DOJ releases long-awaited tranche of Epstein files
And just like that, the justice department has just begun publishing the long-awaited cache of Jeffrey Epstein files. We’ve launched a dedicated blog, see you over there.
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I hope that recap was useful! Back to the present day, Democratic senator Alex Padilla has said on X:
Reminder that if Trump fails to release the Epstein files today, he’d be breaking the law. Again.
The week prior, on 2 September, the committee released 33,000 pages of records, a lot of which was already public, including years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell, as well as what appeared to be bodycam footage from police searches and police interviews.
It also included flight logs from Customs and Border Protection showing travel to and from his private island, and a video of Epstein’s cell block from before his death that included the so-called “missing minute” from earlier videos, contradicting the assertion of attorney general Pam Bondi that it was recorded over.
And on 8 September, the House oversight committee released another tranche of material from Epstein’s estate, including the now-infamous birthday book.
The 238-page scrapbook was given to Epstein as a present on his 50th birthday and featured contributions attributed to high-profile figures including Trump, Bill Clinton and the then UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson (Mandelson was sacked a few days later).
The most explosive section was an apparent birthday note from Trump, contained within a sketch of a naked woman’s torso. The drawing has “Donald” signed below its pelvis, along with an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein.
A cryptic message quotes Trump as saying: “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” wishing that “every day be another wonderful secret” and adding: “Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?”
Trump has denied drawing the figure or writing the note.
Another image showed Epstein standing among palm trees and holding an oversized cheque for $22,500 with a “Trump” signature on it. Partly redacted writing below the image says Epstein showed “early talents with money + women” and had sold a “fully depreciated [redacted] to Donald Trump”.
Going back further, on 12 November the committee released damning emails that suggested Donald Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct, including one in which Epstein said “of course [Trump] knew about the girls” procured for his sex-trafficking ring, and another that said Trump “spent hours” with one victim at Epstein’s house.
In one of the memos, Epstein alleged to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in April 2011 that Trump had had a lengthy engagement in the company of one of the disgraced financier’s sex-trafficked victims.
“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [victim’s name redacted] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned,” the message reads.
In her reply, Maxwell said: “I have been thinking about that.”
A second message, sent by Epstein to Trump biographer Michael Wolff in January 2019, indicates that Trump had asked him to resign from Mar-a-Lago, the president’s exclusive members-only club in Florida.
But, Epstein says, he was “never a member ever” and adds “of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop”.
Later that day, the committee’s Republican majority countered by releasing its own tranche of 23,000 documents, accusing Democrats of “cherrypicking” the memos “to generate clickbait”.
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On 3 December, Democrats on the committee also released 73 photos and four videos of Epstein’s private island home, where he is alleged to have trafficked young girls.
The images and videos showed Epstein’s home, including bedrooms, a telephone, what appeared to be an office or library, and a chalkboard on which the words “fin”, “intellectual”, “deception” and “power” are written. Several photos show a room with a dentist chair and masks hanging on the wall. The New York Times reported that Epstein’s last girlfriend was a dentist who shared an office with one of his shell companies. The videos appear to be a walk-through of the property.
The materials were from law enforcement authorities in the US Virgin Islands. They were taken in 2020, the year after Epstein died by suicide in jail.
As well as the new batch of 68 photos released yesterday from a trove of about 95,000 the committee obtained from Epstein’s estate (see my recap here), Democrats on the House oversight committee have published tens of thousands of documents over the past year.
In a previous drop from 12 December, the committee released a tranche of what they called “disturbing” photographs – some of which had been seen before – featuring prominent figures including Donald Trump, former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former president Bill Clinton, former treasury secretary Larry Summers, film director Woody Allen, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Trump’s former political adviser Steve Bannon, and Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire.
A reminder that there is no suggestion of wrongdoing and the photos do not implicate any of the individuals pictured in Epstein’s crimes.
Other photos showed construction work on the exterior of Epstein’s island home, and included more photographs of the yellow dentist’s office that was featured in a similar release of images and videos by the committee on 3 December, as well as a bathroom, a “Trumpkin” (a pumpkin decorated as Donald Trump), and Epstein in a bathtub.
Trump features in three of the 19 images initially released in that drop. In one, he is photographed with six women, some in Hawaii dress, and whose faces are blacked out. In the second, he is seen alongside Epstein listening to a woman with blond hair who appears to be sharing a joke. In the third, apparently taken onboard an aircraft, he is sitting alongside another woman with longer blond hair, and whose face is also blacked out.
The president’s face in cartoon form, and the words “I’m huuuuge”, appear in another image on square packets with a sign advertising a “Trump condom” for $4.50. The novelty items were on sale before Trump’s first election win in 2016, and earned a place in the Smithsonian Institution’s political satire collection.
A collection of sex toys, including restraints, a catalog and a guide to the Japanese art of shibari (a form of bondage), appear in three more images. Epstein was accused of hosting sex parties for clients at his homes in New York, Florida and at his private Caribbean island retreat, Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined the chorus of US legislators reminding the justice department of its legal obligations after it said this morning it won’t meet its deadline to release all the Epstein files today.
The Republican representative wrote on X:
My goodness, what is in the Epstein files? Release all the files. It’s literally the law.
As I reported earlier, her colleague Thomas Massie, who co-led the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the files, also stressed that he wanted all the documents released today.
He shared a picture of the text of the law in a post on X this morning, highlighting the part that says “all” of the files must be released within 30 days.
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Wisconsin Republicans have threatened to impeach Judge Hannah Dugan unless she resigns following her conviction on charges of obstructing federal officers who were trying to arrest an undocumented immigrant outside her courtroom
Dugan faces up to five years in prison after a jury on Thursday found her guilty of felony charges. Federal prosecutors alleged that she distracted agents trying to arrest the man and led him out through a private door.
Conviction in the high-profile case represents a boost for Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant deportation agenda.
While the Wisconsin constitution bars convicted felons of holding public office, state law also lays down that a convicted office holder’s seat does not become vacant until they have been sentenced. No sentencing date has been set for Dugan.
However, Wisconsin’s Republican state assembly speaker, Robin Vos, and majority leader, Tyler August, called on her to resign immediately or face impeachment.
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“Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind,” they said in a joint statement. “Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end.”
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Trump announces deals with another nine drugmakers to lower prices
A short while ago, Donald Trump announced deals with nine major pharmaceutical companies that will lower the prices of some medicines.
It brings the total number of drugmakers the administration has reached deals with to 14, with Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche’s Genentech unit, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi all participating in today’s announcement.
“This is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug pricing and on healthcare. This will have a tremendous impact on health care itself,” Trump said in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, flanked by the pharmaceutical companies’ chief executives.
“They’re going to pay our country the lowest price paid anywhere in the world, and they will list their most popular drugs on TrumpRX.gov,” he added.
Trump previously announced agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, EMD Serono, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk after he sent letters out in July to all 17 companies, urging them to offer so-called most-favored-nation prices to Medicaid and ensure new medicines launch at prices no higher than those in other wealthy countries. In return, the companies that reached deals secured three-year exemptions from any tariffs Trump might slap on imported pharmaceuticals in the future.
AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron are the last major drugmakers that have yet to announce deals with the administration. Trump said he would be meeting with them in the coming weeks in an effort to get them to sign on to lowering their costs.
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A judge in Texas has ordered the unsealing of documents in the divorce case of the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, in a move with potential implications for a forthcoming Senate race.
Paxton’s wife of 38 years, is suing him for divorce on “biblical grounds” and “recent discoveries”, having previously stood by him in a 2023 impeachment trial, which exposed an extramarital affair, and a succession of other legal troubles.
The judge’s order followed an agreement between lawyers for Paxton and a coalition of news outlets to make the records public.
Their disclosure could provide fodder for opposition attacks on Paxton in the campaign leading up to the Republican primary scheduled for 3 March, in which the attorney general is seeking to unseat the sitting GOP senator, John Cornyn.
Groups supporting Cornyn, who has been criticized for a willingness to work with Democrats, have already spent $21m on television campaign adverts aimed at warding off the threat from Paxton, who is seen as a loyal acolyte of Donald Trump.
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Secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke about Russia-Ukraine peace efforts and defended the Trump administration’s increasing military pressure on Venezuela during an end-of-year news conference today.
“There’s no peace deal unless Ukraine agrees to it. But there’s also no peace deal unless Russia agrees to it,” Rubio said. ″So our job is not to force anything on anyone. It is to try to figure out if we can nudge both sides to a common place.”
The US proposal has been through numerous versions with Trump going back and forth between offering support and encouragement for Ukraine and then seemingly sympathizing with Putin’s hardline stances by pushing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to territorial concessions. Kyiv has rejected that concession in return for security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from future Russian incursions.
Rubio has also been a leading proponent of military operations against suspected drug-running vessels from Venezuela that have been targeted by the Pentagon in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September.
In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Trump would not rule out a war with Venezuela. Rubio sidestepped a direct question about whether the US wants “regime change in 2026” in the South American country.
“We have a regime that’s illegitimate, that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narco-trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations,” Rubio said, “including not just protecting their shipments and allowing them to operate with impunity, but also allows some of them to control territory.”
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Senator Adam Schiff of California has joined a wave of lawmakers today who are demanding that the Trump administration honor the law by releasing the full Epstein files after deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the justice department won’t meet its Friday deadline for full disclosure.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act is clear: while protecting survivors, ALL of these records are required to be released today. Not just some,” Schiff wrote on X. “The Trump administration can’t move the goalposts. They’re cemented in law.”
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Two rightwing influencers have clashed at the annual youth conference of Turning Point USA, the conservative pressure group founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
The fissures within the movement were laid bare on the stage in Phoenix when Ben Shapiro, a prominent podcaster, attacked the former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, and other figures on the right as grifters and charlatans who mislead their followers with conspiracy theories and false narratives, AP reported.
Shapiro also accused Carlson of “an act of moral imbecility” over his recent podcast interview with the far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes, who has peddled antisemitic views and voiced admiration for Hitler.
Carlson responded with mockery less than an hour later, saying he “laughed” at what he called Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform” him.
“To hear calls for deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event, I’m like, what?” Carlson said. “This is hilarious.”
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Exclusive: Unaccompanied children being pressed to return to their countries by US border officials
José Olivares in New York
Border officials are pressuring unaccompanied children who arrive in the US as undocumented immigrants to quickly agree to return to their countries of origin, even if they express fear for their safety there – or else face “prolonged” detention and other consequences, a federal government document reveals.
The document, which emerged as an attachment in a court filing made by immigration attorneys, is understood to be presented or read to children within the first few days of them entering the US while they are still in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), before they can see any relatives in the US.
The document is termed an “advisal” and was attached as exhibit A at the bottom of a court filing by advocates. It says:
If you choose to seek a hearing with an immigration judge or indicate a fear of returning to your country you can expect the following: you will be detained in the custody of the United States Government for a prolonged period of time.
It goes on to say that the child’s sponsor – usually a family member residing in the US who will care for the child – “may be arrested, prosecuted and deported” if they do not have legal status, or prosecuted “for aiding your illegal entry”, and adds that if the child turns 18 in government custody they “will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] for removal (deportation) …”
A US senator is now demanding “this cruel policy” be abolished, saying it “cynically exploits” unaccompanied children’s unique vulnerabilities as a way of pushing the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Democrat Ron Wyden from Oregon, who’s also the ranking member of the Senate’s finance committee, has written to CBP accusing the agency of trying to frighten children into abandoning their rights by showing them a document with choices that he describes as “shockingly coercive”.
He added in the letter, shared exclusively with the Guardian, that the policy was “clearly intended to frighten unaccompanied children into abandoning the legal relief and protections they are seeking”.
Read José’s full report here:
While we wait for the Department of Justice to release (some, but not all) files relating to Jeffrey Epstein this evening, in today’s episode of Today in Focus, Guardian columnist and host of our Politics Weekly America podcast Jonathan Freedland joins Lucy Hough to discuss why it’s such a big moment that could shed further light on Epstein’s misdeeds and his connections with key public figures – including Donald Trump.
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Further to my earlier post about the work already under way to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center building this morning – despite concerns over the legality of the move to rename the institution – the latest images on the wires show that the president’s full name has now made it on there.
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House Democrats vow to fight Trump officials’ plan to hold back some Epstein files, slamming ‘violation of federal law’
Further to that, the ranking members on the House oversight and judiciary committees respectively, Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, have issued this statement slamming the Trump administration’s “decision to defy the Epstein Files Transparency Act” by not releasing all the Epstein files today.
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” they said.
Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring. For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law. We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.
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Republican representative Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act with Democrat Ro Khanna, shared a picture of the text of the law in a post on X this morning, highlighting the part that says “all” of the files must be released within 30 days. In another post Massie wrote: “Time’s up. Release the files.”
Yesterday Massie shared a 14-minute video explaining what people can expect if the justice department does or does not disclose all of its information on Epstein on its Friday deadline. He said he had spoken with the victims’ lawyers “and collectively they know there are at least 20 names of men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI”.
“If we get a large production on December 19 and it does not contain a single name of any male who is accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven’t produced all the documents,” Massie said. “It’s that simple.”
Per our earlier post, Khanna also posted a video on social media last night threatening legal action in the event of “tampering or excessive redaction” of the documents.
“Any person who attempts to conceal or scrub the files will be subject to prosecution under the law,” wrote on X. In the video, he said:
Let me be very clear, we need a full release. Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice.
We will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee. We need full transparency and justice for the survivors tomorrow. Finally, rich and powerful men who raped underage girls or who covered up for this abuse will help be held accountable. The Epstein class needs to go.
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Schumer slams DoJ's plan to not release all Epstein files today as violation of law
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has laid into the justice department over its plan to release some of the Epstein files today but not all.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told Fox News this morning that he expected the department to release several hundred thousand documents today and several hundred thousand more “over the next couple of weeks”.
“The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be — the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some,” Schumer said in a statement. “Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth.”
He said Senate Democrats are working with the attorneys representing Epstein survivors as well as outside legal experts “to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by [attorney general] Pam Bondi”. “We will not stop until the whole truth comes out,” he said.
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A reminder that Democrats on the House oversight committee ramped up the pressure on the Trump administration yesterday when they released a new batch of 68 pictures from Epstein’s estate.
One showed Epstein sitting with the philosopher Noam Chomsky on a plane while another showed Bill Gates, the philanthropist and Microsoft founder, posing beside a woman whose face was redacted.
The Democrats said the images came from a larger trove of more than 95,000 photographs turned over last week by the Epstein estate. The photos were provided to Congress without context, timing, or locations.
The images also included heavily redacted photos of women’s passports from Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, Italy, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. There were also multiple photographs of a woman’s body on which quotes from Lolita, the Vladimir Nabokov novel about a man’s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl, were written. A screenshot of a text message appeared to involve a discussion about recruiting an 18-year-old woman to meet Epstein.
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Speculation surrounding the affairs of Jeffrey Epstein is expected to reach a defining moment of revelation today with the much-anticipated publication of files relating to the disgraced late financier and convicted sex trafficker.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the justice department plans to release documents today from the government’s files, but added they won’t all come out at once and more would be released “over the next couple of weeks”.
After months of delay and stalling, the Trump administration is legally obliged to publish a massive archive of documents that could shine fresh light on Epstein’s misdeeds and his connections with key public figures, including Donald Trump himself.
Under the terms of the Epstein Files Transparency Act – passed by Congress in November following months of resistance from the White House – Pam Bondi, the attorney general, must release by midnight on Friday “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” linked to Epstein, his jailed associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and individuals named in connection with his criminal activities.
The files are required to be released in “searchable and downloadable” formats.
The publication will come after months of clamoring for the release of the files from Trump’s Maga base, which has shown signs of fracturing over the issue.
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Kennedy Center starts work to add Trump's name onto building despite questions over legality
The Kennedy Center has begun adding Donald Trump’s name to the building this morning, a day after the president’s handpicked board voted to rename it “the Trump-Kennedy Center” and despite questions around the legality of a name change.
At the time of writing, “THE DONALD” is visible as workers on a forklift work on the building.
Democratic members of Congress who are ex-officio board members and members of the Kennedy family, as well as some historians, have expressed outrage over the vote and insist that only Congress can change the name.
Joe Kennedy III, grandnephew of the former president who also served a congressman for Massachusetts, yesterday also expressed doubt the center’s name could legally be changed, writing on X:
The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.
Earlier this year, House Republicans proposed changing the name of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. It has also ordered a review of the Smithsonian Institution and is seeking to build a huge ballroom adjacent to the White House in the place of the East Wing, which was demolished over the summer.
Yesterday, US congresswoman Joyce Beatty posted on X that the decision to rename the institution as the Trump-Kennedy Center was not unanimous.
“For the record. This was not unanimous,” said Beatty, who serves as an ex-officio member of the center. “I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move.”
She said the center’s renaming was “just another attempt to evade the law and not have the people have a say”.
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Trump to announce new deals to lower drug prices
On that announcement we said was coming at 1pm from Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that it will be about new agreements to lower drug prices. She wrote on X:
TODAY AT 1PM AT THE WHITE HOUSE: President Trump will be announcing more incredible deals that will lower prices of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
CNN reports that representatives from at least five companies will be present at the White House event, though “the attendee list remains in flux and could still change depending on which agreements the administration can finalize in time for the announcement”.
As part of his “most favored nation” push for more affordable drug pricing, Trump sent letters to the leaders of 17 major pharmaceutical companies in July demanding lower prices, and has since announced deals with five of them – Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and EMD Serono.
Among the 12 remaining companies that have yet to strike agreements with the administration, several outlets are reporting that the likes of Merck, Gilead, Roche, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Sanofi could be involved today.
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Erika Kirk endorses JD Vance for president in 2028
Last night, Erika Kirk, Turning Point CEO and widow of the late Charlie Kirk, endorsed vice-president JD Vance for president in the 2028 election.
She told the thousands-strong crowd at the opening night of Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona:
We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 [the number of the next president] in the most resounding way possible.
Vance hasn’t yet announced any plans to run in 2028, but Kirk’s endorsement is significant given Turning Point USA’s influence among young conservatives and in the Maga movement more widely.
The vice-president is widely considered to be Trump’s de facto heir apparent, with Trump himself acknowledging earlier his year that Vance will “most likely” be the one he passes the Maga torch to. Trump also suggested he should run on a joint ticket with secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Vance and Charlie Kirk were close friends until the Kirk’s death in September. Vance paid tribute to his “true friend” after he was fatally shot in Utah, calling him “a great family man”. Kirk’s casket was also brought back to Arizona from Utah on Air Force Two, the vice-president’s plane.
Vance also hosted an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show later that month from the White House. During that two-hour livestream, he spoke about Kirk’s political legacy, telling viewers:
If it weren’t for Charlie Kirk, I would not be vice-president of the United States.
And speaking at Kirk’s memorial service, Vance said the rightwing activist had changed the course of American history in helping Trump get elected last year. Noting the number of Trump administration officials at the service, he said of Kirk:
We know we wouldn’t be here without him.
Vance is due to speak at the AmericaFest conference on Sunday.
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Trump says he's not ruling out war with Venezuela and Maduro 'knows exactly what I want'
In an overnight interview with NBC News released today, Donald Trump said he is not ruling out the possibility of war with Venezuela.
“I don’t rule it out, no,” he said in a phone interview, days after he ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving from Venezuela, and his administration’s strikes on 28 alleged drug boats in the Caribbean have killed at least 104 people.
The US also last week seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, an act the Venezuelan government decried as “an act of international piracy”. Asked whether more seizures of oil tankers should be expected, Trump told the reporter: “Yes.” Asked about timing, he said:
It depends. If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors.
Trump, who campaigned on a platform to keep the United States out of foreign conflicts, also refused to tell NBC News whether removing Nicolás Maduro was his ultimate goal – which experts widely agree it is. But he said the Venezuelan president “knows exactly what I want”. “He knows better than anybody,” Trump added.
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On the president’s schedule today is an announcement at 1pm ET from the Roosevelt Room in the White House. If we get any idea what this could be about as the day progresses we’ll update you here.
Trump will then participate in a closed-to-press Christmas reception in the Grand Foyer at 5.45pm. He’ll then depart at 7.05pm for Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where he’s due to deliver remarks about the economy at 9pm.
Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and Maga influencer who has had the president’s ear on a number of occasions this year, has told Politico that she expects today’s release of the Epstein files to be “another big ‘get-Trump’ nothingburger”.
The Epstein issue has been the headache that won’t go away for the Trump administration, cutting through and prompting a full-blown revolt among his ultra-loyal Maga base - and eventually a U-turn from the president on their release.
A reminder that earlier this week, we learned that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that attorney general Pam Bondi had “completely whiffed” her early handling of the Epstein files and failed to appreciate how much Trump’s supporters cared about the issue.
First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.
Today, Loomer told Politico:
There’s no denying that binder-gate was a total fiasco and it was a big blunder that was really the first negative PR blunder for this administration thus far.
She added that she didn’t think today’s release would put the issue to bed.
Because there are people out there who are determined to use this as a way to get Trump. Remember, I said, this is the new Russia collusion hoax. They are going to use this messaging in the 2026 midterms and possibly into the 2028 presidential election.
As we await the release of the Epstein files, Ro Khanna, one of the Democratic lawmakers who sponsored the bill to force the release of the documents, said today was about “the survivors, justice, and truth. The Epstein Class has to go.”
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Ro Khanna, one of the Democratic members of Congress who sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act that mandates the release of the files, has posted a video on social media threatening legal action in the event of “tampering or excessive redaction” of the documents.
“Let me be very clear, we need a full release,” Khanna said. “Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice.
“We will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee. We need full transparency and justice for the survivors tomorrow. Finally, rich and powerful men who raped underage girls or who covered up for this abuse will help be held accountable. The Epstein class needs to go.”
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Deputy AG says justice department will release 'several hundred thousand' Epstein files today with more to come
The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said the justice department will release “several hundred thousand documents” from the Epstein files today but hinted that some may be held back – at least temporarily – citing the need to protect victims.
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” he added.
“We’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms, photographs, and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” he told Fox & Friends.
Now, the most important thing that the attorney general [Pam Bondi] has talked about, that [FBI] director [Kash] Patel has talked about is that we protect victims. And so what we’re doing is, we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim – their name, their identity, their story, to the extent these are protected – is completely protected.
I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand. And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.
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Donald Trump will visit North Carolina on a campaigning trip on what is shaping up to be one of the most momentous days of his second presidency.
With the long-awaited Epstein files due to be released sometime before midnight under federal law, Trump will go to the city of Rocky Mount, amid reports that locals have been dissatisfied with the results of the administration’s economic policies.
The trip echoes the president’s recent visit to Pennsylvania, a battleground state in which he was supposed to persuade voters that he was addressing “affordability” concerns - but ended up dismissing the issue as a “Democrat hoax”.
With North Carolina home to a tight Senate race in the 2026 midterm elections, Trump needs to tackle waning Republican support reflected in a recent poll that showed 60% of local voters disapproving his performance on inflation and 52% disagreeing with his tariff policies.
Trump has carried North Carolina in each of the last three presidential elections.
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Pentagon fails annual audit for eighth year in a row
For the eighth year in a row, the Pentagon has failed as annual audit, the Department of Defense said on Friday, continuing a pattern of financial accountability problems that have drawn bipartisan criticism and emerged as a campaign issue.
“The Department cannot resolve decades of war, neglect of America’s defense industrial base, and soaring national debt through unchecked spending.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement released with the audit.
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The White House has consistently denied that Donald Trump has ever engaged in conflicts of interest while president. But experts have been tallying up examples of decisions made over the last 12 months which, they say, amount to corruption coming from the highest office.
Jonathan Freedland is joined by the anthropologist Prof Janine Wedel, as they wade through the most egregious allegations of corruption from Trump’s first year in office, in the Politics Weekly America podcast:
FBI director Kash Patel has said “no one is above the law” after a Wisconsin judge was found guilty on Thursday of helping a migrant evade a planned immigration arrest outside her courtroom.
Patel is the latest member of President Donald Trump’s administration to celebrate what it sees as a victory in its effort to deter interference with its hardline immigration tactics.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a separate social media post: “This Department will not tolerate obstruction, will enforce federal immigration law, and will hold criminals to account - even those who wear robes.”
Media reports said the federal jury delivered a mixed verdict on Hannah Dugan, 66, an elected judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, acquitting her of one of the two charges she faced. She was convicted of obstructing a federal proceeding and cleared of a lesser charge accusing her of concealing a person from arrest, the reports said.
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The US military said it killed on Thursday five more alleged drug traffickers aboard two vessels in the Pacific Ocean, bringing the divisive campaign’s death toll to over 100.
The Trump administration has carried out such strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September but has provided no evidence that the boats are involved in drug trafficking, prompting debate about the operations’ legality.
The latest strikes hit two vessels in international waters that were “engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the US Southern Command said on X.
Three people were killed in the first vessel and two in the second vessel, it said.
The strikes have now killed 104 people, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official data.
Read the full story here:
One Friday in November, armed police blocked off the road that runs beside Gibraltar’s medieval city walls to clear the way for a convoy of blacked-out BMWs. The vehicles pulled up at the offices of Hassans, a law firm.
The British enclave in the Mediterranean is a hub for the international ultra-rich, and Hassans counts many of them as clients. But few as highly placed as that day’s visitor: Donald Trump Jr, the man running the family business while his father is in the White House.
Three hours later, the president’s son would head along the coast to the Spanish resort of Marbella to hang out at a five-star hotel with his partner, the Florida socialite Bettina Anderson. First, though, there was business to attend to.
But why did Donald Trump Jr turn up in a tiny British enclave looking for money? Read more:
Trump claims he doesn't need Congress approval for Venezuela land strikes
US President Donald Trump claimed he did not need lawmakers’ approval to strike suspected drug cartels on land in Venezuela, citing concerns over information leaks.
“I wouldn’t mind telling them, but you know, it’s not a big deal. I don’t have to tell them,” he said in the Oval Office.
Democratic lawmakers have maintained that the Trump administration needs congressional authorization to use the military for the purported anti-drug campaign.
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Speculation surrounding the affairs of Jeffrey Epstein is expected to reach a defining moment of revelation on Friday with the much-anticipated publication of files relating to the disgraced late financier and sex trafficker.
After months of delay and stalling, the Trump administration is legally obliged to publish a massive archive of documents that could shine fresh light on Epstein’s misdeeds and his connections with key public figures, including Donald Trump himself.
A huge archive – set to shed fresh light on Epstein’s misdeeds – is legally obliged to be released before a midnight deadline. Read more:
Noem suspends US diversity visa lottery
US homeland security chief Kristi Noem announced the suspension of the diversity visa lottery on Thursday, saying it was used by the “heinous individual” in a mass shooting at Brown University.
Noem wrote: “The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.
“In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 19, 2025
In 2017, President Trump…
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In his NBC interview, Donald Trump declined to say whether removing Maduro was his ultimate goal, telling NBC News: “He knows exactly what I want.”
“He knows better than anybody,” the US President added, referring to Maduro. The report did not elaborate.
Maduro has alleged that the US action is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s oil resources, which are the world’s largest crude reserves.
Trump elaborated on his claim there would be additional seizures of oil tankers near Venezuelan waters, adding: “If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbours.”
The Trump administration announced on Thursday it will suspend a green card lottery that allowed a man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor into the United States.
Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, is accused of bursting into a building at the Ivy League school on Saturday and opening fire on students, killing two and wounding nine.
He is also accused of killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) two days later.
Homeland security chief Kristi Noem wrote on social media on Thursday that Neves Valente “entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.”
The US green card lottery grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department.
Trump vows additional seizures of oil tankers near Venezuela
US President Donald Trump has said there will be additional seizures of oil tankers near Venezuela, in an interview with NBC News.
Trump’s administration has repeatedly accused Venezuela of facilitating the drug trade. The US military has killed at least 90 people since September in strikes on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean that Washington claims were carrying illegal narcotics to the US.
But, the Trump White House has provided no public evidence that these vessels were carrying fentanyl, which is mainly produced in Mexico, or cocaine, which is typically produced in neighbouring Colombia and shipped to the US via various routes.
Opening summary: Trump says more oil tankers will be seized near Venezuela
Good morning, US President Donald Trump has said he was leaving the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table, according to an interview with NBC News published on Friday. “I dont rule it out, no,” he told NBC News in a phone interview.
Trump has used social media to publicly accuse Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his government of using “stolen” oil to “finance themselves” as well as “Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping”. Maduro has strongly denied all these accusations. Here are some of the other developments in the US overnight:
Trump also told NBC he does not believe it is necessary to repeal the affordable care act, also known as Obamacare. In November, Trump had suggested scrapping Obamacare and redirecting federal money used to subsidize health insurance costs under Act toward direct payments to individuals.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, on Thursday signed binding agreements to hand control of the short video app’s US operations to a group of investors, including Oracle, in a big step toward avoiding a US ban and ending years of uncertainty.
A Wisconsin judge was found guilty on Thursday of helping a migrant evade a planned immigration arrest outside her courtroom, a US Justice Department official said. The ruling is a victory for Trump’s administration in its effort to deter interference with its hardline immigration tactics.
Trump also enshrined the US goal to put humans back on the moon by 2028 and defend space from weapon threats in a sweeping executive order issued on Thursday, the first major space policy move of his administration’s second term.
