Prosecutors in the US are overwhelmed with work on "Epstein files" - Politico
Kyiv • UNN
The leading federal prosecutor's office in the US has engaged almost all prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to review over two million documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. This task, which has been ongoing for several weeks, raises questions about overwork and the postponement of other important cases.
The leading federal prosecutor's office in the US is fully absorbed in the task of reviewing documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, citing four people familiar with the situation and based on internal memos, Politico reports, writes UNN.
Details
As noted, almost every prosecutor in the Southern District of New York not occupied with an upcoming or ongoing trial, including those working on other major cases, has been assigned to help review over two million documents to redact information about Epstein-related human trafficking victims. Even high-ranking staff and unit chiefs are reviewing documents, often working on weekends.
Prosecutors are "overwhelmed with work," said one person familiar with the situation. And while prosecutors hope the task will take no more than a few weeks, no one knows exactly when it will be completed.
The scale of the review has raised questions about whether this task is overburdening prosecutors too much and whether it is sidelining other work in an agency that regularly handles some of the country's most important cases involving economic crimes, terrorism, and financial crimes.
Even several prosecutors working on the narco-terrorism and drug trafficking case against ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, arguably the highest-profile case in the US judicial system today, have also been assigned to work on the "Epstein files," according to a source familiar with the situation.
According to another source familiar with the situation, some prosecutors assigned to review the "Epstein files" are considering asking for extensions in their other cases.
Officials at the US Department of Justice described the scope of the work in recent court filings, although the burden on the Manhattan prosecutor's office appears to be even greater than some of those descriptions suggest. In a declaration filed earlier this month, Jay Clayton, the chief federal prosecutor in that office, informed a federal judge that "more than 125 attorneys in the Southern District of New York," where about 200 assistant federal prosecutors work, are engaged in this work.
Many attorneys assigned to the task had to dedicate "all or a significant portion of their workday" to reviewing and redacting documents, Clayton wrote. In an update last week, he reported that over 500 people at the Department of Justice, including attorneys at the agency's headquarters and in the Southern District of Florida, are involved in the document review.
The scale of the work in Manhattan is due, at least in part, to the fact that the agency handled both the human trafficking case against Epstein and the case of his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
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The massive work on the Epstein case began several days before the December 19 deadline, by which the government was legally obligated to begin disclosing documents. Karl Metzner, an Assistant US Attorney who handles the Victim and Witness Unit, as well as the privilege review group, indicated in a memo to prosecutors the ambiguity of the initial instructions. "This obviously raises a host of questions to which we do not yet have answers," he wrote.
A subsequent memo from another staff member stated that "we (meaning every Assistant US Attorney in the office) will soon be asked to engage in the redaction of materials contained in the Epstein case files."
The memo further stated: "We understand that this is unexpected and may create inconvenience for people who are completing their work by the end of the year. All we can do is try to gather as much information as possible and help you balance this request with all the other competing deadlines you are currently adhering to."
A third memo, which appears to have been sent the day before the deadline, stated: "We expect to ask every Assistant US Attorney (including chiefs, deputy chiefs, and executive staff) to prepare a package of approximately 75 documents for verification by the end of today."
"Ultimately, we are entrusted with protecting victim information," it read. "While the timing of this review is difficult for many reasons (including your workload), it is an important task and we owe it to the victims to do it right."
On December 31, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that "Department of Justice attorneys from Main Justice, the FBI, the Southern District of Florida, and the Southern District of New York have been working around the clock throughout the holidays, including Christmas and New Year's, to review documents in accordance with federal law."
These efforts, Blanche wrote, "truly require an all-hands-on-deck mobilization, and we are asking as many attorneys as possible to dedicate their time to reviewing the remaining documents. The necessary redactions to protect victims take time, but they will not stop the publication of these materials."
However, the publication notes, it is unclear when additional materials will be released, and Clayton's recent statements have provided no indication of a timeline.