Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will find himself in a triangle of trouble on Thursday.
Blanche,nominated as attorney general on June 8by PresidentDonald Trump,faces a deadline July 2 in federal courtto publicly release a batch of secret files about Trump's old pal, the now-deadsex offender JeffreyEpstein.
Blanche must know that Trump, whom he previouslyrepresented in criminal and civil cases, doesn't want any more Epstein files released and has called for the huge, sweeping controversyto just go away.
And Blanche must also know that Congress, which passed theEpstein Files Transparency Actin Novemberwith just one Republican voting against it, will be watching what he does next, as his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearingis just two weeks away.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivanruled in June, ina lawsuit filed in April by independent journalist Katie Phang, that Blanche "has conceded that he is in violation" of the Epstein Files Transparency Act "by not responding substantively" in court to any of Phang's arguments about unreleased documents.
"I hope that members of Congress put some pressure on him for this," Brendan Ballou of thePublic Integrity Projecttold me. "The extraordinary thing from this whole litigation is at no point has the government tried to argue that it followed the law, which is a pretty shocking position to take."
Phang,a former Florida prosecutor, isrepresented by lawyersfor the Public Integrity Project,
What happens next?
Trapped in a triangle of Trump, a federal judge and Congress, call it a safe bet that Blanche will seek to serve Trump and stall the judge and Congress.That's what Blanche always does.
Trump picked Blanche because both men have made it plain that they see the job of attorney general as representing and defending only one American ‒ Trump.
Phang's lawsuit in April called for the Department of Justice to remove any unlawful redactions in the Epstein files, to restore documents that were posted online then removed, and to release currently hidden documents.
In May, Phangasked the judge for a preliminary injunctionto force the DOJ to specifically produce unredacted versions ‒ or explain why it would not ‒ of eight emails, two DOJ documents and FBI interviews. Phang also asked for review and production of foreign-language documents that had not been released and a log of the legal reasoning behind all redactions.
Blanche now has to release that information on July 2 or make a valid legal argument for why he can't.
That redaction log looks like all kinds of trouble for Blanche, the DOJ and Trump. The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the creation of "a summary of redactions made, including a legal basis."
"They need to publish the redaction log that they were required to create and update it concurrently, or show why they can't do that," Ballou said. "That's a really significant obligation on their part."
