High DOJ official denies there’s any effort to redact mentions of President Trump from Epstein recordsdata

The No. 2 official within the Justice Division informed ABC Information in an interview Friday that there was “no effort” to redact President Donald Trump’s identify from the discharge of recordsdata stemming from federal investigations into convicted intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. 

Deputy Lawyer Common Todd Blanche was requested Friday in an interview by ABC Information Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas whether or not each doc that mentions Trump might be launched as the federal government continues its rollout of a whole bunch of hundreds of recordsdata within the coming weeks. 

“Assuming it is per the legislation, sure,” Blanche mentioned. “So there is no effort to carry something again as a result of there’s the identify Donald J. Trump or anyone else’s identify, Invoice Clinton‘s identify, Reid Hoffman‘s identify. There is not any effort to carry again or not maintain again due to that and — and so — however once more, we’re not, we’re not redacting the names of well-known women and men which might be related to Epstein.” 

When instantly pressed over whether or not there’s been any order to DOJ  personnel to redact supplies involving Trump, Blanche rejected any such suggestion and accused Democratic lawmakers of utilizing selective disclosures from Epstein’s property to current Trump in a unfavorable mild.  

“President Trump has definitely mentioned from the start that he expects all recordsdata that may be launched to be launched and that is precisely what we’re doing,” Blanche mentioned. 

Blanche sat for the interview simply hours earlier than the division launched its first tranche of hundreds of recordsdata, which contained little data associated to Trump and as a substitute included photos of former President Invoice Clinton with out context, which had been highlighted on social media by DOJ and White Home officers.

A spokesperson for Clinton accused the division of selectively disclosing the photographs in a press release and denied that they confirmed any wrongdoing by the previous president. 

“The White Home hasn’t been hiding these recordsdata for months solely to dump them late on a Friday solely to guard Invoice Clinton,” Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Urena mentioned Friday. “They’ll launch as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photographs as they need, however this is not about Invoice Clinton.”

“Everybody, particularly MAGA, expects solutions, not scapegoats,” the spokesperson mentioned.

Within the ABC Information interview, Blanche additional sought to defend the division’s determination to not launch everything of its recordsdata topic to disclosure underneath the invoice signed into legislation by Trump, which gave the Justice Division a 30-day deadline to launch everything of its Epstein investigative recordsdata. 

“I didn’t say that each one the recordsdata is not going to be launched, I mentioned all of the recordsdata is not going to be launched as we speak,” Blanche mentioned when requested about an interview he gave earlier Friday to Fox Information. “And the legislation may be very particular that the Division of Justice is required to be sure that we defend victims. And as just lately as Wednesday, we discovered of further sufferer names, and so we have acquired over 1,200 names of victims and their relations since we began this course of. And so there’s a longtime precedent that in a state of affairs like this, the place it is in essence not possible for us to adjust to the legislation as we speak, that we adjust to the legislation, per the legislation.” 

When requested whether or not the general public must be assured that Blanche, who beforehand served as Trump’s private protection lawyer, would act within the public’s curiosity over Trump, Blanche mentioned the American individuals ought to have a look at what the division finally releases. 

“Your confidence must be in the truth that for many years, a lot of individuals have been making an attempt to go after President Trump falsely, and when it got here to the Epstein saga, it is precisely the identical story.”  

Blanche added that the method to make redactions to the paperwork, “was not Lawyer Common [Pam] Bondi, [FBI] Director Patel, Todd Blanche going by way of and coding tens of millions of paperwork and saying, ‘sure, no, sure, no.’ You’ve a number of, dozens and dozens of essentially the most extremely skilled legal professionals within the Division of Justice working for the Nationwide Safety Division. These are profession legal professionals engaged on this course of.” 

 Blanche defends jail switch of Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell  

Within the interview, Blanche additionally defended the division’s controversial transfer over the summer time to switch Epstein’s convicted affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell to a decrease safety jail facility simply days after he sat for an interview together with her over two days in Florida. 

In an interview launched by Vainness Honest earlier this week, White Home chief of employees Susie Wiles denied that Trump was concerned within the determination and mentioned he disapproved of Maxwell’s switch. 

Whereas Blanche mentioned he was “not permitted” to speak about safety for particular person inmates, he mentioned Maxwell was dealing with “a number of threats” that warranted her being moved to a separate low-security facility in Texas. 

 “On the time that she was moved, there have been a number of threats towards her life, and like occurs on a regular basis on the Bureau of Prisons when that occurs, one of many issues that one of many choices accessible to the warden and the safety system throughout the Bureau of Prisons is to maneuver the inmate,” Blanche mentioned. “She’s not launched. She’s in federal jail.” 

 Blanche additional denied Maxwell was receiving any preferential therapy within the new facility, regardless of latest whistleblower disclosures launched by congressional Democrats. 

 Blanche says investigations into Comey, James will proceed 

ABC Information individually requested Blanche whether or not the division plans to proceed pursuing prosecutions towards two of Trump’s prime political targets, New York Lawyer Common Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey after a federal decide tossed their indictments in November on the idea {that a} Trump-installed prosecutor was unlawfully appointed. 

 Two separate federal grand juries previously two weeks have rejected the division’s efforts to re-indict James on mortgage fraud fees and a separate federal decide in Washington, D.C., has restricted prosecutors from accessing key proof of their probe of Comey. 

 Blanche confirmed the division’s investigation into Comey “is continuous” and mentioned it was “not a thriller” that DOJ plans to nonetheless search fees towards him and rejected any suggestion the prosecution was “vindictive.” 

James and Comey have denied all wrongdoing.

 When requested in regards to the interview that Wiles, the White Home chief of employees, gave to Vainness Honest during which she candidly appeared to concede the DOJ’s prosecution of James was “retribution,” Blanche once more defended the division’s actions. 

 “As a result of we’re wanting on the proof, we’re investigating them, investigating the circumstances. We’ve legislation enforcement, profession legislation enforcement, doing the investigations are being offered to a grand jury within the regular course,” Blanche mentioned. 

 ABC Information has beforehand reported that profession prosecutors on each the James and Comey investigations really useful prosecutors not pursue  both indictment based mostly on what they thought-about the shortage of adequate proof to safe a conviction.