Some Epstein file redactions are being undone • Hacker News Board

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#371

Post by vanviegen » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 9:59 AM UTC

rcbdev wrote: post #365

RonanSoleste wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They effectively already left NATO and openly support Russia already. ICC members are already under fire and some had their microsoft account banned by Trump. Trump will invade Greenland and Canada first. China is less of an priority.

> They effectively already left NATO What the fuck are you talking about? Someone should tell Russia.

NATO works by projecting a united force. Nations unconditionally backing each other up. The USA is now clearly no longer a part of that. That's not to say that the USA will do nothing if a NATO member is attacked. It might. Or not.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#372

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:00 AM UTC

KnuthIsGod wrote: post #300

Print on paper. Physically cut out the pieces you want to send to remove. Scan. Still suspect that someone can undo this from data may have been accidentally steaganographed across non-deleted parts of the image.

[deleted]

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#373

Post by h33t-l4x0r » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:00 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #290

ekianjo wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> William Barr. Barr is contemptible, yes, but smart AF You mean the guy who covered up for Epstein's 'suicide' and expected us morons to believe it?

> You mean the guy who covered up for Epstein's 'suicide' and expected us morons to believe it? Let's assume that's true. How does it clash with him being "contemptible...but smart AF"?

Yeah I mean, orchestrating an assassination in a federal prison of a guy the whole world is watching, and never even so much as a whiff of a leak? Because how do you contain that without whacking everyone involved (which we would know about)? You don't. Not without teleportation, time-travel, or at the very least post-hypnotic suggestion.

Oh he's smart AF, all right.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#374

Post by wisty » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:04 AM UTC

rcbdev wrote: post #365

RonanSoleste wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They effectively already left NATO and openly support Russia already. ICC members are already under fire and some had their microsoft account banned by Trump. Trump will invade Greenland and Canada first. China is less of an priority.

> They effectively already left NATO What the fuck are you talking about? Someone should tell Russia.

There's a left wing cooker conspiracy theory that the guy who gave Ukraine the Javalin anti tank missiles and forced NATO to increase military spending to 5% of GDP is actually a secret Russian agent.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#375

Post by h33t-l4x0r » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:04 AM UTC

aucisson_masque wrote: post #334

culi wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my initial reaction to this news. I mean think about it The Trump team knows that nobody is gonna buy whatever they put out as being the full story. Isn't this just the perfect way to make people feel like they got something they weren't supposed to see? They can increase trust in the output without having to increase trust in the source of it And as far as I've heard there hasn't been anything "unredacted"…

It's the same government that invited a journalist to a signal discussion about ongoing military strike in Yemen.

Maybe that was just a ploy to get us to underestimate them.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#376

Post by srean » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:07 AM UTC

__alexs wrote: post #367

cmarschner wrote: post #14

Befuddling that this happened again. It’s not the first time - Paul Manafort court filing (U.S., 2019) Manafort’s lawyers filed a PDF where the “redacted” parts were basically black highlighting/boxes over live text. Reporters could recover the hidden text (e.g., via copy/paste). - TSA “Standard Operating Procedures” manual (U.S., 2009) A publicly posted TSA screening document used black rectangles that did not remov…

This has happened so many times I feel like the DoJ must have some sort of standardised redaction pipeline to prevent it by now. Assuming they do, why wasn't it used?

I am happy with their lack of expertise and hope it stays that way, because I cannot remember a single case where redactions put the citizenry at a better place for it.

Of course if it's in the middle of an investigation it can spoil the investigation, allow criminals to cover their tracks, allow escape.

In such case the document should be vetted by competent and honest officials to judge whether it is timely to release it, or whether suppressing it just ensures that investigation is never concluded, extending a forever renewed cover to the criminals.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#377

Post by nubg » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:07 AM UTC

TacticalCoder wrote: post #355

OneMorePerson wrote: post #231

It's funny seeing this play out because in my personal life anytime I'm sharing a sensitive document where someone needs to see part of it but I don't want them to see the rest that's not relevant, I'll first block out/redact the text I don't want them to see (covering it, using a redacting highlighter thing, etc.), and then I'll screenshot the page and make that image a PDF. I always felt paranoid (without any real…

I then convert the image to grayscale only. Then I apply a filter so that only 16 colors are used. And I then adjust brightness/contrast so that "white is really white". It's all scripted: "screenshot to PDF". One of my oldest shell script. 16 shades of grey (not 50) is plenty enough for text to still be smooth. I do it for several reasons, one of them being I often take manual notes on official documents (which infu…

care to share the script?

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#378

Post by h33t-l4x0r » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:07 AM UTC

nothrabannosir wrote: post #156

bdangubic wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what is the US exactly currently if not dictatorship? is there a single thing “President” cannot do right now and if so who would be stopping him? so perhaps on paper US is not dictatorship much like Russia and China are not… We spend decades trying to fight these regimes and lost so much that now we are worse than them :)

> is there a single thing “President” cannot do right now Stand in the middle of fifth Avenue and shoot someone :) Have political enemies executed Get his face on Mount Rushmore Disband congress Disband the Supreme Court Keep Jimmy Kimmel off air Get Jon Stuart to shut up Get James comey indicted Get a national holiday named after him Etc. Even when we focus on things he tried to do, there is a lot he couldn’t. Let a…

Well he did get Ellen Degeneris to self-deport

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#379

Post by jtrn » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:08 AM UTC

Shout out to Stirling PDF that can be self hosted and has a relatively robust and easy to use redaction tool. All for free.... For now....

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#380

Post by delbronski » Wed, Dec 24, 2025, 10:11 AM UTC

This is probably just pure stupidity, but part of me hopes there is some tech person in there who knew exactly what they were doing. I’d take a job as a tech person in this administration just to sabotage stuff like this.