Epstein Hearing Blows Up in Trump's Face

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0:54Ben Meiselas:Midas Touch host Katie Fang had a huge win in federal court today in her lawsuit against the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., pursuant to the Epstein Transparency Act, has ordered the Trump regime to forthwith produce a timeline for their production of the redaction and privilege log. Also, Katie Fang has been asked to prepare a proposed order that would require the Trump regime to turn over FBI 302 notes regarding allegations against Donald Trump that are in the Epstein files. Trump denies the allegations from the underage girl at the time, but these notes exist.

1:36Ben Meiselas:The FBI 302 had been produced in a redacted form, but produced the notes as well. And then in addition, there were individuals claiming that they were victims, but they appear to be co-conspirators and not actually victims. And Katie Fang brought that to light and the federal judge ordered the Trump regime to produce documents trying to show that these are actually not the co-conspirators, but the victims. And the judge says, I'm going to look at that and also ask Katie Fang to prepare a proposed order regarding the judge's review and potential production of those documents if it turns out that the individuals are indeed not actual victims, but are actually the perpetrators pretending to be the victims in order to hide the fact that they were co-conspirators.

2:21Ben Meiselas:Now, also, the federal judge, Judge Sullivan, made it very clear that he will not be afraid to throw the Trump regime in contempt. He said, I have a history as a federal judge of not being afraid to hold the DOJ in contempt. He referenced a prior criminal prosecution regarding the late Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. This judge presided over that case back in 2008, which was eventually dismissed before Senator Stevens died. But this judge uncovered that the DOJ at the time engaged in a lot of unlawful and unethical conduct and held the DOJ in civil contempt. So the judge says, I don't want to go down that road, but I'm not afraid to hold all of you Trump DOJ officials in contempt.

3:04Ben Meiselas:One of the things that's worth noting as well, the Trump regime sent some like lawyers, young lawyers who had no clue what the hell they were even talking about. Apparently, it was very humiliating for this Trump DOJ official named Andrew Block, a young lawyer who was basically told to take the fall for the Trump DOJ. Apparently, his hands were shaking. His face was red. He was very nervous and his voice was wavering the entire time. I don't know, judge. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And the judge says, well, you better know because now you're here in my courthouse. So shut up.

3:36Ben Meiselas:And I'm not afraid to hold you in contempt. Also, I want to see a proposed order about when the hell you're going to turn over that That redaction log, by the way, the redaction log will show us the millions of documents that the Trump regime is withholding. And every single time they withheld the document, they have to give an explanation about why they are withholding a document. And so this guy, Andrew Block, this DOJ lawyer, the nervous guy who was red faced and all of that, he's the guy who has to now, you know, he says we're going to turn it over. So Katie Fang is going to prepare an order that the judge is going to sign, forcing the DOJ to turn over this redaction log.

4:13Ben Meiselas:Turn over the FBI 302 notes regarding potential allegations against Trump, which Trump's denies. And then also justify, the DOJ is going to have to justify who these people are, who they claim to be victims. But it really seems it's co-conspirators pretending to be victims. But we will have to see. Let me bring in Katie Fang to talk about what went down here. Katie Fang talks about how Trump's DOJ, Todd Blanche didn't show up, but they brought in these young lawyers who had no clue what they were talking about. Let's play this clip. Inside a federal courthouse, it's in front of Judge Emmett Sullivan.

4:45There were three lawyers for the Department of Justice today, none of whom was Todd Blanche, one of whom was Andrew Block that I, as you know from my episode earlier today, I predicted that he was going to roll up into court today. No Stanley Woodward, no Todd Blanche. The line prosecutor who's been handling some of the day-to-day was there. His first name is Saif. I forget his last name. And then there was a brand new face of some federal prosecutor. I think his first name was Garrison. So he was there straight out of the gate. What do we know? None of these lawyers from the Department of Justice representing Todd Blanchett knew what the hell was going on, especially this guy, Andrew Block.

5:23Whether you think it was an intentional thing where he could sit there and feign ignorance with Judge Sullivan or he legit sincerely didn't know because he had just been dropped into or parachuted into this case, who knows? But it was very evident the second that Judge Sullivan took the bench that this guy did not know and did not have answers. And that did not go well with Judge Sullivan at all. So I'm going to go to my notes and I'm going to walk through them with you because I want to make sure that you guys also have the full flavor of what happened.

5:52Ben Meiselas:And then over here, you have Katie Fang talking about what went down as well regarding the so-called victim redactions, which actually seem to be co-conspirators, as well as those FBI 302 notes. Let's play it. The judge immediately started with the redactions for the names of the victims that Todd Blanche claims have either self-identified or identified through counsel that they are victims. And that's the reason why their names or their email addresses have been redacted from these documents that were provided to Judge Sullivan in an unredacted form for an in-camera or an in-chambers review. There was a second binder.

6:30We don't know what's inside of it, but according to this lawyer, Andrew Block, this second binder that was handed up to the judge today contained the, quote, corroborating documentation that the judge had originally ordered from Todd Blanche that would substantiate the claim that the redactions pertained to people, again, who claim that they are victims or they have either self-identified, excuse me, or they used lawyers to identify themselves as victims. Andrew Block says that the second binder handed up to the judge is a, quote, representative sample of victims in this case. And that according to the attorney review protocol, which I've covered here before, which was just made up by the DOJ and was not done in compliance, frankly, with the Epstein-Files Transparency Act because it expands the DOJ's spectrum of redactions and withholdings.

7:24There is a, quote, sliding scale of documentation available to the DOJ when it comes to people being able to identify themselves as victims. The department didn't weigh on the amount, didn't consider the amount of information. They just took at face value a representation by a victim or by their counsel, and that's how they applied the redactions. So that is what Andrew Block told the judge. The judge said, I will look at your submission of the second binder and I will look at it privately in chambers and I will advise. Now, with regards to those interview notes, the handwritten interview notes by the FBI agents of that 13 year old girl who alleges that of the woman who alleges when she was 13 that she was sexually abused by Donald Trump and physically battered.

8:10According to this DOJ lawyer, Andrew Block, because those handwritten FBI notes are duplicative of the FBI 302s, which are like the official reports that are generated, that's why they're not turning them over. And the judge pressed him and said, I don't understand. You don't have any additional information for me. You were supposed to come to court today and give me additional information as to why you cannot manually redact these handwritten notes. The judge asked Mr. Block, how many pages are there of these notes so I have an understanding of what's at issue? Block said, I don't have that info.

8:45Court says, you don't have an approximation of the numbers? And how about, have there ever been other handwritten notes that have been published that have been redacted, to which Andrew Block said, not to my knowledge. That is an untrue statement. We know that handwritten notes that accompany the FBI 302s, that they've been turned over. We've seen them ourselves in the production by the DOJ. At this point, this Andrew Block guy was struggling, face turning red, hands were shaking. He was stuttering. He wasn't really able to explain himself to the court because the court kept on saying, well, what is the cause?

9:24I asked Blanche to come and show cause why he could not do these redactions of the handwritten notes. And Block says, well, it's just duplicative. But remember, people, they never said it was duplicative. They said it was substantially similar. They said the handwritten notes were substantially similar to the 302s, and that's the reason why they weren't turning them over. So then the court said to Block, you have nothing to add to the previous response that was made by Todd Blanche. Block says, we're just looking for a clear order. And the court goes, well, what's unclear here? Yikes. And the court says, can't you tell me, is there another way to do the redactions?

10:00Okay, no response from Block. there's a we need a good clean order here because we're having difficulty understanding at this procedural procedure what you want us to do i mean when i tell you how long this was it was horrifically painfully long the back and forth on this i was embarrassed for this doj attorney because he didn't really know how to answer these questions right and so what andrew block on behalf of the doj did he spent so much time complaining about the herculean efforts that hundreds of doj personnel undertook to be able to do the redactions for millions of pages. Judge Sullivan was unswayed by this.

10:36And let me be clear, Judge Sullivan was not being cruel. He wasn't being impatient. In fact, I was like, this guy is giving him so much grace. This judge is giving this AUSA so much grace that I didn't think this AUSA deserved. And yet the judge was insistent on trying to let this AUSA save his, I guess, position on what he was saying here.

10:56Ben Meiselas:So more from Katie Fang right here regarding the redaction log. Remember, the Trump regime is withholding at least 5 million documents. That needs to be documented in a redaction log, which we don't believe the Trump regime's created. Now they're going to be forced to create this redaction log and produce it forthwith. Play this clip. The judge asked Andrew Block, do you have a time frame by which you're going to be able to provide this? And Block said, I don't. Block says there's a process underway regarding the Federal Register log. I don't know the timing. Judge Sullivan says, can you give me a date by which you're going to accomplish this?

11:34Because it was supposed to have been done, or at least there's an interpretation of the law that it should have been done by December of 2025. Andrew Block says, I don't have a date. Judge Sullivan says, but you knew it was going to be discussed today. So how come you don't have any of this information I'm asking of you? And Block says, it's coming, judge, but this is all out of my control. Then the judge is like, don't you have a time frame? 30, 60 days? Someone from DOJ has to answer this. And the judge says the Epstein Act said that this had to be done. Congress intended that this to be completed back in December of 2025.

12:09So I need to know what is the DOJ doing to comply with this redaction log? And then the judge said something that I thought was really important, people. He said, is this case being afforded priority in the DOJ? How is this case not a front and center prioritized case at the DOJ? It's important. It's the Epstein files. And when Judge Sullivan said this, I was like, yes, finally, somebody is actually saying out loud what we've all been saying, which is this should be the priority for the DOJ. Then Judge Sullivan says, how is that nobody can give me a date by which this redaction log is going to be done with the Federal Register?

12:50I want you to get that person on the phone. If not, that I'm going to be forced to impose a date and I don't want to be arbitrary and do that. Judge Sullivan then said, Congress intended the public and the victims to get this information. My job as the judge to ensure that this law is enforced. Then Andrew Block on behalf of Todd Blanche says, oh, Mr. Blanche has tried to comply with this order, but we need a clear, clean order. And then Judge Sullivan said, you want another order? And it's going to say something to the effect of, I really mean it this time. At which point in time, the courtroom erupted in laughter because it was just so absurd because Block kept on saying, I need a clean order.

13:29I need a clean, clear order. And the judge said, you know what? Part of me contemplated doing sealed proceedings where I invited just the government into court and no one else and allowed them to speak to me and walk through these unredacted items. But then the judge says, but then I said, no, because the public has the right to know what's going on. The victims have the right to know, quote, what the hell is going on in this case? Now, with regards to the foreign language documents, the court says, I ordered the defendant, Tom Blanche, to initiate review of these documents and to give notice that this review was underway.

14:01And instead, Tom Blanche said that the court can't supplant Congress's acceptance of it's not practicable to be able to do these interpretations or these translations. And Sullivan said, I'm just trying to ensure compliance here, because this is a requirement that is long overdue for these documents. Andrew Block on behalf of Todd Blanch says, I don't even know how many documents that are when the judge asked him. And then the judge says, but you knew this was going to be the best today. Do you guys see a theme here or a common denominator questioning from the court? You're at the podium as counsel for the attorney general, and you don't have this information.

14:37I mean, this is the kind of dialogue that was going on and on. And then the judge took a maybe 30, 40-minute recess. And when he resumed back on the bench, he said, look, he ordered me as Ms. Fang to be able to prepare a proposed order about the FBI notes. The handwritten notes must be produced in camera, in chambers to Judge Sullivan, unredacted to be reviewed. And then with regards to the federal register, that redaction log, there's going to be the requirement that a declaration be done about the status of it, who's done it, who's been reviewing it, what's been going on, because Judge Sullivan wants, wants the DOJ to have to own the representations made on the record today.

15:19And he told us, my side, to be able to prepare these proposed orders and this issue about the declaration in 10 days.

15:26Ben Meiselas:And then this is a really important... And then regarding Judge Sullivan's threat against the Trump regime, I will hold you in contempt. I'm not afraid of you. This is what Katie Fang said went down. Let's play it. I had raised the issue of having Todd Blanch held in contempt of court. The judge took a long time to explain an anecdote about how he, years ago, held three DOJ, four DOJ prosecutors in contempt of court, in civil contempt, because they refused to turn over documents to a criminal defendant. Once he held these federal prosecutors in contempt of court, he purged the contempt once they turned over the documents.

16:05Three out of those four federal prosecutors appealed that order of contempt, and the federal appeals court upheld Judge Sullivan's finding of contempt. Judge Sullivan said, I am the only federal judge who has held DOJ attorneys in civil contempt. I have no desire to do it again, because contempt is serious. But he said this, but I will do it. That's not a threat. That's a promise. He then went on to say, I am not focused on contempt. I am focused on compliance with court orders. I understand how difficult your job is. no one ever has enough time, but you've never asked me for more time. And he goes, look, we don't have to do a conversation.

16:46I'm just talking about this. You don't have to respond. This was so important because he made it very clear to these DOJ attorneys that he's willing and able to do it. He doesn't want to hold them in contempt, but he's done it before and he'll do it again. And that's a really important lesson to impart to these young lawyers that showed up. Although, again, I'm not quite sure if it was an intentional thing to bring these lawyers in at the last minute that didn't have answers that the judge demanded. I know it was frustrating. I heard that we pretty much crashed the dial-in system for the court today, so a lot of you weren't able to get this.

17:22I'll do a little bit more of a deeper analysis tomorrow, but I just wanted to make sure that I got this readout to you immediately so that you had this information. As always, thanks for the support, and be mad, be outraged, and demand accountability. Katie Fang here.

17:39Ben Meiselas:There you have it, everybody. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Most importantly, subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. Katie Fang is a hero. It is an honor. It is an honor for us to even be affiliated with Katie Fang based on the heroic work that she's done and the heroic career that she's led. So make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. Thanks, everybody.

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