Government site crashed minutes after posting Jeffrey Epstein documents

Demand was simply too much for the creaky ol’ PACER site.

It’s time to give PACER a revamp.
Credit: Getty Images / Joe Schildhorn, Patrick McMullan

The government site hosting the newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein case files had one job.

Unfortunately, PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) couldn’t withhold the strain of demand for the documents mentioning figures like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Stephen Hawking in relation to Jeffrey Epstein. According to Vice, the PACER site crashed soon after the documents containing flight logs, un-redacted testimony, and incriminating details about Epstein’s relationships to several household names were uploaded.

On Wednesday night at 7 p.m. EST, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered documents pertaining to a civil lawsuit against Epstein’s helper/madame in sex trafficking Ghislaine Maxwell. But within minutes, the site had crashed.

The PACER site is notoriously antiquated and buggy. Most people don’t have to deal with the tedious and overly complicated platform on a regular basis. But this is one of the most high profile cases in recent history, which suddenly put PACER in the spotlight. PACER is evidently in desperate need of a site overhaul, but the crash also underscores the immense demand for details about Epstein’s black book and high profile figures complicit in his dealings.

Luckily, some people were quick enough to download the documents before the site crashed, so there are many places where you can view the 900 pages of case documents. However, it’s not a great look for digital age democracy.

You can read and download the documents for free through sites like PlainSite and 404 Media. But to access them on PACER you have to pay 10 cents a page. That’s right, PACER charges you to access public records.

The site seems to be back up, but what’s the point when you can get them elsewhere for free?

Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master’s degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on Twitter at @cecily_mauran.

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