The Trump Justice Department stumbled in an Jeffrey Epstein files case with an “embarrassing” excuse flagged by a legal expert on Saturday.
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In a recent episode of the Legal AF podcast, analyst Michael Popok discussed the DOJ’s response to an injunction requiring it to translate foreign-language documents in the Epstein files. The injunction stems from journalist Katie Phang’s lawsuit demanding translation and a published redaction log, which has seen early success, Popok noted.
“It’s not like the World Cup. It’s not like there’s 48 different countries of languages,” Popok said. “What is it? Four or five languages. We know who was involved in the Epstein scandal. Maybe French, maybe Italian, certainly English, not a foreign language, but you know the way the Brits speak.”
Even though the DOJ responded to a judge’s injunction “in the nick of time,” it refused to translate parts of the Epstein files, saying reviewers “could not translate it on the fly,” according to Popok.
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“They could use an app, an AI app, that would do the initial cut of translation,” Popok said. “It’s embarrassing that they think they can get away with this.”
Popok summed up the DOJ’s response as “you’re not getting it, judge. We’re not translating it.” However, Popok added that the judge in the case, Emmet Sullivan, “doesn’t suffer fools” and predicted that he’ll be “p—– off” with the DOJ’s excuse for not complying with the injunction.
“You’re gonna see it in his next order,” Popok said. “Remember we’re talking about Epstein survivors and sexual abuse victims, many of them who were girls at the time.”
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