Judge orders DOJ and Todd Blanche to respond over Epstein files, report says
Key Takeaways
- •Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department to respond by Thursday, explaining their failure to turn over foreign-language Epstein documents and FBI agent interview notes.
- •The order stems from a lawsuit filed against Blanche in April by Katie Phang, a former MSNBC host and attorney.
- •Sullivan granted Phang a preliminary injunction on June 26, 2026, directing the DOJ to immediately begin reviewing and producing foreign-language materials under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but as of August 15, 2026, this had not been done.
- •The case is among the few Epstein files-related lawsuits to move forward, showing that document release disputes are increasingly being tested in court rather than resolved behind the scenes.
- •A DOJ attorney reportedly grew visibly flustered in court last week when Judge Sullivan questioned why the agency had not complied with his orders.
A federal judge has given Attorney General Todd Blanche until next Thursday to explain why the Justice Department failed to turn over a trove of foreign-language documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, Punchbowl News’ Scott MacFarlane reported Friday.
The order comes amid a lawsuit filed against Blanche in April by former MSNBC host and attorney Katie Phang. In June, Phang won a preliminary injunction directing the Justice Department (DOJ) to unredact key Epstein-related documents. The dispute has become one of the few Epstein files-related cases to move forward, underscoring how document release battles are now being tested in court rather than resolved behind the scenes. The DOJ has nonetheless resisted the case, with one DOJ attorney reportedly “turning red” and “stammering” last week when Judge Emmet Sullivan questioned why the agency had not complied with his orders.
“Judge orders Justice Dept & Todd Blanche to respond by Thursday to latest motion in [Katie Phang’s] lawsuit, which seeks release of more Epstein Files,” MacFarlane wrote Friday in a post on X. “Blanche and his agency must answer for why they haven't sufficiently turned over FBI agent interview notes.”
In a Substack post last week, Phang said she was shocked by what she described as the DOJ’s open defiance of Sullivan’s orders in one of the few Epstein files-related lawsuits to gain traction.
“On June 26, 2026, Judge Sullivan entered an order granting my Motion for Preliminary Injunction, directing Todd Blanche to ‘immediately initiate review and production of foreign-language materials that may be subject to production under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,’” Phang wrote.
“As of August 15, 2026, that hasn’t happened. And consider that language as compared to some of the other areas of that preliminary injunction order: the court didn’t give Blanche an ‘out’ to explain why he couldn’t do the translations; the court ordered him to ‘immediately initiate review and production.’”
NEW: Judge orders Justice Dept & Todd Blanche to respond by Thursday to latest motion in @KatiePhang lawsuit, which seeks release of more Epstein Files Blanche and his agency must answer for why they haven't sufficiently turned over FBI agent interview notes — Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) August 21, 2026
