The US Department of Justice is gradually releasing the Epstein documents. Now some people have noticed that you can still read the blacked out areas with a trick.
December 24, 2025, 4:03 p.mDecember 24, 2025, 4:03 p.m
Annika Danielmeier / watson.de
After massive pressure from the public, the US Department of Justice has in recent days begun to publish the long-secret investigation files into the case of the now deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn’t just in the USA that people were eagerly awaiting the release.
Some of the blacked out documents could be read using a simple trick.Image: keystone
Redactions from some documents could be removed
The documents include many that were only released with redactions. Victim advocate John Scarola accuses the ministry of failing to comply with congressional requirements. “From everything I have seen so far, I am convinced that the documents were blacked out to an excessive extent,” Scarola told “Spiegel”.
The accusation of excessive redactions could now be fueled by redacted text passages that are circulating on social media. People are said to have discovered that the redactions on some documents can be removed using Photoshop techniques, reports Guardian. It is also said that you could mark text and insert it into a word processing file.
According to the Guardian, these include documents containing property tax payments for real estate by companies founded by Epstein, which do not appear on the balance sheets of these companies. It was unclear to what extent this material complied with the legal requirements for redactions; The US Department of Justice has so far left an inquiry from the newspaper unanswered.
More about the Epstein Files: