Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche moved to shut down weeks of speculation on Sunday, promising that every single mention of President Donald Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein files will be released to the public — with no political carve-outs and no special treatment.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Blanche flatly rejected claims that the Department of Justice is protecting Trump through redactions or delays. The reason, he said, is simple: Trump had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes.
Asked directly by host Kristen Welker whether any references to Trump were being withheld, Blanche answered without hesitation.
“No, not unless it’s supposed to be redacted under the law,” Blanche said, noting that redactions apply only to victim information or legally protected material such as attorney-client privilege. “I have no reason to believe that the lawyers that were working on this case were talking about President Trump because he had nothing to do with the horrific crimes that Mr. Epstein committed.”
In other words, there’s nothing to hide — and therefore nothing to protect.
Blanche emphasized that the DOJ is not redacting information related to Trump or any other individual tied to Epstein, except where federal law requires protections for victims or survivors. Any photos, documents, or references involving Trump will be released, with only survivor identities obscured when necessary.
“If President Trump is mentioned, if there are photographs of President Trump or anybody else, they will be released,” Blanche said. “The only exception is victims or survivors, whose faces or bodies may be redacted — or the image withheld entirely — to protect them.”
That legal obligation, Blanche stressed, applies regardless of politics, media pressure, or online conspiracy theories.
The DOJ missed a Friday night deadline to release all remaining Epstein files, but Blanche explained that the delay is due to a massive internal review process involving hundreds of attorneys tasked with ensuring compliance with victim-protection laws. The documents, he said, will continue to be released on a rolling basis.
The disclosures are being made under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law on Nov. 19 — despite having previously opposed it — declaring at the time that he had “nothing to hide.”
So far, the released files have delivered little in the way of new revelations. Trump is barely mentioned, and the few photos involving him have been public for decades. Meanwhile, the DOJ released images showing former President Bill Clinton shirtless in a hot tub and socializing with Epstein — a detail that has received noticeably less media outrage.
The files resurfaced in the national spotlight after the DOJ and FBI concluded in July that Epstein died by suicide and possessed no “client list,” abruptly ending years of speculation. The reversal followed earlier statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who claimed a list existed, and a highly publicized “Phase 1” binder given to conservative influencers earlier this year.
Despite the noise, Blanche was unequivocal: politics will not dictate what is released — the law will.
“The short answer is we are not redacting information around President Trump,” Blanche said.
For Democrats and media figures hoping for a bombshell, the message was clear: transparency is coming — and it’s not going to tell the story they want.
