The Trump administration was hit Thursday with a new lawsuit from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein over what they say was a “deliberate” oversight from the Justice Department (DOJ).
“The United States, acting through the DOJ, made a deliberate policy choice to prioritize rapid, large-volume disclosure over protection of Epstein survivors’ privacy,” the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said, according to a report from NBC Los Angeles.
“[The DOJ] outed approximately 100 survivors of the convicted sexual predator, publishing their private information and identifying them to the world. Survivors now face renewed trauma. Strangers call them, email them, threaten their physical safety, and accuse them of conspiring with Epstein when they are, in reality, Epstein’s victims.”
In its recent release of millions of Epstein-related documents, the DOJ accidentally exposed the identities of several victims, redacting the material only after discovering the errors. The oversight stands in direct violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates victim-identifying information be redacted.
The plaintiffs are seeking from the Trump administration a minimum of $1,000 in damages per survivor, and have also named Google in their lawsuit for allegedly “refusing victims’ pleas to take down” search results that reveal victims’ personal information.
“No survivor of sexual abuse should have to live in fear that a stranger can type their name into a search bar and instantly find out about their worst trauma,” said Julie Erickson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in a statement last week, per NBC Los Angeles. “Yet that’s exactly what happened here.”