Political Glance
The documents were released overnight on Tuesday and include a claim that Donald Trump was on a flight with Epstein and a 20-year-old woman in the 1990s. There is no indication that the woman was a victim of any crime and being included in the files does not indicate any criminal wrongdoing.
The files also include a series of emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and someone who signs himself as “A” and uses the alias “The Invisible Man”. In August 2001, “A” wrote to Maxwell: “I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family”.
Emails show Maxwell discussing arranging “girls” and “two-legged sight seeing” for a man identified in the correspondence as “The Invisible Man”, who is widely believed to be Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. In a February 2002 email exchange about a proposed trip to Peru, Maxwell forwards messages from Juan Estoban Ganoza outlining possible activities, including visiting the Nazca Lines.
The former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley and the ex-US Treasury secretary Larry Summers were appointed as executors of Epstein’s estate, according to a newly released tranche of documents linked to the now-deceased child sex offender.
Included in the batch of files was a now-deleted fake video that appeared to depict Epstein attempting to end his life. Also in the trove are photos of the fake Austrian passport uncovered from a safe during a 2019 FBI raid of Epstein’s home in Manhattan. There is also a 2021 subpoena to the Mar-a-Lago Club relating to the federal investigation into Maxwell. Also revealed was that the FBI sought to question Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor about his links to a second millionaire sex offender, Peter Nygard.
Demands for more details from US justice department after newly released Epstein files mention Donald Trump
Democratic states sue to block Trump’s defunding of US consumer watchdog
A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to prevent Donald Trump’s administration from defunding the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by refusing to request money from the Federal Reserve.
Democratic attorneys general from 21 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit in federal court in Oregon, arguing that the administration’s decision not to seek additional funding for the US consumer watchdog is unlawful and undermines Congress’s authority under the US constitution.
“The administration’s actions are a handout to those who drive up costs by cheating hardworking Americans, and I will keep fighting to ensure they follow the law and our constitution,” New York attorney general Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump, a Republican, has sought to dismantle the CFPB since returning to office in January and has installed Russell Vought, his budget director, as the acting head of the agency. While efforts to fire most of its employees are tied up in litigation, Vought has effectively halted most CFPB activities.
The agency, which is tasked with protecting consumers in the financial sector, began operations in 2011 under Barack Obama after the 2008 financial crisis. It has since returned more than $21bn improperly taken from consumers, its supporters say.
White House threatens to withhold Smithsonian funds amid review
The White House threatened to withhold federal funding from the Smithsonian Institution if the prestigious museum system does not submit additional documentation for the Trump administration’s sweeping content review.
In a Thursday letter to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch, Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley and White House budget director Russell Vought outlined the material they said still must be submitted, noting the Smithsonian’s earlier submission “fell far short of what was requested, and the overwhelming majority of requested items remain outstanding.”
The Trump administration, in August, launched a review of eight Smithsonian museums aimed at ensuring “alignment” with President Trump’s executive order “to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
In the Thursday letter, White House officials said funding for the Smithsonian museums is conditioned on adherence to Trump’s executive order and on compliance with the review process.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse condemn justice department for only partly releasing files
Representatives for victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein condemned the US Department of Justice on Friday for only partially releasing investigative documents while at least one survivor said she felt “redeemed” by the documents.
The documents were released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the disclosures by 19 December. The law allows for records to be withheld if they threaten current investigations, disrupt national security or identify Epstein’s victims.
The initial disclosure, however, did not appear to be in keeping with this law. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said the justice department would not release all its files on Friday, despite the deadline and the files published on Friday afternoon did not appear to be comprehensive. “I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” Blanche said in an Fox News interview.
Top lawmakers responded by threatening legal action “in the face of this violation of federal law”.
Spencer Kuvin, an attorney representing Epstein survivors, said in a statement after the release that it was “no great surprise” the justice department was failing to meet the deadline.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino says he plans to resign next month as bureau’s No 2 official
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will resign from the bureau next month, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with provocative claims he made in his prior role as a popular podcast host.
The departure would be among the highest-profile resignations of the Trump administration, coming as the firing of career agents has contributed to upheaval at the FBI and as Director Kash Patel faces continued criticism over his use of a government plane for personal purposes and social media posts about active investigations.
Bongino announced his departure, which had been expected, in a post on X in which he said he was grateful for the “opportunity to serve with purpose.” He did not say precisely when in January he would leave or reveal his future plans, but President Donald Trump, in response to a question earlier in the day about Bongino’s fate, said: “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”
Bongino was always an unconventional pick for the No. 2 job at the FBI, a position that historically has entailed oversight of the bureau’s day-to-day operations and has been typically held by a career agent. Though he had previously worked as a New York City police officer and Secret Service agent, neither he nor Patel had any experience at the FBI before being picked for their jobs. But both came in pledging overhauls to an FBI they insisted had been weaponized against Trum
Beyond Reasonable Doubt’ That Trump Conspired to Overturn 2020 Election
Jack Smith, the former DOJ special counsel, claimed in closed-door congressional testimony on Wednesday that investigators had proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump “criminally” conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election.Smith made the remarks in his opening statement to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said in his opening statement, which was obtained in advance by the Associated Press. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.
Trump designates street fentanyl as WMD, escalating militarization of drug war
President Trump on Monday signed an executive order designating the street drug fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.
"The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders," the order declared.
During an event in the Oval Office, Trump said the carnage fentanyl has caused in American families is worse than U.S. deaths in many wars.
"Two to three hundred thousand people die every year, that we know of, so we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction," Trump said.
In fact, Trump's numbers are wildly inflated. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl killed roughly 48 thousand people in the U-S last year - a 27 percent drop from the year before.
Experts also say fentanyl would be difficult to use as a weapon of mass destruction. There is only one documented incident worldwide, in 2002, where the Russian government weaponized fentanyl in gas form. There have been no cases reported in the U.S.
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