The No. 2 official within the Justice Division advised ABC Information in an interview Friday that there was “no effort” to redact President Donald Trump’s title from the discharge of recordsdata stemming from federal investigations into convicted intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche was requested Friday in an interview by ABC Information Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas whether or not each doc that mentions Trump can be launched as the federal government continues its rollout of hundreds of thousands of files within the coming weeks.
“Assuming it is in keeping with the regulation, sure,” Blanche mentioned. “So there isn’t any effort to carry something again as a result of there’s the title Donald J. Trump or anyone else’s title, Bill Clinton‘s title, Reid Hoffman‘s title. 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.”
Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche speaks with Pierre Thomas, Senior Justice Correspondent for ABC Information.
ABC Information
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 adverse gentle.
“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 1000’s of recordsdata, which contained little data associated to Trump and as a substitute included photographs 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 images in an announcement 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 will launch as many grainy 20-plus-year-old pictures as they need, however this is not about Invoice Clinton.”
“Everybody, particularly MAGA, expects solutions, not scapegoats,” the spokesperson mentioned.
President Donald Trump, with pharmaceutical executives, delivers remarks on decreasing the costs of medication and prescribed drugs throughout an announcement within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home in Washington, December 19, 2025.
Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
Within the ABC Information interview, Blanche additional sought to defend the division’s resolution to not launch the whole lot of its recordsdata topic to disclosure beneath the invoice signed into regulation by Trump, which gave the Justice Division a 30-day deadline to launch the whole lot 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 immediately,” Blanche mentioned when requested about an interview he gave earlier Friday to Fox Information. “And the regulation could be very particular that the Division of Justice is required to be sure that we shield victims. And as not too long ago 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 scenario like this, the place it is in essence inconceivable for us to adjust to the regulation immediately, that we adjust to the regulation, in keeping with the regulation.”
When requested whether or not the general public ought to be assured that Blanche, who beforehand served as Trump’s private protection legal professional, would act within the public’s curiosity over Trump, Blanche mentioned the American folks ought to take a look at what the division in the end releases.
“Your confidence ought to be in the truth that for many years, numerous folks have been attempting 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 Normal [Pam] Bondi, [FBI] Director Patel, Todd Blanche going by and coding hundreds of thousands of paperwork and saying, ‘sure, no, sure, no.’ You’ve gotten 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 season to switch Epstein’s convicted affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell to a decrease safety jail facility simply days after he sat for an interview with her over two days in Florida.
In an interview launched by Vainness Truthful earlier this week, White Home chief of workers Susie Wiles denied that Trump was concerned within the resolution and mentioned he disapproved of Maxwell’s switch.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are seen on this picture launched by the Division of Justice in Washington, December 19, 2025.
U.S. Justice Division through Reuters
Whereas Blanche mentioned he was “not permitted” to speak about safety for particular person inmates, he mentioned Maxwell was going through “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 in opposition to 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 obtainable 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 released 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 in opposition to two of Trump’s high political targets, New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey after a federal choose tossed their indictments in November on the premise {that a} Trump-installed prosecutor was unlawfully appointed.
(COMBO) This mix of images created on November 24, 2025 reveals, L/R, former FBI director James Comey on Capitol Hill June 8, 2017 in Washington, DC, and New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James in New York on February 16, 2024.
Brendan Smialowski,timothy A. Cl/AFP through Getty Photographs
Two separate federal grand juries prior to now two weeks have rejected the department’s efforts to re-indict James on mortgage fraud fees and a separate federal choose 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 constant” and mentioned it was “not a thriller” that DOJ plans to nonetheless search fees in opposition to 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 workers, gave to Vainness Truthful wherein 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 trying on the proof, we’re investigating them, investigating the instances. We’ve got regulation enforcement, profession regulation 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 of the dearth of ample proof to safe a conviction.
