Trump’s Deputy AG Hit With Scathing Community Note Over Odd Claim About Epstein Files Redaction

(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who formerly worked as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was hit with a scathing community note on X this week after he attacked Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) over a specific redaction in the DOJ-released Epstein Files.

Khanna started off the exchange by sharing an email to Jeffrey Epstein, which had the sender’s name redacted. “I saw this email at DOJ today. This is a political figure who shouldn’t have been redacted. It’s a direct violation of @RepThomasMassie and my Epstein Files Transparency Act. @TheJusticeDept should unredact it immediately,” wrote Khanna above an image of the email.

Blanche replied to Khanna, “You are calling for the release of a victim’s personal information. Care to update your tweet?” He ended his post with the clown emoji.

The email, with the subject line “I beat Bush” and dated from February 2016, read:

Hi Jeffrey,
I got more votes than Jeb Bush got in Iowa, and I only had one congressional district, he had four!! It’s so funny (to me – totally embarrassing to him)!!! Still like Trump* and might be a delegate to the republican convention.
Was in St. Thomas for a couple of days – did call this island, but never heard back. Went scuba diving off St. Jeff and it was beautiful. Would be totally funny (to me at least) if you put a big fake shark or statute under the water where the divers go….
Love ya,

X’s community note fact-checking system added content to Blanche’s claim that the email came from an Epstein victim. The note said, “The claim mischaracterizes the redacted email sender as a victim. The sender is Gwendolyn Beck, a 2014 congressional candidate and Epstein associate who visited his island and was accused by victim Virginia Giuffre of joining orgies.” Beck has never been officially accused with wrongdoing related to Epstein.

Giuffre is one of Epstein’s better-known victims, as she fought back by taking both Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) to court. Giuffre committed suicide in April of 2025 before most of the files were made public.

Khanna also replied to Blanche, “The same candidate you claim is a victim is identified in other parts of the file. Also, did Les Wexner identify himself as a victim to the DOJ? How about the Sultan? You redacted them. I would ask again why have you had blanket redactions of FBI files? Happy to meet with you with @RepThomasMassie as we have requested many times.”

He added, “What about the actual survivors who you failed to redact and are terrified now? Why aren’t you fighting for them @DAGToddBlanche?”

Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) viewed the unredacted Epstein Files earlier in the week on terminals at the DOJ, which led to Khanna naming six men on the House floor who he believed had their names wrongly redacted by the DOJ.

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