NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday that it had taken down several thousand documents and “media” that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information since it began releasing the latest batch of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday.
It blamed the release of sensitive information that drew an outcry from victims and their lawyers on mistakes that were “technical or human error.”
In a letter to the New York judges overseeing the sex trafficking cases brought against Epstein and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that the department had taken down nearly all materials identified by victims or their lawyers, along with a “substantial number” of documents identified independently by the government.
Clayton, who is based in Manhattan, said the department has “iteratively revised its protocols for addressing flagging documents” after victims and their lawyers requested changes to the process for review and redaction of posted records.
He wrote that documents are promptly pulled down from the public website when victims flag a concern that something should be redacted. He said the concern is then evaluated before a redacted version of the document can be reposted, “ideally within 24 to 36 hours.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview Sunday on ABC's “This Week” that there have been sporadic errors but that the Justice Department has tried to work quickly to address them.
“Every time we hear from a victim or their lawyer that they believe that their name was not properly redacted, we immediately rectified that. And the numbers we’re talking about, just so the American people understand, we’re talking about .001 percent of all the materials,” Blanche said.
The effect of errors in the document redactions was highlighted Monday morning at a sex trafficking trial in New York federal court when lawyers for two high-end real estate brokers and their brother asked Judge Valerie E. Caproni for a mistrial because of documents that were made public without necessary redactions.
Deanna Paul, a defense lawyer at the trial of Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, said the “government through its own conduct has destroyed the possibility of a fair trial in this case” after the names of the brothers were included in several documents released on Friday. The brothers have pleaded not guilty to drugging and raping multiple girls and women from 2008 to 2021.
Paul said the Alexander brothers had now been “branded” with the “most toxic association.”
The judge tentatively rejected the mistrial request but still confronted a prosecutor, asking: “Government, really?”
“Yes, I understand where the court's coming from,” replied Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa.
She said she wasn't sure how the documents were “caught up in the universe of documents” related to Epstein but confirmed that at least one of the documents that mention the Alexander brothers “should have been properly redacted” and she said the documents had been withdrawn from public circulation.
As she spoke, Espinosa also gave an update on the general release of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department, saying that the remaining documents to be released were “primarily related to civil litigation” that might require a judge's approval to be made public.
__ The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, shows the report when Epstein was taken into custody on July 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
LONDON (AP) — A year ago, Peter Mandelson was Britain’s ambassador to Washington, the latest high-profile post in a rocky but consequential political career.
Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein cost him that job. Now, after new revelations, Mandelson — like other powerful men including King Charles III's brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — is facing new demands he come clean about his relationship with the late sex offender.
Mandelson resigned from the governing Labour Party on Sunday following new claims he received payments from Epstein two decades ago. Mandelson said he was stepping aside to avoid causing “further embarrassment,” even as he denied the allegations stemming from a trove of more than 3 million pages of documents relating to Epstein released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who fired Mandelson from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties, is now urging him to quit politics altogether and testify in the U.S. about what he knew of the financier's activities.
Some opposition politicians called for a criminal investigation into Mandelson over claims he gave Epstein sensitive government information. The Metropolitan Police force said it had received “a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office” and would review them "to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”
Starmer urged Mandelson on Monday to resign from the House of Lords — Parliament's unelected upper chamber of politicians, donors and assorted notables — to which he was appointed for life in 2008. That would also mean relinquishing his noble title, Lord Mandelson.
If he refuses, ejecting him would be a lengthy process requiring Parliament to pass legislation — a process last undertaken more than a century ago to remove the titles of aristocrats who sided with Germany in World War I.
“The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title,” said Starmer spokesman Tom Wells. “However, the prime minister does not have the power to remove it.”
Mandelson — like Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew — is also facing calls to testify about Epstein in the U.S.
Cabinet minister Steve Reed said Monday that both men have a “moral obligation” to share any information that could help Epstein’s victims.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls. Years before he had avoided federal prosecution by pleading guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and another charge.
The latest release of Epstein files includes hundreds of text and email messages exchanged between Mandelson and the financier, revealing the British politician's warm relationship with the man he called “my best pal” in 2003.
Several documents seem to refer to payments from Epstein to Mandelson or his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. What appear to be bank statements from 2003 and 2004 suggest an Epstein account sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts connected to Mandelson.
Mandelson has questioned the authenticity of the bank statements. In a letter to Labour resigning from the party, Mandelson said he had no recollection of receiving that money and would investigate.
“While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party,” he wrote.
Mandelson added that he wanted to “repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.”
Other documents suggest that in 2009 Epstein sent da Silva 10,000 pounds (about $13,650 at today's rates) to pay for an osteopathy course.
The documents also include an email exchange from 2009 in which Mandelson, then a U.K. government minister, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Documents also suggest Mandelson sent details of sensitive U.K. government discussions to Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Starmer on Monday ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent” review of all of Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein while he was in government.
Also among the files is a photo of Mandelson in a shirt and underwear, standing near an unidentified woman in a bathrobe.
A email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson through the House of Lords.
Mandelson, 72, has been a major, if contentious, figure in the center-left Labour Party for decades. He is a skilled — critics say ruthless — political operator whose mastery of political intrigue earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”
The grandson of former Labour Cabinet minister Herbert Morrison, he was an architect of the party’s return to power in 1997 as centrist, modernizing “New Labour” under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mandelson served in senior government posts under Blair between 1997 and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010. In between, he was the European Union’s trade commissioner.
Mandelson twice had to resign from government during the Blair administration over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety, acknowledging mistakes but denying wrongdoing.
He later returned to government, and was back on the political front line when Starmer named him to the key post of ambassador to Washington at the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. Mandelson’s trade expertise and comfort around the ultra-rich were considered major assets with the administration. He helped secure a trade deal in May that spared Britain some of the tariffs Trump has imposed on countries around the world.
But Starmer fired him in September after emails were published showing Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued even after the financier's 2008 guilty plea.
This story has been updated to correct that documents suggest Epstein sent Mandelson's partner 10,000 pounds, not $10,000. It was also updated to correct that the Justice Department says the release contains more than 3 million pages of documents, not more than 3 million documents.
FILE - Britain's Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, speaks during a reception at the ambassador's residence on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump, left, gets a reaction from Britian's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, right, as they take questions from members of the media after announcing a trade deal between U.S. and U.K. in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)
FILE - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador's residence on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)
