Attorney General Todd Blanche asked an appeals court to halt a judge's order forcing the Justice Department to release foreign-language Epstein files.
In a motion filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Blanche asked the court to pause two orders from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan and to expedite the appeal. The orders came in a lawsuit against Blanche brought by lawyer and journalist Katie Phang.
Sullivan's June 25 order directed the Justice Department to begin reviewing and producing foreign-language documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. A second order, issued on September 16, set a September 24 deadline for the DOJ to start that process and notify the court. Sullivan has temporarily paused the deadline while the stay request is pending.
The filing says the stay request covers only the portions of Sullivan's orders dealing with foreign-language documents.
The DOJ's central argument is that Phang has no right to sue at all. The law required the DOJ to compile, review and release millions of documents while protecting victims and sensitive information, the filing says. But "Congress chose not to include a private right of action," the motion says.
DOJ lawyers pointed to a proposed "Epstein Files Transparency Act II," a bill that would amend the law to let victims and certain public officials sue the attorney general.
"If the EFTA were privately enforceable by a broad range of interested litigants, this narrower proposal would be superfluous," the motion says.
The filing argues that Phang "would not even have a right of action under the EFTA II," yet Sullivan allowed her to sue under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The DOJ also argued that Phang lacks standing and that Sullivan went too far at the preliminary injunction stage by granting relief that "amounts to a final judgment."
Without a stay, the motion warns, Sullivan's orders "will irreversibly alter the status quo, harm the Department, and potentially moot this appeal."
The DOJ also downplayed any harm to Phang from pausing the orders, writing, "Phang will suffer little harm from a brief delay during an expedited appeal."
The appeals court has consolidated the DOJ's challenges to both orders. Several people have unsuccessfully tried to intervene in the lower court case, and a motion from a pseudonymous "Jane Doe" to intervene remains pending before Sullivan, the filing noted.