Maybe.
Trump DOJ Hands Judge Unredacted Epstein Records After Katie Phang's Court WinThe Justice Department now says it delivered the records directly to the judge after Katie Phang successfully challenged the government's Epstein-file redactions.
meidasnews.com/news/ trump-doj-hands-judg e-unredacted-epstein -records-after-...
But the filing also contains at least one notable admission.
DOJ says that after taking a closer look at one of the records, EFTA01187999, officials discovered they had "inadvertent[ly]" redacted Jeffrey Epstein's own email address.
That redaction, the department says, "has since been lifted."
The development comes after Sullivan ordered DOJ to provide the court with the unredacted material necessary to independently test the government's claims about what it was withholding.
Phang's lawsuit has challenged DOJ's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and its decisions to keep information concealed from the public.
The dispute is particularly significant because the court is no longer being asked simply to take the Justice Department at its word. Sullivan now has the underlying documents in his chambers and can compare the government's public explanations with the material it actually redacted.
DOJ also used Thursday's filing to say that some of the material remains covered by protective orders entered in the federal criminal cases against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in the Southern District of New York.
Those orders, DOJ noted, prohibit the government from publicly disclosing the identities of individuals contained in discovery.
Protecting Epstein's victims has not been the central point of dispute. Rather, Phang's litigation has forced DOJ to substantiate whether the information it chose to hide actually falls within legitimate categories that may be withheld.
Thursday's filing represents the government's argument, not Judge Sullivan's conclusion.
DOJ says its documents prove the redactions were justified. Sullivan will now have the opportunity to examine the unredacted records himself and determine whether he agrees.
And the government has already acknowledged that at least one redaction should not have been there in the first place.
The next major development could come when Sullivan rules on whether DOJ's remaining redactions survive that scrutiny. 
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