Journalist Katie Phang sues acting attorney general Todd Blanche over Epstein files

Lawsuit alleges DoJ broke transparency law by withholding records on Jeffrey Epstein and over-redacting disclosures

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Phang’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Monday in the US district court for the District of Columbia, names Blanche as the defendant and alleges misconduct on several levels. It accuses Blanche of missing statutory deadlines for document production, improper or excessive redactions, failure to explain redactions as required by law, and withholding or retracting key documents after release.

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Critics, meanwhile, questioned the process by which the justice department determined which papers to withhold, and which redactions to make. “There were tons of completely unnecessary redactions, in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that was troubling to us,” Jamie Raskin, the Democratic ranking member of the House judiciary committee, told reporters in February after viewing some of the justice department’s most recent release.

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“The DoJ’s actions have directly harmed her ability to report on Epstein’s network and the government’s handling of the case,” according to an article announcing the lawsuit on the website of Phang’s employers.

“As a journalist who has extensively covered Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, she contends that incomplete and improperly redacted records undermine both her work and the public’s right to transparency.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/katie-phang-todd-blanche-epstein-files-lawsuit