WASHINGTON, July 5 -- Three days after a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to strip names from the Epstein files, department lawyers filed a formal opposition brief instead, asking for sixty additional days, offering a private briefing to the court, and arguing they had already done enough.

The filing, submitted late Thursday, came after the department had missed a July 2 court-ordered deadline from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who had issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by journalist and legal analyst Katie Phang. Phang sued the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, alleging the agency had failed to comply with its disclosure obligations, according to Axios. Sullivan agreed with ...