Attorney General Todd Blanche is "circling the drains" as his Justice Department edges toward a contempt finding linked to Jeffrey Epstein-related records, according to a new legal analysis.

In a Saturday episode of the Legal AF podcast, attorney Michael Popok argued that Blanche's Justice Department is "staring down the barrel, the business end of a federal judge."

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan "wants to hold them in contempt of court for failing to produce documents he's ordered to be produced consistent with the Epstein Files Transparency Act," Popok said. Sullivan, a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia first appointed to the federal bench in 1994, has overseen numerous high-profile cases involving executive-branch defendants.

Blanche is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by lawyer and journalist Katie Phang, who is demanding the release of additional Epstein files or an explanation of why the DOJ will not release them. Phang alleges the DOJ improperly redacted the Epstein files in violation of the requirements set out in the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a 2025 law directing the Justice Department to make public documents tied to Epstein, the financier who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting sex-trafficking charges.

According to Popok, Sullivan has demanded that Blanche turn over handwritten FBI notes tied to a woman who "claims she was victimized and sexually abused by Donald Trump when she was thirteen years old."

Sullivan also ordered Blanche to produce a redaction log and a sworn declaration regarding a required Federal Register notice, Popok added.

DOJ lawyers responded to Sullivan's records demand with "a ridiculous two-page filing," which Popok dismissed as "a page and a half of gibberish unsupported by any affidavit or sworn statement."

Popok mocked the DOJ's account of its document review — in which the department bemoaned attorneys working "days, nights, weekends, and holidays, including Christmas Day and New Year's Eve" — describing it as a "pity party."

Popok also seized on a claim by a DOJ attorney that the government had not previously produced handwritten interview notes in the matter. A member of Phang's legal team, whom Popok interviewed on a previous podcast, called that assertion "just straight up false" and pointed to "over a hundred examples of handwritten notes being reviewed, being produced" under the transparency act.

Popok predicted Sullivan is nearing a breaking point.

"I think Judge Sullivan's had it," Popok said. "Bring the contempt already. Bring the contempt. Order the production of the FBI notes by a date certain or people will be found in contempt of court. Start threatening jail. That's where we're at."

If the dispute escalates, the case could test how far courts can go in enforcing transparency mandates against a sitting attorney general — with contempt sanctions against federal officials remaining a rare but available judicial remedy.