The warning came from one of the hundreds of FBI employees tasked with a round-the-clock scramble to process more than 100,000 pages of investigative files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.The Department of Justice was at risk of breaking the law by disclosing victims’ identities,...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53423393

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Excerpt: Survivor Dani Bensky confronted Blanche about the disclosures during his Senate confirmation hearing in July. “It’s been absolutely devastating,” she testified. “Outing survivors causes real and irrevocable harm. While coping with our emotional distress and psychological trauma, we also have lost our privacy and confidentiality, suffered reputational harm, lost jobs, and now fear for our personal safety.”

The FBI employees allegedly received instructions from FBI and DOJ leadership to only redact victims’ names if they were on a “designated victim list,” according to the complaint. The complaint describes the decision to limit victim information redactions as “highly alarming” considering that it exposed personally identifiable information, grand jury materials, and information about child victims and witnesses. The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that employees were directed to disclose geographical information about victims, including city and state.

“I am concerned that people who are determined to find the victims will be able to piece together the information that we were instructed to not redact [and it] will lead to harassment or worse for the victims,” the whistleblower wrote in an email to a supervisor four days before filing the complaint.