Judge rules DOJ violated Epstein Files Transparency Act, orders release within one week

DOJ Found in Violation of Epstein Files Transparency Act

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Department of Justice admitted to breaking the law by failing to release the majority of its files on Jeffrey Epstein to the public. The ruling gives acting Attorney General Todd Blanche one week to release more information.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in his opinion that Blanche failed to address allegations from journalist Katie Phang that the Trump administration failed to release the files in full. Phang sued the DOJ in April over a "brazen, shocking, and ongoing violation" of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed last year.

"The Attorney General does not respond substantively to any of these arguments," Sullivan said in his ruling. "The Attorney General has conceded that he is in violation of the Act."

Injunction Details

Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction giving Blanche one week to:

• Release information redacted from the files, including names
• Provide detailed reasons for the redactions

Files Covered by the Injunction Include:

• FBI notes from interviews with a woman who accused President Trump of assaulting her in the 1980s as a 13-year-old
• Email exchanges with Epstein concerning an alleged "torture video" and sex acts with minors
• Names of co-defendants from a draft indictment
• Identities of Epstein's potential co-conspirators and DOJ employees who sent messages about them
• Information in "foreign languages" that the DOJ said it couldn't translate and redact

DOJ's Position

The DOJ has said in the past that its unreleased Epstein files were not verified and contained "unfounded and false" claims about Trump. However, the law passed by Congress leaves few exceptions, and now Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, will have to answer for why some of the files remain hidden.

"The government ignored its own law and blew off a judge's order, all for the sake of protecting the very powerful and the very rich," said Brendan Ballou, Katie Phang's attorney, to Politico. "Doing so had consequences, and now the public will finally get transparency around Jeffrey Epstein and his network."

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Texas Poised to Mandate Bible Reading in Public Schools

Texas is poised to make the Bible required reading for five million public school students.

The Texas State Board of Education is expected to vote Friday to approve legislation to scrap teaching about "World Cultures" and make Bible stories and verses a permanent part of the K-12 curriculum—a move critics call a blatant violation of the separation between church and state.

Critics' Concerns

Critics of the measure argue that the changes risk:

• Alienating children from other religious or nonreligious backgrounds
• Infringing on the ability of parents to guide their children's moral and religious education

Proposed Curriculum by Grade Level

| Level | Content | |-------|---------| | Primary school | Stories such as Noah's Ark, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion's Den | | Middle school | The Shepherd Psalm from the Book of Psalms, plus religious writings of poets like Langston Hughes and Robert Frost | | High school | The second chapter of Genesis, detailing the creation of Adam and Eve |

Opt-Out and Grading Concerns

Students would be able to opt out of these lessons, but since the texts would be made part of the official curriculum, opting out could potentially affect their grades.

Bible Translation Restrictions

The proposed curriculum would only allow the use of verses from specific Bible translations, including the King James Bible, which is not embraced by the Roman Catholic Church but is widely used by Protestant and Evangelical churches, according to CNN.

Background

• 2023: Texas became the first state to allow the hiring of chaplains in schools
• 2024: Texas offered extra money to public schools willing to provide optional Bible instruction
• 2025: Texas became the largest of a slew of red states to pursue similar measures