A federal judge Thursday ordered the Department of Justice to remove redactions from a tranche of Jeffrey Epstein records by July 2 or explain why it cannot, granting a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit alleging the department improperly withheld and redacted documents in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, sitting in Washington, directed the department to produce unredacted emails, a draft indictment, FBI interview notes and a public redaction log, or justify keeping the redactions in place.

The order, signed in Phang v. Blanche, gives the government a week to act.

Sullivan identified the records at issue: eight emails to or from Epstein whose sender and recipient names remain blacked out, two department files identifying alleged co-conspirators, and the underlying FBI notes behind four formal written interview reports.

The judge also told the department to begin reviewing foreign-language materials that may be subject to release and to publish the redaction log required by Congress under the 2025 transparency law in the Federal Register.

The lawsuit was brought in April by Katie Phang, an attorney and independent journalist who has covered the Epstein investigation on her YouTube channel and other platforms.

She argues the department's releases under the Epstein Act, totaling roughly 3.5 million pages, were riddled with redactions Congress never authorized.

According to the court's memorandum opinion, Phang alleges the department concealed sender and recipient names in at least eight email exchanges with Epstein regarding a "torture video" and sexual activity involving young women, including minors, and blacked out co-conspirator names in a draft indictment.

She also alleges the department withheld 36 items mentioning President Donald Trump, including FBI notes from interviews with a woman who said Epstein introduced her to Trump in the 1980s, when she was about 13, and that Trump then assaulted her.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.

The Department of Justice had moved to have the case dismissed, arguing in a June 5 filing that Phang lacked standing, that the Epstein Act creates no private right of action, and that the Freedom of Information Act already provided an adequate remedy.

Sullivan rejected those arguments, finding Phang had a right to sue under the Administrative Procedure Act and had identified concrete consequences from the withholdings, including stories she had been unable to publish.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, Public Law 119-38, was signed by Trump on Nov. 19, 2025, after a near-unanimous bipartisan vote.

The statute directed the attorney general to release all unclassified Epstein-related materials, subject to written justifications for any withholdings.

The Justice Department has released roughly 3.5 million pages. More than 6 million pages were collected during the investigation, and about half remain unreleased, according to the department.

As of Thursday, the department had not publicly responded to Sullivan's order.