FBI redacted Trump's name in documents in Epstein case – media

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has redacted some of the documents in the case of sexual exploitation of minors, in which financier Jeffrey Epstein was involved.

As Bloomberg reports, citing three informed sources, the names of dozens of famous people, including US President Donald Trump, were removed from the materials.

According to the agency, the editing was carried out by a group of FBI employees responsible for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Their task was to review the archives accumulated over almost twenty years of the investigation and determine which documents could be made public. The process revealed numerous mentions of Trump and other famous people. However, as Bloomberg emphasizes, the presence of a name in the materials in itself is not evidence of wrongdoing or even an indirect hint of participation in crimes.

According to the sources, Donald Trump's name was removed because at the time the investigation began in 2006, he was a private person. This gave rise to two exceptions to the Freedom of Information Act that allow US authorities to withhold personal information from law enforcement records if their publication would result in "a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." This practice is even used against public figures, and in this case it was found to be permissible.

The redactions took place after Trump returned to the White House. In July, the US Department of Justice and the FBI officially stated that "no further disclosure" of the files "would be appropriate or warranted."

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, US President Donald Trump has filed a USD 10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, over a report that his name was on Jeffrey Epstein's birthday greetings in 2003.