According to a Justice Department lawyer, Attorney General Todd Blanche has turned over to a federal judge unredacted handwritten FBI notes memorializing four interviews with a woman who alleges Donald Trump sexually and physically abused her when she was 13 to 15 years old.
On Friday, Katie Phang said DOJ lawyer Andrew Block indicated by email that Blanche had complied with U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan's September 16 order, which required the notes to be submitted by September 24 at 11 a.m. Eastern.
Sullivan also ordered Blanche to provide evidence supporting the DOJ's claim that redactions in three separate Epstein-related emails actually protect victims. But the Justice Department did not file a public notice detailing its compliance, leaving unclear exactly what supporting material Blanche provided for those disputed redactions.
The development puts the original handwritten FBI notes directly in Sullivan's hands. The judge will review both redacted and unredacted versions and determine whether the Trump regime's proposed redactions are justified before the records are released publicly.
Meanwhile, Blanche is fighting another part of Sullivan's order at the D.C. Circuit, where he is seeking a stay of the requirement that DOJ begin reviewing and producing foreign-language Epstein materials that have never been publicly released.
The D.C. Circuit has temporarily paused that requirement while it considers Blanche's request for a longer stay. The court has not ruled that the records may be withheld.
The latest developments come after months of clashes between Blanche and Sullivan over the Trump Justice Department's handling of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, including missed deadlines, disputed redactions, withheld FBI notes, and records the DOJ says it has already finished producing.
One part of the dispute centers on handwritten FBI notes underlying four FD-302 interview reports. The notes memorialize interviews with a woman who alleged that Donald Trump sexually and physically abused her when she was 13 to 15 years old.
Blanche had argued that the handwritten notes could remain withheld because they were substantially similar to the typed reports and because manually redacting them would be difficult.
Sullivan rejected that position in his September 16 order. The judge found that the department's own review protocol did not authorize withholding documents merely because they were substantially similar and that the handwritten notes were not duplicates of the FD-302 reports.
The underlying handwritten notes are not duplicates of the FD-302 interview reports.
The judge ordered Blanche to provide both redacted and unredacted versions of the notes for private review by 11 a.m. Eastern on September 24.
Phang said Sullivan will now review those versions himself. Blanche was still required to propose redactions necessary to protect victims' confidential information, but Sullivan will determine whether those proposed redactions are justified before any version of the handwritten notes is released publicly.
In other words, the Trump regime does not get the final word on what the public can see. The judge does.
