Donald Trump had ‘nothing to do’ with photo removal, Todd Blanche says

Blanche said on Monday (AEDT) that he and Attorney-General Pam Bondi had spoken to victims’ groups as recently as Thursday, though he didn’t provide specifics about the decision to pull the image showing Trump.

“If we need to redact faces or other information, we will,” Blanche told NBC. “And then we’ll put it back up.”

The partial release and extensive redactions prompted immediate criticism by some lawmakers. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the administration of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act and shielding Trump.

Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said on CNN’s State of the Union that the administration is “covering up things that, for whatever reason, Donald Trump doesn’t want to go public.”

Loading

Blanche rejected that allegation, pledging that nothing related to Trump in the files would be withheld.

“If President Trump is mentioned, if there’s photographs that we have of President Trump or anybody else, they, of course, will be released with the exception of any victims or survivors that we’ve identified,” he told NBC.

He also argued that the law allowed for leeway in the timeline to protect victims.

“Bring it on,” he said. “We are doing everything we’re supposed to be doing to comply with this statute.”

Before working in the Justice Department, Blanche represented Trump during his 2024 criminal trial in New York City where he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on May 30, 2024.

Bloomberg

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.