Senator Wyden and Deputy AG Blanche in war of words over Epstein memorandum

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has pushed back against Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden’s claim that the Trump administration was blocking a request for a redacted document in the Justice Department’s Epstein files. The dispute is over a 2015 memorandum that the Obama Justice Department prepared for the Drug Enforcement Agency. It is related to an investigation into the disgraced convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was still alive at the time, and his associates, according to Politico.
The heavily redacted document, which was part of the DOJ’s release of millions of files earlier this year, spoke of an interagency investigation regarding “illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities.”
Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked Blanche for an unredacted copy of the document last month, and in a Wednesday letter, he said that “DOJ stepped in to prevent DEA from complying with my request” — even though the DEA Administrator was apparently willing to provide the document.
“Your alleged interference in this matter is highly disturbing, not just because it continues the DOJ’s long-running obstruction of my investigation, but also because of your bizarrely favorable treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Epstein’s closest criminal associates,” wrote Wyden.
Blanche fired back in a social media post, responding to Wyden’s letter, that the senator had “completely fabricated a story for clicks.”
“No one is blocking anything. This DEA report is available to members of Congress unredacted in our reading room,” he wrote on X, and said that Wyden had not “bothered to visit” the facility.
Wyden didn’t deny Blanche’s assertion, but instead responded to him on X, accusing him and Attorney General Pam Bondi of “hiding these files in a black box at DOJ in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”

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