The Trump administration has until next Thursday, July 2, to release unredacted versions of some of the Epstein files or explain why it can’t.
The ruling from a federal judge comes in response to a lawsuit brought by an independent journalist, claiming the Justice Department has not fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. That’s the law passed by Congress last November requiring a broad public release of the records.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the files be turned over after ruling Thursday that the DOJ essentially admitted to violating the law.
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What the judge said
The preliminary injunction orders redactions be removed from certain documents, including “at least eight email exchanges with Mr. Epstein regarding a ‘torture video’ and sexual activity with young women, including minors,” and interviews with a woman who said she was abused by President Donald Trump as a minor.
Sullivan said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche effectively admitted violating the law by failing to address allegations from independent journalist Katie Phang related to those documents.
“The Attorney General does not respond substantively to any of these arguments,” Sullivan wrote in his opinion. “The Attorney General has conceded that he is in violation of the Act.”
Officials say the files contain unverified and uncorroborated allegations that are not normally made public by federal law enforcement, according to Politico. And in a statement in January, the DOJ said the allegations against Trump are “unfounded and false.”
The DOJ argued that Phang should have filed a Freedom of Information Act request, but Sullivan ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act “directed a much broader and less redacted release of the files than would have been made under the FOIA.”
The judge also ordered the government to release a log listing every redaction it has made to the files that have been published, which is also required by the law.
So far, the DOJ has released more than three million pages of Epstein-related documents.
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