SPECIAL TREATMENT?

Is Donald Trump being treated by the Department of Justice as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein?

On August 13, 2019, a small group of lawyers exchanged an email about Jeffrey Epstein.

Three days earlier, Epstein had been found dead in a federal detention cell. The email circulated a CNN story about the investigation into his associates. The subject line read: “Re: Rachel continues to kill it.”

The CC line included three names.

Todd Wallace Blanche.

Sean S. Buckley.

John Peter Cronan.

Seven years later, on August 13, 2026, a federal judge threatened contempt while demanding answers from the Justice Department about its handling of records Congress ordered released concerning Jeffrey Epstein.

We didn’t find the 2019 email through a leak. Nobody slipped it under our door. Nobody wearing sunglasses met us in a parking garage carrying a manila envelope.

The Justice Department gave it to us.

It’s sitting in the government’s own Epstein Library.

The document is EFTA00092801.

And it isn’t the only one.

Another document, EFTA00098838, is dated July 12, 2019, six days after Epstein’s arrest. Its subject line is “Re: Ballsy!”

That conversation is considerably more interesting.

The lawyers discuss Epstein’s bail application. They discuss Reid Weingarten’s bail letter. Epstein’s financial disclosure. His proposed private security arrangement. His offer to ground his private jet. Judge Richard Berman’s apparent thinking.

At one point, somebody wonders whether a questionable piece of Epstein’s defense strategy was “client-driven.”

Blanche is on the chain.

So are Buckley and Cronan.

All three were former federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, the same office prosecuting Jeffrey Epstein.

Todd Blanche eventually became Donald Trump’s personal criminal-defense attorney.

Then he became Deputy Attorney General.

Then he personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell.

Then he became Acting Attorney General.

And a few days ago, he was sworn in as Attorney General of the United States.

Sean Buckley returned to SDNY and became Deputy United States Attorney.

John Peter Cronan became a federal judge in the Southern District of New York after being nominated by Donald Trump.

Three identifiable participants in these 2019 conversations about Jeffrey Epstein now occupy remarkably consequential positions within the federal legal system.

And Todd Blanche ended up running the Justice Department responsible for deciding what the American public gets to see in the Epstein files.

These emails are not meaningless.

They provide context.

And after what happened yesterday, context matters quite a fucking bit.

Because while Todd Blanche’s name was sitting inside the Epstein files, Todd Blanche’s Justice Department spent Thursday explaining to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan why parts of the Epstein files remain hidden.

And Sullivan was not enjoying the experience.

One of the disputes involves DOJ’s classification of unidentified people as Epstein victims.

DOJ has represented that, in some instances, attorneys contacted the department and requested that their clients receive victim treatment.

Apparently, saying somebody’s lawyer asked for victim treatment wasn’t enough for Sullivan.

He wanted documentation.

He wanted corroboration.

He wanted evidence.

Sullivan has seen disputed Epstein material without the redactions.

He knows names we don’t.

He knows who is underneath at least some of those black rectangles.

And after seeing those names, he is asking DOJ to prove that people receiving victim protections actually qualify for them.

Meanwhile, DOJ continues withholding handwritten FBI notes underlying interviews with a woman who told investigators that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her and introduced her to Donald Trump while she was a minor. She further alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her.

Trump denies it.

DOJ eventually released FBI reports summarizing the interviews.

It has not released the underlying handwritten notes.

One of the government’s arguments is that those notes are substantially similar to material already released.

There’s a slight problem with that.

Congress apparently forgot to include a “we already gave you something kinda like it” exception in the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Sullivan wants to know why the notes remain withheld.

He wants evidence supporting DOJ’s victim classifications.

He wants the department to comply with the disclosure requirements Congress enacted.

Thursday, DOJ sent attorney Andrew Block into court.

Todd Blanche did not appear.

Block had been added to the case less than twenty-four hours earlier and appeared unable to give Sullivan answers to questions the judge had specifically ordered the government to address.

Eventually Sullivan arrived at contempt.

“It isn’t a threat,” he said.

“It’s a promise.”

That’s where we are.

The United States Department of Justice is being threatened with contempt over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

And the Attorney General running that department is Donald Trump’s former personal criminal-defense attorney.

The same Todd Blanche who personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell.

The same Todd Blanche whose name appears in at least two email conversations about the Epstein case from 2019.

The same Todd Blanche who was questioned during his confirmation process about conflicts arising from his previous representation of Donald Trump and said he would follow DOJ ethics guidance regarding recusal.

Now his Justice Department is making disclosure decisions involving Epstein records concerning Donald Trump.

Which brings us to the question nobody seems particularly enthusiastic about answering.

Is Donald Trump being treated by the Department of Justice as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein?

Because we know DOJ has acknowledged that attorneys for unidentified people requested victim treatment for their clients.

We know Sullivan has seen identities hidden from the public.

We know Sullivan isn’t satisfied with DOJ’s assurances that those people qualify as victims.

We know he wants evidence.

And we know DOJ is withholding handwritten FBI notes connected to an interview containing an allegation against Donald Trump.

So, Todd, please answer these important questions:

Has Donald Trump or an attorney representing Donald Trump asked the Department of Justice to treat Donald Trump as a victim or potential victim of Jeffrey Epstein?

Did DOJ grant that request?

Has DOJ withheld or redacted anything concerning Donald Trump because it considers him a victim?

And do any of the victim protections being invoked around the disputed FBI interview material protect Donald Trump?

These are our questions, and we won't stop until we get the answers.

We’d like to know if Donald Trump’s Justice Department is using protections intended for victims of Jeffrey Epstein to protect Donald Trump from disclosure in the Jeffrey Epstein files while withholding records connected to an allegation in which a woman says she was the victim.

That is not something we’re going to infer from a black rectangle.

We’re asking DOJ to tell us what’s underneath it.

Seven years ago, Todd Blanche was copied on email conversations about Jeffrey Epstein.

Today, Todd Blanche runs the Justice Department responsible for releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, and a federal judge is threatening his department with contempt while demanding evidence supporting the people it says deserve protection.

Somewhere underneath all that black ink are the answers.

---