The U.S. Department of Justice will fail to meet the legally required Friday deadline to release all Epstein files to Congress, releasing only part of the material.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “told Fox News that the Justice Department would release ‘several hundred thousand’ documents on Friday, ‘and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,'” as The Hill reported.
“So today is the 30 days when I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today. And those documents will come in in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with, with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.
“What we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story to the extent it needs to be protected is completely protected,” Blanche added.
Critics weighed in on the Friday deadline.
“The bottom line: The Trump administration is missing today’s legal deadline to release the Epstein files,” wrote Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney. “Blanche says many will be released on a rolling basis over next couple of weeks. Curious what percentage of total files ‘several hundred thousand’ is.”
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted a copy of that law and highlighted the word “all,” and this passage: “Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act…”
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol asked, “Who’s selecting which files are released when? Nonpartisan career people (lol)? Or Bondi, Blanche, and Patel? Has Trump been shown some files? Has he had a say in what’s being released, and when and how?”
U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) wrote: “President Trump must comply with the law and its deadline to release all the Epstein files. The victims of Jeffrey Epstein deserve justice, and the country deserves transparency and accountability.”
Journalist Marcy Wheeler accused Blanche of “breaking the law.”
