President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have longstanding relationships with the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, along with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. The administration has also, simultaneously, refused to fully disclose the Epstein files. Now, despite a judge ordering them to start working with the legal process on Epstein-related matters, Trump's associate attorney general is refusing to do so — and risking contempt of court in the process.
"DOJ risks contempt in Epstein Files litigation, does not comply fully with Judge Sullivan's order to explain withholdings & provide handwritten notes," Politico journalist Josh Gerstein reported on Thursday. He included an attachment to a document by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward explaining their reasoning.
"The Plaintiff’s Proposed Order, if entered by the Court, would require the Department to submit to the Court handwritten notes underlying the EFTA Numbers 01245620; 02858481;02858491; and 02858495," Woodward wrote. "It would also require a declaration from 'Defendant Todd Blanche, or a representative of the Department of Justice … with personal knowledge' regarding the Federal Register notice required by § 2(c)(2) of the EFTA."
Woodward added, "The Defendant asks that the Court not require a declaration regarding the Federal Register notice and not order production of 'the underlying FBI interview notes that formed the basis for the FD-302 interview reports' requested by Plaintiff. Dkt. 32. To the extent that the Court is inclined to enter such an Order, the Department asks that the Order be stayed."
The warning arises from an ongoing suit by reporter Katie Phang, who grabbed a huge win against Blanche and his effort to keep the Epstein files under wraps. After months of stalling by the Trump administration and ignoring the letter of a new law demanding the release of the sex-trafficker’s files, Sullivan demanded insight on DOJ-redacted information on potential Epstein co-conspirators in his trafficking scheme.
Trump, who repeatedly promised to release the Epstein files during his 2024 campaign, has since found his White House "paralyzed" by his obstruction on that issue. In addition to being accused of sexual misconduct by at least 20 other women over the course of his life, Trump was also allegedly linked to at least incident of one sexual abuse supposedly facilitated by Epstein. He was friends with Epstein from the 1980s until they had a falling out over a business transaction in the 2000s.
