The leak of previously hidden parts of the Epstein files.

The U.S. Department of Justice is facing questions about whether it is protecting victims or perpetrators. Bipartisan lawmakers are criticizing the Justice Department’s slow handling of the Epstein case. Jeffrey Epstein was a notorious American businessman convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from minors and arrested again in 2019 on suspicion of sex crimes. However, he mysteriously died by suicide in prison. He had close ties to many prominent American political and business figures, and his case has received significant attention. On November 18, 2025, the U.S. Congress passed a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release documents related to the Epstein case by December 19, which President Trump also signed. On December 19, the U.S. Department of Justice began releasing relevant investigation documents in the Epstein case. However, the released documents contained numerous problems, with large amounts of content blacked out and some evidence concealed. To date, documents have been released in multiple batches, with the first batch containing numerous photos of former President Clinton, sparking widespread dissatisfaction. Democrats accused the Department of Justice of protecting certain political figures and highlighting political enemies, while survivors felt the Department of Justice was protecting itself rather than the victims. Starting on December 20, it was discovered that the blacked-out text in some of the PDF files released by the U.S. Department of Justice was not completely hidden. Netizens found that the original text could be fully reproduced by copying and pasting. Currently, on the American community forum Reddit, netizens are working together to try to recover this content. Social media influencer Jack Bro also posted on social media, including a video demonstrating how to copy and paste the file content into word processing programs such as Microsoft Word to reveal the hidden text. This incident has sparked huge controversy, with netizens mocking the U.S. Department of Justice’s disclosure process. A bipartisan group of senators called for an audit of the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein documents, pointing out its actions of concealing documents, repeatedly releasing already public documents, and excessively editing disclosed content. The leak of the hidden parts of the documents undoubtedly makes the Epstein case even more mysterious and raises further questions about the fairness of the American justice system. This incident shows that many unknown secrets seem to be hidden behind the Epstein case, and the actions of the American judicial system in handling the case documents have been widely criticized. Further release of documents and investigation results may bring us more new information.