A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse accuses Donald Trump’s administration and Google of failing to protect their identities and exposing them to “renewed trauma” and harassment.
The Department of Justice “outed” roughly 100 survivors with the release of millions of documents connected to the late sex offender’s criminal cases, “publishing their private information and identifying them to the world,” according to the lawsuit.
“Even after the government acknowledged the disclosure violated the rights of the survivors and withdrew the information, online entities like Google continuously republish it, refusing victims’ pleas to take it down,” including in search results and AI-generated content, according to the lawsuit.
“Survivors now face renewed trauma. Strangers call them, email them, threaten their physical safety, and accuse them of conspiring with Epstein when they are, in reality, Epstein’s victims,” the complaint alleges.
That abuse — as well as “severe emotional distress, reputational harm, invasion of privacy, harassment, threats to their physical safety, economic losses, and other compensable damages” — followed a “deliberate policy choice to prioritize rapid, large-volume disclosure over protection of Epstein survivors’ privacy,” according to plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and no less than $1,000 in damages per survivor, as well as punitive damages “in amounts sufficient to punish and deter” Google from sharing such information in the future.
The Independent has requested comment from Google and the Justice Department.
Under legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump in November, the Justice Department was ordered to release all files connected to investigations into Epstein by December 19.
The Justice Department has since published millions of pages of files connected to the predator despite blowing deadlines for the full disclosure of all documents in the possession of federal law enforcement.
That dump included thousands of pages of unredacted files, victim statements, witness interviews and other materials that included victim-identifying information.
Last month, federal prosecutors told judges overseeing the cases against Epstein and his associate and convicted trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell that the Justice Department was still “in the process” of removing documents that contained “victim-identifying information.”
“The Department has worked all hours through the weekend from the point when the first victim-related concerns were raised,” according to the February 2 letter from U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in New York.
“The Department now has taken down several thousands of documents and media that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information due to various factors, including technical or human error,” he added.
The Justice Department is “continuously evaluating its processes and making further enhancements as necessary” to protect victims while complying with law mandating the public release of the files.
Survivors allege that Google was repeatedly notified that sensitive personal information was exposed by the search engine giant in the weeks after the Justice Department released the documents, yet that content is still available online, plaintiffs allege.
The company is accused of failing to use tools at its disposal to weed out that information.
