Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged Tuesday that the disclosure of Epstein victims' identifying information during the release of investigative files was unacceptable, even as he defended the Justice Department's overall handling of the massive document review.
Blanche characterized the exposure as both "horrible" and "inexcusable" in an NBC News interview, though he stressed the problem was limited in scope. He said the department believed fewer than 1 percent of the millions of pages released contained victim details that should have remained redacted, and that the issues had largely been corrected.
"Sometimes it was genuine mistakes and that's human, and that doesn't make it right," Blanche said. "I'm not excusing that."
The acknowledgment comes after a group of victims filed suit last week against the Trump administration and Google over the disclosure. The Justice Department has faced sustained criticism for its management of the Epstein file release, a process that began with Blanche announcing in December that hundreds of thousands of documents would be made public. The department initially released far fewer than promised, then published millions more at the end of January.
Blanche defended the pace of the review work, noting that officials processed approximately 6 million pages of material. About 200,000 documents were withheld or redacted for various legal reasons, with the bulk consisting of duplicates.
The acting attorney general also addressed the limited criminal accountability that has emerged from Epstein's activities. Only one co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been convicted. Blanche said he had no indication that President Donald Trump would pardon Maxwell and encouraged victims to provide information that could lead to additional charges against unnamed individuals.
"The big misconception is that the Department of Justice or me has ever said 'case closed,'" Blanche stated. "What we have said is that from the information that we have within the Epstein files, we do not have a case against anybody."
The files contain references to dozens of prominent names, including the president himself and several current administration officials. In mid-November, Trump called for investigations into former President Bill Clinton, Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and major financial institutions. Attorney General Pam Bondi subsequently tasked U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton with leading that inquiry, though the status of the investigation remains unclear.
Clinton, Summers, and Hoffman have all denied wrongdoing. Clinton testified in a closed congressional session that he witnessed nothing improper, while Summers apologized for maintaining communications with Epstein after the billionaire's initial legal troubles and eventually left his position at Harvard when the relationship became public.
Epstein died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Blanche can call it a 'mistake' all he wants, but publishing victims' names and details wasn't a glitch, it was negligence that created real harm."
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