Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently defended men named in the newly released Epstein files, saying “it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.” He made these comments during an interview about the massive document release.
The files include thousands of mentions of President Trump and other powerful people who had contact with Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased child sex predator. According to Mediaite, Blanche admitted that some of the documentation looks “pretty bad,” but said the Department of Justice (DOJ) needs more than bad optics to take legal action.
When asked if people who “partied with Epstein and engaged in relations with minors will be prosecuted,” Blanche was careful. He said he would never rule out investigating misconduct, but stressed that it isn’t a crime to party or email with Epstein.
The released photos suggest more than just parties
The interviewer pushed back, saying the newly released photos showed more than just partying. “I mean, if the photos could speak, some of them look pretty bad,” she said. Blanche agreed they look bad but said the DOJ needs witnesses and hard evidence, not just photos that “can’t speak,” to build a case.
President Trump signed a law last November requiring the files to be released by December 19. The law came after mounting pressure, including from fellow Republicans. It required releasing millions of documents, photos, and videos, with redactions only for victims’ names and identifying information. The documents show how often Trump appeared in Epstein records, revealing connections he previously tried to keep hidden.
The DOJ missed the December 19 deadline, which Blanche publicly admitted. The releases have also failed to protect victims they were supposed to shield. Reports show that names of dozens of victims, including women who were minors at the time, were left completely unredacted. The files have also exposed disturbing connections involving international figures, showing how far Epstein’s network reached.
The most recent release included nude images of victims that the DOJ failed to censor. When challenged about how these names and images slipped through, Blanche admitted “mistakes were made.” He said hard-working lawyers had been trying to go through what he called the equivalent of “two Eiffel Towers” worth of stacked documents over the past 60 days.
Blanche tried to downplay the problem by saying the unredacted information was only 0.002% of the total files. However, the interviewer pointed out that if those names belong to you, the percentage doesn’t matter.
Blanche insisted the DOJ immediately pulled down information when a victim or their lawyer contacted them. “Everything we did was to protect victims,” he said. When asked about videos, Blanche said any videos they had were already released, but there were no videos of men engaging in “improper sex or anything with victims.”
Published: Feb 3, 2026 09:45 am