Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has conceded to violating the Epstein law in a court filing, according to a legal analyst on Tuesday.
Michael Popok, host of the "Legal AF" podcast, spoke with Brendan Ballou of the Public Integrity Project, discussing his client and journalist Katie Phang's case against Blanche. In the lawsuit, she alleges that the Department of Justice and Blanche withheld records required to be released under the Epstein Transparency Act.
Phang has sought the entirety of the missing documents, including the Trump files, alleged Trump victim files, and the redaction log — and, in 22 pages, Blanche does not deny that he violated the Epstein Act, Popok said.
"It is just obvious that the government is breaking the law here," Ballou said. "And the administration in this response didn't even try to justify it. They didn't say that they were complying with the law. They were just saying that Katie is not the kind of person who can sue here. And just as a matter of black letter law, they are wrong on that. It's very clear that when the government breaks the law and fails to disclose information that it's supposed to, the people who benefit from that information have the right to sue."
Previous cases have involved journalists and public-interest groups challenging the withholding of information they were legally required to disclose, Ballou explained.
"I think frankly, the government's got a tough road on this case just because the case law is so unrelenting against them and because it's so obvious that they were breaking the law that they're not even trying to defend themselves," Ballou said.
