Justice Department releases new batch of documents in Epstein investigation...

Thousands of documents related to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released on Friday. Among them were images of well-known people and written complaints about Epstein. Here’s what happened after the release before the weekend: Deadline missed Despite a law requiring all files related to the Epstein investigation to be released by Friday, this did not happen. The Justice Department said it would continue to release more documents in the coming weeks. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed in November, required the Justice Department to make all files related to Jeffrey Epstein publicly available within 30 days, in a searchable format, with content that could potentially identify victims redacted. Redaction issues Though the Epstein Files Transparency Act outlined how redactions should be made across the documents, both survivors and lawmakers have criticized the Justice Department for over-redacting information, with scores of completely-redacted pages being released. At the same time, Gloria Allred, an attorney who represents several of the women abused by Jeffrey Epstein, said she believes some of the files may have been “under-redacted” after seeing several survivors’ names that should not have been included in the documents. Famous faces Among the documents released were images of famous people including former President Bill Clinton, actor Kevin Spacey, singer Michael Jackson, newsman Walter Cronkite and singer and actress Diana Ross. None of the released images depicts sexual activity, and many are simply images of people at public events or functions together. Clinton and Spacey have denied any wrongdoing, and CNN has not received a response from Ross or the estates of Jackson or Cronkite. Survivors vindicated The release of a 1996 complaint written about Epstein has vindicated Epstein survivors Maria and Annie Farmer. Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Annie Farmer said that seeing the complaint was “very emotional.” CNN’s Logan Schiciano, Aleena Fayaz, Devan Cole and MJ Lee contributed to this reporting.