Justice Department’s watchdog is reviewing compliance with the law mandating Epstein files release

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog said Thursday that it is reviewing the department’s compliance with the law mandating the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The review from the inspector general’s office will focus on how the department collected, reviewed and redacted materials in preparation for release and its process for addressing privacy concerns that arose after the files were made public, when Epstein survivors complained that personal information about them was disclosed.

The audit will focus on one of the more politically sensitive chapters of the Trump administration’s Justice Department, when officials bowed to public pressure and to a law from Congress to release millions of pages of records that the executive branch had initially said would not come out. It marks the first significant effort by the watchdog — since Trump took office for a second time — to scrutinize the actions of a department that has been riven by tumult, including mass firings of employees and allegations of politicization of investigations.

The Epstein saga has shadowed the department for more than a year. The FBI and Justice Department once said in an unsigned statement that they would not release additional records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation, but they reversed course after the legislation was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump.

The department’s subsequent release of records generated complaints from victims, who said sloppy redactions had left their identities exposed, and to criticism that information that could have been damaging to Trump was withheld from disclosure.

Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.