Virginia Giuffre's family criticizes DOJ over handling of Epstein files: "Insensitive and retraumatizing"
The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's most vocal accusers who died by suicide in 2025, says they are outraged over the Justice Department's handling of the latest release of the Epstein files.
Sky and Amanda Roberts, Giuffre's brother and sister-in-law, say the department failed to protect survivors of Epstein's abuse when releasing the documents.
"I mean these are intimate details in these documents that their family members are going to see, their kids are going to see, and to unredact their names is incredibly insensitive and retraumatizing," Sky Roberts, Giuffre's brother, said in an interview with "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday.
He said he thinks the Justice Department is putting women at risk who didn't want their names publicized.
"They're redacting the names of perpetrators and they're unredacting the names of victims, quite the opposite of what the Epstein Files Transparency Act was meant to do," he said.
Attorneys for some of the victims have said the latest release contained the unredacted images and identities of multiple survivors. And on Monday, the Justice Department said it withdrew several thousand documents and "media" related to Epstein after lawyers told a New York judge nearly 100 victims' lives were "turned upside down" due to sloppy redactions in the latest files release, The Associated Press reported.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told CBS News the DOJ "takes victim protection very seriously and has redacted thousands of victim names in the millions of published pages to protect the innocent." The department also said that as soon as a victim raises concerns about a document, the file is removed from its site so officials can decide if further redactions are needed.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all files related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell by Dec. 19. Due to the volume of documents, the department said they would be released on a rolling basis.
The latest release last week included 3 million documents and photos, and a slew of notable figures were mentioned or pictured in the files.
A DOJ official said on Sunday that the review process is finished despite releasing only about half of the more than 6 million files.
In its review, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the recent files don't "allow us necessarily to prosecute."
"I would say my reaction to that is that you have victims, you have survivors, my sister included, that have given depositions after depositions. They've given their own testimony under oath to our own Congress … and so we would ask the same of the men that were potentially named in these," Sky Roberts said.
"We want more answers"
After the latest Epstein files release, 20 survivors and family members – including Sky and Amanda Roberts – said in a statement that "the public still does not have the full truth about who enabled him, who participated in his exploitation and who has been shielded for years."
"I think it's selective, too," Amanda Roberts said about the process. "So if you go through a lot of these documents, there are points where their names are redacted, but then there are some files that have potentially slipped through."
The Roberts said they plan to continue to fight for justice and will attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing next week where Attorney General Pam Bondi is expected to testify.
"I think the first question to ask Pam Bondi is … why should you not be held in contempt? There's one very big piece of the Department of Justice that's missing here and it is that keyword justice," Sky Roberts said.
"I think it is about time that we subpoena and we start fully investigating this," he said.
He added, "we want more answers from her" and many members of the Justice Department.
