WASHINGTON D.C. — Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ). The suit challenges the DOJ’s refusal to release records from its investigations of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell: specifically, documents that mention President Trump and his Mar-a-Lago residence. Last month, DDF requested the material after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the administration had abruptly shifted course and decided not to release the files.

“The games the administration is playing with re-releasing already public documents while withholding the Trump-Epstein files and other key information is another betrayal of survivors, another reminder that the powerful are being shielded while the public is kept in the dark. If the courts do not act, history will record this as a brazen abuse of power,” said Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.), executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. “The  administration must come clean. Every day of delay is another day the public is denied the truth about Trump’s ties to Epstein. In a democracy, transparency isn’t optional. It’s the law, and it’s the bare minimum the American people are owed.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to order the government to produce the requested documents, as required by public records laws.

DDF has also requested records related to the DOJ’s handling of references to Donald Trump or Mar-a-Lago in the files and the abrupt transfer of Maxwell to a minimum security prison camp, following her meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The organization will pursue similar legal remedies if they are not produced in a timely manner.

Just Security recently published a new timeline which extensively documents the decades-long failures by federal law enforcement and oversight agencies—including the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of the Treasury—in the handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. The resource can be found HERE

The lawsuit can be found HERE

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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state, and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.