By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog announced a review Thursday of the departmentap compliance with ٳ, stepping into a that has shadowed the Trump administration for the past year.
The review from the inspector general’s office will focus on how the department collected, reviewed and redacted materials in preparation for their release, as well as its process for addressing concerns that arose after the files were made public, about them had been disclosed.
The audit will revisit the department’s staggered and uneven release of millions of records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation, a process that exposed it to accusations that it was attempting to protect , who decades ago was . It marks the first significant effort, since Trump took office for a second time, by the watchdog to scrutinize the actions of , including and allegations of politicization of investigations.
The records were released starting late last year in compliance with a bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump, who bowed to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting efforts to disclose additional files. That law required the release within 30 days of records related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in a jail in 2019, and also allowed for redactions of information about survivors.
But problems with the department’s process soon emerged.
Officials released only a fraction of records within the 30-day deadline, later disclosing they would need several more weeks because of the abrupt discovery of a massive group of records tied to the case.
In late January, the department released what it said were 3 million records, but subsequently withdrew several thousand documents after lawyers told a judge that the lives of nearly 100 abuse survivors had been “turned upside down” by careless redactions. The exposed materials include nude photos, with faces visible, as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
The department blamed it on “technical or human error.”
In March, the department released additional files involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against the Republican president that it said had been mistakenly withheld during an earlier review.
ٱ in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.
