Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is begging a federal judge to let him off the hook for a $1,000-a-day fine.
This fine is Blanche’s latest setback in a series of back-and-forths surrounding alawsuit brought against himby journalist Katie Phang, who has accused the Department of Justice of failing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Phangsuedthe DOJ in April for a “brazen, shocking, and ongoing violation” of the law, which President Donald Trump reluctantly signed in November.
Despite the Justice Department’s repeatedassertionsthat the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and subsequent release of files has been conducted with “an unprecedented commitment to transparency,”millions of filesare still either missing or redacted.
In June, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. SullivanorderedBlanche toproduce previously redacted materialsfrom the Epstein files, including FBI notes from interviews with a woman alleging that Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1980s when she was 13 years old, as well as email exchanges with Epstein regarding a “torture video” and the identities of Epstein’spotential co-conspirators.
Sullivan gave Blanche until July 2 to produce the materials. When the acting attorney general failed to do so, Phangsuggesteda daily $1,000 fine until he complied.
Blanche lashed out Monday in a melodramaticbriefattacking Phang’s argument as “outlandish,” “absurd,” and “hyperbolic rhetoric seeking to impose punitive sanctions” on the Department of Justice. He called her lawsuit “sensational and unsubstantiated,” despite the reality that her entire argument is based on cold, hard facts.
Phang’s ongoing lawsuit is yet another headache for Blanche, whose scheme to secure a permanent promotion to attorney general has not exactly been smooth sailing. After days oftenseconfirmation hearings in the Senate, an uncomfortablemeetingwith Epstein survivors, and hundreds of Blanche’s former colleaguesopposinghis nomination, $1,000 a day just might drive him over the edge.
Too bad. Let’s see the money.
Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon isn’t just running out of weapons as the war on Iran intensifies—it’s also running out of money.
The Washington Postreportedthat the Pentagon is facing an upcoming budget deficit caused directly by President Trump’s war on Iran, forcing it to cut training, maintenance, and military preparations. Hegseth has also not been transparent or timely about the ultimate costs of the war, leading to more confusion and disarray.
“We need to know what we’re purchasing and why we’re purchasing it,” Democratic Representative Betty McCollum, ranking member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, told thePost,noting that other Pentagon officials were “very concerned” about the lack of information they were receiving.
The House is set to vote on a $73 billion defense package this week, more than the $67 billion the administration requested to help it out of the hole it’s dug. That request has not been well received, as most Democrats oppose any new funding for the Iran war.
This news also comes as the U.S. is dealing with adwindling stockpile of munitions, contributing to the administration’s financial requests.
It’s absurd that the Pentagon is running out of money when its budget for this year was $1 trillion, with the Trump administration already requesting $1.5 trillion for 2027—a record-setting amount. They’re stacking up bills with your taxpayer dollars to go deeper into a war that the vast majority of the country does not support.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that freed Columbia student and pro-Palestinian protester Mohsen Mahdawi from ICE custody.
