The Trump administration is incompetent

 But this is not incompetence.  It's intentional.

[S]even of the defendants listed on two 2019 documents released in the [Epstein] files were either cooperating with federal prosecutors or seeking to do so.

And in fact, several of the men whose names appeared with that phrase on the internal documents did cooperate, after talking to prosecutors in what are known as proffer sessions at 500 Pearl Street, the address of the federal district courthouse in Manhattan.

By failing to redact the names of those seven people, who were being held at the Manhattan jail where Mr. Epstein was awaiting trial, the government may have put them in harm’s way. The disclosure of the names could also send a chilling message to anyone else considering whether to cooperate with the authorities.

  NYT

And that is the intention.

When initially informed that the names had been included in the Epstein Files, the Justice Department did not redact the documents further or remove them from the online database. A spokeswoman said that the word proffer “did not necessarily mean cooperator.”

So leave their names out there as a cautionary tale.

But after The New York Times confirmed that at least three of the seven people had in fact cooperated with the government, and then informed the department, agency officials took down the files. They then restored them with the names and notations redacted.

Damage done. Mission accomplished.

Even if the people in question had not cooperated, legal experts said, the phrase could indicate that they had attempted to do so, which would still have put them in harm’s way by signaling to co-defendants and criminal associates that they were willing to provide information to prosecutors.

[...]

On some [documents], all of the information was concealed; on others, only prisoners’ names were redacted, leaving other potentially identifying information visible.

[...]

The agency also released dozens of unredacted nude images on its website, showing young women or possibly minors, and re-exposed the names and identifying information of women who have accused Mr. Epstein.