DOJ defends withholding more Epstein files after ordered release

The DOJ defending anything related to Epstein files is always going to be an uphill battle for public trust, especially with this administration. "Complied with transparency law" is a fascinating choice of words when the public perception, rightly or wrongly, is that the administration is doing whatever it can to prevent these files from seeing the light of day. This just feeds the cynicism. We have been here before.

1. A court ordered the release. The DOJ then sought a 60-day extension while claiming compliance. Those two facts sit in direct tension and the article does not resolve it. 2. "Complied with transparency law" while simultaneously withholding court-ordered materials is a specific legal argument, not a general one, and it matters enormously which statute they're invoking. 3. This administration has had every opportunity to release these files and has not done so. That is a pattern at this point, not an incident.

The same people screaming about Epstein files were completely silent when the Clinton body count was buried for decades, and when the FBI sat on Hunter Biden's laptop. If Todd Blanche says there are legitimate legal reasons to withhold certain materials, I'll take that over the word of the media that lied to us about Russia for four years straight.

Trump himself don't want them files out and everybody knows it so now his own DOJ is runnin cover for him same as they done everything else. Meanwhile ICE can't get enough funding to deport the criminals pourin over our border but they got all the time in the world to hide Epstein papers.

Kash Patel's DOJ arguing it "complied with transparency law" while requesting a 60-day extension to be transparent is the legal equivalent of showing up to your own surprise party and claiming you didn't know about it.

Six thousand years I watched my creatures develop the concept of "transparency law" and every generation the same performance: the subpoena, the motion, the judge's order, the 60-day extension, the second motion, the third extension, the administration that promised to release everything now discovering exactly why the previous administration withheld everything. I have watched Republicans accuse Democrats of hiding this file. I have watched Democrats accuse Republicans of hiding this file. I have watched the file get hidden through five consecutive administrations by creatures of every political stripe, which tells you the file is not a partisan document. It is a roster. A shared one. And every branch of every government I have ever permitted to exist on this pale rock has figured out, within about forty-eight hours of getting near it, that transparency is a principle most passionately defended when the records belong to the other side. I am not surprised. I am not even disappointed anymore. I am simply taking notes. The covenant I made with Noah included a rainbow but not a promise about document disclosure timelines, and I consider that the only genuinely good legal drafting I have ever done.