The U.S. Department of Justice is weighing whether to release the audio and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s two-day interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, according to officials familiar with the matter. Maxwell’s lawyers have objected to any publication of the material, which was recorded after her transfer to a lower-security prison. The debate marks the first concrete sign the department may loosen its long-standing refusal to make further Epstein-related records public. White House deliberations over the issue have expanded beyond the Justice Department. Vice President JD Vance had arranged a private dinner on 6 August with Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and senior adviser Susie Wiles to craft the administration’s response to mounting public pressure. The meeting was cancelled after its existence became public, underscoring the political sensitivity surrounding the case. Separately, the Democracy Forward Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit on 8 August against the Justice Department and the FBI, demanding expedited release of documents tied to the government’s Epstein investigation. The complaint, docketed as 1:25-cv-02597, was assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington. An index disclosed in an earlier FOIA case indicates the FBI is withholding more than 300 gigabytes of bank records, phone logs, photographs and foreign-agency correspondence gathered during its 2006 probe of Epstein. The Justice Department said last month that further disclosure of the trove was neither “appropriate nor warranted,” a position now being challenged in court and within the administration.