Attorney General Todd Blanche is appealing a federal judge’s latest order in journalist and attorney Katie Phang’s lawsuit over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, escalating the legal battle just days before Blanche faces a series of court-ordered deadlines.

Phang, who reports for the MeidasTouch Network, has been documenting her case on her podcast Sidebar with Katie Phang, as well as her YouTube channel.

In a notice filed Thursday, September 17, Blanche’s attorneys told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that they are appealing U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s September 16 order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“To the extent that any aspect of the order grants Plaintiff injunctive relief, it is immediately appealable,” the Justice Department wrote in the two-page filing.

The appeal targets an order that requires Blanche to provide Sullivan with the unredacted handwritten FBI notes from interviews with a victim who alleged Donald Trump sexually abused her when she was 13–15 years old by September 24 at 11 a.m. The documents will initially be reviewed privately by the judge, known as an in camera review.

The order also requires Blanche to begin reviewing and producing foreign-language materials that may fall under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and notify the court and the parties that the review is underway by September 24. If Blanche believes that requirement is unclear, Sullivan ordered him to seek clarification by September 21.

Phang announced the new appeal Thursday, writing that Blanche was continuing what she described as his “Herculean efforts to avoid having to turnover unredacted files to me.”

The dispute over the handwritten notes has emerged as a major flashpoint in Phang’s lawsuit.

The Justice Department previously argued that the handwritten notes did not need to be produced because they were “substantially similar to” the typed FD-302 reports created from the interviews. Sullivan rejected that argument, finding that the government’s own review protocol contained no provision allowing responsive records to be withheld merely because they were substantially similar to other documents. The judge also noted that Phang had identified nearly 100 other examples of handwritten interview notes that the government had released.

The four sets of notes at issue underlie FBI interviews with a woman who has alleged that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her and that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her when she was a minor. Trump and the White House have denied the allegation, and the court’s order does not make any finding about its truth or require the handwritten notes to be publicly released at this stage.

Blanche had already asked Sullivan to stay the demand for the handwritten notes while the government pursued a separate appeal over jurisdictional issues. Sullivan declined, noting that the government had already provided other documents to the court for private review and that the earlier appeal was already underway.

The latest appeal comes amid a broader setback for Blanche in the case.

In a separate order issued Wednesday, Sullivan granted Phang’s motion to compel Blanche to finally answer her complaint after the Justice Department missed its earlier deadline. Sullivan rejected Blanche’s request to stay proceedings and ordered him to file his answer by September 24. The government must also file a certified list of the contents of the administrative record by October 1 and produce that record to Phang by October 15.

Sullivan found that Blanche had failed to establish excusable neglect for missing the deadline to respond to Phang’s lawsuit, writing that the government had provided no information establishing a reasonable basis for the failure.

Sullivan has also warned that civil contempt could ultimately become an issue if the Justice Department fails to comply with the court’s orders, although he said such a finding would be premature at this stage.

The new notice of appeal does not itself erase Sullivan’s September 24 deadlines. Blanche’s filing states that the government is seeking appellate review of the September 16 order and argues that any portion granting injunctive relief is immediately appealable.

That sets up another potentially consequential week in Phang’s lawsuit. Absent further intervention from the courts, Blanche faces a September 24 deadline to answer the lawsuit, provide Sullivan with the disputed FBI notes in both redacted and unredacted form, supply documentation supporting certain victim-name redactions, and confirm that the Justice Department has begun reviewing potentially responsive foreign-language Epstein materials.