WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 -- Judge Emmet Sullivan said it plainly at the last hearing: he did not want to hold the Justice Department's lawyers in contempt. Then Todd Blanche handed him a reason to reconsider.

In a filing submitted to the Federal Register on Wednesday, the DOJ entered a letter Blanche had written six months earlier, on February 14, as evidence it had complied with Sullivan's court order in the Epstein files case. The letter cited Section 3 of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Sullivan's June injunction required compliance with Section 2.

The difference is not incidental. Section 2 of the Act obliges the Justice Department to provide an individual written justification for each redaction it made to the Epstein documents rele...