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Tag: Epstein files

  • Fact-check: falsehoods about Jeffrey Epstein files, island

    Six years after his death, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein still makes headlines. 

    He stars in conspiracy theories and falsehoods — about what government files reveal about him, the island where he trafficked girls and women, important men he knew, including Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.

    Social media users and politicians across the political spectrum engross themselves in stories — true and imagined — about Epstein’s world of sex, power, connections and wealth. 

    Epstein received lenient treatment from the criminal justice system until the Miami Herald published a 2018 extensive investigation into his case. He was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges for recruiting dozens of underage girls to his New York City mansion and Palm Beach, Florida, estate from 2002 to 2005 to engage in sex acts for money. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell Aug. 10, 2019, and investigators concluded he died by suicide.

    In November, Congress passed and Trump signed a law that requires the Justice Department to release unclassified government investigative files related to Epstein. In the lead-up to the White House’s anticipated Dec. 19 documents release, PolitiFact looked back at our coverage of Epstein-related falsehoods and conspiracy theories. 

    Falsehoods about the Epstein files, Trump’s involvement

    Trump told reporters in July that the Epstein files “were made up” by former FBI Director James Comey and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. That’s Pants on Fire.

    The files are not “made up” — they collectively represent investigative evidence and findings from law enforcement documents, victims’ testimonies and court cases.

    Neither Obama nor Biden were in office when the FBI investigated Epstein; George W. Bush and Trump were. Comey worked in the private sector during those investigative periods. Epstein was arrested on federal charges during Trump’s first administration. 

    Some Trump critics have pointed to his past links to Epstein. Trump’s former adviser Elon Musk wrote on X that Trump “is in the Epstein files.” Being mentioned in the files is not akin to criminal wrongdoing. It is well-documented that Trump and Epstein knew each other although they had a falling out some time between 2004 and 2007.

    The 2024 release of court documents in an Epstein-related lawsuit led to false social media claims about a 166-name list that alleged Epstein was connected to famous politicians, musicians and actors.

    Seventy-eight percent of the people on the list were not mentioned in the court documents. Looking through other documents, including Epstein’s private jet flight logs and his address book, PolitiFact found that the majority of the names on the list were not in those records either. Although some of the people listed had well-documented relationships with Epstein, only two had been charged with crimes.

    Falsehoods about Epstein’s island

    After 2024 election results showed Trump won the presidency, an Instagram post falsely claimed Trump had visited the island Epstein owned. But there is no documented evidence that Trump visited Epstein’s Little St. James in the Virgin Islands. 

    Flight logs show Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane at least seven times in the 1990s between Palm Beach and New York, but there’s no documented evidence showing Trump visited the island. A supposed photo of a teenager dancing with Trump on the island was fabricated.

    Social media posts previously said Clinton was photographed with young women on the island and appeared in 26 Epstein flight logs. In November, Trump made a similar statement, saying, “Bill Clinton went there supposedly 28 times.” 

    Clinton took four trips in 2002 and 2003 on Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with Clinton Foundation work, a Clinton spokesperson said.  It’s unclear how many individual flights Clinton took for those trips.

    Vanity Fair in December published an article based on multiple 2025 interviews with Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff. Wiles said “there is no evidence” that Clinton visited the island. Wiles said in an X post that “significant context was disregarded” in the article but included no examples and cited no errors of fact.

    Additional falsehoods about Trump

    Social media posts this summer falsely said Trump “made 4,725 wire transfers” to Epstein, totaling nearly $1.1 billion. The posts included as proof a clip of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., talking about 4,725 wire transfers, but he wasn’t referring to Trump. Wyden said Senate Finance Committee investigators reviewed a Treasury file on Epstein and found 4,725 wire transfers “flowing in and out of just one of Mr. Epstein’s bank accounts.” 

    In November, a Democrat used newly-released documents from Epstein’s estate to assert that Trump and Epstein remained friends after Trump was elected in 2016. 

    Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., highlighted one email exchange and said in an X post: “Trump spent his first Thanksgiving after getting elected President with Jeffrey Epstein. 2017.” That exaggerates what records show.

    In an email exchange dated Nov. 23, 2017, Epstein discussed his Thanksgiving plans with Faith Kates, cofounder of the New York-based modeling agency NEXT Management. When Kates asked who else was “down there,” seemingly referring to Florida, Epstein mentioned several names including Trump.

    It is possible Epstein was not foretelling a specific Thanksgiving Day plan but commenting about who else would be in the Florida area at that time. 

    News reports, photos, videos and White House news releases show Trump spent Thanksgiving 2017 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. PolitiFact found no proof he met with Epstein that day.

     

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

    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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  • Epstein files update: Justice Department renews bid to unseal grand jury materials

    WASHINGTON — The Justice Department renewed its request Monday to unseal Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking grand jury materials, saying Congress made clear in approving the release of investigative materials related to the prosecution of the late financier that documents such as the court records should be released.

    U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton signed the submission in Manhattan federal court asking that the judge issue an expedited ruling allowing the materials to be released now that President Donald Trump signed the action requiring the release of documents related to Epstein within 30 days.

    The Justice Department said the Congressional action overrode existing law in a way that permits the unsealing of the grand jury records.

    Judge Richard Berman previously denied a Trump administration request to make the Epstein grand jury transcripts public.

    Berman, who presided over Epstein’s 2019 case, ruled in August that a “significant and compelling reason” to deny the request and keep the transcripts sealed was that information contained in the transcripts “pales in comparison” to investigative information and materials already in the Justice Department’s possession.

    Berman wrote that the government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials “dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials” and that the grand jury testimony “is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.”

    Two other judges have also denied the public release of material from investigations into Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse of young women and girls.

    The Justice Department has said that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, “had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.”

    The agent testified on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow and a call log. The July 2 session ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein.

    Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019. He was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail on Aug. 10, 2019 in what authorities have ruled a suicide.

    The video in the player above is from an earlier report.

    Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

    AP

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  • Trump Could Save Himself by Saving Obamacare

    Trump could again draw in all the congressional leaders and force them into a deal.
    Photo: Melina Mara/Getty Images

    This isn’t the first time that we’re reading stories about Republicans taking their first baby steps toward a post–Donald Trump future. Pundits, rivals, and opponents have been looking over the horizon for signs that Trump’s grip on his party would fade since 2016. But the combination of sinking presidential job-approval ratings, terrible off-year election results, occasional acts of congressional defiance, and more-deranged-than-usual Truth Social posts has revived talk of Trump’s mojo eroding. Add in the fact that the president has run his last campaign and you can understand why the “lame duck” label is beginning to stick to him. If his so-far-faithful servants on the Supreme Court let him down in a series of big cases between now and next July, a real jailbreak atmosphere could infect the GOP and the whole world of political observers who have had to live with this turbulent man every minute for a decade.

    This trend has to be excruciating for the president, who believes he has already saved the country and has earned the right to a perpetual victory lap in which he consolidates his lofty place in global history by ending wars and cutting big investment deals wherever he goes. Instead he’s having to deal with a rebellion in the very core of his MAGA movement over his relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, and cope with widespread public concerns over the “affordability” of life in America. This last problem clearly baffles and sometimes angers Trump, who has bought his own spin about the economy being better than ever and on the brink of new heights thanks to AI.

    There is, however, something he could do right now that would reestablish his relevance, confirm his mastery of Congress, and address affordability concerns while reducing the odds of a GOP midterm apocalypse. He could reengage on the issue of extending Obamacare subsidies and buy some time for his party to finally figure out what to propose on health care.

    As you may recall, the Democratic calculation immediately before and throughout the recent record government shutdown was that Trump would negotiate a subsidy extension deal and impose it on his party. But he refused to come to the table, and instead, began denouncing Obamacare itself as though it was still 2015. He also began encouraging Republicans to go back to the poisoned well of proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare with some sort of beefed-up individual health accounts instead of fixing the current system and heading off a huge insurance-premium price spike. It has sure looked like Trump was leading his party back to the agenda that bombed in 2017 and led to the loss of the House in 2018.

    But now there are Republicans in both congressional chambers trying to steer their party and their president back to a temporary Obamacare subsidy patch that can head off electoral disaster while letting them continue to talk about some wonderful Obamacare alternative that will appear a bit down the road (say, after the 2026 midterms). As Punchbowl News reports, the talented dealmaker Katie Britt seems to be front and center in this effort:

    Republican senators have been privately lobbying President Donald Trump to support a limited short-term extension of Obamacare subsidies, arguing it would save the GOP from a 2026 drubbing and buy time for Congress to pass a longer-term health care plan that mirrors the president’s preferences.

    Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) has spoken with the president several times this week to pitch the idea, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

    Britt seems to have a special rapport with Trump based in part on her physical appearance. She’s also a shrewd politician who understands her party’s immediate needs:

    A short-term extension of the Obamacare subsidies could mean one, two or even three years, with strict eligibility crackdowns, such as income caps and anti-fraud provisions. A Trump-led push would provide political cover for vulnerable Republicans; it would also save Thune from having to deal with a divided conference.

    There’s activity in the House, too, where a bipartisan group that includes Democrats Tom Suozzi and Josh Gottenheimer and Republicans Don Bacon and Jeff Hurd have a two-year extension plan, per Punchbowl:

    The bill would add a new income cap, extending the enhanced credits for families of four earning less than $200,000 per year and phasing them out for families of four earning between $200,000 and $300,000.

    One other idea under discussion is a one-year subsidy extension with income caps and fraud-prevention changes, paired with a commission to negotiate a longer-term solution next year.

    Time’s a-wasting, though, since the Senate vote on health care that John Thune agreed to is coming up in weeks and the politics of a short-term Obamacare subsidy-extension deal are tricky. Some Democrats are fine with Republicans doing nothing and giving them a powerful midterm message. And again, there is zero way House Republicans allow a vote on, much less agree to, any Obamacare extension unless Trump calls them in and demands it, along with all sorts of rhetorical window dressing about his determination to kill Obamacare and atomize its remains sometime real soon.

    A deal is still a long shot. But Democrats need to retroactively vindicate their government-shutdown strategy, which fell short of its principal goal when Trump refused to play his part. Republicans need to get the Obamacare premium spike out of the news until November 2026. And Trump needs to show he’s still the Man, the straw that stirs every drink in American politics. The ingredients are there for the deal that has eluded everyone for so long.

    Ed Kilgore

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  • House Votes Overwhelmingly to Release Epstein Files

    In a statement, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he would take immediate action on the Epstein legislation once it’s approved by the House.

    “Once the House passes the bill to release the Epstein files today, I will move for the Senate to immediately take it up and pass it—period,” he said.

    Schumer continued, “Republicans have spent months trying to protect Donald Trump and hide what’s in the files. Americans are tired of waiting and are demanding to see the truth. If Leader Thune tries to bury the bill, I’ll stop him.”

    Intelligencer Staff

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  • House expected to vote on bill forcing release of Jeffrey Epstein case files

    The House is expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills see the House floor, it appeared a long-shot effort, especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.” But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said Republicans should vote for it. His blessing all but ensures that the House will pass the bill with an overwhelming margin, putting further pressure on the Senate to take it up.Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill if it passes both chambers of Congress, adding, “Let the Senate look at it.”Tuesday’s vote also provides a further boost to the demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself.Trump’s reversal on the Epstein filesTrump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure. On Monday, he told reporters that Epstein was connected to more Democrats and that he didn’t want the Epstein files to “detract from the great success of the Republican Party.”Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files. Adding to that pressure, several survivors of Epstein’s abuse will appear on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to push for release of the files. They also met with Johnson and rallied outside the Capitol in September, but have had to wait two months for the vote.That’s because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative business for nearly two months and also refused to swear-in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown. After winning a special election on Sept. 23, Grijalva had pledged to provide the crucial 218th vote to the petition for the Epstein files bill. But only after she was sworn into office last week could she sign her name to the discharge petition to give it majority support in the 435-member House.It quickly became apparent the bill would pass, and both Johnson and Trump began to fold. Trump on Sunday said Republicans should vote for the bill.Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who sponsored the bill alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, said Trump “got tired of me winning. He wanted to join.”How Johnson is handling the billRather than waiting until next week for the discharge position to officially take effect, Johnson is moving to hold the vote this week. He indicated the legislation will be brought to the House floor under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority.“I think it’s going to be an important vote to continue to show the transparency that we’ve delivered,” House Republican leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Monday night.House Democrats celebrated the vote as a rare win for the minority.“It’s a complete and total surrender, because as Democrats we made clear from the very beginning, the survivors and the American people deserve full and complete transparency as it relates to the lives that were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.What will the Senate do?Still, it’s not clear how the Senate will handle the bill.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has previously been circumspect when asked about the legislation and instead said he trusted the Justice Department to release information on the Epstein investigation.But what the Justice Department has released so far under Trump was mostly already public. The bill would go further, forcing the release within 30 days of all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, but not information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”Johnson also suggested that he would like to see the Senate amend the bill to protect the information of “victims and whistleblowers.”But Massie said the Senate should take into account the public clamor that forced both Trump and Johnson to back down.“If it’s anything but a genuine effort to make it better and stronger, it’ll backfire on the senators if they muck it up,” Massie said.___Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

    WASHINGTON —

    The House is expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

    When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills see the House floor, it appeared a long-shot effort, especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.” But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.

    Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said Republicans should vote for it. His blessing all but ensures that the House will pass the bill with an overwhelming margin, putting further pressure on the Senate to take it up.

    Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill if it passes both chambers of Congress, adding, “Let the Senate look at it.”

    Tuesday’s vote also provides a further boost to the demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

    A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself.

    Trump’s reversal on the Epstein files

    Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure. On Monday, he told reporters that Epstein was connected to more Democrats and that he didn’t want the Epstein files to “detract from the great success of the Republican Party.”

    Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files. Adding to that pressure, several survivors of Epstein’s abuse will appear on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to push for release of the files. They also met with Johnson and rallied outside the Capitol in September, but have had to wait two months for the vote.

    That’s because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative business for nearly two months and also refused to swear-in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown. After winning a special election on Sept. 23, Grijalva had pledged to provide the crucial 218th vote to the petition for the Epstein files bill. But only after she was sworn into office last week could she sign her name to the discharge petition to give it majority support in the 435-member House.

    It quickly became apparent the bill would pass, and both Johnson and Trump began to fold. Trump on Sunday said Republicans should vote for the bill.

    Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who sponsored the bill alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, said Trump “got tired of me winning. He wanted to join.”

    How Johnson is handling the bill

    Rather than waiting until next week for the discharge position to officially take effect, Johnson is moving to hold the vote this week. He indicated the legislation will be brought to the House floor under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority.

    “I think it’s going to be an important vote to continue to show the transparency that we’ve delivered,” House Republican leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Monday night.

    House Democrats celebrated the vote as a rare win for the minority.

    “It’s a complete and total surrender, because as Democrats we made clear from the very beginning, the survivors and the American people deserve full and complete transparency as it relates to the lives that were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

    What will the Senate do?

    Still, it’s not clear how the Senate will handle the bill.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has previously been circumspect when asked about the legislation and instead said he trusted the Justice Department to release information on the Epstein investigation.

    But what the Justice Department has released so far under Trump was mostly already public. The bill would go further, forcing the release within 30 days of all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, but not information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

    Johnson also suggested that he would like to see the Senate amend the bill to protect the information of “victims and whistleblowers.”

    But Massie said the Senate should take into account the public clamor that forced both Trump and Johnson to back down.

    “If it’s anything but a genuine effort to make it better and stronger, it’ll backfire on the senators if they muck it up,” Massie said.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

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  • How Donald Trump shifted on releasing the Epstein files

    In recent days, as the U.S. House of Representatives approached a potential vote about releasing the Epstein files, President Donald Trump pivoted on the hot button topic.

    Trump and members of his administration had sought to undermine efforts to release the files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And Trump has been dismissive of the push to make the files public, calling the case “pretty boring stuff” in July and repeatedly referring to it as a Democratic “hoax.”

    Then, on Nov. 16, he told House Republicans to vote in favor of the release. 

    His shift came after lawmakers cleared a significant hurdle Nov. 12, netting 218 signatures on a petition to force a vote on a bill to release the files within 30 days. The House is expected to vote on that bill this week. Previously, it was considered unlikely the legislation would pass in the Senate; it remains to be seen whether Trump’s latest statement will cause senators to reconsider.

    Epstein moved in the same social circles as Trump in the 1990s, including attending parties at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private Palm Beach, Florida, club. The two were photographed together in social settings multiple times. They later had a falling out, a rift that some reporters dated to late 2007.

    Palm Beach County prosecutors investigated Epstein after reports that a 14-year-old girl was molested at his mansion. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges related to soliciting prostitution from someone under 18. He received preferential treatment during the criminal investigation and served about a year in jail, largely on work release. 

    In 2018, the Miami Herald published an extensive investigation into the case, and the next year, Epstein was arrested on federal charges for recruiting dozens of underage girls to his New York City mansion and Palm Beach estate from 2002 to 2005 to engage in sex acts for money. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell Aug. 10, 2019, and investigators concluded he died by suicide.

    We asked the White House why Trump changed his stance on releasing the files. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “President Trump has been consistently calling for transparency related to the Epstein files for years — by releasing tens of thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request” and calling for investigations into “Epstein’s Democrat friends.” 

    Here’s what Trump has said in 2024 and 2025 about releasing the Epstein files.

    RELATED: Trump said Obama and Biden ‘made up’ Epstein files, but neither were in office when FBI investigated

    While campaigning in 2024, Trump said he would release the files

    In June 2024, “Fox and Friends” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump if he would declassify various files, including those related to 9/11 and former President John F. Kennedy.

    “Would you declassify the Epstein files?” Campos-Duffy said. 

    “Yeah, yeah, I would,” Trump said.

    The clip spread on social media, and Trump’s campaign account also shared it. 

    During the same interview, Trump also said, “I guess I would.” He added, “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there because there is a lot of phony stuff with that whole world, but I think I would.”

    On a September 2024 episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, during a discussion about releasing some of the Epstein documents, Trump said, “Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it.” He added that he’d be “inclined” to do it and said, “I’d have no problem with it.”

    In 2025, Trump was dismissive of the Epstein files

    Early in the second Trump administration, Trump officials—  including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who became the FBI director — said they supported releasing the files.

    In late February at a White House event, Bondi released what she called the “first phase” of “declassified Epstein files” to conservative influencers. It largely consisted of documents that had already been made public. 

    In a July 12 Truth Social post, Trump expressed frustration about the Epstein files. Speaking to reporters July 15 on the White House lawn, Trump said the files “were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama. They were made up by Biden.” We rated that claim Pants on Fire. 

    Trump said the FBI should focus on investigating other issues such as voter fraud and that his administration should “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

    In a July 16 interview with Real America’s Voice, a conservative outlet, Trump said, “I think in the case of Epstein, they’ve already looked at it and they are looking at it and I think all they have to do is put out anything credible. But you know, that was run by the Biden administration for four years.”

    On Aug. 22, a reporter asked Trump if he was in favor of releasing the files. 

    “I’m in support of keeping it open,” he said. “Innocent people shouldn’t be hurt, but I’m in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn’t care less. You got a lot of people that could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be, people — because he knew everybody in Palm Beach. I don’t know anything about that, but I have said to Pam (Bondi) and everybody else, give them everything you can give them because it’s a Democrat hoax.”

    On Sept. 3, a reporter asked Trump a question about efforts to release the Epstein files and if the Justice Department was protecting any friends or donors. 

    Trump said it was a “Democrat hoax that never ends” and “we’ve given thousands of pages of files.”

    This month, Trump called for releasing the files

    Trump came out in support of releasing the files after it became clear the House was headed in that direction.

    The House Oversight Committee on Nov. 12 released about 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate.

    Trump directed prosecutors to investigate Democrats and told Republicans to vote in favor of releasing the files. 

    Trump has often noted Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton. In a Nov. 14 Truth Social post, Trump asked the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s involvement with Clinton. 

    Typically, prosecutors do not release files during an ongoing investigation, so Trump’s announcement raised questions about whether the Justice Department will withhold certain files even if Congress votes to release them.

    When a reporter asked Trump on Nov. 14 about releasing the files, he said, “I don’t care about it, released or not.” 

    Two days later, in a Nov. 16 post, Trump said, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown.’’

    RELATED: The Epstein files, Trump and Congress: What happens next?

    RELATED: Timeline: What the Trump administration has said about Epstein files release

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  • Video of Trump patting Clinton’s crotch is AI made

    When then-President Bill Clinton and real estate mogul Donald Trump crossed paths at the 2000 U.S. Open in New York, White House photographer William Vasta snapped a picture as the men smiled widely side-by-side in a half embrace.

    He caught them in mid-motion, with Trump’s right arm extended toward Clinton, as if he were coming in for a full hug or finishing a handshake. In the frame, Trump’s right hand hangs near Clinton’s crotch. 

    Fast-forward 25 years. Trump is now president and artificial intelligence is muddying reality. A video using the image shows Trump repeatedly patting Clinton’s crotch and stomach as both men laugh. But Vasta told PolitiFact the video isn’t authentic. 

    “It’s totally fake,” he said. “From what I remember, no one touched anything.”

    Vasta said the Sept. 9, 2000, still image showed the two men posing for pictures in a private suite at the tennis tournament. They might just have shaken hands or they might have been arranging themselves for a group photo.

    But the scene in this video is fabricated. 

    “It’s easy to misinterpret what is happening in a still image,” Vasta said.

    (Screenshot from TikTok)

    The video made rounds after newly released documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein included an email exchange in which Epstein’s brother mentioned someone called “Bubba.” Some speculated it was a reference to Clinton, whose nickname is Bubba, but Epstein’s brother told The Advocate that’s wrong.

    Vasta said the video “clearly is a derivative” of his still images. The video’s lighting matches Vasta’s personal lighting style for still photography, he said. Both the photo and the video show the same shadow Trump’s hat casts on his face, for example. 

    But in 2000, it was common for indoor videographers to use direct lighting, Vasta said, which means the lighting then captured on video wouldn’t show the same lighting as his photographs from that day.

    At the time, video was still a nascent medium and even the White House videography team had limited access, Vasta said. He said he doesn’t remember any videographers in the suite and noted that still photography cameras didn’t have video functionality back then.

    Manjeet Rege, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence, analyzed the video and concluded it was AI generated based on the real photograph of Trump and Clinton. 

    “The most prominent sign is the static start artifact where the video begins with a perfectly realistic high quality frame that suddenly animates with unnatural motion which is a hallmark of image to video AI tools,” Rege said. 

    During the short clip, the woman standing behind Trump disappears or fades into the scenery, he said. Inconsistent background images strongly signal AI use.

    Rege also ran the video through Attestiv, a forensic analysis tool designed to detect media manipulation. For that clip, the tool reported an AI suspicion rating of nearly 100%, he said. 

    The Clinton Presidential Library released the U.S. Open photos in 2016 in response to a Politico Freedom of Information Act request as Trump sought the presidency against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Politico reported that the photos underscored “just how chummy Trump once was with the president and his wife Hillary.”

    The publication didn’t report that the photos showed Trump groping the commander-in-chief. Videos that show Trump touching Clinton’s crotch are AI generated. Claims that they’re authentic videos are False.

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

    RELATED: The Epstein files, Trump and Congress: What happens next?

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  • Amid reported pressure from Trump, Boebert keeps name on Epstein discharge petition

    DENVER — Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has not removed her name from the discharge petition forcing a vote in the U.S.House of Representatives to release the Jeffery Epstein files, despite reports of intense pressure from high-level Republicans to do so.

    Epstein is a convicted sex offender and sex trafficker who died by suicide in jail in 2019. For years, politicians have fought to have files related to his crimes released to the public.

    After reports Boebert met with members of the Trump administration who were trying to encourage her to remove her signature from the petition, the 218th signature needed to force a vote on releasing all the Epstein files was secured with the swearing in of Arizona Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.

    Denver7 spoke with Metropolitan State University of Denver political science chair Dr. Robert Preuhs about what happens next.

    J. Scott Applewhite/AP

    Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks to reporters as members of the House Second Amendment Caucus criticize a series of Democratic measure to curb gun violence in the wake of the mass shootings at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery in Buffalo, N.Y., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    “What happens next is that the House of Representatives will vote on that bill. The speaker has said they would do that next week. Then it’s an actual bill, so it has to go through the Senate. Usually needs to then pass the usual 60 majority,” Preuhs said. “Then, it goes to the Senate, where it will likely face the need to get 60 votes to close the filibuster, and then that’s procedural, and then a full vote, which is a simple majority, and then it needs to go and be signed by the President, just like any other bill.”

    President Donald Trump would then decide whether to sign or veto the bill.

    On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released an additional 20,000 pages of documents members received from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.

    Those documents include emails in which Epstein discussed his relationship to the president. The White House has called those emails “a hoax.”

    • Scripps News Group has more on what those pages of documents contained. View their report in the video player below:

    Lawmakers release more emails alleging ties between Trump and Epstein

    “I think a lot of this has to do with 2026 elections. You have to keep in mind that the Democrats are in favor of this. It doesn’t look good from these early emails,” Preuhs said, adding the batch of documents will likely hurt both parties — not just Republicans. “But the big difference is that we have a sitting President Trump, who’s been named in some of these emails and maybe named in some of the more additional documents, and so that’s really the target.”

    Preuhs said no matter how the issue progresses, it will likely continue to be used as a political sticking point ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

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  • What Happens After Congress Votes on the Epstein-Files Bill

    Adelita Grijalva, the 218th signatory on the Epstein Files Tranparency Act.
    Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images

    This afternoon, Mike Johnson finally administered the oath of office to new Arizona Democratic congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. The Speaker held off this moment for well over a month under the guise of not wanting to do serious business while the government was shut down (the House wasn’t technically in recess, and Johnson had sworn in Republicans at similar moments earlier this year).

    Grijalva won the seat vacated by her father’s death in a September 23 special election. Her delayed swearing-in was generally understood to have been attributable to her pledge to become the 218th signatory on a discharge petition to force a House vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a piece of legislation co-sponsored by Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna that the White House would love to consign to the bottom of the sea. It would force the release of whatever the Justice Department has on the late sexual predator and his associates.

    Grijalva has now signed the petition, and last-minute efforts by Trump himself to get one or more of the four Republicans on the petition to withdraw their names failed. So this triggers a process that Johnson can only do so much to delay. Politico explains:

    The completion of the discharge petition, a rarely used mechanism to sidestep the majority party leadership, will trigger a countdown for the bill to hit the House floor. It will still take seven legislative days for the petition to ripen, after which Johnson will have two legislative days to schedule a vote. Senior Republican and Democratic aides estimate a floor vote will come the first week of December, after the Thanksgiving recess.

    Actually, Johnson has already indicated he’ll put the bill on the floor next week, not taking the extra time that would push the vote into December.

    The Speaker may be able to play some games in how the House votes on the Epstein-files bill via his control of the Rules Committee, which will deal with possible amendments and all sorts of timing issues. But the whole point of a discharge petition is to tie leadership’s hands, which is why it’s used so rarely.

    If it passes, it would create some interesting issues in the Senate, which will be soon be setting up some sort of vote on extending Obamacare premium subsidies, as promised by John Thune as part of the deal to reopen the federal government. High drama on two issues in the same time frame will be a moment of political peril for Republicans. They will likely display some of their most unpopular prejudices: indifference to the plight of Americans facing much higher health-care costs and a protective attitude toward Donald Trump and his possible implication with really bad stuff in the Epstein files.

    It’s unclear what the Senate would do with the Epstein Files bill. Administration allies could filibuster it and block it with 41 votes, though that would be a bit ironic given Trump’s own recent attacks on the filibuster itself. Still, even if both chambers pass the legislation, Trump would have to sign it, which isn’t happening.

    As votes are teed up in House or Senate, there will be competitive leaks of Epstein-files material by each party (such as the Epstein emails mentioning Trump that House Oversight Committee Democrats released today) either showing there’s smoke and fire or that it’s all a nothingburger. The White House and its congressional allies cannot be too heavy-handed in dismissing demands for more disclosure given the longtime importance of Epstein in various MAGA conspiracy theories. And even if Republicans can minimize disclosure, it’s not going to be helpful to their midterm election prospects to have these issues being broadly and actively discussed in 2026. So they will likely handle the Massie-Khanna bill with fire tongs and try to dispose of it as quickly as they can.


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    Ed Kilgore

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  • What’s in the Epstein Emails? Trump News & More Big Reveals

    Photo: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

    Donald Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein problem came roaring back to life on Wednesday, when members of the House released 23,000 pages of documents from the late sex offender’s estate.

    House Democrats released three emails that suggested Trump knew all about Epstein’s sex trafficking, though he’s always denied any knowledge of his former friend’s crimes. An email Epstein sent to journalist Michael Wolff in 2019 said of Trump, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” In another 2011 email to his accomplice Ghislane Maxwell, Epstein claimed Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of the sex trafficking victims.

    Hours later, with the House expected to move forward in an effort to force the release of the Epstein files, Republicans released tens of thousands of Epstein documents, which were obtained by a subpoena in August.

    Here’s a roundup, which we’ll keep updated, on the big bombshells, wild accusations, and embarrassing chatter in the new trove of Epstein emails.

    In an email sent to Maxwell in April 2011, Epstein wrote, “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [REDACTED VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there”

    Maxwell replied, “I have been thinking about that…”

    Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

    At the time Trump was a reality TV star and businessman, not a politician. As the New York Times reported, around this time “Epstein was emailing staff members about negative press coverage he had recently received about the abuse that took place inside his home in Florida.”

    In a January 2019 email to Wolff, which was partly redacted, Epstein mentioned Mar-a-Lago, then said, “trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” adding, “of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislane to stop.”

    Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

    In the months prior to this email Wolff had authored a book about Trump and the Miami Herald had published a series of reports on the lenient 2008 plea deal Epstein struck with federal prosecutors in Florida. In the summer of 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and died in a Manhattan prison weeks later.

    On December 15, 2015, the night of a GOP presidential primary debate, Wolff told Epstein that he’d heard CNN was “planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards.”

    Epstein replied, “If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”

    Wolff suggested Epstein should “let him hang himself.” “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable P.R. and political currency” he wrote, saying that could later be used to “hang” Trump later, or “save him, generating a debt.”

    Trump was not asked about Epstein during the debate; it’s unclear if he was asked about him later that night.

    Photo: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

    In April 2016, a Reuters reporter reached out to Epstein attorney Martin Weinberg for comment on a story about a woman, who went by the pseudonym Katie Johnson, who had filed a lawsuit accusing Epstein and Trump of raping her in 1994, when she was 13.

    Epstein forward the exchange to Michael Wolff with the note “here we go.” Wolff replied, “Well, I guess if there’s anybody who can wave thus [sic] away, it’s Donald. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

    Epstein then denied the allegation, saying “no, obviously someone who is deranged, but lets see, it will be released by reuters this afternoon supposedly.”

    (Johnson filed three suits over the same rape allegation; two were dismissed and then she withdrew the third case days before the 2016 election. As Vox noted at the time, the circumstances around the cases were bizarre.)

    In a December 2015 email to Landon Thomas Jr., who was then a reporter at Times, Epstein claimed Trump was so distracted by the women that he almost walked into a glass door.

    “Read the [BuzzFeed article] re my airplane logs and hawaiian tropic contest,” Epstein wrote. “Have them ask my houseman about donald almost walking through the door leaving his nose print on the glass as young women were swimming in the pool and he was so focused he walked straight into the door.”

    In another December 2015 exchange, Landon Thomas Jr. pointed to a quote from his 2002 profile of Epstein for New York Magazine, saying that now everyone thinks he has “juicy info on you and Trump.”

    Epstein replied, “would you like photso [sic] of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.” Thomas answers, “Yes!!!”

    The journalist then seemed to urge Epstein to go public about his relationship with Trump, highlighting a statement from the Trump campaign to BuzzFeed denying their connection. “I am serious man – for the good of the nation why not try to get some of this out there. I would not do it myself, but would pass on to a political reporter.”

    Epstein replied with a link to an article about Norwegian heiress and businesswoman Celina Midelfart, with the comment, ” my 20 year old girlfriend in 93, that after two years i gave to donald.”

    In September 2017, Landon Thomas Jr. warned Epstein that John Connolly was “digging around again” for a project about him. Earlier that year Connolly, investigative journalist and former NYPD detective, published the book Filthy Rich: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein — The Billionaire’s Sex Scandal with co-author James Patterson.

    While discussing a 2018 New York Times opinion piece about Trump’s first impeachment with Kathy Ruemmler, former White House counsel to President Obama, Epstein said, “you see, i know how dirty donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. what it means to have your fixer flip.”

    In December 2018, Epstein compared Trump to a mafia don in identical messages sent to Kathy Ruemmler and his attorney Reid Weingarten.

    He said, “you might want to tell your dem friends that treating Trump like a mafia don, ignores the fact that he has great dangerous power. tightening the noose too slowly , risks a very bad situation. gambino was never the commander in chief. there was little gambino could do as the walls closed in not so with this maniac.”

    Weingarten agreed, saying Trump was starting to “behave very erratically.”

    Epstein responded, “borderline insane. and corroborated by some that are close.”

    In a 2017 email to Epstein, the former Treasury secretary and Harvard president made a joke about women being stupid, predicted President Trump’s “world will collapse,” then lamented, “I’m trying to figure out why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago you can’t work at a network or think tank.”

    In another 2017 email to Larry Summers, Epstein said, “recall ive told you ,, – i have ment some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes-dangerous.”

    About a month before Trump met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in 2018, Epstein suggested that Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, should talk to him for insight into Trump.

    “I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein told Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway who was leading the Council of Europe at the time, per Politico.

    Epstein claimed he’d previously advised Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, who died in 2017.

    “Churkin was great,” Epstein wrote. “He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.”

    On July 16, 2018, the day Trump met with Putin, Larry Summers asked Epstein, “Do the Russians have stuff on Trump?,” adding “Today was appalling even by his standards.”

    Epstein replied, “Not that i know. I would doubt it. He was totally predictable!! Not sure why it is not obvious, can explain on the phone.”

    In another email, Epstein said his email was full of similar complaints about Trump’s meeting with Putin.

    “I’m sure his view is that it went super well,” he told Summers. “he thinks he has charmed his adversary. Admittedly he has no idea of symbolism. He has no idea of most things.”

    This post has been updated.


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    Margaret Hartmann

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  • ‘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.

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

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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.

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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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  • 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.

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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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