FBI employees who are reviewing further documents from the agency's extensive investigation into late financier Jeffrey Epstein have been told to limit the redactions they make after the first batch of files released by Attorney General Pam Bondi in February revealed little new information, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Bondi ordered the review after promoting the first release for several days only to have right-wing influencers criticize their lack of new information, reports The Wall Street Journal Saturday.
She promised more documents were to follow and said she had been told by a source in the FBI's New York field office that the bureau had held back thousands of documents linked to the Epstein case.
FBI Director Kash Patel said there would be "no stone left unturned."
Bondi told Fox News that the DOJ has received a "truckload of documents" and that Patel will give her a deadline when they can be reviewed to protect the victims of sex trafficking who could be named.
"We've received a truckload of documents, of evidence, and Kash is going to give me a deadline on when he can go through that to protect, of course, the victims of sex trafficking who are wrapped into this," Bondi said on Fox News last week.
There have been accusations from the right that the government is hiding a list of names of men who abused some of Epstein's victims, saying the list includes names of powerful Democrats, but there has been no evidence that the list exists.
Meanwhile, women who Epstein trafficked have named more than 20 men as alleged participants in their abuse, a lawyer who represents many of the women said.
FBI agents and employees in New York and at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters have been pulled from other duties and assigned to work 12-hour shifts to examine the documents, according to The Wall Street Journal's sources.
The sources added that the employees have been told to redact victims' names and personally identifiable information while leaving their city and state disclosed.
Reviewers are also not to blacken out full chunks of text. The agency is also not protecting other third-party names, according to sources, which could reveal details about witnesses, relatives of the victims, and the names of people close to them.
If reviewers come across nude photos of the victims, they are told to redact the entire body, but if the victim is clothed, to black out just that person's face.
Some of the employees who are involved in reviewing the documents are concerned that the victims can be identified through other details, compromising sensitive information, and that the documents could expose names of people who have been not identified as victims.
An FBI spokesman said Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have "prioritized transparency with the Epstein files" at Bondi's direction. "All appropriate administrative and legal requirements are being adhered to," the spokesman said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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