As the Department of Justice continues to release files related to the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, many people have been frustrated by the slow pace of the process and the lack of transparency concerning the information being released. But now, some observers online have shared clever, relatively low-tech ways that they have discovered to find some of the information that has been concealed or obscured in the official document release.
Un-redacting documents and searching for Trump
Among the complaints about the release of the Epstein files has been the fact that many documents are heavily or sometimes completely redacted in ways that appear to go beyond the law’s provisions for protecting the identities of minors and victims. But users on X, formerly Twitter, have posted techniques for reading the information that has been redacted. Popular user Liam Nissan shared, “So apparently there are many Epstein files on the DOJ website where you can highlight the redacted text, copy it, and paste it onto another document to read the redactions.”
Political commentator Ed Krassenstein posted a how-to video illustrating the hack and ridiculing the Trump administration for doing a poor job of concealing the information.
“The Trump DOJ screwed up some of the redactions so bad that you can recover them. And I did so simply by copying and pasting the text,” Krassenstein said in the video.
Another complaint concerns the ease of sorting through the information. The law mandating the release of the files required that they be posted in an easily searchable way, but the search feature of the government’s website has either been non-operational or has failed to yield results for specific searches.
Several X users, however, noted that searching for “Trump” with a space before the name yielded several hundred results in the most recent batch of files released this week.
Unsubstantiated allegations against Trump
These tricks for discerning information from the Epstein files are adding to the already sensational details being revealed, even as the Department of Justice warns that not everything in the files is true. One document claims that Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane several times, contradicting the president’s denial that he had ever taken Epstein’s jet. One of these alleged flights lists Trump, Epstein and an unnamed 20-year-old as the only passengers; it is unclear if this third person is one of Epstein’s victims.
The Justice Department posted a long reply on X to a post by the entertainment news account Pop Base about a note allegedly written by Epstein to jailed physician Larry Nassar, another prolific sex offender. The author of the note tells Nassar that “our president” shares their affection for “young nubile girls” in a letter dated 2019, when Trump was president. The DOJ’s social media post says, “The FBI has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE.” It explains that this conclusion was based on handwriting analyses and discrepancies about which prison facility the note came from and how it was sent.
However, CNN has reported information that contradicts the DOJ statement; specifically, the news agency claims the letter was sent from the New York facility where Epstein was held.
In another unverified document, a person whose name has been redacted claims to have been raped by President Donald Trump and Epstein. The person, whose age is unclear from the redacted report, claimed that “Donald J. Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein,” according to the document. The report also claims that Trump was overheard by a limo driver discussing someone named “Jeffrey” and making a comment referencing the abuse of “some girl.” When questioned by TMZ about these allegations, the Department of Justice referred the gossip site to a DOJ statement on social media: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”
Trump has never been charged with any crimes connected to Epstein, and he has insisted that he was not involved in any illegal activities with his former friend, noting that the two men had a falling out years ago. Yet the continuing revelations of potential connections to Epstein remain a source of embarrassment and scrutiny for the president, as do the perceived attempts by his administration to block, delay or obscure information related to the case. As the government continues to publish documents after being forced to do so by Congress, look for more savvy tech users to find information within the files that sheds light on Epstein and potentially Trump as well.