Greetings all. Our good friend Katie Phang dropped by today to update us on her new path-breaking lawsuit against the Department of Justice over its refusal to follow the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Here she is describing the lawsuit in today’s discussion:
Look, it's a first of its kind. It is the very first lawsuit that has been brought pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. And I've kind of boiled it down to the following… this case is about forcing lawyers to obey the law, simply put, because the lawyers themselves are the Department of Justice, but more accurately, it's acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. And candidly, the prior iterations of this lawsuit identified Pam Bondi as the defendant until she got summarily fired. The Epstein Files Transparency Act is incredibly simple on its face. It requires the DOJ — and it required it, past tense — to comply by December 19th of 2025 with the production, in a searchable public format, of a slew of information, documents, photographs, videos… and there was only the allowance for very limited redactions or withholdings. Those redactions had to be done to protect the victims and survivors of Epstein, Maxwell, and others. Otherwise, and we heard from Todd Blanche, there are no national security implications and there are no national security redactions.
Blanche has been served. He has to respond. We reasonably anticipate the Department of Justice is going to represent him, and they will move to dismiss my lawsuit, claiming that I don't have standing as a plaintiff to even get through the front door. We are prepared to fight back.
In our discussion Katie also gives her initial reaction to the Supreme Court’s Callais decision today that gutted the Voting Rights Act, and to what has been a series of deeply troubling actions taken in recent days by Trump’s interim Attorney General, Todd Blanche and others in the regime. Here is how I wrote about the Trump-Blanche escalation in Hopium this morning:
……I think the big story in DC now is the escalating weaponization of the DOJ, FBI, the FCC and other agencies against Trump’s perceived foes. As he rages his cowardly quislings are starting to do ever more dangerous, illiberal and outrageous things. Here’s Axios this morning:
The Trump administration moved Tuesday against three enemies of the MAGA coalition: a former Anthony Fauci adviser, Somali-run daycare centers in Minneapolis, and Jimmy Kimmel.
A fourth, former FBI director James Comey, was indicted for a second time after a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s case against him last year.
Why it matters: The retribution campaign at the heart of President Trump’s second term is escalating, not easing, as gas prices climb, the Iran war grinds past 60 days and his approval rating sinks to record lows.
Much of the activity has come in the 26 days since acting Attorney General Todd Blanche assumed leadership of the Justice Department following the ouster of Pam Bondi.
Zoom in: Each of Tuesday’s actions channels federal power against a long-running MAGA grievance.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, once the criminal defense lawyer to both Trump and Paul Manafort, has also
buried the Epstein report, claiming there is nothing left to release
accelerated a deeply corrupt DOJ investigation against those government officials who looked into the Russian campaign that helped get Trump elected in 2016
signed a completely unhinged DOJ Trump gilded ballroom court filing
misrepresented/lied about what happened at the WHCD on Saturday night - the suspect apparently did not fire his weapon after all
It is clear that the Acting Attorney of the United States, assisted by a weakened and out of favor FBI Director, is now just doing whatever impulsive, insane, and illegal shit Trump is asking him to do. Another one of Trump’s hollow men, FCC Brendan Carr, clearly prompted by Trump, announced an investigation into Disney/ABC to punish them for another Jimmy Kimmel monologue the MAGAistas didn’t like.
This Friday Katie will celebrate one year since leaving legacy media. You can find her work here on Substack and on YouTube. Powered by the MeidasTouch Network, her YouTube channel is a great place to follow her engaging commentary and discussions and learn more about this courageous new lawsuit she has filed against the Department of Justice.
Enjoy this timely conversation with one of our great pro-democracy warriors of the moment, and keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections to win, together! - Simon
