Problems With Redactions: Ghislaine Maxwell Edition
There's a new way for redactions to be spoiled.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
When I first heard that the Slate team of Josh Levin, Aaron Mak, and Jonathan L. Fischer cracked the redactions in the newly released 2016 deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell, I assumed it was some technical issue that allowed the seemingly redacted words to be cut and pasted into a word document unredacted, because, well, that’s happened before. Like a bunch of times — and those are just the famous cases. But no, there’s a new way they’ve completely screwed the pooch on this one.
If you’ll recall, Maxwell, a onetime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is currently facing six federal charges, including enticing a minor to engage in illegal sex acts. Prior to the current criminal case, Maxwell gave a deposition in a defamation suit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges sexual abuse at the hands of Epstein. The Miami Herald sued for the depo (and other documents) to be released, which was done after “days of wrangling over redactions.” Turns out those negotiations may have been in vain.
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It all boils down to the depo index. As Slate notes, “It turns out, though, that those redactions are possible to crack. That’s because the deposition—which you can read in full here—includes a complete alphabetized index of the redacted and unredacted words that appear in the document.” So, nestled between clients and clock is another “cl” word….
Do you think it’s Clinton? I think it’s Clinton.
Oh, look, an instance of the word on page 135 that was (likely inadvertently) left unredacted reveals, it is, in fact, Clinton.
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They were also able to sniff out the the Alan Dershowitz redactions:
Consider the example of Alan Dershowitz. The index indicated that there’s a redacted word that comes after airport and before alcohol.
There’s also a redacted word that comes after depth and before describe.
The A-word and the D-word, the index reports, appear consecutively on pages 211, 299, 368, and 407. Based on context, we can easily deduce that those two words are Alan and Dershowitz.
They also were able to figure out the below referenced Prince Andrew/Andrew’s:
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This one was cracked because of a lawyer’s address. That’s right, because the address for Farmer Jaffee is on N. Andrews Avenue, which was left unredacted, they were able to piece it together.
So far, using these methods, Slate has determined the redactions for the following:
• Doug Band (page 137)
• Nadia Marcinko, also known as Nadia Marcinkova (pages 40-47, 87, 255, 396)
• Marvin Minsky (page 145)
• Kevin Spacey (page 266)
• Leslie Wexner (pages 117, 314, 380, 381, 403, 404)
So let this be a warning to all lawyers out there: sometime the best negotiated plans fall apart with just a bit of critical thinking.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
