A federal appeals court on Wednesday rebuffed the Justice Department’s request to delay having to review and release foreign language material from the Epstein files.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said there was little harm to the government in carrying out the review.
The court said a document release should be made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act that President Trump signed into law last year.
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“In particular, the government has failed to show that it is irreparably harmed by merely initiating review of foreign-language documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” the panel said in an unsigned opinion. All three judges were Democratic appointees.
They said release of the files isn’t imminent. That could give the administration more time to argue against it.
Attorney General Todd Blanche resisted any further review or release of the files, saying he believed his department has fulfilled its obligation under the law.
Katie Phang, who maintains a YouTube channel focused on Epstein documents, sued to force more disclosure, and a district judge agreed.
The DOJ had argued that she lacked legal standing to sue, because the Epstein Files Act didn’t create a private right of action.
The department said there are “thousands of documents in many foreign languages” that now would have to be reviewed.
Mr. Blanche has said some 3 million pages of documents have been released from the department’s voluminous holdings on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He took his life in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
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