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Do you trust the Trump administration and its Department of Justice about a missing 3 million Epstein files? I don't. There's a new filing by the Department of Justice with a federal judge late yesterday in which without explanation, they have now, quote, unquote, reduced the number of documents that they are still reviewing three weeks past the deadline set by Congress and a statute from 5.2 million at around the holidays to just 2 million documents. And by the way, when we talk about 2 million document documents, we're really talking about 20 million to 50 million pages that have to be reviewed. But where did the 3 million go? What was the protocol used to determine that 3 million or 3.2 million DOC documents no longer have to be reviewed? We trust the Department of Justice. I certainly don't, and I know you don't. You're here on Midas Touch and on Legal af. Let's get to the new math. This evolving number constantly shape shifting before our very eyes. It started about two weeks ago when my podcast partner, Ben Meiselas located a document in the only documents that have been produced in this case, a measly 12,000 documents, representing at best 0.06% of the total pile of Epstein files still the Department of Justice is sitting on for Donald Trump. But Even in those 12,000, we found a document that referred to a million doc, a million pages, or a million documents related to Ghislaine Maxwell's prosecution that had not been reviewed. And then the Department of Justice 12 hours later said, we, we found another million in the Southern District of New York where Ghislaine Maxwell was being prosecuted. But we were like, all right, well, we found it. But in any event, at least you found it. And then about a week or so later during the holidays, Todd Blanche goes on social media as the number two in the Department of Justice and says, no, that number's not a million, it's 5.2 million. But we're working round the clock with 400 people to get to the bottom of it. Hooray. Now there's a new filing here that we're covering on Midas and Legal AF came in late last night. It because Judge Engelmeier, a federal judge in New York, is where the Trump administration ran, along with Federal Judge Berman in New York, both of them overseeing the Maxwell and the Epstein matters and begging them to allow the release of the grand jury material and other materials that were under lock and key with the judge as part of the Epstein Transparency Act. Well, now they're under the supervision of a federal judge And Engelmeier told the Department of Justice, I want this week by yesterday, a detailed letter explaining how you're going to protect the victims. What's your process? What's your process for redacting? What's your process for review and giving an update? So I'm like, all right, well, they're going to tell the judge what they told us a week ago, right? There's 5.2 million documents. No, we've got 3 million now missing. Another set of missing documents. Because here's what Todd Blanch, Jay Clayton, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District, and Pam Bondi tell Judge Engelmeier, starting on page the bottom of page one, over to page two of this letter, that it's been filed on the docket. Overview of the work in progress. Remember, we put it up on the screen last week, two weeks ago, 5.2 doc. Million documents. Multiply that by an average of 10 pages per document, you're talking about 50 million pages. Now listen, first they confess of. Of how measly and meager their production has been to date. To date. The department is now posted to the DOJ Epstein Library. It's a pretty lofty title for child sex predators. Dropbox. Approximately 12,285 documents comprising approximately 125,000 pages. Right? Each document about 10 pages in response to the act. And there are more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the act that are in various phases of review. So I look below, like, all right, well, they're going to explain why it's not 5.2 million, right? Nope. No explanation. So we have a missing. Just take it on faith. Everybody, the Department of Justice and Epstein, the people are assigned to the Epstein matter, know what they're doing. They eliminated 3 million documents from review. And of the American people, this is a demonstration of transparency. This is. This is opaqueness. Again, why don't you explain at least in a footnote, so the American people understand the math and. And why is it. And then they go on with who is working around the clock on this. Now, last week, Todd Blanche said, or we got reporting that. That said that the lawyers that are assigned to this and it's taking up the most of the remainder of the Department of Justice. Remember, they lost 5,000 people in the Department of Justice. They're now saying that 400 lawyers across the Department are working not round the clock but most of a day on this matter. But I don't even think that's true, because a week or so ago, the reporting was that they were offering Bounties or bonuses of extra time off. If you put three to four hours a day into your review, that's not a, that's not, as they said here, working most of a day or a substantial portion of their workday or all of it. Who works three to four hours a day? So that's already a lie. On top of where is the missing 3.2 million? Todd Blanche, these are the questions that need to be asked by the Oversight Committee in Congress, by Tom Massie and Ro Khanna, the congresspeople, who are, who are the sheepdogs and the watchdogs over this. And in a lawsuit that I would hope that they would file about these matters, asking these questions. Where did the 3.2 million documents go? How do you know that it's just this 2 million? What have you done? Where have you searched? There's no outline here in the letter of the piles and the places they just complain. Well, they're spread out all over the place with different record keeping systems. Who, who, what, where, how, how many, how many of the 2 million or 5.2 million exist in what pile? Reviewed by who? What didn't you review? Why didn't you review it? Is the IRS files reviewed? Are the Postal Services files reviewed? You know, there's, there's plenty of places within the executive branch to go hunting for these documents. Have Donald Trump's personal documents been reviewed? No one ever talks about that. Has his cell phone been reviewed? Has his, whatever he communicated on back in the day been reviewed? We got another federal judge, for instance, Judge Chutkin, who's overseeing a federal Freedom of Information act request demanding the communication between Epstein and Trump be disclosed. Where is that? Yeah, it's great. You have a website to protect the survivors and the victims and they can go in an email box and tell you their names to make sure you don't eff it up again. But where? This, this begs more questions, opens up the door to more questions than it answers this filing. Let me show you how Ro Khanna and Tom Massie, Tom Massie being the Republican, how they're responding to these types of things. Here's a clip of them calling for the head of Pam Bondi. Let's play the clip.
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What are you going to do about it to force them to comply? I mean, can you do anything?
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Oh, absolutely. Look, people have talked about, and by the way, Todd Blanche is the face of this, but it's really the Attorney General's office, Pam Bondi, who is responsible. And there are several ways to get at this. Some take longer, some are shorter. The quickest and I think most expeditious way to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi. And that doesn't require going through the courts and give her. And basically Ro Khanna and I are talking about and drafting that right now.
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B
Okay. Well, I mean, on another network this morning, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said impeachment or contempt, it is premature. Congressman Khanna and the deputy attorney general said bring it on. They don't seem to be taking this very seriously. And if you just don't have the math in the Senate, including at least now this Democratic senator not being convinced, doesn't that sort of show that you're at the limit of pressure?
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No. We only need the House for inherent contempt. And we're building a bipartisan coalition and it would fine Pam Bondi for every day that she's not releasing these documents. I'll tell you why I've talked to the survivors, why this is such a slap in the face, why one of the survivors said they released her name accidentally, but they still have not released the FBI file about the people who abused her at her request. And the problem here is that there are rich and powerful people. We all know this. There are 1200 victims. They're rich and powerful people who either engaged in this abuse, covered it up, or were on this island. And what the American people want to know is who are these people? And instead of holding them accountable, Pam Bondi is breaking the law. And, and this is the corrupt system, the Epstein class, that people are sick of. So I believe we're going to get bipartisan support in holding her accountable. And a committee of Congress should determine whether these redactions are justified or not.
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So there needs to be a lawsuit over this. We're calling for it here on Legal af. Let's get congressional committee members to file the lawsuit. Public interest groups, Freedom, Freedom of Information Act. I'm going to have Sky Perryman on with me tomorrow from Democracy Forward. She's one of the masters of the use of the Freedom of Information Act. She's got the pending case in front of Judge Judkin. I think they should update their case to say, how did it go from 5.2 million down to only only 2 million? And how do you know it's only 2 million? Come on, sky and Democracy Forward, you're on Legal AF and on Midas Touch. Get to the bottom of it. I'm going to continue to follow it closely. In the meantime, take a moment in the notes below. Slide over to Legalif YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button and help us continue to grow our substack legal af substack. I'm running a 20% sale on substack right now on annual membership. That is where independent media and commentary lives. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.
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Hey everybody, Ben Meiselas here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner Michael Popak's new law firm. It's called the Popoc Firm. Michael Popox pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm. Really based on the popular demand by all the Midas mighty and legal A effers who are approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popoc Firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popo's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopoc firm.com thepopocfirm.com or you can call 877-popock a f p o p o k a f. So 1-877-p-o p o k a f. Give Michael Popak a call. Proud of you, Popa. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.
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Can't get your fill of Legal af.
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A
Me neither.
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That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called Wait for it Morning af.
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A
What else?
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All the other contributors from Ligol AO for there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.
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