DOJ says it’s redacting Epstein files to protect victims. Victims say: protect us from what, exactly?

With the half-release of the Epstein files after many months of back and forth between the Donald Trump administration and Congress – the former dragging its feet while the latter demanded transparency – we’re now faced with a particular brand of audacity that only Washington can produce, the kind where the government claims to be protecting the people, and the people are very much begging them to stop helping.

The Department of Justice finally released thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein last Friday, technically sort of fulfilling the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that Congress passed last month with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Now, for MAGA ride-or-dies who had waited more than a year for the president to make good on his promise and offer full transparency to the taxpaying public, there was one small hitch: massive swaths of the documents were redacted beyond recognition. At least 500 pages were completely blacked out, and the official line from the Justice Department is that they’re protecting the victims.

Unfortunately for them, this is the social media era, where even the downtrodden can make their voices heard. And so, the victims—some of whom have had their lives destroyed by Epstein’s abuse of power and influence—are all asking the same pointed question: What exactly is Washington trying to protect them from at this point? Validation and justice?

“The reason why we are still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that to protect victims,” Blanche told NBC, per AP News. “So the same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don’t want us to protect victims.” Noble enough on paper, right? Except the actual survivors seem decidedly unimpressed with this sudden show of concern.

Take Marina Lacerda, for instance, who alleges Epstein began exploiting her when she was just 14 years old. She didn’t mince any words when speaking to MS Now (per Al Jazeera), condemning the government for its lackluster attempt at transparency. “All of us are infuriated by this,” she said. “It’s another slap in the face. We expected way more.” She also told The New York Times that survivors felt “let down” by the heavily censored document dump. The survivors had waited for this day to “bring these other men who have been protected to justice,” Lacerday says—instead, they’ve been served a whole bunch of black boxes.

Another survivor, Jess Michaels, told CNN she spent hours searching through the released files looking for her own victim’s statement and records of her FBI tipline call. She found neither. “Is this the best that the government can do?” Michaels asked. “Even an act of Congress isn’t getting us justice.”

Even Maria Farmer, who filed the first criminal complaint against Epstein back in 1996, said her vindication was bittersweet. “I’m crying for two reasons,” she said. “Tears of joy for myself, but also tears of sorrow for all the other victims that the FBI failed.”

The Epstein saga has, from the very start, been about powerful people protecting other powerful people from accountability while victims wait for justice that never arrives. Friday’s document dump suggests that the pattern isn’t changing anytime soon.