On June 25, 2026, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan found that the Justice Department had effectively conceded it is violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law Congress passed in November 2025 requiring the public release of the vast majority of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. In a 48-page opinion, Sullivan held that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had “conceded Ms. Phang's merits arguments” by not responding to them substantively. Katie Phang, a former MSNBC host who now publishes independently, sued in April seeking broader access to the records, including FBI interview material about a woman who alleged that Epstein introduced her to Trump in the 1980s, when she was about 13, and that Trump assaulted her.
“The Attorney General does not respond substantively to any of these arguments,” Sullivan wrote. “The Attorney General has conceded that he is in violation of the Act.” He also ruled that Phang could sue under the Administrative Procedure Act and that the Freedom of Information Act “does not provide an adequate remedy.”
Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction giving the department until July 2 to release unredacted versions of the disputed records or explain why they must stay blacked out. They include eight email exchanges with Epstein about a “torture video” and sexual activity with minors, a draft indictment with the names of potential co-conspirators obscured, and the FBI interview records concerning the allegation against Trump. He also ordered the department to produce a log of every redaction it has made, as the law requires.
A Justice Department spokesperson said Blanche “has not conceded anything,” called the ruling a “perverse interpretation” aimed at “misleading headlines,” and said the department would appeal. Officials have stressed that the files contain unverified and uncorroborated allegations, and the department has said the records include “unfounded and false” claims about Trump. Blanche has acknowledged some redaction errors, which he attributed to Congress's tight deadline. Blanche became acting attorney general in April 2026, when Trump fired Pam Bondi, and at the time of the ruling was awaiting a July confirmation hearing on his nomination for the permanent job (see Lawyer Katie Phang Sues Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for Withholding 2.5 Million Pages of Epstein Files Required to Be Released by an Act of Congress).
Update (October 2, 2026): The Senate later confirmed Blanche as attorney general. At an August 13 hearing, Sullivan pressed DOJ lawyers about compliance with his orders, including the redaction log, recalled that he had held government attorneys in contempt during the Ted Stevens prosecution, and said he had “absolutely no desire to go down that road again.” On September 16 he found the department had not adequately complied, ordered it to give the court handwritten FBI notes from the 2019 interviews with the woman who accused Trump by September 24 for review, rejected its argument that foreign-language materials were impractical to review, and said a civil contempt finding “would be premature” at that stage. The department filed a notice of appeal the next day. Trump has not been charged in connection with Epstein's crimes and denies wrongdoing.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry previously put the phrase “essentially admitted the violations” in quotation marks as Sullivan's words; it was Politico's paraphrase, and the opinion's language is that Blanche “conceded Ms. Phang's merits arguments.” The entry also said Blanche had overseen the slow, heavily redacted release of the files; most of the files were released while Bondi led the department, and Blanche took over in April 2026. A description of Sullivan as a Clinton appointee was dropped because outlets describe his appointment differently.