Reporter Katie Phang recently nabbed a colossal win against interim AG Todd Blanche and his crusade to keep the Epstein files under wraps.
After months of stalling by the administration of President Donald Trump and ignoring the letter of a new law demanding the release of the sex-trafficker’s files, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan opened the floodgates on Trump’s longtime friendship. Sullivan sided with former MS NOW show host Katie Phang in her lawsuit demanding the Trump administration adhere to the Epstein Transparency Act.
Phang told Left Hook founder Wajahat Ali that this means Blanche himself must stand before the judge on Thursday and either deliver the redacted information or be prepared to explain why he won’t.
This, said Phang, puts Blanche and the president that he protects in an ugly predicament.
“It is an interesting trap that has been laid by Judge Sullivan for Todd Blanche, which is why we have been successful each and every step of the way, and that’s the reason why we really do have him against the ropes,” said Phang. “So let’s see what he does, because right now he himself, Todd Blanche individually, now has to go and deal with a judge on this.”
Trump, she said, is a historic staller when it comes to litigation he doesn’t like, but running down the clock no longer appears to be an option for the frustrated president, who was a longtime friend of the sex-trafficker before his death.
“They may try to get an appeal between now and tomorrow, which would be very difficult because Judge Sullivan, as the trial court judge, has denied on two occasions Blanche’s attempts to get a stay or a delay in having to comply,” said Phang. “So Blanche would have to go to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the federal appeals court above Judge Sullivan, and he’d have to get an immediate emergency stay.”
Otherwise, Blanche could show up tomorrow, bring the required documents, and actually try to make an effort to explain all of his redactions, which included possible leads to Epstein’s trafficking ring cohorts.
“He may be successful in some of them … but he’s not going to be successful in all of them. And I think that Blanche, if he was a real lawyer and if he knew what his ethical obligations would be in reality and in practice, he would show up when a federal judge tells him he has to show up,” said Phang.
“But it’s Todd Blanche — so I don’t know. It depends on what convicted felon Donald Trump tells him to do,” she concluded.