NBC’s Kristen Welker grills Todd Blanche over Epstein files removal: 'Why were these taken down?'

WASHINGTON, DC: NBC anchor Kristen Welker grilled Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in a tense showdown over the Epstein files on Sunday, December 21.

During the 20-minute interview on Sunday’s 'Meet the Press', Welker questioned Blanche about why the DOJ failed to comply with legislation requiring that all of the files be released on Friday, December 19.

DOJ grilled over delayed Epstein files release 

Kristen Welker pressed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during an interview on Sunday, questioning why the Department of Justice failed to meet the deadline for releasing the Epstein files.

During the interview, Welker said, "The Epstein Files Transparency Act called for all files, with limited exceptions, to be released within 30 days. On Friday, the Justice Department released just a fraction of the overall Epstein files. Why didn’t the Justice department meet that Friday deadline?"

Blanche replied, "It’s very simple and very clear. The statute also requires us to protect victims. And so the reason why we are still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that, to protect the victims. So the same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don’t want us to protect victims."

Welker then questioned whether President Donald Trump’s Justice Department was honoring the wishes of Epstein victims in its handling of Friday’s release.

"The law directed the Justice Department to release internal DOJ communications, including emails, memos, meeting notes, concerning decisions to charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates," she said, adding, "That’s the crux of what many of the victims or the survivors say they want to see. Why wasn’t that information prioritized in the first release, Mr Blanche?"

The Deputy Attorney General responded, "Well, first of all, it was. And there are numerous documents released on Friday that address what you just quoted from, from the statute, that address internal communications within the Department of Justice and internal communications between law enforcement and the Department if Justice."

Blanche continued, "But it’s for the same reason, because many of those internal communications talk about victims. Many of those back-and-forths between prosecutors and law enforcement talk about the victims and their stories. And that has to be redacted. And by the way, everybody expects us to redact that. So the same complaints that we’re hearing yesterday and even this morning from Democrats and from others screaming loudly from a hill about lack of production on Friday, imagine if we had released tons of information around victims. That would be the true crime. That would be the true wrong."

DOJ defends Epstein files redactions after images pulled

During the interview, Kristen Welker questioned the redactions in the Epstein files released on Friday, as well as the 16 images that later disappeared from the Department of Justice’s website after initially being posted. 

The NBC host asked, "The Epstein-Files Transparency Act prohibits redactions ‘on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.’ Has anything been redacted on that basis?"

Blanche responded, "Absolutely, positively not. A judge in New York has ordered us to listen to any victim or victim rights group if they have any concerns about the material that we’re putting up."

He added, "And so when we hear concerns, whether it’s photographs of women that we do not believe are victims, or we didn’t have information to show that they were victims, but we learn that there are concerns, of course we’re taking that photograph down, and we’re going to address it. If we need to redact faces or other information, we will, and then we’ll put it back up."

Welker then pressed further, asking, "You were referencing the 15 files released Friday. They disappeared from DOJ’s website yesterday, including this photo of what looks like a desk with a drawer open containing photos of Donald Trump. Just to be very clear, to put a fine point on it, why were these files taken down? You’re saying it was at the direction of a judge?"

Blanche replied, "You can see in that photo, there’s photographs of women. And so we learned after releasing that photograph that there were concerns about those women and the fact that we had put that photo up. So we pulled that photo down."

He added, "It has nothing to do with President Trump. There are dozens of photos of President Trump already released to the public seeing him with Mr. Epstein. He has said that in the ’90s and early 2000s he socialized with him. So the absurdity of us pulling down a photo, a single photo, because President Trump was in it, is laughable."