Attorney General Todd Blanche faces a contempt motion after skipping a federal hearing and instead sending an unprepared DOJ attorney to substitute in his place.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had directed Blanche to appear Thursday at a status hearing in journalist Katie Phang's lawsuit over the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a 2025 law requiring the Justice Department to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Phang is now doubling down on her request for Sullivan to hold Blanche in contempt and fine him $1,000 a day until he complies.
The journalist made clear in a video posted Friday that her contempt motion is aimed at Blanche himself — not the lawyers he dispatches to court.
"The contempt I've been seeking in this case is against Todd Blanche — let me be clear — but you do have these lawyers coming to court and doing things that actually violate the judge's orders," she said.
The Justice Department filed a notice of appearance the night before the hearing, confirming Blanche would not attend and that a DOJ attorney named Andrew Block would appear in his place, Raw Story previously reported.
"And this Andrew Block lawyer from the Department of Justice stood there fumbling, stumbling, struggling with his words," Phang said.
Block could not tell the judge how many pages the disputed FBI handwritten interview notes were — the basic facts of what Sullivan had ordered him to produce, Phang said. "And clearly in this case, there has been repeated noncompliance by Todd Blanche."
Sullivan closed the hearing with a roughly 30-minute account of the last time he held Justice Department lawyers in contempt — a warning aimed at the lawyers in the room and at Blanche himself, Phang recalled.
"I will hold lawyers in contempt of court even if they are Department of Justice lawyers," Sullivan said, according to Phang. "That is not a threat. That is a promise."
The files Blanche has refused to release include notes from an FBI interview with a woman who has said she was sexually assaulted by President Donald Trump when she was 13 years old, The New Republic reported.
Blanche served as Trump's personal defense attorney before joining the Justice Department, and critics have charged he never stopped, Forbes reported.
Sullivan ordered Phang's legal team to draft a proposed compliance order covering the handwritten notes and the required public redaction log.