From what I've seen with this report and with others... the redactions seem to be less about protecting victims (which has been the claim from this administration) and more about protecting the names of the guys who were doing these despicable things.
For what it's worth I have seen numerous postings from people who have worked in government who have said that those tools are readily available and using them is standard procedure along with some even proprietary tools. So once again we get to play the game of "malice or incompetence?"
So once again we get to play the game of "malice or incompetence?"
I'm going with "malicious compliance" -- when you task 1000+ FBI agents to grovel over a mountain of data with the express instruction to cover up anything that makes the boss look like the pedophile he is, at least a few of them are going to take exception to that and "forget" how to properly redact things.
So once again we get to play the game of "malice or incompetence?"
I'm going with "malicious compliance" -- when you task 1000+ FBI agents to grovel over a mountain of data with the express instruction to cover up anything that makes the boss look like the pedophile he is, at least a few of them are going to take exception to that and "forget" how to properly redact things.
This. You said it better than I was going to, and with a plausible rational. I'll add that most of these redactions probably violate the Epstein Transparency Act, which states [congress.gov]:
SEC. 2. RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
(b) Prohibited Grounds for Withholding.—
(1) No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.
So, perhaps, the people behind these fake redactions are trying to comply with their bosses (Ka$h Patel, Pam Bondi, Trump) while technically covering their asses legally as they aren't immune (like Trump) and probably won't get any pardons (like Patel, Bondi probably will) for any illegal activities related to this release/cover-u
From what I've seen with this report and with others... the redactions seem to be less about protecting victims (which has been the claim from this administration) and more about protecting the names of the guys who were doing these despicable things.
For what it's worth I have seen numerous postings from people who have worked in government who have said that those tools are readily available and using them is standard procedure along with some even proprietary tools. So once again we get to play the game of "malice or incompetence?"
So once again we get to play the game of "malice or incompetence?"
I'm going with "malicious compliance" -- when you task 1000+ FBI agents to grovel over a mountain of data with the express instruction to cover up anything that makes the boss look like the pedophile he is, at least a few of them are going to take exception to that and "forget" how to properly redact things.
So once again we get to play the game of "malice or incompetence?"
I'm going with "malicious compliance" -- when you task 1000+ FBI agents to grovel over a mountain of data with the express instruction to cover up anything that makes the boss look like the pedophile he is, at least a few of them are going to take exception to that and "forget" how to properly redact things.
This. You said it better than I was going to, and with a plausible rational. I'll add that most of these redactions probably violate the Epstein Transparency Act, which states [congress.gov]:
SEC. 2. RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
(b) Prohibited Grounds for Withholding.—
(1) No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.
So, perhaps, the people behind these fake redactions are trying to comply with their bosses (Ka$h Patel, Pam Bondi, Trump) while technically covering their asses legally as they aren't immune (like Trump) and probably won't get any pardons (like Patel, Bondi probably will) for any illegal activities related to this release/cover-u
It's high time we got away from this racialized concept of "blacking out" a document. Only whiteout is suitable for those white lies.