NEW: A Federal Judge Just Took Control of the Epstein Files
DOJ confirmed over 1,000 victims. Then exposed their names to Congress. Now the court is stepping in.
At noon today, the Department of Justice faced a deadline that could break open the Epstein case in ways the government never intended.
Judge Richard M. Berman has ordered DOJ to provide a complete inventory of all materials under the 2019 protective order — and to explain, in detail, how they plan to protect victims during any public release. The judge will conduct his own private review of everything the government has.
The Failure
When the House Oversight Committee released 20,000 Epstein documents on November 12, victims’ attorneys fielded panicked calls from survivors around the world. At least 28 victim names were left completely unredacted in documents DOJ provided to Congress. One woman was confronted by a reporter in front of her nine-year-old son, asking her to comment about being an Epstein victim.
The attorneys for these survivors — Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson — filed a blistering letter with Judge Berman detailing what they call “absolutely unacceptable” failures. Their conclusion: the Department of Justice is either incompetent or complicit.
The Numbers
DOJ has publicly confirmed that Epstein harmed “over one thousand victims.”
But Edwards and Henderson represent over 300 women the government doesn’t even know about.
Read that again. The agency responsible for investigating Epstein — across three separate federal investigations spanning 15 years — has a shorter victim list than two private attorneys in Florida.
The International Trafficking DOJ Never Investigated
The victims’ letter reveals something the government has never publicly acknowledged: Epstein ran an international trafficking operation that DOJ never pursued.
“There are hundreds of women who were internationally trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein,” the attorneys wrote. “We represent women from Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Belarus, Sweden, England, and France.”
Epstein brought young women to the United States as “models,” held their visas in companies he controlled, kept their passports so they couldn’t escape. The attorneys describe women who were “permanently tethered to sexual exploitation” through immigration fraud — trapped in a foreign country, controlled by a predator, with no path out.
None of the three federal investigations ever focused on this international element. Epstein died in prison before the government learned of that element of his crimes. The scope of the trafficking operation went to his grave.
300 Gigabytes of Evidence You’ve Never Seen
The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires disclosure. But what exactly is the government holding?
According to the victims’ attorneys: dozens of FBI 302 interview reports from three investigations. Hundreds of thousands of pages of documents seized from Epstein’s homes and electronic devices. Information on nearly 100 different companies Epstein created. Financial records. And critically — a 53-page indictment and 82-page prosecution memorandum prepared by Assistant US Attorney Marie Villafana in 2007, when the Southern District of Florida was building a case with 34 victims.
That case never went to trial. Ken Starr arrived, negotiated the sweetheart deal, and the victims never got their day in court.
Those documents have never been released.
Read Chapter 4 of The Greatest Heist Book 2: The Storm — How Ken Starr arrived in Palm Beach with 34 victims and an airtight case, and walked away with a sweetheart deal.
The Diversion
The victims’ attorneys don’t mince words about what DOJ is doing. They call the government’s transparency motion a “diversion” — aimed not at actual disclosure but at creating “the illusion of transparency.”
“It is obvious to those knowledgeable of the legal system that DOJ is using this motion to attempt to trick the American people into believing that it intends to provide full transparency.”
Judge Berman himself has noted that the grand jury materials DOJ is offering “pale in comparison” to what the government actually possesses.
What Happens Now
Today’s deadline forced DOJ to show its cards. Judge Berman will review what they have, assess their redaction plans, and decide what gets released and how.
The victims’ attorneys are asking the court to order DOJ to consult with them before any release — to cross-reference the government’s victim list against the 300+ names they possess. They want all victim identities permanently sealed under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. And they want the court to retain jurisdiction to sanction DOJ if it keeps exposing survivors.
A federal judge is now the gatekeeper. Not the Justice Department. Not Congress. Not the Epstein Estate.
The question is whether Judge Berman will demand the full accounting the government has avoided for two decades — or whether the 53-page indictment, the prosecution memo, and the 300 gigabytes of evidence will remain buried while DOJ plays transparency theater.
A thousand victims. Hundreds trafficked from Eastern Europe. And the agency that failed them for 20 years is still deciding what you’re allowed to know.
Not anymore.
AFTER THE PAYWALL: READ JUDGE BERMAN’S ORDER AND THE SURVIVOR’S LAWYERS’ LETTER
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Narativ with Zev Shalev to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.