# The blacked out Epstein docs are readable online **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 24, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blacked-out-epstein-docs-are-readable-online/1026005 "2025-12-24T01:28:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2025, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blacked-out-epstein-docs-are-readable-online/1026005/21 "2025-12-25T03:18:49Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > The big question is if these blacked out sections include the names and/or other identifying information of victims. This CNN story is the context for me: [She said she is mortified that the DOJ failed to properly redact her — and other survivors’ names — and said her entire experience gives her very little confidence in the agency’s ability to protect current and future victims who might report abuse.](https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/22/politics/epstein-survivors-files-redactions) The Jane Doe statement paraphrased has the ring of truth to me. So here’s another question: Do the successfully blacked out sections include any more victim names and/or other identifying information than competently blacked out sections, or even the intentionally released text? It doesn’t have to be done out of malice. The pressure being put on redaction staff to work quickly, a symptom of which is readable redactions, may have resulted in the redaction process being almost random and thus worthless. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blacked-out-epstein-docs-are-readable-online/1026005/22 "2025-12-25T03:23:42Z")
It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the totally blacked out pages were the output of an exhausted redactor who saw too many bits that needed targeted redaction and just said “Fuck it” and blanked the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2025, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blacked-out-epstein-docs-are-readable-online/1026005/23 "2025-12-25T04:29:14Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I don’t understand the hype around all this. So a bunch of elites are pedos, but we all knew that. It’s not like anyone’s going to do anything about it. What difference does this release make, incompetently censored or not? Three points: There are people at all levels of society who are interested in sex with underage persons, it’s not limited to elites, it’s just that the elites have better opportunities to follow their inclinations and to escape capture and punishment. There is a big difference between “knowing” that there are elites who have committed pedophile crimes and gotten away with it, and having specific evidence that specific people have done so. And with that specific evidence comes a greater possibility (far from a certainty, of course) of prosecution. There has been a lot of speculation here about why Trump has dragged his feet so hard on releasing these documents, and downplayed their significance so often (and so unconvincingly, but that’s just him). Is it his own culpability, or is he protecting big donors and others who throw big rich bones his way, or something else, or all of them together? The opportunity to lift that lid and watch the worms squirming is irresistible. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2025, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blacked-out-epstein-docs-are-readable-online/1026005/24 "2025-12-25T09:00:38Z")
Or a Laurence Sterne fan. > **[The Black Page Archives - The Laurence Sterne Trust](https://www.laurencesternetrust.org.uk/collection-highlights-categories/the-black-page/)** > > The black page in Tristram Shandy commemorates the death of Parson Yorick. In the first edition, published in York and overseen by Sterne, the ‘blackness’ is printed on both sides of the leaf with what appears to be a solid woodblock. In 2009 the... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blacked-out-epstein-docs-are-readable-online/1026005.md?page=1)