DOJ scrambles to explain Trump redaction in Epstein files: ‘Literally in your possession!'

Among the thousands of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents the Justice Department released Friday was a filing with redactions removing references to President Donald Trump, a move one journalist flagged Sunday that the DOJ later rushed to explain.

The Daily Beast political reporter Roger Sollenberger noted on social media that among the Epstein files recently published by the DOJ was a 2017 letter submitted in a defamation case against Epstein-associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The letter includes allegations against Trump from Sarah Ransome, a former associate of Epstein’s.

The DOJ released the letter in 2024 under the Biden administration, and without redactions to conceal mention of Trump. After the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, which required the DOJ to release all of its files on Epstein by Dec. 19, the DOJ re-released the letter, only this time with mentions of Trump being redacted.

The new redactions would be consistent with previous reports that suggested FBI agents had been instructed to “flag” any mention of Trump in the DOJ’s trove of Epstein files for potential redaction or suppression.

As Sollenberger’s social media post flagging the redaction spread, the DOJ’s official X account responded, and provided an explanation for the new redactions in an apparent attempt to rebuke the implicit assertion the agency was shielding Trump.

“Redactions were applied to those documents when they were filed in the respective court cases back in the day,” reads a social media post on X from the DOJ, directly responding to Sollenberger’s post. “We reproduced the documents as we had them in our possession.”

Sollenberger apparently didn’t buy the DOJ’s explanation.

“They’re literally in your possession right now without those redactions,” he responded.

The DOJ has faced scrutiny over its release of Epstein files, with critics arguing its release was a blatant violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the DOJ to release every single Epstein-related file in its possession, and only redact files to protect victims and minors. Instead, the DOJ withheld hundreds of thousands of Epstein files, and made a number of redactions outside what the law permitted.