April 24, 2026
We haven’t talked about the Epstein files in a while, but I think we need to because the inspector general says there may be something funky going on with the way the Trump Department of Justice has handled or mishandled those Epstein files.
The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General just put out this notice saying that the inspector general was “initiating an audit of DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.” Now, before I tell you more about what that means and what the inspector general is specifically looking for, you need to know the inspector general is a completely independent entity created by Congress. In the Justice Department, the inspector general is responsible for oversight of DOJ. Those in the IG’s DOJ office look into misconduct of those who work for DOJ and make sure no one is abusing their position, or they look for waste, fraud, or abuse.
Now, the inspector general is appointed by the president and also must be confirmed by the Senate. But here’s the thing—there is no confirmed inspector general at DOJ. That is not a bug, that’s a feature of the Trump administration. Since taking office, Donald Trump has dismissed or demoted more than 20 inspectors general across all government departments. So since there is no confirmed inspector general at DOJ, the guy right below the inspector general—the deputy inspector general, William Blier—is currently performing the duties of the inspector general. And it’s William Blier who will be overseeing this review of DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files.
For 20 years, Blier was an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. He joined the DOJ Office of the Inspector General in June of 2007 and has been serving as the deputy inspector general at DOJ since 2018. In 2018, President Trump gave him the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, which is the highest award that a civilian federal employee can receive. So Blier has been around for a very long time.
So now that you know that, what is Blier’s office going to do about this Epstein issue? Well, as I said, his office is going to be auditing whether the Pam Bondi and now Todd Blanche Department of Justice have fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was almost unanimously passed by Congress. As I’ve been reporting, both Democrats and Republicans have accused the DOJ of hiding files, of not releasing all the documents as the law requires, and of redacting names and information that probably shouldn’t be redacted.
So what exactly is the inspector general going to look at? Well, the IG is zeroing in not only on how DOJ decided to redact or not redact names and information, but also what process they were using to determine which of the three million files they decided to release and what process they used to determine why the other three million files should stay hidden. They are also going to look into how the DOJ responded to the public when they were told that they had, for example, released names of victims—which is absolutely prohibited in the law. And the inspector general says he’s going to leave the door open to investigate whatever additional things he or his office may find.
The law says when an audit like this is conducted, the inspector general is required to issue a public report of the audit results. It’s unclear how long this audit is going to take. Usually, they take quite a while. But eventually, we’ll be able to see it.
Read the announcement here.
