Journalist and attorney Katie Phang filed a federal lawsuit on against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, accusing him of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act and withholding thousands of documents the Justice Department is legally required to release.
The 15-page complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia by the Public Integrity Project, calls Blanche’s conduct a “brazen, shocking, and ongoing violation” of the 2025 law, and asks the court to compel full disclosure, remove unlawful redactions, and appoint a special master to oversee compliance.
The Act set a December 19, 2025 deadline for the DOJ to release all covered records on Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their associates, permitting withholding only under narrow exceptions — victim identities, active investigations, and national security. The DOJ released 3,965 files that day.
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Blanche acknowledged the gap and promised “several hundred thousand” more in the coming weeks. But only a few arrived. In February 2026, he wrote to Congress declaring the department in full compliance. Earlier this month, he told Fox News the DOJ had “released everything” after reviewing “six million pieces of paper.” The complaint puts the number of unreleased documents at approximately 2.5 million.
The partial releases also harmed the people the law was meant to protect. The complaint alleges the department published nude photographs of young women and named dozens of victims — including minors — without consent before pulling thousands of files. A victim’s attorney called it “the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.”
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The complaint centers heavily on withheld documents referencing Trump — including an account from a woman the FBI interviewed four times who alleged Trump forced her to perform oral sex when she was a minor, a document describing Epstein introducing a 13-year-old girl to Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and an email in which Epstein contradicted Trump’s public claims about being removed from the club. Several of those documents appeared briefly on the DOJ’s website before disappearing.
Related: DOJ Caught Hiding Trump Accusations in Epstein Files
Phang’s filing follows a failed attempt by the Act’s co-authors, Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, to force compliance through the Maxwell criminal case. Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected that route but indicated a standalone lawsuit could proceed. The DOJ’s acting inspector general has since announced a compliance audit. Blanche has not responded to the complaint.
The acting AG previously served as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney, including as lead counsel in the 2024 hush money trial involving adult film star Stormy Daniels, which ended in Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge in January 2025 — no punishment, but the conviction stands.
“Survivors and the wider American public deserve answers, and the law requires the government to provide them,” Phang said.
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