A federal judge called the Justice Department's reason for not reviewing foreign-language Epstein records 'without merit' and set a September 24 deadline to start. The Department appealed a second time, the deadline is on hold, and no filing has yet given a count of those documents.
…reason for that does not hold up, and gave it until September 24 to start. That deadline is now paused while the Department appeals again. What the judge decided The case is Phang v. Blanche (No.…
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On September 16, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled in Phang v. Blanche that the Justice Department's reason for not reviewing foreign-language records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that first-level review was 'not practicable', is without merit, and ordered the review started, with notice, by September 24. He also rejected the Department's reason for withholding handwritten FBI interview notes and ordered them submitted for private review. The Department appealed a second time (D.C. Circuit No. 26-5334, consolidated with No. 26-5299). On September 21 the judge denied its request for a partial stay but put the foreign-language deadline on hold while the appeals court decides the Department's stay request; the Department's reply there is due Tuesday, September 29 at 4:00 p.m. The Department's January 30 letter counted more than 6 million pages identified as potentially responsive and nearly 3.5 million released, but gave no count of foreign-language pages. Asked on August 13 how many documents were involved, the Department's lawyer said he was not sure he had the number. The same week, the House found Leon Black in contempt of Congress.
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