Written by Brian Daitzman, from The Intellectualist and Lincoln Square

The Justice Department’s first release under a new transparency law drew criticism from Democrats as DOJ officials said the remaining material would come out “on a rolling basis.”

A new law ordered the DOJ to publish unclassified Epstein records by Dec. 19. The first trove arrived heavily redacted, including at least 550 pages that CBS News said were entirely blacked out.

The Justice Department released a new tranche of records tied to Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, but hundreds of pages in the material were rendered unreadable by full-page blackouts, according to a review by CBS News.

CBS said it found at least 550 pages that were entirely redacted in the release, which arrived on Dec. 19, the deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Even as the law set a 30-day window for disclosure, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department would keep producing records on a “rolling basis,” CBS reported.

The blackouts included a run of three consecutive documents totaling 255 pages, each covered by a black box, CBS said. Another file, a 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY,” was also fully redacted, CBS reported.

CBS said it was unclear what proceeding the “Grand Jury-NY” document stemmed from. The outlet reported that the item immediately preceding it on the file list was a transcript in which a prosecutor asked a grand jury in 2020 to consider evidence for a superseding indictment of Ghislaine Maxwell, whom CBS described as Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator.

Taken together, CBS’s review described a release that included fully blacked-out documents, fully obscured pages embedded inside otherwise partly redacted files, and partially redacted photographs.

The statute requires the Justice Department to publish “all unclassified” Epstein- and Maxwell-related records in its possession within 30 days of enactment and bars withholding, delaying or redacting material on the basis of “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.” It also requires the attorney general to make the covered materials publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format.

CBS said the blackouts extended beyond fully redacted files. It reported that at least 180 completely obscured pages appeared inside files that were otherwise only partly redacted, sometimes following a cover page or other material that was not fully redacted.

In other instances, CBS reported, redactions were more limited. The outlet pointed to a 96-page police report tied to a Florida investigation into Epstein in the mid-2000s that redacted victims’ names and other details while leaving many details visible.

CBS also reported that some of the thousands of photos in the release were partially redacted, with some people’s faces obscured. It said photos including former President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson had partial redactions in some images while Clinton and Jackson themselves were fully visible.

The law permits limited withholding or redaction in certain circumstances, including to protect victims’ personally identifiable information, to withhold child sexual abuse material, and to temporarily withhold information that would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution if the withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary.

It also requires that redactions be accompanied by a written justification published in the Federal Register and submitted to Congress. And it calls for a list of government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in released materials that, under the law’s ban on redactions for political sensitivity, may not be withheld on that basis.

CBS reported that some Friday redactions appeared to black out survivors’ names, but that it was not clear in every case why information was blacked out.

The Justice Department said on X that no politicians’ names were redacted from the files, CBS reported. Blanche told Fox News Digital: “The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law — full stop,” CBS reported.

CBS also reported that Blanche said in a letter to Congress that more than 200 Justice Department lawyers reviewed the documents for survivors’ names and other redactions.