<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Frustration is mounting inside the Justice Department as it races to </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/jeffrey-epstein-more-photos-from-estate-released-by-house-democrats-as-deadline-to-release-doj-files-looms/7c55d653-f4cf-4193-b306-3edf2b3af3d2" rel="" target="" title="redact thousands of pages of files"><span>redact thousands of pages of files</span></a><span> related to </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/jeffrey-epstein" rel="" target="" title="Jeffrey Epstein"><span>Jeffrey Epstein</span></a><span> before they must be released today, multiple sources familiar with the process told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A substantial number of redactions are needed, one of the sources said, and the documents each attorney is processing since Thanksgiving week can number more than 1000 — a time-consuming task that likely will come down to the wire. The sensitivities of executive and legal privacy, victims' protections and other concerns all could play in to the choices the lawyers must make when it comes to potential redactions.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lawyers working on the Epstein files at the US Department of Justice's National Security Division also believe they aren't getting clear or comprehensive direction on how to make the most information available under the law, several sources said.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/new-photos-epstein-estate-trump-bannon-bill-clinton/036bce34-b6ce-45db-8919-ef561400d2f5" target="" title="New Epstein photos 'no big deal', says Trump"><strong><span>New Epstein photos 'no big deal', says Trump</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Counterintelligence specialists were asked to drop nearly all of their other work to process the Epstein documents, two people said, but some lawyers declined to participate.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An act of Congress has mandated the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title=" Trump administration"><span>Trump administration</span></a><span> release troves of Epstein-related documents — from grand jury records, to FBI files and internal Justice Department discussions — by Friday, after months of the Trump administration promising and not delivering transparency.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The situation suggests that the persistent political headache connected to transparency for the Epstein files may not disappear with Friday's deadline.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/jeffrey-epstein-files-donald-trump-administration-redacted-documents-latest-news/5d9ea1fd-527e-41f0-b545-567efffba191" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In whatever becomes public on Friday, sources said there will still be extensive amounts of information redacted — the type of lack of transparency that the American public may continue to scrutinise.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some legal document specialists are already preparing for the possibility that the Department of Justice's release of the files will have more redactions than what is required, and that there may be mistakes in what's redacted and what's made public. Mistakes especially could relate to the disclosure of sensitive personal information, because of the volume of documents and how fast the lawyers have had to work, the sources said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Either they're going to screw it up or they're going to withhold things. It wouldn't surprise me," said one lawyer outside the Justice Department who is awaiting the release to determine whether there should be complaints made about how the redaction work was done. "Some of it may be incompetence as much as deliberate."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-transgender-gender-affirming-car-banned/9e1f7ccb-e24b-49d0-8b3f-d6cd4ea71ae3" target="" title="Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children"><strong><span>Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>A challenging task</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Epstein files are vast, and thousands of records held by different sections of federal law enforcement have to be picked through to determine whether they are responsive to the transparency law's requirements or need to be redacted because of various confidentiality rules and to protect Epstein's victims.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There are only four pages the lawyers have been given as internal guidance to follow to make the redactions, one of the sources said. And nearly all of the guidelines the lawyers have received articulate exemptions to the transparency law.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There are also logistical headaches in the work. Duplicates in what the lawyers are working through haven't been taken out of the cache, one source told CNN. That creates more of a possibility there may not be consistent redactions across the documents or that redactions may be done incorrectly in spots. Plus it adds hundreds of pages more for lawyers to process than what they normally would have to handle if the duplicates were taken out.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Justice Department has flubbed redactions in a massive document production already this year. When the National Security Division worked on releasing 60,000 pages related to the Kennedy assassination earlier this year, in another drop-everything task with a deadline, social security numbers and other private information of more than 400 former congressional staffers and others were mistakenly made public, according to the Washington Post.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The stakes are high for women who suffered abuse under Epstein.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some Epstein victims have said they feel as if they're in the dark on how the files are being prepared for the release, according to CNN reporting earlier this week. The Epstein survivors who spoke recently told CNN that they had gotten no outreach from the US Department of Justice ahead of the files' release.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment for this article.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-calls-reporter-piggy-after-jeffrey-epstein-question/d53a7a53-c344-4560-bfff-01de835f38cf" target="_blank"><strong><span>Trump hurls outrageous slur at female reporter</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Who's doing the redacting</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Justice Department's National Security Division inherited the redaction work from the FBI after the law was passed for transparency on the Epstein files.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It's surprising to many national security law specialists that that's who's doing the work, given the division's historical emphasis on classified matters and the lack of a nexus between Epstein and national security interests.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Several sources said, however, that's where the manpower is at the Justice Department this year.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The latest round of Epstein redaction work started in fervour over Thanksgiving, shortly after Congress passed the transparency act.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The FBI had previously done a similar push on redactions earlier in the Trump administration. During that effort, in response to an over-promising of transparency by Attorney General Pam Bondi that the department didn't deliver, agents worked around the clock, some in overnight shifts that supplanted other threat investigations the FBI was working on.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-chief-of-staff-susie-wiles-says-president-has-an-alcoholics-personality-and-much-more-in-candid-interviews/571bd04a-5974-4197-a0b0-e1b3cfcb5b6e" target="" title="Trump has an alcoholic's personality: chief of staff"><strong><span>Trump has an alcoholic's personality: chief of staff</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The national security lawyers aren't among the Justice Department division that classically handles document processing, or even sex crimes or conspiracies, as had been alleged of the late Epstein and his convicted paramour Ghislaine Maxwell. A different part of the Justice Department where lawyers handle Freedom of Information Act requests are more typically tasked to handle document redaction projects, especially before this Trump administration. The national security section also isn't the office that investigated Epstein years ago – another group that could weigh in on the files and transparency.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Still, the national security division has previously handled substantial redaction projects this year for topics that aren't core to their legal work – including those related to releases of the Martin Luther King Jr and John F. Kennedy assassination historical files.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While the National Security Division has been gutted during this Trump administration, it's still many dozens of lawyers strong. Those lawyers are experienced in working with sensitive data, with extensive, elaborate redaction needs.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/jeffrey-epstein-more-photos-from-estate-released-by-house-democrats-as-deadline-to-release-doj-files-looms/7c55d653-f4cf-4193-b306-3edf2b3af3d2" target="" title="More photos from Epstein's estate released"><strong><span>More photos from Epstein's estate released</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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