Here’s What a Google Subpoena Response Looks Like, Courtesy of the Epstein Files

last month, The Justice Department released more than 3 million documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. While the dumps shed light on Epstein’s own social circle and activities, they also provide a rare window into the inner workings of the federal investigation, including how tech companies like Google respond to government requests for information.

WIRED found several grand jury subpoenas addressed to Google in the DOJ’s most recent release, as well as files that appear to be Google data generated about specific users and letters responding to specific subpoena requests on Google letterhead.

Google declined to comment on the specific documents included in the dump, but spokeswoman Caitlin Jabbari said in a written statement that the company’s “processes for handling law enforcement requests are designed to protect users’ privacy while meeting our legal obligations. We review all legal demands for legal validity, and we push against those that are overbroad, including objecting to some outright.”

The documents show how much the government will sometimes try to get without a judge’s signature, how Google pushes back against requests it says go beyond what is required by law, and what kind of information the company has given up about its users.

secret by design

Subpoenas are generally shrouded in secrecy. A 2019 letter signed by the then-U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and addressed to Google’s legal department prohibited the company by law from disclosing the existence of the letter to Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, the subject of the subpoena, for 180 days from the date of the order. The letter also directs Google to alert prosecutors if it plans to tell Maxwell about the existence of the order after the 180 days are up, “if the investigation continues and the order needs to be renewed.”

Prosecutors requested silence from Google, even though it was not required by law. A 2018 letter instructed Google to preserve all emails (including drafts and trash folders) and Google Drive content associated with the four Gmail accounts, which also requested that Google not disclose the existence of the letters to anyone, including the people owning the accounts. The letter also requests that Google notify federal prosecutors if the company intends to make any disclosures, so that prosecutors can “obtain a non-disclosure order if necessary.”

It’s unclear whether Google notified account holders of the revised emails after the 180-day period described in the 2019 letter expired. Google’s privacy and terms state that when it receives a request from a government agency, it will email the subject of that request before disclosing that information, unless prohibited by law.

back to basics

Several of the files included in the Epstein dump were titled “GOOGLE Subscriber Information” and included the account name, recovery email address and phone number, which Google services the account could access, when the account was created, the “Terms of Service IP” address, and a log of IP address activity.

Mario Trujillo, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the government needs the lowest legal hurdle to access customer information under the Stored Communications Act, a 1980s law that spells out a lot of the rules for what kind of information the government can access from electronic service providers like Google.

While some types of information, such as email ContentsThe law requires a search warrant, “on the opposite end of which is basic customer information,” Trujillo says. The Act explicitly allows the government to obtain that information with just a subpoena, which does not require judicial approval.