Opinion | How the Justice Department Failed Epstein’s Victims — Again

We can now definitively say that the Trump administration has botched the release of the Epstein files. “The Department of Justice releasing its remaining documents from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.” “D.O.J. accidentally revealed the names of nearly 100 survivors.” “The harm is ongoing and irreversible.” What a lot of us wanted for these victims was some accountability. We wanted them to know that they had spent Democratic and Republican administrations having the federal government ignore their pleas. And these women just wanted to know that they were going to find some accountability, that these powerful men were not going to get away with it. “Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein say they are outraged.” “Millions of pages are still yet to be released to the public.” “From Hollywood to Washington to Wall Street to Buckingham Palace and beyond.” It looked like they hadn’t been looked through. We saw things that weren’t redacted that should have been. We see powerful men redacted. We see victims victimized again with their pictures and videos plastered on the internet. “Unredacted names of victims.” “Dozens of images of young nude women were also released by the D.O.J.” “They say they were exposed while — quote — “the men who abused us remain hidden and protected.’” There are so many different things in these files, and they were all treated with the same weight. So, a piece of criminal evidence is not the same as a press clipping. Putting them all together, ends up making the things that are verified seem less verified and the things that are speculative seem more real. What should have happened is that the Trump D.O.J. — and the Biden D.O.J. before it — should have written a report, had a special master, had hearings, explained what was in those files and what should have weight and what shouldn’t and then gone from there. But instead, what happened was Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna had to force this D.O.J. to release these files. “Today is the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class.” “This is who you’re fighting for.” The F.B.I. did not believe women. They did not believe women in the ’90s. They did not believe women in the 2000s and 2010s and 2020s. They did not believe women. And these weren’t even women; they were really children. And the F.B.I. just didn’t want to hear it. And so what’s so upsetting to me is just how little weight these women’s experience was given. He’s probably going to be one of the largest sex traffickers in American history, and it could have been stopped 20 years ago. We could have saved so many lives from being abused. it’s real government malfeasance that this kept going on for decades. And the rollout of this is just incompetence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” There’s still time to have hearings. The Epstein files should be the beginning of an investigation and not the end of the Epstein story.