Remember when the Epstein files were sitting on Pam Bondi’s desk right now and would be imminently released in the crowning achievement of the new, most transparent DOJ in history? Multiple delays, legislative action, DOJ flouting of that same legislative action, and then half-assed compliance later, the Justice Department has kept millions of pages hidden and moved the most damning possible witness to a cushy resort prison which was totally not a quid pro quo to keep her silent. So it won’t surprise you at all to learn that the Deputy Attorney General himself seems to have just intervened to block another document from reaching lawmakers.
Man, can you imagine giving up a Biglaw partnership to run interference for a dead pedophile? Or, you know, that dead pedophile’s buddy.
Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to Blanche on Tuesday, as reported by Bloomberg, asking why the DOJ’s number 2 felt the need to personally block the Drug Enforcement Administration from releasing an unredacted 69-page document about a 2015 investigation of Epstein — and, likely more to the point, associates of Epstein’s — for drug trafficking and money laundering.
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According to Wyden’s letter, when the Finance Committee sought an unredacted copy from the DEA, the agency indicated that it would hand it over. Then the DEA — at the behest of Blanche, according to a confidential tip received by Wyden’s office — changed its mind and the request for basic transparency about an 11-year-old investigation pulled an Epstein and died under suspicious circumstances.
The unredacted version of this document is not even arguably classified — it’s stamped “unclassified” on top of every single page — and falls squarely within the mandate of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Wyden’s letter doesn’t mince words about what we’re looking at:
By withholding this unclassified document from the U.S. Congress, you are covering up for pedophiles and obstructing my investigation into the financing of Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking organization.
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The heavily redacted document released back in January revealed enough to know that the DEA had investigated Epstein and his chums for involvement in drug trafficking, money laundering, and prostitution with a healthy dose of organized crime connections. An informant told authorities that Epstein was involved in funding and distributing ecstasy, ketamine, and meth.
Nobody was ever charged.
Yesterday, Blanche went on social media to badmouth a federal judge for “refusing to follow the law” when the judge dutifully applied the Administrative Procedures Act to block RFK Jr.’s brain worm from arbitrarily rewriting the approved childhood vaccine schedule based on vibes. A curious accusation for Blanche to make while he tries to cover up for a bunch of pedophiles in an explicit violation of a bipartisan statute.
The identities of the other targets in the redacted document are blacked out. The Epstein Files Transparency Act allows redactions to protect victims — but not so much the perpetrators. As much as Donald Trump might see himself as the REAL victim here, even the Federalist Society’s most committed textualists would struggle to find that reading.
You almost have to appreciate Blanche embracing a personal touch in keeping Epstein’s pedophile ring covered up. In a world of delegation, Blanche keeps rolling up his sleeves whenever it comes to a sex crime case involving a guy who died seven years ago. Normally, the Deputy Attorney General handles high level management, but Blanche is flying to prisons to have chit chats with convicts.
As Wyden points out to Blanche:
Your alleged interference in this matter is highly disturbing, not just because it continues the DOJ’s long-running obstruction of my investigation, but also because of your bizarrely favorable treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Epstein’s closest criminal associates. I should not have to explain the significance of the fact that Epstein was a target of an OCDETF task force investigation. It suggests the government had ample evidence indicating he was engaged in large scale drug trafficking and prostitution as part of cross-border criminal conspiracy and that Epstein was likely pumping his victims, including underage girls, with incapacitating drugs to facilitate abuse. I am at a loss to understand why you are blocking further investigation of this matter.
Are you at a loss, though? I think most of us have connected the dots on this one.
Meanwhile, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is separately pressing the DOJ on a different Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation called “Trip Knot,” also tied to Epstein-linked money laundering and trafficking networks. That’s right — there are MULTIPLE organized crime task force investigations into Epstein that the DOJ is sitting on! Whitehouse sent his letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and DEA administrator Terry Cole.
Probably should’ve written Blanche directly… he seems to be on top of all this Epstein stuff.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.