Attorney General Todd Blanche is facing fresh scrutiny over his handling of FBI records involving a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexual abuse as a federal judge presses for answers in a lawsuit over the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Legal analyst Katie Phang, who brought the lawsuit, revealed Friday that U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan had issued another order addressing Blanche’s compliance with demands to produce records.
“Brand new update in my lawsuit against Attorney General Todd Blanche for the production of the unredacted Epstein files, hot off the presses,” Phang said. “An order from Judge Sullivan relating to these last few episodes I’ve been doing here at Katy Phang News about the failure of Todd Blanche to actually comply."
The dispute centers on handwritten notes from four FBI interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who alleged that Epstein trafficked her to powerful men, including Trump, when she was a minor. The allegations against Trump have not been established in court.
Sullivan previously ordered Blanche to submit both redacted and unredacted versions of the notes for private judicial review by September 24, Phang reported.
But the legal analyst said Blanche submitted only the unredacted handwritten notes, leaving the judge without the redacted versions needed to determine what could be released publicly.
“Isn’t it ridiculous how many times the judge had to ask Todd Blanche to actually produce this?” Phang asked.
She also raised concerns about handwritten notes from the fourth FBI interview, which she said remain missing without an adequate explanation.
“Anybody else who doesn't comply would get their ass handed to them,” Phang concluded Friday. “Why should the top lawyer or the top cop in the land not actually have to comply with the court orders?”