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BumRushDaShow

(151,323 posts)
Sat Apr 12, 2025, 05:23 AM Apr 12

DOJ violating FOIA by refusing to release Jeffrey Epstein files, conservative watchdog says

Source: Law & Crime

Apr 11th, 2025, 5:26 pm


The Trump administration is violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, a lawsuit filed this week in Washington, D.C., alleges. And the allegations are coming from a perhaps unlikely source. In a 6-page filing, conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch accuses the U.S. Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi of violating FOIA law on a number of occasions over the past few months concerning several distinct requests.

“Simply put, the Justice Department needs to respond to public demands for transparency under law and release the Epstein files under FOIA,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release announcing the litigation. The lawsuit stems from a Feb. 21 request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy — a subagency dedicated to facilitating FOIA requests and government compliance with the statute.

According to the lawsuit, that FOIA request sought: “All records of communication between Attorney General Bondi and any other individual or entity regarding any lists or other records depicting the identities of clients or associates of Jeffrey Epstein. This request includes, but is not limited to, all records related to the Department’s compilation, distribution, handling, and the potential public release of any such record or the information contained therein.”

To help DOJ staff understand the salience of the request, Judicial Watch cited a Fox News article published the day before which mused Trump’s “return to the Oval Office came with the prospect of the public finally being able to see Epstein’s long-awaited ‘black book’ amid inquiries into the deceased financier and sex trafficker.” Those hopes, however, have not been borne out.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/public-demands-for-transparency-under-law-doj-violating-foia-by-refusing-to-release-jeffrey-epstein-files-conservative-watchdog-says/



Full headline: ‘Public demands for transparency under law’: DOJ violating FOIA by refusing to release Jeffrey Epstein files, conservative watchdog says

Link to FILING (PDF) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25895573-judicial-watch-v-doj-epstein/

I kept trying to figure out what it was they were looking for - it's the "black book"!

The obsession may have been to "expose" Democrats that they assumed would be named in the initial "grand release" and when that didn't happen, it seems obvious why it is being held back as it is probably full of names of the real traffickers - GOPers (including the #1 guy).
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ProudMNDemocrat

(19,598 posts)
2. Which means ONLY one thing....tRump is mentioned in the files and it is NOT good.
Sat Apr 12, 2025, 08:11 AM
Apr 12

Why else refuse to release them at all?

The administration is in violation of the Freedom of Information Act. But then, this administration thinks and acts like the Law or Constitution does not matter.

kimbutgar

(24,927 posts)
4. I was so hoping the outgoing Merrick Garland would have released those files on his way out
Sat Apr 12, 2025, 12:48 PM
Apr 12

Now those files are gone forever and destroyed, Hope someone had a made a copy and took it.

My biggest disappointment I the Biden administration was Merrick Garland as head of the DOJ. I hope someday he regrets it.

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