found in Epstein's recently released files. (Ministry of Justice)
“There are often many other people in the case file who are not charged with crimes. So there could be 15 people charged in a drug trafficking ring. You only charged one or two people; you don't want to impugn those other people who aren't charged by releasing information that shows their involvement in that drug trafficking ring,” Krissoff said.
“The last thing you want to do is publish information about that neighbor, his name or even his statement,” Krissoff said.
She believes there is a danger of being forced to disclose an ongoing case simply because there is strong public interest and setting a precedent that will become commonplace. In her opinion, this could derail ongoing future investigations of great public interest.
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The Justice Department said it will continue to regularly release its documents on Epstein. He has not announced when they plan to continue releasing Epstein's files.
