WASHINGTON, United States — Victims of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein joined a chorus of criticism on Monday over the Trump administration’s slow release and heavy redaction of records from the investigation into his alleged sex crimes.

US President Donald Trump said, meanwhile, in his first comments since the release of the files, that people who “innocently met” Epstein in the past risked having their reputations ruined.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump mandated the complete release of the Epstein files by Friday of last week.

But the US Justice Department has released only one batch of documents so far, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blaming the delay on the need to redact the identities of Epstein’s more than 1,000 victims.

In a statement, a group of Epstein victims complained that only a “fraction” of the files have been released and were “riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation.”

“At the same time, numerous victim identities were left unredacted, causing real and immediate harm,” they added.

EFTA co-sponsors Ro Khanna, a Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Republican, threatened over the weekend to bring contempt of Congress charges against US Attorney General Pam Bondi for failing to comply with........

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