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Journalist Katie Phang has stayed on the DOJ’s neck since the first Epstein file release. This April, she filed suit against Todd Blanche for failing to release the files in exact accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The suit wasn’t only about the estimated 3 million Epstein files that remain under wraps: it called out the shocking redactions made seemingly without any motivation other than helping Tr*mp keep his reputation afloat.
Now, less than a month after Phang won her case, we’re finally getting some answers around Blanche and the FBI’s role in redacting the names of powerful men in the files, while leaving victims exposed and vulnerable to attack.
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It should surprise exactly no one to learn that in training videos created to guide FBI agents through the redaction process, protecting Tr*mp was detailed as the most important priority in blacking out identifying names.
On a new episode of Phang’s podcast on the MeidasTouch network, Phang interviews The Daily Beans journalist Alison Gill about the recently-unearthed training tapes, and exactly who and what they were meant to protect.
Speaking with her sources inside the bureau, Gill confirms that the training videos exist both on the classified FBI channel BeauTube and on an open, accessible site. In both cases, insiders confirmed something interesting.
“The very first instructions [to the FBI] was to hide Tr*mp and other politically popular peoples’ names,” Gill says.
Not very good news for Blanche, Tr*mp, or anyone involved in the cover-up. According to Gill, this guidance didn’t sit well with certain FBI analyists, who actually do care about victims’ safety. But their concerns apparently were not taken into consideration. Instead of being told to focus on keeping Epstein survivors and victims protected, workers in the FBI’s information management division were coached to “find, log, and redact D*n*ld Tr*mp’s name.”
This tedious work involved creating two separate spreadsheet databases detailing when, where, and in what context Tr*mp’s name showed up allegedly over 1 million times in the files.
Our tax dollars at work!
But it wouldn’t be an Epstein story without twists and turns. Gill went live with her story about the videos in June of last year. When the Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed in November, Gill assumed the training videos would be part of the release. Obviously, they were not, and Gill filed suit. She’s still fighting the case to this day—especially after the DOJ fought back, citing certain FOIA request exemptions as their reasoning.
Shady stuff, and definitely bad news for Todd Blanche, who just admitted that he and his employees made some serious mistakes in releasing the files in their present, heavily redacted condition.
Phang and Gill aren’t done with Blanche or Tr*mp, because yet another lawsuit against Tr*mp, put forward by the American Bar Association last June, aims to put a stop to the alleged harassment and intimidation tactics used to dissuade lawyers from moving forward with Epstein-related lawsuits. But by trying to avoid handing over communications between himself and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon pursuant to the ABA case’s discovery, Tr*mp’s DOJ seems to be slipping up. According to Phang, by refusing to comply, they think they’re playing “4D chess.” In reality, the obfuscation and distraction tactics only serve to make Tr*mp, Blanche, and everyone else in his cabinet look guilty.
“What the [Epstein Files Transparency Act] explicitly states,” Phang says, “[is that] you can’t spare somebody embarrassment.”
In Tr*mp’s case, the FBI is bending over backwards to spare him more than just embarrassment. The full, unredacted release of the files would be nothing short of explosive not just for the scam of the Tr*mp presidency, but possibly the future of the Republican party itself.
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