Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson on Monday criticized President Donald Trump and his administration for causing more pain to Jeffrey Epstein survivors after the Justice Department discarded files riddled with redactions.

“That is betrayal. “That is the death blow for the victims,” Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee, wrote in his newsletter Rick Wilson’s Against All Enemies. “You survived the predators. You survived the system that shrugged, looked the other way, or, worst of all, laughed at it for years. And now you’re watching the system do it again; only this time, it’s live-streamed, rated, and presented like a worthless hamburger.”

Rick Wilson also criticized Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for claiming that the removal of a since-restored photo of Trump “had nothing to do” with the president.
Rick Wilson also criticized Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for claiming that the removal of a since-restored photo of Trump “had nothing to do” with the president.

Brad Barket via Getty Images

The Justice Department on Friday missed a legally mandated deadline to remove its entire trove of documents linked to the deceased convicted sex offender. Instead, the department said it will release the files on a rolling basis in the coming weeks.

In the days since, deletions of missing files and documents have been reported, along with intense and inexplicable redactions of pages on the Department of Justice website.

Epstein survivors condemned the Justice Department for the partial release, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged legal action against the Trump administration.

On Monday, Wilson criticized Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for claiming that the removal of a since-restored photo featuring Trump had “nothing to do” with the president.

“Congratulations, geniuses. You just rediscovered the Streisand effect: the more you try to bury something, the more guaranteed you are that the Internet will dig it up with a backhoe and a marching band,” Wilson wrote. “Taking out archives made people search harder. Restoring them didn’t end the story… it showed the cover-up. This cover-up won’t survive. They never do.”

Wilson also argued that the Justice Department’s “Sharpie-fest” with the files only helped widen the crisis in Trump’s world.

“The administration wanted to cover the pot, a liberal middle finger to America. Instead, they turned up the heat and walked away,” Wilson wrote. “That’s why the black marker is not just ink. It is power. “It is a new form of abuse that hits the lives and hearts of women who have suffered for too long.”