The day after winning a watershed ruling in her lawsuit to pry loose the Epstein files, Katie Phang discussed the implications of the decision, the files that could be released, and what she will be doing to investigate the disclosures.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan found that journalists like her suffer “informational injury” by the federal government blowing the deadline to release all of the Epstein files, as mandated by federal law.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche must now produce several categories of documents by July 2 — or supply an explanation for the failure to lift redactions or release additional files.
“Judge Sullivan said to Blanche, ‘I’m ordering you to produce to the public,’ and that made me really happy Adam — because this lawsuit’s not to give it to me,” she said. “This lawsuit is to give it to the public, give it to the people, and really give it to the victims and survivors and let them be able to find more investigative leads to help them find their way to what they define as justice and accountability.”
Sullivan emphasized this point in finding that “she is suffering the type of harm — lack of transparency — that Congress sought to prevent by requiring disclosure of the information, and the disclosure of the information that Ms. Phang seeks would help her in her work.”
More than once in the 48-page memorandum opinion, Judge Sullivan wrote of Blanche: “The Attorney General has conceded that he is in violation of the [Epstein Files Transparency] Act.”
Watch the half-hour conversation in full to learn which categories of records the judge ordered released, the Trump Justice Department’s narrow time window for an appeal, and why Katie Phang will be traveling to Europe soon to advance her research on this story.
