this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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[–] ssfckdt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The Guardian referred to these acts as "hacks." I think I know where the real hacks are -- at The Guardian.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

Sort of an accurate description. It might make sense to laymen.

[–] kmirl@lemmy.world 322 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Honestly wondering if this was done deliberately by DOJ tech folks who weren't on board with the cover-up.

[–] lechatron@lemmy.today 170 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Never attribute to morality that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

[–] fan0m@lemmy.world 68 points 3 days ago (7 children)

The saying is usually malice but I suppose it still works with morality all the same

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[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 21 points 2 days ago

Hey there. It doesn't work in authoritarian regimes. When the only way to resist is sabotage, sabotage is everywhere

[–] SorryQuick@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago (2 children)

From what I’ve heard, it wasn’t released, they were uploaded and it’s url kept private. Imo they probably did that to send it to a few highly ranked people so they could check if they agreed with the censorship before releasing them. However, the URL for those to-be-released files were easily guessed based on the pattern of the previously already public ones.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Despite propaganda, the og Nazis weren't competent either.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago

Hahaha if that's true it's hilarious. Their ineptitude might be our saving grace.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Given the sheer ineptitude of this administration, this was likely stupidity.

When I worked for DOD, I worked on a FOIA request and was trained on using the declassification software. The software worked by highlighting the appropriate text and then "flattened" the highlight so you couldn't do this.

The software was REQUIRED to be used because it would also perform the validation.

These people probably used regular Adobe acrobat. Because they are that dumb. And they don't know about proper FOIA procedures.

Because they are stupid.

It might be likely that DOGE thought it was frivilous government spending the license for that software, because it's the government and they'd use licensed software, so axed it out.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

30 minutes before releasing the Epstein files:

"Grok, how do I redact a PDF?"

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

They fired a bunch of the FOIA people. The people who know how to do this right are no longer employed by the federal government.

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[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 55 points 3 days ago

If true, their information needs to be noted if possible only after the arrest of all these other assholes. Gotta protect the ones that did not follow orders of this pedophile regime.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

I have heard of a gov employee keeping a usb cable in a locked cabinet because they thought it had leftover data after use.

[–] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not do far fetched, tbh. I always burn the pencil after writing down my password - if someone got a hold of it they could easily figure out what was last written. My typewriter was hacked numerous times this way!

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[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Not actually an insane practice. There are compromised cables that look normal but have hidden storage to record data for later retrieval.

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[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oversecure is better than undersecure

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[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

It's really not difficult to properly redact documents. So I can't imagine how someone could even do this unintentionally...

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[–] Million@lemmy.zip 49 points 2 days ago

I was watching a coffeezilla video on the new leaks yesterday, and I saw he could highlight and copy text in the pdf document.

I have had broken PDFs that lose the ability to select and search for text for much less modifications, and was wondering if there was a way to see behind the redaction.

I figured it would be a task for someone to look at the text in code and see the redacted parts, but turns out everyone can do it lol.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 133 points 3 days ago (6 children)

The incompetence is staggering.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago

And also has a long history. They've done this before.

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 21 points 3 days ago

Trump’s GOP supporters are all incompetents.

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[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 85 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Never forget that above all, above the narcissism, the megalomania, and the viciousness, above all Trump is a terrifyingly stupid and incompetent man. When he hires, he does so that he feels like he’s the smartest one in the room. That tells me a lot about the people now running our federal government.

With all of its mercilessness, it can be easy to forget that authoritarianism is a profoundly flawed and short-sighted way to run a government.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

This is what happens when to trade competency for loyalty.

[–] neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 44 points 2 days ago

The Guardian claims that there are some redacted documents that can un-redacted by copying the text and pasting it into another window. Also, in other documents, photoshop can be used to enhance features of the redacted portions of text to reveal potential characters being covered.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/23/epstein-unredacted-files-social-media

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 66 points 3 days ago (3 children)

So the entirety of the files released thus far, have been copied and unredacted I would assume. Might just need to buy some popcorn. Probably going to be a wild couple weeks.

[–] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 62 points 3 days ago (6 children)

I haven't checked myself, but on another post someone claimed that only some of the pages were "redacted" in this manner. If that's the case then while we got more information than they probably wanted us too, there is still some information that's yet to be made available.

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[–] ClownStatue@piefed.social 30 points 3 days ago

Except, if we’ve learned anything to this point, it’s that Trump will once again face zero repercussions from this.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 days ago

"Those were clearly inserted by Radical Left Hackers after the DOJ confirmed that none of the docs incriminated Trump!"

-Lunatic Rightwing Media Audience once their talking heads get done telling them what happened and why it's someone else's fault.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

apparently theres furthermore 100k+ files. if it doesnt name any other politician or world leader, trump is only the lightning rod to give them all cover, thats what the Ds/Rs are desperately trying to hide.

[–] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 49 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Why do I keep expecting the US government to be remotely competent at anything?

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 21 points 3 days ago

It was more competent before they fired everyone competent and replaced them with incompetent sycophants. It wasn't perfect before, but far better than now.

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[–] DirtPuddleMisfortune@feddit.org 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

And nothing will happen. Magats are going to maga. Democrats are going to democrat.

Edited typo.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And you'll continue doing nothing?

You are correct. I'm European and just commenting this shitshow.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 20 points 2 days ago

msm has no interest in covering it fully, because its mostly captured by conservatives

[–] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I predicted sleuths would be able to figure out some stuff that was supposed to be redacted (like “donald trump” redactions always being the same width or something) but if this is true it has to be sabotage from within lol

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[–] calliope@retrolemmy.com 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Has anyone actually tried this?

I did. I checked both the “Masseuses” and the “Contact Book,” (mentioned in the X comments as being not redacted correctly), and they seem to be redacted properly. I’ve tried 3 PDF readers, but I’d be curious what actually works.

You have to scroll a while in the original comments to find someone who actually tried it, and it didn’t work for them either.

It’s hilarious that everyone is just believing it though.

Yay, someone else is actually covering it!

[–] kingofras@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I’ve done all 18,000 pdfs. This must have happened in one document. The vast majority are redacted correctly.

This looks like a disinformation campaign to distract from other stuff. “Some people are saying there are word in the document that should not be in the documents, so we have to wonder how they got there”.

The entire thing is a classic disinformation campaign. Right before Christmas. Multiple tranche release. Then pullbacks and rerelease. Maximum confusion. Make sure nobody knows who to trust.

Fun fact: this technique was developed in Russia.

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No way they made this same age old mistake AGAIN. AHAH

Also.. nice link. I did not know there were still nitter instances going around after Twitter/X became unscrapable.

[–] 58008@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I love this shit, it really shows how ludicrous those "deep state" conspiracy theories are. They can't even blot out a document that incriminates their own leader.

It also goes some way towards showing how unlikely it is that Epstein was murdered and with no evidence/perpetrators of his murder showing up in the last 6 years.

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