U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, issued a preliminary injunction requiring acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act by July 2. Otherwise, Blanche must show cause if he declines to abide by the federal law.
The judge ordered the DOJ to remove its redactions of Jeffrey Epstein‘s possible co-conspirators in “at least eight email exchanges with Mr. Epstein regarding a ‘torture video’ and sexual activity with young women, including minors,” according to the court filing. It has since come to light that Epstein sent an email to Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem in 2009, saying he “loved” the “torture video.”
Sullivan also ordered the DOJ to provide FBI documents, particularly interviews with a woman who claimed she was abused by President Donald Trump when she was 13 years old in the 1980s. Trump and Epstein knew each other at that time, but the two later had a falling-out. The president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing related to the late convicted sex offender.
In granting the preliminary injunction, the Clinton-appointed judge denied the federal government’s request for a stay. He found the acting attorney general’s arguments to be “unpersuasive” and thus decided to rule in favor of the plaintiff.
Attorney and journalist Katie Phang sued Blanche in April to compel the release of unredacted information from the Epstein files.
“I have standing to be able to get Todd Blanche to comply with Judge Sullivan’s order, which is now telling him that on or before July 2, he either has to put up or shut up,” Phang told MeidasTouch.
Her legal counsel in the case also celebrated the news.
“The government ignored a law passed by Congress and then refused to defend its own conduct in court, all for the sake of protecting the rich and powerful,” said Brendan Ballou, founder of the Public Integrity Project. “Doing so had consequences, and now the public will finally get transparency around Jeffrey Epstein and his network.”
About 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files have been released so far, although the DOJ has withheld many more pages of documents under various legal privileges, such as victims’ privacy. This has angered certain lawmakers in Congress, particularly Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), who spearheaded the bill that mandated disclosure from the start. Trump signed the measure into law last fall.
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Blanche led the department’s handling of the Epstein files months before he replaced former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The court order came after the DOJ missed a 1 p.m. deadline on Thursday to respond to Phang’s filings. It remains to be seen whether the department complies with the order by next Thursday.
