'A complete mess': Survivors' attorney slams DOJ's botched release of Epstein files

An attorney for Jeffrey Epstein's survivors ripped into the Department of Justice Tuesday for making "a complete mess" of its release of files about the late sex offender's network.

Congress passed a law last month compelling the release of DOJ investigative files, with redactions of victims' names, but attorney Helene Weiss told "CNN News Central" that documents that were briefly disclosed Monday night were revealing, but not quite what the law requires.

"It's troubling to say theleast," said Weiss, whose law firm represents some survivors of Epstein's abuse. "This is a release fromthe Justice Department thatwe've been waiting for. As youknow, it's a release that wewere promised on Dec. 19, and the documents that wereceived in this release, again,were heavily redacted.

"Theyincluded some very inappropriateredactions, and the statementnow from the DOJ being on thedefensive when it was reallytheir job to release thesedocuments, their job to properlyredact victims' names, that theycompletely failed to do.

"So thestatement from the DOJ now, it'sa little confusing andconcerning in the context ofwhat we're really seeinghappening and what the DOJ hasdelivered to us, which is, quitefrankly, a complete mess."

"The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein," DOJ said in a statement issued Tuesday morning. "Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election."

"To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already," the statement added.

"Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims."

More than a dozen survivors have already issued a complaint about the redactions accusing the DOJ of violating the law by exposing their names and personal information, but Maria Farmer – the first to file a complaint against Epstein, in 1996 – has said she felt vindicated that her name and complaint were part of the release.

"Maria Farmer, ... she'sthe exception we received in thebatch from Friday, a documentthat's an FBI report from 1996that says Maria Farmer reportedher child sexual, her sexualabuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the FBI," Weiss said. "But this was just one document.We don't have Maria'sinterview notes, we don't haveadditional notes from 2006.

"We've received them before, butthis new tranche didn't revealnotes. We also know that manysurvivors have interview notes.Dozens and dozens of survivorshave reported that they weretalking to the FBI, theyinterviewed with the FBI. Whereare the victim interviews?Where are all of the victiminterviews that we werepromised?"

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