BREAKING: BOMBSHELL UPDATE on release of hidden Epstein files

We now have some breaking news that might signal some actual transparency on the Epstein files.I am joined by independent journalist, trial lawyer, and host of the Katie Fang Show, Katie Fang.First of all, I just have to note for people who are watching right now that even while nobody else has been able to force the release of these Epstein files amid just an unbelievable amount of suppression by the Trump administration.You, Katie, have been able to accomplish the unaccomplishable.So congratulations on what you've been able to do so far.But can you talk to us about the latest news that happened this morning that might signal some actual transparency here?

Well, thank you, Brian, for the kind words.And I always want to make sure that I give a shout out to my incredible legal team at the Public Integrity Project.Could not be doing this without them.They are just a crackerjack group of lawyers that care.They really care about how this works.And it's showing now, especially, that the judge, Judge Sullivan, in federal court in D .

C., is really digging into the weeds here with us.We just got an order that is damning for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, which I think, Brian, is also important to note, right?He's gunning for the top job of attorney general, made it out of Senate judiciary, and is facing a full Senate confirmation vote.And this order comes out showing that Blanche continues to not only violate the Epstein -Files Transparency Act, but he also violates the court orders that have been entered in my lawsuit.So specifically, Judge Sullivan has said that the parties, including me and Todd Blanche, have to appear in court next week, Thursday, August 13th at 1 p .

m.Eastern in D .C.And at that time, Todd Blanche has a punch list of things that he has to satisfy before Judge Sullivan, including but not limited to explaining why the Department of Justice cannot manually redact handwritten FBI interview notes of a woman who alleges that when she was then 13 years old,that she was the victim of sexual abuse and physical battery by Donald Trump.At this point, Tom Blanche is refusing to turn over those handwritten notes, in addition to refusing to do a redaction log, which the court ordered him to do back in June of this year, pursuant to a preliminary injunction that I got granted in my lawsuit.

Importantly, as well, the judge is telling Blanche that he has to come prepared to explain why he did not comply with another court order, where the judge told him to produce unredacted documents so the judge could look at them inside his chambers, but to also bring something that proved what he was saying, meaning Blanche wants to keep certain redactions claiming that they are in protection of victims.I have no problem with that, Brian.But he also is asking me, the judge, and the American people to believe his word.And the judge has said, as he did back in July on the 25th, when he told Blanche, when you come to my chambers and you bring these unredacted documents, you also have to bring the documentation that corroborates your representations.The judge in the order today telling him, You didn't abide by my order.You didn't give that documentation corroborating what you've said.

So you better come to court prepared to explain why you didn't do that.

So interestingly, Todd Blanche kind of has taken this posture that he doesn't have to abide by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.I mean, that law mandated the full release of the files with with only a narrow exception for victims information by December 19th, 2025.So this is almost, you know, eight, nine months ago.And they have no intention of releasing this stuff.And there's no enforcement mechanism in Congress.You have been, as I mentioned before, the only one that's been successful at actually pushing this whole thing forward.

Is Todd Blanche going to be successful in the same way that he has evaded having to follow theEpstein -Files Transparency Act as it relates to this lawsuit with Judge Sullivan and you?Or is this going to be the wall that he runs into where he actually has to comply as opposed to just saying, you know, I'm not going to do it and there's nothing you can do to stop me?

I'd like to think, Brian, that the one -two punch for Todd Lanch is going to be this lawsuit that I've brought, which is the only one that has been brought pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act.And Judge Sullivan, who, by the way, is not putting his thumb on the scale.in support of me.He's just doing rule of law, calling balls and strikes as judges are supposed to do.But what's important about this lawsuit is today, especially, Brian, this conversation is timely because there was a lot of motions that were filed just last night because when you sue somebody in a lawsuit, you have a certain timeline by which you have to respond.I sued Todd Blanche at the end of April of this year.

He had 60 days to respond.So that deadline was June 29th.He has never responded to my lawsuit.So when my lawyers contacted the DOJ lawyers to say, hey, are you ever planning on responding to this?Because if not, we're going to move for a default against you.His lawyers have taken the position, the Trump Department of Justice has taken the position that not only did they blow this deadline, but they want the court to go back in time to June, basically, give them the grace of forgiveness of blowing this deadline, and then they want an additional 60 days to decide whether or not they want to be able to appeal anything that is happening here.

The, I guess, theme, Brian, and the common denominator is delay, which then obviously leads us to the ultimate conversation.What are you delaying?What are you hiding?Why won't you just turn over the documents with the appropriate redactions?And we know, just even in the small substance,of documents that have been ordered to be turned over to me thus far, they're protecting people that send emails saying things like, I loved the torture video, and also emails that say things like, am I a sexual pervert?

Because I think it's okay to have sex with 14 and 15 year old girls.Those are the people that this DOJ and Blanche are protecting.I'm all for protecting the victims, but I'm never going to stand for them protecting perpetrators, co -conspirators, enablers, recruiters and people that definitely helped this sex trafficking ring.

Well, you know, we have heard from numerous DOJ officials that there were no co -conspirators.I mean, this, you know, which flies in the face of everything that these very people said on the campaign trail.They all predicated their campaigns and their eventual elections on this idea that, of course, There are people engaged in this pedophile ring with Jeffrey Epstein.He couldn't do it alone.It's not like you traffic a thousand girls to nobody.And so, but now the contention is, oh, well, there's nothing to release because those people don't exist.

And so knowing that there is, you know, even in the few instances that you just brought up, knowing that Todd Blanch has no credibility here, does that have some impact on what the judge is doing?Talk to me a little bit about, The presumption of regularity and whether you think that the DOJ is getting any of it, if the courts are offering any, you know, this idea that they're telling the truth and so they're going to be deferential to the DOJ, or whether you think that's completely squandered as a result of Todd Blanche's blatant lies.

I call it the presumption of irregularity now, because sadly that storied institution of the Department of Justice has not only hemorrhaged lawyers and career employees either by way of voluntary resignations because they couldn't stand to be there any longer, or they were summarily and illegally terminated or fired because they wouldn't go along withwhat this administration wants.The DOJ is the shell of what it used to be.There was a time when that was the sterling reputation of all the lawyers was being a federal prosecutor.In the Trump Department of Justice, when you walk into a courtroom these days, most federal judges now are not actually going to take your word for it as a federal prosecutor, which is why the order that Judge Sullivan entered on July 25th was one that, especially for those of us that are practitioners in the law, our jaws dropped.When Judge Sullivan told Blanche, bring the unredacted documents and bring the documentation proving that your word is still good, that is a very harsh reflection of what a federal judge thinks about your credibility.

And the thing is, this accompanying order from today is even just even more emphasis by the court saying, I noticed you didn't do what you were supposed to do.And hey, you keep on wanting me to believe what you've put into a piece of paper as a filing, and I don't.And this is Judge Sullivan saying, I just don't think you have that credibility anymore.And that's what makes me so upset about this confirmation process.I have warned, this is the most dangerous confirmation that we've seen yet for any of these positions, because Donald Trump needs his Roy Cohn.I think that he thinks he's found that.

in Todd Blanch.And Todd has sworn a loyalty publicly that he's not pretending to hide.And I really believe that Todd Blanch is is doing two things.One, he thinks he's helping Trump and others, including the Epstein elite, by not releasing these files.And I also think he's acting at the directive of Trump and the Epstein elite and not releasing these files.

Katie, can I have your reaction to Tom Tillis and John Cornyn kind of allowing themselves to berolled?And I ask this because during Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing, John Cornyn made it clear that he understood that so long as the settlement agreement was still intact, that sure, they can get rid of this $1 .8 billion slush fund.they're still allowed or capable of just creating another slush fund the next day.It can be $1 .9 million.It can be $2 million.

It can be, you know, an anti -weaponization of government slush for the Donald J. Trump, like whatever they want to call it.They can do, they're free to do whatever they want so long as the overarching settlement agreement is still intact.That was part of John Cornyn's questioning.And yet, this weekend, Todd Blanch offered, you know, something like a promise that wasn't worth the piece of paper it was printed on, only signed by Todd Blanche, not signed by the other parties, which would, in fact, undo the settlement agreement.And that was enough for Todd Blanche and Tom Tillis to just come on board.So basically, They show that they can have courage for all but one weekend before ultimately coming back home with their tail between their legs.

Can I just have your general reaction to the cowardice that we're seeing at the hands of somebody like John Cornyn and Tom Tillis, who have nothing to lose, and yet they still come groveling back to the guy who ruined their own careers?

Because they're playing long ball and they're only looking out for their own asses, if I may say.And I would underscore something.You know, I've always said, let's not lift up Tillis and Cornyn as profiles of courage here, even when I felt like they were actually barking up the right tree.Because I was impressed with Cornyn's line of questioning during Senate Judiciary questioning of Blanche on this issue of, but it's not signed by everybody and it's not in writing.And in order to modify the settlement agreement, there's a provision that says that you have to have it in writing by agreement of all parties.but cornyn and tillis i feel like did a whole lot of kabuki theater because nobody ever talked

them, meaning Cornyn and Tillis never brought up the federal judge Kathleen Williams in the Southern District of Florida that made a 58 -page ruling that said that that settlement agreement was bunk because it was a collusive bullshit lawsuit at the get -go because it was double -dealing by Trump controlling both ends of the litigation.And because it was the perpetration of fraud on the court, you never really had a settlement to have because you never had a controversy to speak of in the first place.They never even did that level of analysis.analysis.So Cornyn and Tillis looked like they were standing strong and standing tall when in reality they got no concessions.And in fact, Brian, to your point about it's not worth the paper it was on.

It wasn't even on paper.It was posted on X of all places by Todd Blanche late on a Sunday night.It wasn't actually a document.So there's nothing enforceable about the slush fund never coming back.And there's certainly nothing enforceable about the limitations, quote unquote, which there aren't on the broad tax immunity, which is unprecedented to be given to Trump, his family members, and his business entities.But the thing, Brian, that really troubles me is neither Tillis nor Cornyn ever just said, the Epstein files.

In fact, none of Senate Judiciary Republicans ever mentioned the Epstein files, right?In that they were saying, Mr. Blanche, you may be technically qualified for this position, but you screwed this up so badly because this was on your watch, according to former Attorney General Pam Bondi.We just can't do this.I cannot give you my support.Tillis, in fact, got busted not meeting with the Epstein survivors despite promising on camera that he was going to do so.And that came after he had already voted to advance Blanche.

So the Craven just looking out for themselves, long ball as I call it, because both Cornyn and Tillis are thinking, what am I going to do when I get out of Congress?I still have to stay in the good graces of this administration because everybody who doesmakes bank.They make so much money if they stay in this orbit.So they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.And that's why they did this whole theater about acting like they gave a shit.

But at the end of the day, they let Blanche advance out.And remember, this was a 12 to 10 vote.So if the two of them had said no, It wouldn't have happened.And really, Blanche didn't need this vote either.Blanche could have continued to serve as the acting AG.It's an arrogance ego thing.

He wants to be the attorney general Senate confirmed.

It's also worth noting that, you know, when somebody like Susan Collins comes out and says that she's voting against Todd Blanche.It's not like it's not calculated.It's not like we can't all see what's happening, that she has the leeway to be able to do this, because Cornyn and Tillis both decided to flip their votes, and so Susan Collins, who's running in a tough re -election campaign in her own state, in a D plus 7, D plus 8, D plus 9, whatever it may be, election year, she needs all the distance that she can get from this administration and from the Epstein files, and so that's what's allowing her to do that.What would your message then be to somebody like Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy, who as these last Republican holdouts do actually have the ability to rein in Todd Blanch from becoming permanent AG.

I would say that history will never look kindly upon cowards.Like every day, Brian, you and I are in this fight.In some days, it's more intense than others.It's not that I don't have empathy for people that have to be kind of even more on the front lines being in D .C., I guess, but they are not there for themselves.

They're there to represent their constituents and the people of their respective states.And how many more times do you need to get burned by Trump and or this administration before you learn that it was never about you, it was always about them?And it's never going to be about the rule of law.It's never going to be about justice.It's never going to be about politics.You know, look at Susan Collins, who says, what a shame that she voted Brett Kavanaugh through.

Oh, well, he promised me he was never going to vote for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.Oh, woe is me.You know, the same thing for everybody else.It's like you have nothing to lose but your integrity.And more importantly, like, what are your children and grandchildren going to say about you when they look back at this point in history and see that you let somebody like Blanche control this administration?Donald Trump cannot operate in a vacuum.

He needs enablers like Todd Blanch to do this dirty work for him.And if you let Todd Blanch do this, I'm telling you right now, stuff we've seen over the last, what, two years is going to be even worse.And that's also why we need to win a Democratic majority in November so that we actually have checks and balances against somebody like Todd Blanch.

Well, look, you mentioned integrity.You have more in your pinkies.than all of these Republicans are showing on a daily basis.Thank you for the work you're doing.I'm so grateful and honored to be fighting alongside you in the independent media trenches.You are just like an inspiration in terms of what you've been able to do, not just on this particular issue, but just bringing all of your talents into this space.

So highly recommend for anybody who's watching and listening right now.If you're not yet subscribed, I'm going to put Katie's YouTube channel right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video.Go ahead, hit the subscribe button, support independent media, support the invaluable work that Katie's doing on a daily basis.And Katie, thank you so much for taking the time.Thanks for the work you're doing.

Thank you, Brian.