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Tag: Epstein files

  • ‘Pathetic RINO’: Donald Trump insults his own party’s rep yet again, because he dared to speak against the president | The Mary Sue

    Donald Trump‘s favorite hobby after singing his own praises is hurling unprovoked insults at his political rivals. This week, he took to Truth Social for another public tantrum, targeting Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie.

    Massie is one of the few GOP politicians still capable of independent thought, but that doesn’t sit right with the MAGA boss, who prefers to keep his administration on a leash. However, the Kentucky rep has long refused to rubber-stamp Trump’s agenda. He voted against the administration’s massive spending and tax package, questioned military strikes in Iran, and, most recently, called for the declassification of federal Epstein investigation files.

    Trump, who once promised to release those same files, has since changed course. And now the congressman pushing for transparency is suddenly a “RINO.” But out of his god-complex, Trump cannot take criticism. So, in his latest rant that reads like an insecure breakup letter written in all caps, he decided to label Massie a “Third Rate Congressman,” calling for him to be “thrown out of office” and endorsing Ed Gallrein for the position instead:

    “Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky, a place I love, and won big SIX TIMES, must be thrown out of office, ASAP! The incredible people of Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District gave us a mandate to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and the person that will help us do that is Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Fifth Generation Kentucky Farmer, Captain Ed Gallrein, a true America First Patriot.”

    This marks the second time in four months that Trump has publicly humiliated Massie, branding him “a negative force,” “weak, ineffective,” and a “lightweight Congressman” in his earlier post. He declared back then that “MAGA doesn’t want him, doesn’t know him, and doesn’t respect him,” ostracizing the republican from his own party. But the internet didn’t miss the pattern. One user on X summarized the moment perfectly:

    “Each day it becomes clearer that the Republicans are trying to avoid a vote on the Epstein files. Johnson hasn’t called a House session in months, they won’t swear in Grijalva, and Trump just attacked Thomas Massie on social media.”

    Another saw the crystal clear reason Trump wants Massie out of office: “Trump wants Massie thrown out of office because he’s the only one of the bunch who thinks a pedophile doesn’t belong in the Oval Office.” The backlash highlights the increasingly obvious truth that the GOP isn’t a political party anymore, but a loyalty test. Anyone who questions Trump’s whims is instantly branded a traitor to MAGA.

    But Trump’s constant attacks on his political rivals expose the huge movement he’s leading, which is devouring its own to protect one man’s ego. For a party that claims to love “freedom,” it’s doing a remarkable job of punishing anyone who exercises it.

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    Kopal

    Staff Writer

    Kopal primarily covers politics for The Mary Sue. Off the clock, she switches to DND mode and escapes to the mountains.

    Kopal

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  • Epstein Files Will Turn the Shutdown Fight Into a Problem for Republicans

    What could go wrong here?
    Photo: Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

    On September 23, the federal government will be exactly one week away from shutting down absent congressional action.

    There’s another thing about that date you should know: It’s when Democrat Adelita Grijalva will almost certainly be elected to the House seat in Arizona that was made vacant by her father’s death earlier this year. As soon as she is sworn in, she’s expected to join every other House Democrat in signing on to what’s known as a “discharge petition” that will bring the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill to force the Department of Justice to immediately release all the files in its possession, to the House floor for a vote. With four Republicans already signed on, this should bring the total number of petitioners to 218, a majority, giving Speaker Mike Johnson and the congressional leadership no choice but to give it a vote. The timing couldn’t be much worse, particularly for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

    The government-shutdown negotiations will be complex and time consuming, but the dynamics generally favor Republicans. They’ll be in a position to draft the measure that will be the vehicle for avoiding a shutdown and can make it as tempting or repellent to Democrats as they choose, depending on how they want the crisis to end. And that’s assuming they want it to end without a shutdown that many of them would happily greet. Democrats will be in a position to kill another spending bill with a Senate filibuster, or to cut a bipartisan deal if one is on offer, or to “cave” again and earn the fury of the party base. Some Democrats think an agreement to extend the Obamacare premium subsidies due to expire at the end of the year would be a sufficient trophy, for instance. The White House will dictate the GOP strategy during the government-shutdown talks, and Republicans will fall in line. That’s an asset Democrats can only envy, and it’s why they probably aren’t going to “win” the spending negotiations.

    The Epstein files legislation, however, unites Democrats and divides Republicans, precisely at the time Republican solidarity will be more essential than ever. Word is that the White House is already putting the screws to the four House Republicans who have signed the discharge petition. One of them, Thomas Massie, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Democrat Ro Khanna, is a professional troublemaker who has already crossed Trump in the past and survived a MAGA primary challenge. Two of the other three, Lauren Boebert and her frenemy Marjorie Taylor Greene, have longstanding ties to the QAnon conspiracy crowd for whom cabals of sexual predators are the keys to understanding all world affairs. And the fourth, Nancy Mace, is running for governor of South Carolina and accusing one of her rivals of going easy on sexual-abuse offenders, including her own former fiancé. These four will be nearly impossible to move on the Epstein bill and Republicans can’t use too much force without risking their support for the spending measures needed to keep Democrats on the defensive and out of power.

    Successful discharge petitions are so rare that the precise rules for dealing with them are a bit murky. Johnson could probably exercise some delaying tactics prior to the vote and, even if it passes, getting the Justice Department to comply over Trump’s objections would be difficult to put it mildly. Only Trump himself probably knows exactly how much damaging material is in danger of floating into the atmosphere like radioactive fallout. But after all these months when everything Trump did was described as a “distraction” from the Epstein files by those who were certain it was deadly for him, the Epstein files themselves are proving to be the biggest distraction of all.


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    Ed Kilgore

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  • Alleged Trump birthday letter to Epstein: What we know

    On Sept. 8, the House Oversight Committee released a copy of a lewd letter allegedly written in 2003 by President Donald Trump for deceased sex offender Jeffery Epstein’s 50th birthday. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter, but the letter itself was not published at that time. 

    The Committee received the letter, and the birthday book it was featured in, from Epstein’s estate. It was part of a trove of documents subpoenaed by the committee, some of which were released to the public in a redacted form.

    In July, Trump denied writing the letter, called it a “fake thing” and said “I never wrote a picture in my life.” Trump then sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners for libel describing the letter as “nonexistent.”

    The letter shows the outline of a woman’s body with breasts, references to a “wonderful secret,” a scripted imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein and what appeared to be Trump’s signature. 



    (House Oversight Committee)

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    The Washington Post’s reporting contradicted Trump’s statement that he “never wrote a picture.” Reporters identified several drawings Trump made over the years, some of which were publicly auctioned. 

    Now that the letter is public, the White House has focused on its signature.

    Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Sept. 8 on X, “It’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.” 

    In a Sept. 9 press briefing, Leavitt said, “The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter.”

    Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich also posted versions of Trump’s signature on official documents as proof the letter’s signature was not Trump’s. But a New York Times comparison of his signature from other personal letters around the same period shows a remarkable similarity. 

    Here are some examples, as reported by CNN: A signed donation letter to Rudy Giuliani in 1996, a 1999 thank you note to Larry King following his father’s death, and a 1995 letter to a Palm Beach resident that was auctioned for over $600.  

     

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  • Judge denies Justice Department request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts

    By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in New York who presided over the sex trafficking case against the late financier Jeffrey Epstein has rejected the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts.

    The ruling Wednesday by federal Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan came after the judge presiding over the case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, also turned down the government’s request.

    Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her conviction on sex trafficking charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls and young women.

    Epstein died in jail awaiting trial. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

    Berman said the information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”

    According to Berman’s ruling, no victims testified before the Epstein grand jury. The only witness, the judge wrote, was an FBI agent “who had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.” The agent testified over two days, on June 18 and July 2, 2019. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow shown during the June 18 session and a call log shown during the July 2 session, which ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein. Both of those will also remain sealed, Berman ruled.

    The Associated Press

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  • Justice Department to begin giving Congress files from Jeffrey Epstein investigation, lawmaker says

    By ERIC TUCKER

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has agreed to provide to Congress documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, a key House lawmaker said Monday in announcing a move that appears to avert, at least temporarily, a potential separation of powers clash.

    Associated Press

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