Venezuela? Cuba? Columbia? Greenland, for crying out loud? So many outrages happening at the same time that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of the laws in the process of being violated. No, it’s not about a plaque to remind people how little Trump cares about the Capitol Police beaten by his Day of Love pardonees, but about the second prong of the Epstein Files disclosure law.

There’s a second prong, you ask? Indeed, there is.

Looking to update the court on their progress, they told Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York that the 12,285 documents the department has already released contain roughly 125,575 pages.

“There are more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act that are in various phases of review,” they added.

For the math impaired (meaning lawyers), this means that the government, rather than releasing all files by December 19th, as the law requires, has released about 1% of the files, and we’re now a little more than two weeks beyond the deadline for disclosure. That matters, as the files thus far released have been a bit dark by the taint of redaction.

Thus far, it may only be about 1% of the files disclosed, but some might contend that disclosure of redacted pages, whether words, phrases or entire pages, falls somewhat short of, well, disclosure. But the law anticipated some redactions, and anticipated that redactions may be excessive. So the law required that the Department of Justice explain each and every redaction within 15 days of disclosure.

“What are they trying to hide?” Schumer wrote. “It’s been 17 DAYS since the Trump DOJ first broke the law and failed to release all the Epstein files.”

“It’s been 14 DAYS since Trump’s DOJ released anything at all – with the DOJ doing everything in its power to delay and obfuscate,” he added, noting that the 40,000 pages released so far have been heavily redacted, with “no new information on the 10 alleged Epstein co-conspirators.”

Notably, there hasn’t been much discussion about the government’s abject failure to explain its redactions, although the rationalization provided by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is that it’s a lot of work and they’re working really, really hard on it. As for the redactions specifically, the closest Blanche has come is to offer the most generic explanation possible.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has repeatedly defended the redactions and delays as necessary to protect the personal information of victims and witnesses. The DOJ has not committed to a new timeline for a list of co-conspirators or a report explaining redactions.

In the ordinary scheme of redacted court information, it would be left to a judge to consider the unredacted documents, the explanations, and then make a determination as to the validity of the redactions and sufficiency of the explanation. In this case, however, Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York is the closest we have to someone with direct oversight who could make the determination, but that’s under the Ghislaine Maxwell case, not the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

While Minority Leader Chuck Schumer may be asserting that he will do “everything in his power to ensure all the files come out,” there is really nothing other than sending letters, twitting his annoyance and tipping his specs deeper down his nose that he can do. The Dems lack any power to compel the government to comply with the law, and the Reps don’t appear to show any of the zeal that gave rise to their signing onto the discharge petition to make the law happen.

Nonetheless, the files aren’t being released because it’s a good thing to do, or because the MAGA influencers were screaming for it for years as a reason to vote Trump, who would finally reveal the sordid pedo ways of prominent people within government and without. The Epstein files are now subject to law, and their release isn’t a courtesy the DoJ is providing Congress or the People, but a legal mandate. They’re not doing us a favor. There is a law, and the law requires things be done, not excuses be proffered.

Yet, there appears to be little to no concern that the administration, yet again, is simply ignoring the law and justifying its conduct by either claiming its doing its best of screaming GREENLAND at the top of its lungs. Who can focus their attention on the failure to abide by the Epstein with so many other inane things going on?