The Department of Justice on Thursday declined to turn over additional information from the Epstein files as ordered by a judge, arguing the materials include sensitive victim information or were appropriately redacted as required by law.
Hours ahead of the deadline to turn over the materials or explain why they were properly withheld, Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward asked the judge to delay the deadline by 60 days or disregard it entirely by accepting the DOJ’s reasons for withholding the materials.
“Although the Government strongly disagrees with the Court’s ruling that the [Epstein Files Transparency Act] is enforceable by private parties through the Administrative Procedure Act, the Government welcomes this opportunity to resolve any confusion regarding the records at issue in this case,” Woodward wrote.
They were required to be justified to Congress, with each redaction having an explanation of which of the few permissible categories of redactions it falls into.
No justifications for any redactions have been offered, despite many of the redactions very obviously not falling into any of the permissible categories.
There are also a huge number of documents that were supposed to be released, but which haven’t been released at all, whatsoever, redacted or otherwise.