A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to release unredacted versions of certain email exchanges from the Epstein Files within one week, after a lawsuit by former MSNBC host and legal analyst Katie Phang accusing the DOJ of failing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The DOJ has until July 2 to unredact certain emails and other records which are part of the Epstein Files.
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D.C. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had until July 2 to comply with the preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit covers several documents, including eight redacted emails that were part of the tranche of records linked to the activities of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
As per the ruling, the DOJ must either produce the documents showing the names of email senders, “potential co-conspirators,” and FBI interview notes, which were redacted from certain files.
If it is unable to do so, the agency will need to “show cause” for why these redactions are not possible.
The judge also ordered the DOJ to initiate a review and release of foreign-language materials that may be subject to being made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress last year.
One of the documents covered by the judge’s order is an April 2009 email exchange between Epstein and an individual whose name is redacted. In one of the emails, Epstein tells the individual, “where are you? are you ok I loved the torture video.” It’s unclear what “torture video” he is talking about.
Phang, whose YouTube channel is part of the MeidasTouch Network, spoke about the ruling in an interview with MeidasTouch on YouTube, calling it a “victory.” Phang then criticized the DOJ’s handling of redactions in the documents, saying it failed to comply with the act by not producing a redaction log, which was “supposed to identify the grounds…as to why they were withholding or redacting certain bits of information.” She added: “In the absence of this redaction log, how in the actual hell is anyone…supposed to know if in good faith there has been anything done by the DOJ that has been a legal redaction or withholding?”
The Justice Department has not yet commented on Thursday’s ruling. In an earlier filing, it argued that Phang cannot sue for the release of unredacted documents because she can file a Freedom of Information Act request for the same information. In her Meidas Touch interview, Phang said: “We made it very clear that FOIA has very specific limitations that would prevent a lot of this information in the Epstein files from coming out.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., one of the authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, praised Phang on X after the judge’s ruling and wrote: “Judge Sullivan officially granted Katie Phang's motion for a preliminary injunction after she sued the Trump admin for violating…Epstein Files Transparency Act. Thanks to her tireless work, we're one step closer to the full release of the Epstein files and getting survivors the justice they've long deserved.”
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