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Tag: DoJ

  • West Valley Jail Death Raises Concerns Over In-Custody Care

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    Public records show repeated deaths as advocates call for greater transparency and medical oversight

    Authorities identified the woman as Katie Sarah Jackson of Fontana. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said deputies booked her into the Rancho Cucamonga facility earlier in the week.

    Deputies later found Jackson unresponsive in her housing unit after a reported medical emergency. Life-saving efforts by staff and first responders were unsuccessful. Officials have not said whether Jackson requested medical care before she was found unresponsive, how long she remained that way, or what treatment she received while in custody.

    The San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office has opened an investigation and will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death. Toxicology results are pending.

    Jackson’s death now joins a growing list of in-custody deaths in San Bernardino County, a record that has drawn criticism from civil rights advocates and prompted repeated calls for greater transparency and stronger medical oversight inside local jails.

    A Pattern of Custody Deaths

    Public in-custody death reports in San Bernardino County show repeated patterns across multiple years. In many cases, detainees experience medical distress within days of booking, when withdrawal symptoms and untreated conditions are often most severe.

    Meanwhile, medical experts say many people enter jail with unmanaged chronic illness and limited access to regular health care. County jails often struggle to treat mental illness, substance withdrawal, and heart or respiratory disease. These challenges are especially pronounced during intake and overnight hours, when staffing is limited.

    Compounding those risks, jail officials acknowledge that intake screenings can miss serious health conditions. Detainees may appear intoxicated, exhausted, or reluctant to report symptoms, making early detection difficult. Brief evaluations and limited staffing can further delay diagnosis and treatment.

    Similar issues have drawn scrutiny in neighboring Los Angeles County, which operates the nation’s largest jail system. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice found that Los Angeles County jails failed to provide adequate mental health and medical care, citing delayed treatment and preventable deaths.

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    More recently, in 2023, Rob Bonta and the California Department of Justice sued the county. The lawsuit alleged unconstitutional conditions and systemic failures in inmate health services. Court filings described detainees waiting hours for care and missed welfare checks.

    Advocates say San Bernardino County records reflect many of the same warning signs. They argue that shared problems involving staffing, funding, and oversight extend across regional jail systems.

    Against that backdrop, families throughout Southern California have filed wrongful-death lawsuits alleging delayed treatment and ignored medical complaints. Attorneys say obtaining medical records and surveillance footage often requires lengthy legal action.

    In San Bernardino County, civil rights firms list custodial death cases among their main practice areas. Lawyers say many families lack the resources to challenge official findings. As a result, they often wait years for clear answers about how their loved ones died in custody.

    Calls for Transparency

    Lawmakers and advocates continue pushing for stronger oversight of county jails. They support independent audits, civilian review boards, and faster public reporting of in-custody deaths.

    Assembly Bill 2761 took effect in 2023 and requires sheriff’s departments to post in-custody death reports within 10 days. Agencies must update those reports as investigations continue. Supporters said the law would strengthen transparency and improve public accountability.

    Some cases lack updates long after initial postings appear online.

    Similar delays appear in Los Angeles County records, where some in-custody death reports remain unresolved well into the following year. In several cases reviewed by state investigators and journalists, postings continued to list “pending” status while autopsy and toxicology results are still incomplete.

    Officials have released limited information about Jackson’s death while the coroner’s investigation continues. Authorities have not disclosed her medical history, staff response times, or the care she received before she collapsed.

    For Jackson’s family and others, that lack of detail raises doubts about whether jail safeguards, medical care, and oversight are enough to prevent future deaths.

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    Sofia Youngs

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  • Paxful Fined $4M After Admitting It Profited From Criminal Activity on Its Crypto Platform

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    Despite pleading guilty to serious AML violations, Paxful received a reduced $4 million penalty instead of the $112.5 million figure agreed by the parties.

    Peer-to-peer virtual asset trading platform Paxful has been sentenced to pay a $4 million criminal penalty after pleading guilty to multiple federal offenses, according to an official press release from the US Department of Justice.

    The sentence follows Paxful’s admission that it conspired to promote illegal prostitution, violated the Bank Secrecy Act, and knowingly transmitted funds derived from criminal activity.

    Illicit Crypto Flows

    The penalty was determined based on the company’s ability to pay. Federal authorities said Paxful profited from facilitating transactions for criminals while promoting its lack of anti-money laundering (AML) controls and failing to comply with applicable money laundering laws, despite knowing that users on its platform were engaged in crimes including fraud, extortion, prostitution, commercial sex trafficking, romance scams, and human trafficking.

    Court documents revealed that Paxful operated an online virtual currency platform and money transmitting business where users traded cryptocurrency for cash, prepaid cards, gift cards, and other items. From January 1, 2017, to September 2, 2019, Paxful facilitated more than 26.7 million trades worth nearly $3 billion in total value and generated more than $29.7 million in revenue.

    Authorities said Paxful knew that a portion of these transactions involved funds derived from criminal offenses, including fraud schemes and illegal prostitution. The company also deliberately transferred virtual currency on behalf of Backpage, an online advertising platform that later admitted in criminal proceedings that it advertised and profited from illegal prostitution, including content involving minors.

    According to the Justice Department, Paxful’s founders referred internally to the “Backpage Effect,” which they credited with helping the platform grow. Between December 2015 and December 2022, Paxful’s dealings with Backpage and a similar website resulted in nearly $17 million worth of Bitcoin being transferred from Paxful wallets to those sites. From this, Paxful earned at least $2.7 million in profits.

    The plea agreement states that from July 2015 to June 2019, Paxful marketed itself as a platform that did not require know-your-customer (KYC) information. It not only allowed users to trade without collecting sufficient KYC data but also provided third parties with AML policies that were not implemented or enforced, and failed to file suspicious activity reports despite clear indicators of criminal conduct.

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    DOJ Cuts Penalty

    Paxful pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Travel Act by promoting illegal prostitution through interstate commerce, conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act’s AML requirements.

    Although the parties agreed that the appropriate criminal penalty was $112.5 million, the department concluded Paxful could only pay $4 million as part of the resolution.

    Paxful’s guilty plea was part of a coordinated resolution with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and in July 2024, the company’s co-founder and former CTO, Artur Schaback, also pleaded guilty to related AML violations.

    SPECIAL OFFER (Exclusive)

    SECRET PARTNERSHIP BONUS for CryptoPotato readers: Use this link to register and unlock $1,500 in exclusive BingX Exchange rewards (limited time offer).

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    Chayanika Deka

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  • Justice Department sues Harvard for data as it investigates how race factors into admissions

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is suing Harvard University, saying it has refused to provide admissions records that the Justice Department demanded to ensure the Ivy League school stopped using affirmative action in admissions.

    In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Massachusetts, the Justice Department said Harvard has “thwarted” efforts to investigate potential discrimination. It accused Harvard of refusing to comply with a federal investigation and asked a judge to order the university to turn over the records.

    Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division, said Harvard’s refusal is a red flag. “If Harvard has stopped discriminating, it should happily share the data necessary to prove it,” Dhillon said in a statement.

    A statement from Harvard said the university has been responding to the government’s requests. It said Harvard is in compliance with the Supreme Court decision barring affirmative action in admissions.

    “The University will continue to defend itself against these retaliatory actions which have been initiated simply because Harvard refused to surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights in response to unlawful government overreach,” the university said.

    The suit is the latest salvo in President Donald Trump’s standoff with Harvard, which has faced billions of dollars in funding cuts and other sanctions after it rejected a list of demands from the administration last year.

    Trump officials have said they’re taking action against Harvard over allegations of anti-Jewish bias on campus. Harvard officials say they’re facing unconstitutional retaliation for refusing to adopt the administration’s ideological views. The administration is appealing a judge’s orders that sided with Harvard in two lawsuits.

    The Justice Department opened a compliance review into Harvard’s admissions practices last April on the same day the White House issued a series of sweeping demands aligned with Trump’s priorities. The agency told Harvard to hand over five years of admissions data for undergraduate applicants along with Harvard’s medical and law schools.

    It asked for a trove of data including applicants’ grades, test scores, essays, extracurricular activities and admissions outcomes, along with their race and ethnicity. It asked for the data by April 25, 2025. The lawsuit said Harvard has not provided that data.

    Justice Department officials said they need the data to determine whether Harvard has continued considering applicants’ race in admissions decisions. The Supreme Court barred affirmative action in admissions in 2023 after lawsuits challenged it at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

    Trump officials have accused colleges of continuing the practice, which the administration says discriminates against white and Asian American students.

    The White House is separately pressing universities across the U.S. to providing similar data to determine whether they have continued to factor race into admissions decisions. The Education Department plans to collect more detailed admissions data from colleges after Trump signed an action suggesting schools were ignoring the Supreme Court decision.

    Trump’s dispute with Harvard had appeared to be winding down last summer after the president repeatedly said they were finalizing a deal to restore Harvard’s federal funding. The deal never materialized, and Trump rekindled the conflict this month when he said Harvard must pay $1 billion as part of any deal, double what he previously demanded.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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    AP

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  • Yasiel Puig Found Guilty in Illegal Sports Betting Case

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    Former Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig is facing up to 15 years in prison fo his role in illegal sports betting

    The Department of Justice announced today that former Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice and one count of making false statements for his involvement in an illegal sports betting operation.

    In May 2019, Puig started placing bets on various sports through someone named Donny Kadokawa, who would make bets on Puig’s behalf on an illegal website that Wayne Joseph Nix, a former minor league pitcher, was running. By June, Puig owed Nix $282,900.

    “Kadokawa and Benny Bonilla, another person who assisted Puig with payments to Nix, instructed Puig to make a check or wire transfer payable to a Nix gambling business client – Joseph Schottenstein – to whom the business owed at least $200,000 in gambling winnings,” the DOJ wrote.

    Nix didn’t allow Puig to use his website until he paid off his debt, which Puig eventually did. After Nix let Puig use the website again, Puig placed 899 bets between July 4 and Sept. 29, 2019. This led to Puig owing Nix nearly $1 million in debt, but Puig would never pay it back.

    In January 2022, federal agents interviewed Puig about the gambling, and this is where Puig’s actions would land him in illegal trouble. He was warned by authorities that lying would be a crime, yet he chose to lie anyway.

    “During the interview, he falsely stated that he ‘only’ knew Kadokawa from baseball and that he never discussed gambling with him, when in fact Puig discussed sports betting with Kadokawa hundreds of times on the telephone and via text message,” the DOJ wrote.

    Puig also claimed he didn’t know the person instructing him to send Schottenstein $200,000, and he placed a bet online with an unknown person on an unknown website, causing him to lose $200,000. Despite all of Puig’s denials, Puig sent Bonilla an audio message via WhatsApp where he admitted he lied to federal agents two months earlier.

    Additionally, during his naturalization process, Puig lied on an immigration form and while under oath during an interview when he said he never placed illegal bets or received income from illegal bets.

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    Dolly M. Gee, United States District Judge, scheduled a May 26 sentencing hearing, where Puig will face up to 10 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charge and up to five years for the false statements.

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    Tony Gleason

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  • Dozens of South Florida prosecutors reviewing Epstein files, filing reveals

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    A protester holds a sign related to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 12, 2025.

    A protester holds a sign related to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 12, 2025.


    SAUL LOEB

    AFP via Getty Images

    The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing more than 2 million additional documents related to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, and dozens of South Florida lawyers have been called in to help, Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed in a letter to a New York judge Monday.

    The Justice Department has posted about 12,000 documents in response to a December deadline to release its files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. There are more than 2 million additional documents “that are in various phases of review,” Bondi wrote.

    The new transparency law required the Justice Department release files from all investigations into the convicted sex trafficker — who is believed to have abused about 1,000 victims — by Dec. 19. The department blew past that deadline, releasing less than 1% of the potentially relevant files in its possession so far, according to Bondi’s letter.

    The Justice Department announced two weeks ago, after the December deadline passed, that it had “uncovered” over a million additional documents to review. The department now believes many of those files are copies or “largely duplicative” of documents it already had in its possession, but still require examination, according to Bondi’s letter.

    Initially, Justice Department attorneys in D.C. and the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York were reviewing the files, Bondi told a judge in mid-December. Since then, “dozens of lawyers” from the Miami-based U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, where Epstein was investigated in the mid-2000s, have started reviewing files as well.

    Bondi said these attorneys are being pulled from the Florida office’s criminal and national security divisions. Former prosecutors with the office believe it has become increasingly politicized under U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, who is pushing to prosecute Donald Trump’s enemies, the Herald has reported.

    In total, there are more than 400 lawyers across the Justice Department dedicated to reviewing Epstein files, Bondi said.

    Also in the letter, which Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote to a judge in the U.S. case against Ghislaine Maxwell this week, the Justice Department described plans to “modify” its review process.

    The department is changing its process for reviewing the documents, adding additional “electronic” reviews that were not included when Bondi detailed her plans for complying with the transparency law to the judge in December.

    The latest updates come in addition to Blanche’s letter to Congress in December, obtained by the Herald, detailing the Justice Department’s plans to redact files above and beyond the requirements of the transparency act to protect victim information.

    The Justice Department has also been blacking out information “otherwise covered by various privileges, including deliberative-process privilege, work-product privilege, and attorney-client privilege.”

    Bondi said the new “electronic quality control searches” are to protect victim information that was inadvertently released in previous document dumps. But critics say the department has been withholding information from the released files without clear legal justification.

    One document released last month, for example, redacted the names of the Epstein associates that were subpoenaed in 2019.

    Records released by the DOJ Tuesday December 23, 2025 redacted the names of those Epstein associates were were subpoenaed in 2019.
    Records released by the DOJ Tuesday December 23, 2025 redacted the names of those Epstein associates were were subpoenaed in 2019. Department of Justice

    The roughly 12,000 documents that have been released thus far under the new transparency law have revealed dozens of new photos of Epstein and powerful figures, including former President Bill Clinton. They also included multiple references to Donald Trump, with one 2020 memo revealing Trump was on many more flights with Epstein in the mid 1990s than the DOJ was initially aware of.

    The documents also shed new light on the FBI’s investigations into others who may have participated in Epstein’s crimes, with one document naming 10 possible co-conspirators. The Justice Department redacted seven of these alleged co-conspirators’ names in the documents, drawing sharp criticism from the lawmakers that sponsored the bill forcing the release of the files.

    The Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Epstein’s financial transactions before his death in 2019, the newly released documents revealed. The files also revealed Epstein’s lawyers continued working to influence Florida prosecutors after they negotiated a cushy 2007 plea deal avoiding lengthy prison time for Epstein.

    As the Miami Herald documented in its 2018 ”Perversion of Justice” investigation, under that deal, Epstein was allowed to leave jail regularly to work from a nearby office space where, according to lawsuits, he allegedly continued to abuse girls.

    Miami Herald reporters Julie K. Brown and Ben Wieder contributed to this report.

    This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 3:38 PM.

    Claire Heddles

    Miami Herald

    Claire Heddles is the Miami Herald’s senior political correspondent. She previously covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C at NOTUS. She’s also worked as a public radio reporter covering local government and education in East Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida. 

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    Claire Heddles

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  • This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It’s nowhere to be found at the Capitol – WTOP News

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    Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.

    A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot stands outside the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

    AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

    Capitol Riot Anniversary
    A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot hangs outside the office of Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

    AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

    Capitol Riot Anniversary
    A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot stands outside the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

    AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

    Capitol Riot Anniversary
    A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot hangs outside the office of Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

    AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

    Capitol Riot Anniversary
    A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot hangs outside the office of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

    AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.

    It’s not on display at the Capitol, as is required by law. Its whereabouts aren’t publicly known, though it’s believed to be in storage.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss a police officers’ lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The Architect of the Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining and displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.

    Determined to preserve the nation’s history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they’ve mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.

    “On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”

    Jan. 6 void in the Capitol

    In Washington, a capital city lined with monuments to the nation’s history, the plaque was intended to become a simple but permanent marker, situated near the Capitol’s west front, where some of the most violent fighting took place as rioters breached the building.

    But in its absence, the missing plaque makes way for something else entirely — a culture of forgetting.

    Visitors can pass through the Capitol without any formal reminder of what happened that day, when a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building trying to overturn the Republican’s 2020 reelection defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. With memory left unchecked, it allows new narratives to swirl and revised histories to take hold.

    Five years ago, the jarring scene watched the world over was declared an “insurrection” by the then-GOP leader of the Senate, while the House GOP leader at the time called it his “saddest day” in Congress. But those condemnations have faded.

    Trump calls it a “day of love.” And Johnson, who was among those lawmakers challenging the 2020 election results, is now the House speaker.

    “The question of January 6 remains – democracy was on the guillotine — how important is that event in the overall sweep of 21st century U.S. history,” said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and noted scholar.

    “Will January 6 be seen as the seminal moment when democracy was in peril?” he asked. Or will it be remembered as “kind of a weird one-off?”

    “There’s not as much consensus on that as one would have thought on the fifth anniversary,” he said.

    Memories shift, but violent legacy lingers

    At least five people died in the riot and its aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through a window toward the House chamber. More than 140 law enforcement officers were wounded, some gravely, and several died later, some by suicide.

    All told, some 1,500 people were charged in the Capitol attack, among the largest federal prosecutions in the nation’s history. When Trump returned to power in January 2025, he pardoned all of them within hours of taking office.

    Unlike the twin light beams that commemorated the Sept. 11, 2001, attack or the stand-alone chairs at the Oklahoma City bombing site memorial, the failure to recognize Jan. 6 has left a gap not only in memory but in helping to stitch the country back together.

    “That’s why you put up a plaque,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. “You respect the memory and the service of the people involved.”

    Police sue over Jan. 6 plaque, DOJ seeks to dismiss

    The speaker’s office over the years has suggested it was working on installing the plaque, but it declined to respond to a request for further comment.

    Lawmakers approved the plaque in March 2022 as part of a broader government funding package. The resolution said the U.S. “owes its deepest gratitude to those officers,” and it set out instructions for an honorific plaque listing the names of officers “who responded to the violence that occurred.” It gave a one-year deadline for installation at the Capitol.

    This summer, two officers who fought the mob that day sued over the delay.

    “By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history,” said the claim by officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges. “It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them.”

    The Justice Department is seeking to have the case dismissed. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others argued Congress “already has publicly recognized the service of law enforcement personnel” by approving the plaque and displaying it wouldn’t alleviate the problems they claim to face from their work.

    “It is implausible,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote, to suggest installation of the plaque “would stop the alleged death threats they claim to have been receiving.”

    The department also said the plaque is required to include the names of “all law enforcement officers” involved in the response that day — some 3,600 people.

    Makeshift memorials emerge

    Lawmakers who’ve installed replicas of the plaque outside their offices said it’s important for the public to know what happened.

    “There are new generations of people who are just growing up now who don’t understand how close we came to losing our democracy on Jan 6, 2021,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the Jan. 6 committee, which was opposed by GOP leadership but nevertheless issued a nearly 1,000-page report investigating the run-up to the attack and the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

    Raskin envisions the Capitol one day holding tours around what happened. “People need to study that as an essential part of American history,” he said.

    “Think about the dates in American history that we know only by the dates: There’s the 4th of July. There’s December 7th. There’s 9/11. And there’s January 6th,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-calif., who also served on the committee and has a plaque outside her office.

    “They really saved my life, and they saved the democracy and they deserve to be thanked for it,” she said.

    But as time passes, there are no longer bipartisan memorial services for Jan. 6. On Tuesday, the Democrats will reconvene members from the Jan. 6 committee for a hearing to “examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced. It’s unlikely Republicans will participate.

    The Republicans under Johnson have tapped Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia to stand up their own special committee to uncover what the speaker calls the “full truth” of what happened. They’re planning a hearing this month.

    “We should stop this silliness of trying to whitewash history — it’s not going to happen,” said Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., who helped lead the effort to display the replica plaques.

    “I was here that day so I’ll never forget,” he said. “I think that Americans will not forget what happened.”

    The number of makeshift plaques that fill the halls is a testimony to that remembrance, he said.

    Instead of one plaque, he said, they’ve “now got 100.”

    Copyright
    © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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    WTOP Staff

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  • DOJ Pushed To Prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia Only After Mistaken Deportation, Judge’s Order Says – KXL

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    Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura leave the United States District Court District of Maryland, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia reveals that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority,” only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S.

    Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee to charges of human smuggling. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive — a way for President Donald Trump’s administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

    To support that argument, he has asked the government to turn over documents that reveal how the decision was made to prosecute him in 2025 for an incident that occurred in 2022. On Dec. 3, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw filed an order under seal that compelled the government to provide some documents to Abrego Garcia and his attorneys. That order was unsealed on Tuesday and sheds new light on the case.

    Earlier, Crenshaw found that there was “some evidence” that the prosecution of Abrego Garcia could be vindictive. He specifically cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on a Fox News program that seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he had won his wrongful deportation case.

    Rob McGuire, who was the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee until late December, argued that those statements were irrelevant because he alone made the decision to prosecute, and he has no animus against Abrego Garcia.

    In the newly unsealed order, Crenshaw writes, “Some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker, but he in fact reported to others in DOJ and the decision to prosecute Abrego may have been a joint decision.”

    DOJ officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The human smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and state troopers discussed the possibility of human smuggling among themselves. However, he was ultimately allowed to leave with only a warning. The case was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations, but there is no record of any effort to charge him until April 2025, according to court records.

    The order does not give a lot of detail on what is in the documents that were turned over to Abrego Garcia, but it shows that Aakash Singh, who works under Blanche in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, contacted McGuire about Abrego Garcia’s case on April 27, the same day that McGuire received a file on the case from Homeland Security Investigations. That was several days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Abrego Garcia’s favor on April 10.

    On April 30, Singh said in an email to McGuire that the prosecution was a “top priority” for the Deputy Attorney General’s Office, according to the order. Singh and McGuire continued to communicate about the prosecution. On May 15, McGuire emailed his staff that Blanche “would like Garcia charged sooner rather than later,” Crenshaw writes.

    On May 18, Singh wrote to McGuire and others to hold the draft indictment until they got “clearance” to file it. “The implication is that ‘clearance’ would come from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General,” Crenshaw writes.

    A hearing on the motion to dismiss the case on the basis of vindictive prosecution is scheduled for Jan. 28.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • DOJ says it may need a ‘few more weeks’ to finish release of Epstein files

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    The Justice Department said Wednesday that it may need a “few more weeks” to release all of its records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents, further delaying compliance with last Friday’s congressionally mandated deadline.Related video above: Justice Department releases extensive Epstein files mentioning President TrumpThe Christmas Eve announcement came hours after a dozen U.S. senators called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to examine its failure to meet the deadline. The group, 11 Democrats and a Republican, told Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume in a letter that victims “deserve full disclosure” and the “peace of mind” of an independent audit.The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI “have uncovered over a million more documents” that could be related to the Epstein case — a stunning 11th-hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a “truckload of evidence” had been delivered to her after she ordered the Justice Department to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office” — a directive she said she made after learning from an unidentified source that the FBI in New York was “in possession of thousands of pages of documents.”In July, the FBI and Justice Department indicated in an unsigned memo that they had undertaken an “exhaustive review” and had determined that no additional evidence should be released — an extraordinary about-face from the Trump administration, which for months had pledged maximum transparency. The memo did not raise the possibility that additional evidence existed that officials were unaware of or had not reviewed.Wednesday’s post did not say when the Justice Department was informed of the newly uncovered files.In a letter last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many were copies of material already turned over by the FBI.The Justice Department said its lawyers are “working around the clock” to review the documents and remove victims’ names and other identifying information as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.“We will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”The announcement came amid increasing scrutiny on the Justice Department’s staggered release of Epstein-related records, including from Epstein victims and members of Congress.Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, one of the chief authors of the law mandating the document release, posted Wednesday on X, “DOJ did break the law by making illegal redactions and by missing the deadline.” Another architect of the law, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he and Massie will “continue to keep the pressure on” and noted that the Justice Department was releasing more documents after lawmakers threatened contempt.“A Christmas Eve news dump of ‘a million more files’ only proves what we already know: Trump is engaged in a massive coverup,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the DOJ’s announcement. “The question Americans deserve answered is simple: WHAT are they hiding — and WHY?”The White House on Wednesday defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein records.“President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.After releasing an initial wave of records Friday, more batches were posted over the weekend and on Tuesday. The Justice Department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.Records that have been released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. Records that had not been seen before include transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.Other records made public in recent days include a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier’s private plane more often than had been previously known and emails between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial “A.” They contain other references that suggest the writer was Britain’s former Prince Andrew. In one, “A” writes, “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”The senators’ call Wednesday for an inspector general audit comes days after Schumer introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the disclosure and deadline requirements. In a statement, he called the staggered, heavily redacted release “a blatant cover-up.”Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., in leading the call for an inspector general audit. Others signing the letter were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Adam Schiff of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Chris van Hollen of Maryland, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.“Given the (Trump) Administration’s historic hostility to releasing the files, politicization of the Epstein case more broadly, and failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a neutral assessment of its compliance with the statutory disclosure requirements is essential,” the senators wrote. Full transparency, they said, “is essential in identifying members of our society who enabled and participated in Epstein’s crimes.”__Sisak reported from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

    WASHINGTON —

    The Justice Department said Wednesday that it may need a “few more weeks” to release all of its records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents, further delaying compliance with last Friday’s congressionally mandated deadline.

    Related video above: Justice Department releases extensive Epstein files mentioning President Trump

    The Christmas Eve announcement came hours after a dozen U.S. senators called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to examine its failure to meet the deadline. The group, 11 Democrats and a Republican, told Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume in a letter that victims “deserve full disclosure” and the “peace of mind” of an independent audit.

    The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI “have uncovered over a million more documents” that could be related to the Epstein case — a stunning 11th-hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.

    In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a “truckload of evidence” had been delivered to her after she ordered the Justice Department to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office” — a directive she said she made after learning from an unidentified source that the FBI in New York was “in possession of thousands of pages of documents.”

    In July, the FBI and Justice Department indicated in an unsigned memo that they had undertaken an “exhaustive review” and had determined that no additional evidence should be released — an extraordinary about-face from the Trump administration, which for months had pledged maximum transparency. The memo did not raise the possibility that additional evidence existed that officials were unaware of or had not reviewed.

    Wednesday’s post did not say when the Justice Department was informed of the newly uncovered files.

    In a letter last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many were copies of material already turned over by the FBI.

    The Justice Department said its lawyers are “working around the clock” to review the documents and remove victims’ names and other identifying information as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.

    “We will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”

    The announcement came amid increasing scrutiny on the Justice Department’s staggered release of Epstein-related records, including from Epstein victims and members of Congress.

    Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, one of the chief authors of the law mandating the document release, posted Wednesday on X, “DOJ did break the law by making illegal redactions and by missing the deadline.”

    Another architect of the law, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he and Massie will “continue to keep the pressure on” and noted that the Justice Department was releasing more documents after lawmakers threatened contempt.

    “A Christmas Eve news dump of ‘a million more files’ only proves what we already know: Trump is engaged in a massive coverup,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after the DOJ’s announcement. “The question Americans deserve answered is simple: WHAT are they hiding — and WHY?”

    The White House on Wednesday defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein records.

    “President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

    After releasing an initial wave of records Friday, more batches were posted over the weekend and on Tuesday. The Justice Department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

    Records that have been released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. Records that had not been seen before include transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.

    Other records made public in recent days include a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier’s private plane more often than had been previously known and emails between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial “A.” They contain other references that suggest the writer was Britain’s former Prince Andrew. In one, “A” writes, “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”

    The senators’ call Wednesday for an inspector general audit comes days after Schumer introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the disclosure and deadline requirements. In a statement, he called the staggered, heavily redacted release “a blatant cover-up.”

    Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., in leading the call for an inspector general audit. Others signing the letter were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Adam Schiff of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Chris van Hollen of Maryland, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

    “Given the (Trump) Administration’s historic hostility to releasing the files, politicization of the Epstein case more broadly, and failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a neutral assessment of its compliance with the statutory disclosure requirements is essential,” the senators wrote. Full transparency, they said, “is essential in identifying members of our society who enabled and participated in Epstein’s crimes.”

    __

    Sisak reported from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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  • DOJ says it may need a ‘few more weeks’ to finish release of Epstein files

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    The Justice Department said Wednesday that it may need a “few more weeks” to release all of its records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents, further delaying compliance with last Friday’s congressionally mandated deadline.Related video above: Justice Department releases extensive Epstein files mentioning President TrumpThe Christmas Eve announcement came hours after a dozen U.S. senators called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to examine its failure to meet the deadline. The group, 11 Democrats and a Republican, told Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume in a letter that victims “deserve full disclosure” and the “peace of mind” of an independent audit.The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI “have uncovered over a million more documents” that could be related to the Epstein case — a stunning 11th-hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a “truckload of evidence” had been delivered to her after she ordered the Justice Department to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office” — a directive she said she made after learning from an unidentified source that the FBI in New York was “in possession of thousands of pages of documents.”In July, the FBI and Justice Department indicated in an unsigned memo that they had undertaken an “exhaustive review” and had determined that no additional evidence should be released — an extraordinary about-face from the Trump administration, which for months had pledged maximum transparency. The memo did not raise the possibility that additional evidence existed that officials were unaware of or had not reviewed.Wednesday’s post did not say when the Justice Department was informed of the newly uncovered files.In a letter last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many were copies of material already turned over by the FBI.The Justice Department said its lawyers are “working around the clock” to review the documents and remove victims’ names and other identifying information as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.“We will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”The announcement came amid increasing scrutiny on the Justice Department’s staggered release of Epstein-related records, including from Epstein victims and members of Congress.Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, one of the chief authors of the law mandating the document release, posted Wednesday on X, “DOJ did break the law by making illegal redactions and by missing the deadline.” Another architect of the law, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he and Massie will “continue to keep the pressure on” and noted that the Justice Department was releasing more documents after lawmakers threatened contempt.The White House on Wednesday defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein records.“President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.After releasing an initial wave of records Friday, more batches were posted over the weekend and on Tuesday. The Justice Department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.Records that have been released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. Records that had not been seen before include transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.Other records made public in recent days include a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier’s private plane more often than had been previously known and emails between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial “A.” They contain other references that suggest the writer was Britain’s former Prince Andrew. In one, “A” writes, “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”The senators’ call Wednesday for an inspector general audit comes days after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the disclosure and deadline requirements. In a statement, he called the staggered, heavily redacted release “a blatant cover-up.”Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., in leading the call for an inspector general audit. Others signing the letter were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Adam Schiff of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Chris van Hollen of Maryland, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.“Given the (Trump) Administration’s historic hostility to releasing the files, politicization of the Epstein case more broadly, and failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a neutral assessment of its compliance with the statutory disclosure requirements is essential,” the senators wrote. Full transparency, they said, “is essential in identifying members of our society who enabled and participated in Epstein’s crimes.”__Sisak reported from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

    WASHINGTON —

    The Justice Department said Wednesday that it may need a “few more weeks” to release all of its records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents, further delaying compliance with last Friday’s congressionally mandated deadline.

    Related video above: Justice Department releases extensive Epstein files mentioning President Trump

    The Christmas Eve announcement came hours after a dozen U.S. senators called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to examine its failure to meet the deadline. The group, 11 Democrats and a Republican, told Acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume in a letter that victims “deserve full disclosure” and the “peace of mind” of an independent audit.

    The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI “have uncovered over a million more documents” that could be related to the Epstein case — a stunning 11th-hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.

    In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a “truckload of evidence” had been delivered to her after she ordered the Justice Department to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office” — a directive she said she made after learning from an unidentified source that the FBI in New York was “in possession of thousands of pages of documents.”

    In July, the FBI and Justice Department indicated in an unsigned memo that they had undertaken an “exhaustive review” and had determined that no additional evidence should be released — an extraordinary about-face from the Trump administration, which for months had pledged maximum transparency. The memo did not raise the possibility that additional evidence existed that officials were unaware of or had not reviewed.

    Wednesday’s post did not say when the Justice Department was informed of the newly uncovered files.

    In a letter last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many were copies of material already turned over by the FBI.

    The Justice Department said its lawyers are “working around the clock” to review the documents and remove victims’ names and other identifying information as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.

    “We will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”

    The announcement came amid increasing scrutiny on the Justice Department’s staggered release of Epstein-related records, including from Epstein victims and members of Congress.

    Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, one of the chief authors of the law mandating the document release, posted Wednesday on X, “DOJ did break the law by making illegal redactions and by missing the deadline.”

    Another architect of the law, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he and Massie will “continue to keep the pressure on” and noted that the Justice Department was releasing more documents after lawmakers threatened contempt.

    The White House on Wednesday defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein records.

    “President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

    After releasing an initial wave of records Friday, more batches were posted over the weekend and on Tuesday. The Justice Department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

    Records that have been released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. Records that had not been seen before include transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.

    Other records made public in recent days include a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier’s private plane more often than had been previously known and emails between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial “A.” They contain other references that suggest the writer was Britain’s former Prince Andrew. In one, “A” writes, “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”

    The senators’ call Wednesday for an inspector general audit comes days after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the disclosure and deadline requirements. In a statement, he called the staggered, heavily redacted release “a blatant cover-up.”

    Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., in leading the call for an inspector general audit. Others signing the letter were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Adam Schiff of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Chris van Hollen of Maryland, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

    “Given the (Trump) Administration’s historic hostility to releasing the files, politicization of the Epstein case more broadly, and failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a neutral assessment of its compliance with the statutory disclosure requirements is essential,” the senators wrote. Full transparency, they said, “is essential in identifying members of our society who enabled and participated in Epstein’s crimes.”

    __

    Sisak reported from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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  • Jeffrey Epstein’s Brother Claims He Was Murdered

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    A tip Mark Epstein gave the FBI in 2023 that claimed his brother was killed in his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center, and it was ‘authorized by Donald Trump’ was among the 11,000 new files released by the DOJ Tuesday

    As the Department of Justice continues to release files related to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, questions about the 66-year-old’s 2019 death at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the federal lockup where he was awaiting trial, continue to swirl.

    Among the revelations in the 11,000 files by the DOJ Tuesday, the largest since the government began to make documents about the sex trafficker’s life and death, was a tip given to the FBI by Mark Epstein in 2023, in which he insisted his brother was murdered, because he was about to “name names.” Mark Epstein said that what he believes to be his brother’s assassination was “authorized” by President Trump. The tip read: “Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in his jail cell. I have reason to believe he was killed because he was about to name names.”

    The President has repeatedly denied any connection to his former friend Epstein’s death. On Tuesday, DOJ officials posted a statement on social media saying: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

    Epstein was found hanging in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019, one month after he was arrested in New York on sex trafficking charges. The New York City medical examiner ruled his death a suicide by hanging, but a Federal Bureau of Prisons investigation into his death – contained in Tuesday’s release – showed that the jail cell where he was found was not secured as a potential crime scene.

    Weeks before he was found dead, Epstein had tried to commit suicide, according to the new release. On July 23, 2019, Epstein was found “lying in the fetal position on the floor with a homemade fashioned noose around his neck,” according to an internal BOP report. “Inmate Epstein was breathing heavily, however appeared to be responsive. Inmate Epstein was directed by staff to stand and submit to restraints. Inmate Epstein would not stand on his own and would not comply with staff directives.” He was kept on suicide watch for a day, the report indicated.

    There was also evidence that Epstein had an Austrian passport in the name of an alias, and his photo was recovered in a safe after his arrest. The passport was issued for “Marius Robert Fortelni” but used Jeffrey Epstein’s photograph.

    Department of Justice officials released a new batch of Epstein documents on Tuesday that included this fake Austrian passport with Epstein’s photo and an alias
    Credit: Department of Justice

    The Austrian passport appeared to have been obtained in 1982 and lists “Fortelni” as a resident of Saudi Arabia with a birthdate in 1954, a year after Epstein’s date of birth. The passport stamps show travel to London, France, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

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    Michele McPhee

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  • Slow release of Epstein files triggers victim outcry, legal threats from Congress

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    People demostrate during the Stand with Survivors Rally in support of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's victims, in Washington, DC on September 3, 2025. (Photo by Roberto SCHMIDT / AFP) (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

    People demostrate during the Stand with Survivors Rally in support of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims, in Washington, DC on September 3, 2025.


    ROBERTO SCHMIDT

    AFP via Getty Images

    The top Democrat in the Senate threatened legal action against the Trump administration Monday over its slow and incomplete rollout of the so-called Epstein files. The Department of Justice has so far failed to release any additional new documents from its investigation into the deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York introduced a resolution Monday that would direct the Senate to initiate legal action against the Trump administration for “illegally refusing to release the complete Epstein files and heavily redacting the files that are released.”

    A group of Epstein’s victims also issued a letter Monday criticizing the Justice Department for failing to disclose more documents and for failing to redact the names of victims in some files while releasing others “riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation.”

    The law allows the department to withhold the release of documents that would impede active investigations and to redact material to protect the identity of victims.

    The department was required to release all of its files by last Friday, according to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that was signed into law by President Donald Trump in November.

    Epstein’s victims — believed by DOJ to number roughly 1,000 women — have long sought more accountability for Epstein’s powerful friends and accomplices and greater transparency from a department that kept them in the dark about a sweetheart deal Epstein negotiated in 2007 that allowed him to escape harsh punishment for sexually abusing girls in South Florida.

    The department’s initial release of files Friday — which consisted largely of photographs and heavily redacted documents — did little to satisfy victims, or the members of Congress who mandated that the files be released.

    After its initial release Friday, the department subsequently removed some of the files, including a photograph that showed photos of both Trump and former President Bill Clinton from one of Epstein’s homes.

    That photo, and several others, were subsequently put back online.

    The department defended its removal of the photos in a fact sheet posted on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, saying that it has “received incoming from individuals alleging to be victims and their lawyers, requesting that certain information be removed.”

    The files released Friday contained numerous photographs of Clinton, many from a trip to Africa that Clinton and Epstein took on Epstein’s plane in 2002.

    On Monday, a spokesman for Clinton called for the Justice Department to release all the files it has containing Clinton and said the release of the files so far suggests that “someone or something is being protected.”

    There were, however, some revelations from the material.

    The files showed, for example, that Epstein’s homes were littered with photos of naked young women, many of them clearly young girls, as well as the sex toys and outfits that victims have long accused Epstein of forcing them to use.

    And they included an FBI form from 1996 showing that a woman — Epstein victim Maria Farmer — had complained that Epstein had stolen naked pictures of her 12- and 16-year-old sisters that she had taken as part of her artistic work, confirming that Epstein’s sex crimes were on the FBI’s radar for a decade before the FBI investigated his alleged crimes in South Florida.

    The department also later released files from grand jury investigations into Epstein in South Florida in 2007 and New York in 2019; and into his ex-girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in New York in 2020.

    As the Miami Herald documented in its 2018 ‘Perversion of Justice’ investigation, Epstein reached a remarkably lenient deal with federal prosecutors in South Florida in 2007 that allowed him to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges, one involving a minor, and serve 13 months in the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was allowed to leave regularly to work from a nearby office space in which he continued to abuse girls.

    The newly released files showed that two FBI agents and one of Epstein’s victims testified before a grand jury in West Palm Beach in 2007, but Epstein was never indicted.

    Also included in the files was the transcript of a 2019 DOJ interview with Alex Acosta, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who signed off on the plea deal reached with Epstein.

    The DOJ investigators scrutinized Acosta’s decision in approving the deal and asked about missing binders of evidence and 11 months’ worth of missing e-mails from his account during the timeframe in which the deal was negotiated.

    Epstein was charged again by the Southern District of New York in July 2019 and died in federal custody one month later in what has been ruled a suicide.

    Maxwell was charged a year later for her role in recruiting and grooming girls for Epstein’s abuse and convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, but is reportedly seeking a pardon.

    Ana Claudia Chacin

    Miami Herald

    Ana Claudia is an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. She was born in Venezuela, grew up in Miami and was previously a fellow with The Washington Post’s investigative unit through the Investigative Writing Workshop at American University, where she obtained her Master’s degree.Ana Claudia Chacin es una periodista investigativa para el Herald. Fue criada en Miami y previamente fue interna del equipo investigativo en el Washington Post.


    Profile Image of Claire Healy

    Claire Healy

    Miami Herald

    Claire Healy is an Esserman Investigative Fellow at The Miami Herald. Prior to her current role, she wrote for The Washington Post, where she was a 2024 Pulitzer Finalist for “Searching for Maura.”

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    Ben Wieder,Shirsho Dasgupta,Claire Healy,Ana Claudia Chacin

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  • At least 16 files have disappeared from the DOJ webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein

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    At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.Related video above: Justice Department’s partial release of Epstein files frustrates lawmakersThe missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.The Justice Department didn’t answer questions Saturday about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.Scant new insight in the initial disclosuresSome of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.The gaps go further.The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountabilityAmong the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton, but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress, who fought to pass the law forcing the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.”I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked contextFederal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages of records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases, or Freedom of Information Act requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions, and no explanation was given for why any of them were together.The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007, yet never charged him.Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.”For every girl that I brought to the table, he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are underage, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.”I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.”There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.Associated Press journalists Ali Swenson, Christopher L. Keller, Aaron Kessler and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.

    NEW YORK (AP) —

    At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.

    Related video above: Justice Department’s partial release of Epstein files frustrates lawmakers

    The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

    The Justice Department didn’t answer questions Saturday about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”

    Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

    The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.

    Scant new insight in the initial disclosures

    Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.

    Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.

    The gaps go further.

    The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountability

    Among the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.

    The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.

    There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton, but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.

    Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

    That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress, who fought to pass the law forcing the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.

    “I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.

    Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked context

    Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.

    The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages of records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.

    Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases, or Freedom of Information Act requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.

    Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.

    Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions, and no explanation was given for why any of them were together.

    The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007, yet never charged him.

    Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.

    One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.

    Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.

    “For every girl that I brought to the table, he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are underage, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”

    The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.

    Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.

    He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.

    “I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.

    “There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.

    Associated Press journalists Ali Swenson, Christopher L. Keller, Aaron Kessler and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.

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  • At least 16 files have disappeared from the DOJ webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein

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    At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.Related video above: Justice Department’s partial release of Epstein files frustrates lawmakersThe missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.The Justice Department didn’t answer questions Saturday about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.Scant new insight in the initial disclosuresSome of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.The gaps go further.The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountabilityAmong the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton, but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress, who fought to pass the law forcing the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.”I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked contextFederal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages of records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases, or Freedom of Information Act requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions, and no explanation was given for why any of them were together.The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007, yet never charged him.Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.”For every girl that I brought to the table, he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are underage, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.”I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.”There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.Associated Press journalists Ali Swenson, Christopher L. Keller, Aaron Kessler and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.

    NEW YORK (AP) —

    At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.

    Related video above: Justice Department’s partial release of Epstein files frustrates lawmakers

    The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

    The Justice Department didn’t answer questions Saturday about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”

    Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

    The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.

    Scant new insight in the initial disclosures

    Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.

    Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions — records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.

    The gaps go further.

    The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountability

    Among the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.

    The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.

    There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton, but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.

    Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

    That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress, who fought to pass the law forcing the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.

    “I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.

    Many of the long-anticipated records were redacted or lacked context

    Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.

    The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages of records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.

    Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases, or Freedom of Information Act requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.

    Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.

    Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions, and no explanation was given for why any of them were together.

    The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007, yet never charged him.

    Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.

    One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.

    Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.

    “For every girl that I brought to the table, he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are underage, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”

    The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.

    Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.

    He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.

    “I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.

    “There’s been a lot of changes in victim shaming,” Acosta said.

    Associated Press journalists Ali Swenson, Christopher L. Keller, Aaron Kessler and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.

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  • Democrats release Epstein estate photos ahead of key Justice Department deadline

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    Democrats serving on the House Oversight Committee released dozens of photos on Friday from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some of President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Some of the photos show Trump alongside women whose faces were blacked out. No additional context for the redactions was provided in the initial press release. “These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Democrats are “selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.”Trump told reporters Friday that he had not seen the photos and downplayed their significance.“He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him, so that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it,” Trump said. Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s known victims.Garcia didn’t specifically say whether the women whose faces were redacted in the photos were victims of abuse. He told reporters, “Our commitment from day one has been to redact any photo, any information that could lead to any sort of harm to any of the victims.”Garcia said that the photos were released in the interest of transparency. He said the panel is in the process of reviewing the rest of the 95,000 photos received from Epstein’s estate on Thursday evening, and the public should expect more pictures to come out. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee defended Trump and took aim at the Clintons. Rep. James Comer, who chairs the committee, issued a statement warning that they will initiate proceedings to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress if they fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January. Comer said it has been more than four months since they were subpoenaed as part of the committee’s Epstein probe. Friday’s developments are renewing focus on the yearslong controversy ahead of next week’s Dec. 19 deadline for the Justice Department to release another trove of documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation and his death behind bars in 2019. The release of those files was required by Congress in a near-unanimous vote last month. The DOJ has promised maximum transparency, but some fear the documents will be overly redacted.More from the Washington Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    Democrats serving on the House Oversight Committee released dozens of photos on Friday from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some of President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.

    Some of the photos show Trump alongside women whose faces were blacked out. No additional context for the redactions was provided in the initial press release.

    “These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.

    White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Democrats are “selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.”

    Trump told reporters Friday that he had not seen the photos and downplayed their significance.

    “He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him, so that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it,” Trump said.

    Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s known victims.

    Garcia didn’t specifically say whether the women whose faces were redacted in the photos were victims of abuse. He told reporters, “Our commitment from day one has been to redact any photo, any information that could lead to any sort of harm to any of the victims.”

    Garcia said that the photos were released in the interest of transparency. He said the panel is in the process of reviewing the rest of the 95,000 photos received from Epstein’s estate on Thursday evening, and the public should expect more pictures to come out.

    Republicans on the House Oversight Committee defended Trump and took aim at the Clintons.

    Rep. James Comer, who chairs the committee, issued a statement warning that they will initiate proceedings to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress if they fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January. Comer said it has been more than four months since they were subpoenaed as part of the committee’s Epstein probe.

    Friday’s developments are renewing focus on the yearslong controversy ahead of next week’s Dec. 19 deadline for the Justice Department to release another trove of documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation and his death behind bars in 2019. The release of those files was required by Congress in a near-unanimous vote last month. The DOJ has promised maximum transparency, but some fear the documents will be overly redacted.

    More from the Washington Bureau:


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  • New U.S. attorney appointed for North Texas, DOJ announces

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    Attorney Ryan Raybould was named the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas on Thursday, DOJ officials said.

    Attorney Ryan Raybould was named the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas on Thursday, DOJ officials said.

    U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas

    North Texas has a new United States attorney, officials with the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

    The attorney, Ryan Raybould, was nominated by President Donald Trump in October and named to the post this week by attorney general Pam Bondi, according to a statement.

    Raybould succeeds Leigha Simonton, who was appointed in 2022 by then-president Joe Biden.

    Simonton had previously served the district as an assistant U.S. attorney for 18 years, and resigned from the office in January, one day before Trump’s inauguration.

    As the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Northern District of Texas, Raybould will oversee roughly 220 U.S. attorneys in Dallas-Fort Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene and surrounding areas, according to the statement.

    Prior to serving in the role, Raybould was a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis in the Government, Regulatory, and Internal Investigations Practice Group, officials said.

    He also served as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice for seven years, and as chief counsel to Texas Senator John Cornyn, according to the statement.

    Raybould received his juris doctor from Notre Dame Law School, officials said.

    His nomination is pending confirmation in the U.S. Senate.

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Lillie Davidson

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.

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    Lillie Davidson

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  • Trump pardons Jan. 6 rioter for gun offense and woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents

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    President Donald Trump has issued two pardons related to the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including for a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the Capitol, officials said Saturday.Related video above: BBC leaders resign amid scandal over misleading edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speechIn a separate case, Trump issued a second pardon for a Jan. 6 defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally possessing firearms.It’s the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use his constitutional authority to help supporters who were scrutinized as part of the Biden administration’s massive Jan. 6 investigation that led to charges against more than 1,500 defendants.Suzanne Ellen Kaye was released last year after serving an 18-month sentence in her threats case. After the FBI contacted her in 2021 about a tip indicating she may have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6, she posted a video on social media citing her Second Amendment right to carry a gun, and she threatened to shoot agents if they came to her house. In court papers, prosecutors said her words “were part of the ubiquity of violent political rhetoric that causes serious harm to our communities.”An email seeking comment was sent to a lawyer for Kaye on Saturday. Kaye testified at trial that she didn’t own any guns and didn’t intend to threaten the FBI, according to court papers. She told authorities she was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and wasn’t charged with any Capitol riot-related crimes.A White House official said Kaye suffers from “stress-induced seizures” and experienced one when the jury read its verdict. The White House said this is “clearly a case of disfavored First Amendment political speech being prosecuted and an excessive sentence.” The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the case.In a separate case, Trump pardoned Daniel Edwin Wilson, of Louisville, Kentucky, who was under investigation for his role in the riot when authorities found six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition in his home. Because of prior felony convictions, it was illegal for him to possess firearms.Wilson’s case became part of a legal debate over whether Trump’s sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 rioters in January applied to other crimes discovered during the sprawling federal dragnet that began after the attack on the Capitol. The Trump-appointed federal judge who oversaw Wilson’s case criticized the Justice Department earlier this year for arguing that the president’s Jan. 6 pardons applied to Wilson’s gun offense.Wilson, who had been scheduled to remain in prison until 2028, was released Friday evening following the pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.”We are grateful that President Trump has recognized the injustice in my client’s case and granted him this pardon,” attorney George Pallas said in an email. “Mr. Wilson can now reunite with his family and begin rebuilding his life.”The White House official said Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.”Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.Prosecutors had accused him of planning for the Jan. 6 riot for weeks and coming to Washington with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. Authorities said he communicated with members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group and adherents of the antigovernment Three Percenters movement as he marched to the Capitol.Prosecutors cited messages they argued showed that Wilson’s “plans were for a broader American civil war.” In one message on Nov. 9, 2020, he wrote: “I’m willing to do whatever. Done made up my mind. I understand the tip of the spear will not be easy. I’m willing to sacrifice myself if necessary. Whether it means prison or death.”Wilson said at his sentencing that he regretted entering the Capitol that day but “got involved with good intentions.”The Justice Department had initially argued in February that Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in the White House didn’t extend to Wilson’s gun crime. The department later changed its position, saying it had received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, criticized the department’s evolving position and said it was “extraordinary” that prosecutors were seeking to argue that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons extended to illegal “contraband” found by investigators during searches related to the Jan. 6 cases.Politico first reported Wilson’s pardon on Saturday.Megerian reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

    WASHINGTON (AP) —

    President Donald Trump has issued two pardons related to the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including for a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the Capitol, officials said Saturday.

    Related video above: BBC leaders resign amid scandal over misleading edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech

    In a separate case, Trump issued a second pardon for a Jan. 6 defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally possessing firearms.

    It’s the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use his constitutional authority to help supporters who were scrutinized as part of the Biden administration’s massive Jan. 6 investigation that led to charges against more than 1,500 defendants.

    Suzanne Ellen Kaye was released last year after serving an 18-month sentence in her threats case. After the FBI contacted her in 2021 about a tip indicating she may have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6, she posted a video on social media citing her Second Amendment right to carry a gun, and she threatened to shoot agents if they came to her house. In court papers, prosecutors said her words “were part of the ubiquity of violent political rhetoric that causes serious harm to our communities.”

    An email seeking comment was sent to a lawyer for Kaye on Saturday. Kaye testified at trial that she didn’t own any guns and didn’t intend to threaten the FBI, according to court papers. She told authorities she was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and wasn’t charged with any Capitol riot-related crimes.

    A White House official said Kaye suffers from “stress-induced seizures” and experienced one when the jury read its verdict. The White House said this is “clearly a case of disfavored First Amendment political speech being prosecuted and an excessive sentence.” The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the case.

    In a separate case, Trump pardoned Daniel Edwin Wilson, of Louisville, Kentucky, who was under investigation for his role in the riot when authorities found six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition in his home. Because of prior felony convictions, it was illegal for him to possess firearms.

    Wilson’s case became part of a legal debate over whether Trump’s sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 rioters in January applied to other crimes discovered during the sprawling federal dragnet that began after the attack on the Capitol. The Trump-appointed federal judge who oversaw Wilson’s case criticized the Justice Department earlier this year for arguing that the president’s Jan. 6 pardons applied to Wilson’s gun offense.

    Wilson, who had been scheduled to remain in prison until 2028, was released Friday evening following the pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.

    “We are grateful that President Trump has recognized the injustice in my client’s case and granted him this pardon,” attorney George Pallas said in an email. “Mr. Wilson can now reunite with his family and begin rebuilding his life.”

    The White House official said Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.”

    Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.

    Prosecutors had accused him of planning for the Jan. 6 riot for weeks and coming to Washington with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. Authorities said he communicated with members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group and adherents of the antigovernment Three Percenters movement as he marched to the Capitol.

    Prosecutors cited messages they argued showed that Wilson’s “plans were for a broader American civil war.” In one message on Nov. 9, 2020, he wrote: “I’m willing to do whatever. Done made up my mind. I understand the tip of the spear will not be easy. I’m willing to sacrifice myself if necessary. Whether it means prison or death.”

    Wilson said at his sentencing that he regretted entering the Capitol that day but “got involved with good intentions.”

    The Justice Department had initially argued in February that Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in the White House didn’t extend to Wilson’s gun crime. The department later changed its position, saying it had received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”

    U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, criticized the department’s evolving position and said it was “extraordinary” that prosecutors were seeking to argue that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons extended to illegal “contraband” found by investigators during searches related to the Jan. 6 cases.

    Politico first reported Wilson’s pardon on Saturday.

    Megerian reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

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  • Trump pardons Jan. 6 rioter for gun offense and woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents

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    President Donald Trump has issued two pardons related to the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including for a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the Capitol, officials said Saturday.Related video above: BBC leaders resign amid scandal over misleading edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speechIn a separate case, Trump issued a second pardon for a Jan. 6 defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally possessing firearms.It’s the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use his constitutional authority to help supporters who were scrutinized as part of the Biden administration’s massive Jan. 6 investigation that led to charges against more than 1,500 defendants.Suzanne Ellen Kaye was released last year after serving an 18-month sentence in her threats case. After the FBI contacted her in 2021 about a tip indicating she may have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6, she posted a video on social media citing her Second Amendment right to carry a gun, and she threatened to shoot agents if they came to her house. In court papers, prosecutors said her words “were part of the ubiquity of violent political rhetoric that causes serious harm to our communities.”An email seeking comment was sent to a lawyer for Kaye on Saturday. Kaye testified at trial that she didn’t own any guns and didn’t intend to threaten the FBI, according to court papers. She told authorities she was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and wasn’t charged with any Capitol riot-related crimes.A White House official said Kaye suffers from “stress-induced seizures” and experienced one when the jury read its verdict. The White House said this is “clearly a case of disfavored First Amendment political speech being prosecuted and an excessive sentence.” The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the case.In a separate case, Trump pardoned Daniel Edwin Wilson, of Louisville, Kentucky, who was under investigation for his role in the riot when authorities found six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition in his home. Because of prior felony convictions, it was illegal for him to possess firearms.Wilson’s case became part of a legal debate over whether Trump’s sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 rioters in January applied to other crimes discovered during the sprawling federal dragnet that began after the attack on the Capitol. The Trump-appointed federal judge who oversaw Wilson’s case criticized the Justice Department earlier this year for arguing that the president’s Jan. 6 pardons applied to Wilson’s gun offense.Wilson, who had been scheduled to remain in prison until 2028, was released Friday evening following the pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.”We are grateful that President Trump has recognized the injustice in my client’s case and granted him this pardon,” attorney George Pallas said in an email. “Mr. Wilson can now reunite with his family and begin rebuilding his life.”The White House official said Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.”Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.Prosecutors had accused him of planning for the Jan. 6 riot for weeks and coming to Washington with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. Authorities said he communicated with members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group and adherents of the antigovernment Three Percenters movement as he marched to the Capitol.Prosecutors cited messages they argued showed that Wilson’s “plans were for a broader American civil war.” In one message on Nov. 9, 2020, he wrote: “I’m willing to do whatever. Done made up my mind. I understand the tip of the spear will not be easy. I’m willing to sacrifice myself if necessary. Whether it means prison or death.”Wilson said at his sentencing that he regretted entering the Capitol that day but “got involved with good intentions.”The Justice Department had initially argued in February that Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in the White House didn’t extend to Wilson’s gun crime. The department later changed its position, saying it had received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, criticized the department’s evolving position and said it was “extraordinary” that prosecutors were seeking to argue that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons extended to illegal “contraband” found by investigators during searches related to the Jan. 6 cases.Politico first reported Wilson’s pardon on Saturday.Megerian reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

    WASHINGTON (AP) —

    President Donald Trump has issued two pardons related to the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including for a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the Capitol, officials said Saturday.

    Related video above: BBC leaders resign amid scandal over misleading edit of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech

    In a separate case, Trump issued a second pardon for a Jan. 6 defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally possessing firearms.

    It’s the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use his constitutional authority to help supporters who were scrutinized as part of the Biden administration’s massive Jan. 6 investigation that led to charges against more than 1,500 defendants.

    Suzanne Ellen Kaye was released last year after serving an 18-month sentence in her threats case. After the FBI contacted her in 2021 about a tip indicating she may have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6, she posted a video on social media citing her Second Amendment right to carry a gun, and she threatened to shoot agents if they came to her house. In court papers, prosecutors said her words “were part of the ubiquity of violent political rhetoric that causes serious harm to our communities.”

    An email seeking comment was sent to a lawyer for Kaye on Saturday. Kaye testified at trial that she didn’t own any guns and didn’t intend to threaten the FBI, according to court papers. She told authorities she was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and wasn’t charged with any Capitol riot-related crimes.

    A White House official said Kaye suffers from “stress-induced seizures” and experienced one when the jury read its verdict. The White House said this is “clearly a case of disfavored First Amendment political speech being prosecuted and an excessive sentence.” The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the case.

    In a separate case, Trump pardoned Daniel Edwin Wilson, of Louisville, Kentucky, who was under investigation for his role in the riot when authorities found six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition in his home. Because of prior felony convictions, it was illegal for him to possess firearms.

    Wilson’s case became part of a legal debate over whether Trump’s sweeping pardons for Jan. 6 rioters in January applied to other crimes discovered during the sprawling federal dragnet that began after the attack on the Capitol. The Trump-appointed federal judge who oversaw Wilson’s case criticized the Justice Department earlier this year for arguing that the president’s Jan. 6 pardons applied to Wilson’s gun offense.

    Wilson, who had been scheduled to remain in prison until 2028, was released Friday evening following the pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.

    “We are grateful that President Trump has recognized the injustice in my client’s case and granted him this pardon,” attorney George Pallas said in an email. “Mr. Wilson can now reunite with his family and begin rebuilding his life.”

    The White House official said Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.”

    Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.

    Prosecutors had accused him of planning for the Jan. 6 riot for weeks and coming to Washington with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. Authorities said he communicated with members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group and adherents of the antigovernment Three Percenters movement as he marched to the Capitol.

    Prosecutors cited messages they argued showed that Wilson’s “plans were for a broader American civil war.” In one message on Nov. 9, 2020, he wrote: “I’m willing to do whatever. Done made up my mind. I understand the tip of the spear will not be easy. I’m willing to sacrifice myself if necessary. Whether it means prison or death.”

    Wilson said at his sentencing that he regretted entering the Capitol that day but “got involved with good intentions.”

    The Justice Department had initially argued in February that Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day back in the White House didn’t extend to Wilson’s gun crime. The department later changed its position, saying it had received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”

    U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, criticized the department’s evolving position and said it was “extraordinary” that prosecutors were seeking to argue that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons extended to illegal “contraband” found by investigators during searches related to the Jan. 6 cases.

    Politico first reported Wilson’s pardon on Saturday.

    Megerian reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

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  • New Federal Filings Ask Whether Key SEC, Treasury, and DOJ Documents Omitted From PROMESA Hearings Could Have Influenced the 2016 Congressional Vote

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    Whistleblower urges reporters and policymakers to examine public RICO filings citing HR 1049’s findings and a Treasury-SEC memo questioning the 2013 PREPA bond issuance.


    MURRIETA, Calif., November 14, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Federal whistleblower Richard R. Lawless has submitted new filings highlighting federal documents that do not appear to have been referenced during the 2016 PROMESA hearings, despite containing substantial risk information relevant to Puerto Rico’s financial collapse. These materials, incorporated into a public set of civil RICO allegations now available on the PROMESA Title III docket, raise significant questions for policymakers, investors, and financial analysts.

    Central to the filings are two key documents:

    1. HR 1049 (2015 House Natural Resources Committee Report)
    The report – an official congressional document – described Puerto Rico’s electric utility finances citing refinancing cycles, distressed revenue structures, and internal financial warnings that predated PROMESA.

    2. A 22-Page Treasury-SEC Email from 2013
    Authored within the Treasury Department and shared with the SEC, the communication raised internal concerns that the 2013 PREPA bond issuance may not have fully reflected known risk factors. These included uncollectible receivables, revenue instability, and questions regarding the clarity of the offering materials. The 2013 bond issue later defaulted within approximately two years.

    A Key Question Raised in the Filings

    “If federal agencies possessed these documents prior to the PROMESA hearings, why were they not presented-and would the PROMESA vote have proceeded as it did if they had been?”

    Lawless emphasized that the filings do not assert conclusions but call for independent examination by oversight bodies.
    “Given the scale of the documents now in the public domain, I strongly encourage reporters, policymakers, and analysts to review the docketed RICO materials themselves,” Lawless said. “Every referenced document is publicly accessible.”

    Potential Impact Identified by Analysts

    Analysts reviewing the filings note that:

    HR 1049’s language does not appear in public PROMESA hearing transcripts;

    The Treasury-SEC memo does not appear in the legislative record;

    Both documents contain information that rating agencies, insurers, and institutional investors may have considered material;

    Access to these documents could have influenced congressional debate and legislative outcomes.

    Invitation for Review

    The full RICO filings – including exhibits, timelines, and referenced federal documents – are available on the public docket. Lawless stated that transparency and independent verification are essential given the legislative importance of PROMESA and the scale of the financial losses involved.

    No federal agency referenced in the filings has issued public comment on the historical handling of these documents.

    Contact Information

    Richard Lawless
    CEO
    richardrlawless@gmail.com
    951-440-5230

    Source: Medlaw Publishing

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  • Trump administration pushes to delay challenges in immigration cases

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    The Trump administration has attempted to postpone at least nine challenges to its immigration policies during the government shutdown, including cases that could determine whether people can be held in detention centers without bail.

    Federal judges have repeatedly said no.

    In the detention-without-bail case, Judge Brianna Fuller Mircheff said that if the deportation apparatus is still running during the shutdown, an immigration-related challenge should continue too.

    “Despite the government shutdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to remove noncitizens from the community; noncitizens continue to be detained under the policy that is challenged in this case; and immigration courts continue to process cases involving detained respondents,” the court’s order states.

    “Given that individuals are continuing to be detained subject to the challenged policy, the Court declines to indefinitely stay adjudication of whether such individuals are lawfully detained,” it states.

    Immigrant advocacy groups filed the class action lawsuit in California against a July 8 policy change ending bond eligibility for people who have lived in the country for years but are in detention centers while their immigration cases continue.

    It’s one of at least nine legal challenges to the Trump administration’s immigration policies that the Department of Justice has sought to pause during the shutdown, which is now in its second week with no progress toward an end.

    Most judges are insisting on keeping their scheduled deadlines, pointing to continued immigration enforcement and urgency of the lawsuits, which also include challenges against the end of temporary deportation protections for Venezuelans, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s deportation and federal funding freezes for so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

    Starting Oct. 1, the first day of the government shutdown, DOJ attorneys began approaching courts with requests to delay immigration-related proceedings as part of the department’s plan to limit civil litigation during the lapse in federal funding.

    The DOJ shutdown contingency plan states that it will continue to deal with cases where the safety of human life or protection of property would be compromised significantly by a delay. It also states attorneys have to keep working if judges deny the department’s requests.

    Some groups suing the government over immigration matters argue that there would be serious impacts to putting the cases on hold.

    The case over whether the Department of Homeland Security can end temporary protected status for Venezuelans, for example, affects about 600,000 people directly and could have repercussions for others with these protections.

    “It is important because it’s one of the only hopes with little possibility of continuing the protection for people with TPS,” said Jose Palma, a national coordinator for the National TPS Alliance, which is suing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem over ending TPS for Venezuelans.

    Palma said moving ahead with the legal challenge is particularly vital in light of a recent Supreme Court decision that allows the government to cut off deportation protections and work authorization for Venezuelans while the ultimate fate of TPS for the population is determined in lower courts.

    The case is set to move forward in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel denied the federal government’s request to pause the case because of the government shutdown. However, a federal judge agreed to pause a similar case out of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts until the end of the shutdown.

    Despite DOJ’s efforts to pause proceedings in the lawsuit seeking to stop the second deportation of Abrego Garcia, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland is requiring the DOJ to bring to a Friday hearing witnesses with first-hand knowledge of the steps the government has taken to deport him to Eswatini, Costa Rica or any other country.

    During a hearing on Monday, Xinis lost her patience with the government attorneys’ inability to provide information about the administration’s plan to once again deport Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. She said she wouldn’t pause the case because of “important fundamental questions” at stake, according to Bloomberg.

    DOJ also failed to secure an indefinite pause in the lawsuit filed in February by several cities and counties over the Trump administration’s attempts to withhold funding for “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Santa Clara and San Francisco, along with multiple other counties and cities, have been granted preliminary injunctions by District Judge William Orrick twice, as the lawsuit has grown to include other counties, most recently at the end of August.

    Following the most recent ruling, the Trump administration’s attorneys had a deadline of Oct. 16 by which they could respond, but on Oct. 1, they filed for a motion to stay, similarly citing the government shutdown as the reason for the need for an extended deadline.

    “Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys and employees of the federal defendants are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances, including ‘emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,’” the DOJ motion states.

    Attorneys representing Santa Clara cited the DOJ’s own contingency plan in response, noting “the Department’s (contingency) plan assumes that the judicial branch will continue to operate, though possibly at a reduced level, through the lapse.”

    Orrick promptly denied the motion to stay, and the administration has until the original deadline to reply to the ruling.

    The judge’s motion “helps ensure that accountability doesn’t stop when it’s inconvenient for those in power,” said Jonathan Miller, the chief programs officer at Public Rights Project, which is representing some of the cities in the lawsuit.

    “The federal government can’t use a shutdown as an excuse to halt oversight while continuing to pursue the policies we’re challenging,” he said.

    This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.


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  • ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Reaches $48M Settlement With US DOJ in Tax Fraud Case

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    Ver allegedly failed to pay $48 million in taxes tied to his Bitcoin holdings after renouncing U.S. citizenship.

    Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin evangelist famously known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” has reached a $48 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a high-profile tax fraud case.

    The development comes after a public plea for presidential intervention in his lawsuit earlier this year.

    $48 Million DOJ Deal

    The New York Times reported on Thursday that the cryptocurrency investor has entered into a tentative deferred-prosecution agreement with federal authorities to resolve criminal charges filed against him last year.

    This follows him being accused of fraud and tax evasion in 2024 for allegedly failing to pay $48 million in taxes on his digital currency holdings. Under the terms of the agreement, the accused is required to pay the same amount to the government.

    The deal, which has yet to be filed in court and remains subject to change, says that the accusations will be dropped if he complies with all conditions set by the DOJ.

    Ver has, however, remained silent on the matter. “I’d LOVE to say more, but I will follow my tax lawyer’s advice like I’ve been doing for decades,” he wrote to NY Times reporters. “Unfortunately, that means ‘no comment,’” he added.

    The former California resident renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014 and was arrested in Spain last year following the Justice Department’s announcement of plans to extradite him. Prosecutors accused him of concealing the true value of his Bitcoin holdings to avoid paying exit taxes owed when relinquishing his citizenship.

    You may also like:

    Roger Ver Enlisted Trump Allies in Fraud Case

    During the legal proceedings, the 46-year-old reportedly hired several people with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump. The media outlet revealed that he had paid $600,000 to Roger Stone to help challenge the tax charges. He also engaged lawyers David Schoen and Christopher M. Kise, and worked with a lobbying firm run by Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard.

    In January this year, Ver had asked for assistance from the president, claiming in a social media video that he was being targeted for his political beliefs and advocacy for cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin proponent also shared that he was facing a potential sentence of over 100 years for his activism.

    Since Trump began his second term, the U.S. government’s stance on cryptocurrency has changed a lot. The SEC has dropped several lawsuits, including cases against Coinbase and other major firms, reversing the strict enforcement seen under Joe Biden’s administration.

    Early in his term, the president also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road marketplace, and later the BitMEX founders convicted of anti–money laundering violations. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao is also seeking clemency for his money-laundering charges.

    SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)

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    Wayne Jones

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