Blanche Sued Over Ties to Epstein and Judge Cannon

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1:30Michael Popok:What is it about child sex trafficking rings and attorney general nominees for Donald Trump? Matt Gaetz, meet Todd Blanche. Remember when Matt Gaetz, who was accused of being involved with child sex trafficking, was at one time nominated to be the attorney general? A group called American Oversight helped overthrow that decision and ensure that we wouldn't have Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Fast forward now to a new filing just today by American Oversight against the Department of Justice, a Freedom of Information Act request from those tiny acorns come mighty oak trees growing because there's groups now arrayed against Todd Blanche being confirmed as our Attorney General.

2:18Michael Popok:And this new lawsuit seeks all information, emails and communication and correspondence about Todd Blanche and that other person accused of child sex trafficking, Jeffrey Epstein. That case, the case brought by my colleague Katie Fang, which is up for a hearing on June 30th in front of Judge Sullivan, is all coming to a head right before the July 15th testimony of Todd Blanche under oath. Let's cover the new lawsuit. Let's talk about an update in Katie's lawsuit and the other things that have happened that will be proper fodder for cross-examination against Todd Blanche. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Legal AF.

3:04Michael Popok:Rested, rejuvenated. Let me get to the headlines. American Oversight brings the complaint. Here's what they said. Here's what the leader of their group said about the filing. This is the same group that had filed successfully to defeat Matt Gaetz as attorney general when he was up. This is what Chioma Chakwu, the executive director of American Oversight, said, before the Senate decides whether to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, senators and the American people alike deserve a clear-eyed understanding of how he has used the extraordinary power entrusted to him at the Justice Department.

3:45Michael Popok:Blanche's nomination raises serious questions about whether someone who served as President Trump's personal criminal defense attorney can independently lead the Justice Department. The records we are seeking could answer those questions, including about his role in matters involving Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the handling of special counsel Smith's investigations, issues that go directly to public confidence in the integrity and independence of the Justice Department. Senators should not be asked to cast a vote on nomination of this magnitude without access to the fullest record possible.

4:16Michael Popok:Now, here's the suit, which is now posted for our team here on Legal AF Substack for paid members. Cases brought concerning the nomination of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Paragraph two. He served as a personal criminal defense attorney to President Trump in two felony cases led by former special counsel Jack Smith. He was also the lead counsel in the 2024 criminal trial in New York, which led to a conviction of 34 felony counts. In his role as Deputy Attorney General, paragraph five, Mr. Blanche oversaw the process of reviewing and redacting files regarding the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.

5:01Michael Popok:According to Pam Bondi, testifying before the U.S. House, Mr. Blanche had direct day-to-day supervisory role over the Epstein files and related matters. According to reports, the Epstein Files review reached an urgent and chaotic pitch in the spring of 2025. Of course, now we've got the new reporting by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan inside the White House freak out over the Epstein Files published just last week or on June 10th in The New York Times, in which there was a meeting of a dozen senior administrative officials in the Situation Room. Paragraph 10, Mr. Blanche reportedly suggested in that meeting, according to the reporting, various strategies for navigating the public backlash mounting over the administration's handling of the Epstein files.

5:53Michael Popok:And that included the interview of Ghislaine Maxwell. Well, it's paragraph 17. He's boasted about firings and departures of multiple DOJ personnel who worked on the investigations or prosecutions led by former special counsel Jack Smith. He said in February of 2025 that he would not support the release of Jack Smith's full report regarding handling of classified material. Here's what they're seeking in the FOIA. They want, this is on paragraph, page six, they want all email communications, including emails, email attachments, complete email chains, and calendar invitations sent or received by Todd Blanche and containing any of these terms.

6:38Michael Popok:And then they have an entire thing about its interference with the Bureau of Prisons to give Ghislaine Maxwell a sweetheart deal, the interview in Tallahassee. They want all Google Hangouts, Slack, Gchat, Signal, Link, Skype, telemessage, you name it. Center received concerning Todd Blanche containing the term Epstein. Well, that ought to do it. They go on to say they want everything related to Mar-a-Lago and the mishandling of records and Judge Cannon. That's in one of their other requests related to the Smith report. And they want everything related to Todd Blanche and anyone else containing the word Jack Smith, Judge Cannon, oh yes, she's back, and the different volumes of Jack Smith's report.

7:34Michael Popok:And now they're suing, Benjamin Sparks is suing on behalf of the American Oversight about this particular case. Let's now turn to what's going to happen. This is all before the July 15th testimony of Todd Blanche and the 16th reserved for other witnesses against Todd Blanche, apparently. You've got on June 30th in front of Emmett Sullivan, a senior status judge in the District of Columbia, Katie Fang, our fellow commentator here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, her lawsuit, Katie Fang versus Todd Blanche, the Department of Justice, in which she's seeking all of the Epstein files. Now, whether she has standing to pursue that case will be determined by Judge Sullivan, But I think she has very good informational harm as a reporter that we're all getting spoon-fed the incomplete file, and it's undermining the ability for the fourth estate to do their job.

8:37Michael Popok:Now, I interviewed Katie Fang about that, and here's what she had to say. Katie, on your end, you've got Judge Emmett Sullivan, right? Yeah. For your case, which is it. He's great. That's all. Good night, everybody. That's all. That's a good poll. as we say. That's a good judge poll for you. But, you know, I'm looking through your papers, and we'll put them up on Legal AF Substack as well. You've got 37 pages where you detail, you know, all of the publicly known facts about Epstein, about the victims and survivors, things that you've been able to uncover, and then, you know, the known unknowns that they should be disclosing.

9:20Michael Popok:Could be another three million pages, for all we know. You know, it's not the entire of the executive branch or the entirety of the executive branch repository of documents. And for you, if you could write with your lawyers, which you will, the proposed order that you want the judge to issue, what is it for our audience, what is it that you want the judge to do with a stroke of a pen? In the immediate sense, the granting of my motion for preliminary injunction, which would force the Department of Justice to address some of the most egregious violations on the face of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

10:02One example that has escaped everybody's notice that we've brought up is the fact that Blanche admitted at the end of January that they never even bothered to translate the foreign language documents, which is just mind boggling because as you said, this is a multi-decade international sex trafficking ring. So what is the excuse for them not doing it? He said it wasn't practicable. Whatever. The point is, I would like the judge to immediately grant the PI and give me access to illegally redacted names, email addresses, the names of the co-defendants. I also would like the FBI interview notes for the Donald Trump allegger, the accuser.

10:50She was, you know, alleged to have only been 13 years old when she was sexually battered and physically abused by Donald Trump.

10:57Michael Popok:So that and all of the cases that are around Todd Blanche right now, Judge Williams, Miami, whether fraud on the court perpetrated by the Department of Justice, Treasury Department and Todd Blanche and Donald Trump and his lawyers, that's still pending. Judge Brinkema, in which he's now gotten a confirmation that the, if you will, that the settlement that led to the creation of the anti-weaponization fund, the slush fund for Jan Sixers, created by Todd Blanche out of the figment of his imagination, was illegal and illicit based on a filing on behalf of Todd Blanche. You've got what's going on in the Northern District of Illinois, the Chicago Prosecutor's Office, where grand jury misconduct has led to the dismissal of multiple indictments and defense lawyers looking for correspondence between Todd Blanche and local prosecutors to see what kind of pressure was put on them.

12:01Michael Popok:This is all at the feet of Todd Blanche. And it's all fair game for the cross-examination at the confirmation hearing. I interviewed Danny Bensky, one of the more vocal leaders, an Epstein survivor, about when she believes justice will be had. And she was very direct. She said it has to do with the change at the top of the Department of Justice, and that he has a lot of answers that he has to make for the American people, Todd Blanche. And until there's a change and Todd Blanche is removed, there'll be no justice for the Epstein survivors. Here's my interview with Danny Bansky. And so when you have somebody like Todd Blanche at the helm of the DOJ, it's hugely problematic, right?

12:52Like he has the president's best interest. He does not have the American people's best interest at heart. And he's proven that he was in that situation room, he needs to be called in and questioned, he needs to be in front of the oversight committee now to answer, you know, how like, we also know that he was responsible for so many botched redactions and how this rollout even happened. And botched is like an understatement, by the way. But he's responsible for a lot of this. I mean, Bonnie, I'm not letting her off the hook. She definitely had something to do with this too. But, but we know that Todd Blanchett had a lot to do with this.

13:26And he moved Gilad Maxwell. So like, there's so many things here that come back to Blanche. And now he is the nomination. And that's like, he's so unfit to be the acting attorney general of our country. I can't even, my words fail me.

13:43Michael Popok:Well, we're going to continue to follow what happens to Katie Fang's suit. I'll try to get the lawyers for American Oversight here to brief our audience further, see what judge is assigned, and keep you posted on this. The FOIA cases, they start as Information Act requests, need the information. From there, many of these cases become overnight, once the documents are received or ordered, become much larger substantive lawsuits, which will all time out just in time for Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing, which we will stream live on Legal AF. Help us support, help support our content and what we do here by hitting the free subscribe button here on Legal AF.

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