Internet sleuths have found what many call a “smoking gun” in the Department of Justice’s latest release of 3 million investigation files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
After denying the existence of the files for a little under a year, the Trump administration finally released them after a law mandating the release was passed by Congress last year.
Highlights
- Internet sleuths found a possible 'smoking gun' showing the DOJ tried to blanket redact Trump's name from the Epstein files.
- Trump was mentioned over 38,000 times, but many believe the DOJ redactions aim to protect him in the files.
- An automated system may have flagged and redacted 'Don' or 'Don T,' causing awkward, mistaken redactions.
U.S. President Donald Trump was mentioned more than 38,000 times in the files, but many believe the DOJ tried to protect the president.
Internet sleuths have flagged something in the Epstein files they believe protects Trump
Image credits: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
The DOJ, which was ordered to release the files by December 19, 2025, missed the deadline by six weeks. The department has also heavily redacted the documents, which they said was to protect the identities of victims or any ongoing cases, among other reasons.
The DOJ had included heavy redactions in the previously released Epstein Files as well, and had received a lot of criticism for it. But this time around, many believe the word ‘DON’, short for Donald, or ‘DON-T’ for Donald Trump, has been marked as an automatic flag in the system.
Image credits: Department of Justice
In one such email that has gone viral, an individual, whose name has also been redacted, wrote to Epstein, “I was going to take polo lessons in Calgary but I [redacted] think my body can handle it! I pull a muscle every time, and I'm starting to realize my budding polo career might have to take a back seat to my actual job.”
The awkward placement of the redaction, where the word most likely to fit in should have been “don’t,” has got many heads turning.
“I’m not a very smart man but it looks to me like a computer thought this said Don and redacted it. In case you don’t realize it yet this is a big cover-up,” an X user captioned the email.
Many of Epstein’s victims have come forward to say that the redactions—which were apparently made to protect them, were faulty. A letter sent by victims’ attorneys cites at least 100 survivors who have reported redaction failures, including their personal information being made public.
Epstein's victims have said the redactions did not protect their personal information
Image credits: Emily Michot/Getty Images
Instead, the DOJ has redacted the details of individuals who may have aided the convicted sex offender. For instance, in one email, a person wrote to Epstein: “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.”
But the name of the author has been redacted, making people believe that Trump’s name could be redacted in places as well.
“Why are they redacting names of people that aren't victims?” one user on Reddit said in response to the email mentioned above. Another replied, “They redacted ‘Don T.’ You can draw your own conclusions about why.”
Image credits: Edmonton/Reddit
“It’s basically another case of Dwigt,” joked one user on X, referring to a scene from The Office, where the character Dwight Schrute’s name has been mistakenly spelled ‘Dwigt’ due to a botched search‑and‑replace error.
Image credits: Quadcarl/X
Many users also hypothesized that AI or automated software was used to flag the word “Don T.” “It looks to me like they did blanket redactions by typing in keywords. Doing that to 3 1/2 million documents is insane because it’s obviously going to make mistakes,” a user said on X.
An independent watchdog has also questioned the redactions, noting how no names of leaders within the Trump administration have been mentioned in the files.
Some people believe the word 'Don T' has been flagged in the files by automated software
Image credits: Jakub Porzycki/Getty Images
“The obvious conclusion is that these communications have been withheld, destroyed, or redacted to the point that they are not traceable in the Epstein Library,” a complaint filed by the Democracy Defenders Fund mentioned.