Friday, December 19, 2025. As the release of the Epstein documents finally is upon us Republicans in Congress scurry off like roaches.
MS NOW's Ali Vitali notes this morning, "And today is the deadline for the Justice Dept to release its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."
Jeffrey Epstein
was a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.” He and Donald J.
Trump also had “no formal relationship.” They went to a lot of the same
parties. But they “did not socialize together.” They were never really
friends, just business acquaintances. Or “there was no relationship” at
all. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
For
nearly a quarter-century, Mr. Trump and his representatives have
offered shifting, often contradictory accounts of his relationship with
Mr. Epstein, one sporadically captured by society photographers and in
news clips before they fell out sometime in the mid-2000s. Closely
scrutinized since Mr. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell during Mr.
Trump’s first term, their friendship — and questions about what the
president knew of Mr. Epstein’s abuses — now threatens to consume his
second one.
The controversy has shaken
Mr. Trump’s iron hold on his base like no other. Loyal supporters have
demanded to know why the administration has not moved more quickly to
unearth the convicted sex offender’s remaining secrets. In November,
after resisting months of pressure to release more Epstein-related
documents held by the federal government — and facing an almost
unheard-of revolt among Republican lawmakers — Mr. Trump reversed
himself, signing legislation that requires their release beginning this
week.
Mr. Epstein had a talent for
acquiring powerful friends, some of whom have become ensnared in the
continuing scrutiny of his crimes. For months, Mr. Trump has labored
furiously to shift himself out of the frame, dismissing questions about
his relationship with Mr. Epstein as a “Democrat hoax” and imploring his
supporters to ignore the matter entirely. An examination of their
history by The New York Times has found no evidence implicating Mr.
Trump in Mr. Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of minors.
Beginning in the late 1980s, the two men
forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the
impression that they were each other’s closest friend, The Times found.
Mr. Epstein was then a little-known financier who cultivated mystery
around the scope and source of his self-made wealth.
Mr. Trump, six years older, was a real estate scion who relished
publicity and exaggerated his successes. Neither man drank or did drugs.
They pursued women in a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were
currency.
Over nearly two decades, as
Mr. Trump cut a swath through the party circuits of New York and
Florida, Mr. Epstein was perhaps his most reliable wingman. During the
1990s and early 2000s, they
prowled Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan mansion and Mr. Trump’s Plaza Hotel, at
least one of Mr. Trump’s Atlantic City casinos and both their Palm
Beach homes. They visited each other’s offices and spoke often by phone,
according to other former Epstein employees and women who spent time in
his homes.
At THE NEW REPUBLIC, Hafiz Rashid covers another photo release:
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released new photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate Thursday, and in some of them, handwritten lines from the book Lolita are visible on the bodies of unidentified girls or women.
One
of the photos shows “Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of
three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth” written on
someone’s collarbone, above her chest. A passage on a foot reads, “She
was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock.”
“She was Lola in slacks” is visible on another person’s body, and a
message written on someone’s neck reads, “She was Dolly at school.” And
visible, written vertically along a person’s back, is the line, “She was
Delores on the dotted line.”
The photos were released through a Dropbox account, and nothing
in the upload indicates who the photos are of or when they were taken. Lolita,
written in 1955 by Vladimir Nabakov, is about a professor who kidnaps
and sexually abuses a 12-year-old girl, which seems on the nose for a
convicted sex offender and trafficker like Epstein.
Also covering the photos is THE NEWSHOUR's Liz Landers:
Around 70 photographs come from Epstein’s computer and email accounts,
and shed more light on his lifestyle and social circles. The
photographs, among 95,000 handed over by Epstein’s estate last week,
were provided to the committee without context.
One image shows former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates standing next to a
woman, whose face is redacted. Another shows Noam Chomsky seated next to
Epstein on a plane. Several images show a social gathering over a meal
and several faces of powerful or public figures, including Epstein. A
separate image that appears to be from the same room shows Google
co-founder Sergey Brin and New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is
a regular contributor to the PBS News Hour. The photos are undated.
A New York Times spokesperson said in a statement, “As a journalist,
David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important
business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened
at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after
this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”
This photo release is the latest from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, not from the Justice Dept. Why are they releasing this? Is it helpful? Those are the sort of questions we got yesterday when we were speaking.
Is it helpful?
I don't know that yesterday's release of photos was? There's enough to cover and curate from the last release. And to do a release before the Justice Dept does their own seems a bit of a distraction and possibly overwhelming the news cycle.
But there's a possibility that the Committee members are signaling to the Justice Dept what they have access to. Pam Bondi asks, for example, "Do we have to release this?" An underling replies, "They've probably got it already AG Bimbo, they've released photos and documents in the surrounding timeline."
Something like that would be a good reason for yesterday's release.
Otherwise, you risk overwhelming people with information.
It gets to be too much to process.
Which is why, if Bondi had a brain, she'd be releasing everything. A massive data dump would overwhelm outlets and commentators. A selective trickle only allows them to focus more sharply on what is released.
Robert Tait (GUARDIAN) explains:
After months of delay and stalling, the Trump administration
is legally obliged to publish a massive archive of documents that could
shine fresh light on Epstein’s misdeeds and his connections with key
public figures, including Donald Trump himself.
Under the terms of the Epstein Files Transparency Act –
passed by Congress in November following months of resistance from the
White House – Pam Bondi, the attorney general, must release by midnight
on Friday “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and
investigative materials” linked to Epstein, his jailed associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and individuals named in connection with his criminal activities.
Stephen Fowler (NPR's MORNING EDITION) adds:
More specifically, the law targets the release of information about
individuals affiliated with Epstein's criminal activities, any decisions
not to charge Epstein and his associates and "entities (corporate,
nonprofit, academic, or governmental) with known or alleged ties to
Epstein's trafficking or financial networks."
The files include "more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical
evidence" in the FBI's custody and internal Justice Department records
from criminal cases against Epstein. Some files include photos and
videos of Epstein's accusers, including minors, and other depictions of
abuse that will be withheld.
The text of the law that passed Congress with near-unanimous support
also reads that "no record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on
the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity,
including to any government official, public figure, or foreign
dignitary."
Ahead of the release, Congressional Republicans tended to scatter like roaches. One who didn't is US House Rep ThomasMassie.
Complicating matters is Epstein's partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell who is still alive and is desperate for attention.
Jeffrey
Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell
asked a federal judge on Wednesday to set aside her sex trafficking
conviction and free her from a 20-year prison sentence, saying
“substantial new evidence” has emerged proving that constitutional
violations spoiled her trial.
Maxwell
maintained in a habeas petition she has promised to file since August
that information that would have resulted in her exoneration at her 2021
trial was withheld and false testimony was presented to the jury.
She said the cumulative effect of the constitutional violations resulted in a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
Maxwell’s
filing comes at a politically sensitive moment, as the Justice
Department faces a congressional deadline to release records related to
federal investigations into Epstein.
Courts in
New York and Florida have recently authorized the unsealing of some
grand jury materials connected to those cases, increasing public
scrutiny of how prosecutors handled evidence over many years.
[. . .]
Maxwell
was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and related offenses for
helping her former partner, Jeffrey Epstein, recruit, groom and
transport underage girls for sexual abuse between the mid-1990s and
early 2000s.
The filing marks Maxwell’s latest attempt to overturn a sentence that has already survived multiple appeals.
Maxwell
who is representing herself?
On those grounds alone it should be
denied. She's been on trial, she's been convicted. With legal help
multiple appeals have been filed. She comes from money and her trashy
family still has money. So if this was important to her -- this
countless appeal -- she should spring for an attorney. Our overtaxed
legal system doesn't have time to humor rich people who are too cheap
to pay for their constant appeals.
And that's before you look at the
items she's listed which supposedly count as 'new evidence,' sorry, most
of that will be tossed right out of court. And should be. Then she
should be told that she has exhausted the system and wasted the court's
time. If she wanted to talk, she should have taken the stand at her
trial. She's trash, she's garbage and she's a criminal who has been
convicted for her crimes and keeps trying to find a loophole. She had
her day in court. 20 years was a generous sentence for her crimes.
She's now blackmailed her way into a cushy Club Fed prison. Rules have
been repeatedly broken to make her more comfortable. It's time for her
to shut up and stop adding stress to an already clogged court system.
You're
a pedophile, Ghislaine. The only thing that can maybe change that is a
time machine that lets you go back and alter your evil ways.
You
granted no appeal from any of the girls and women you tried to destroy so
have a lot of nerve pretending yet again that you're the injured party.
If videos aren't showing above, I'm sorry. I dictate the snapshot but I have gone in and done ten minutes of HTML work trying to get them to work. I don't know what's going on there. It looks like, and I could be wrong, whatever's effecting it is not impacting GOOGLECHROME browser.
Okay, let's note this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
***LETTER HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined
Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and
Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, and
18 of their Senate colleagues in a letter
urging the Trump administration to immediately address and reverse the
staffing crisis at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which has
lost the capacity to properly manage most of America’s wildlife refuges —
putting in jeopardy the ability to protect endangered wildlife species
under the Service’s care.
In their letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and FWS
Director Brian Nesvik, the Senators highlight the direct impacts cuts
in staffing are having on the 573 national wildlife refuges across the
country — with almost 60 percent of them lacking the resources and staff
needed to fulfill their missions.
“Americans of all backgrounds love their public lands, and
protecting wildlife refuges is a bipartisan cause that brings together
environmentalists, sportsmen, and all who enjoy the outdoor recreation
opportunities provided by America’s National Wildlife Refuge System. The
Refuge System is the only federal network of public lands that is
primarily dedicated to the conservation, management, and restoration of
fish, wildlife, and plant species and their habitats,” the senators wrote.
The senators also emphasized that operating with few or no employees
has also hurt disaster resilience because FWS employees carry out
projects to control flooding and prevent catastrophic wildfires. “This
downward trend did not begin under the Trump administration. Yet the
current administration has not only shown an unwillingness to address
the problem—it has made the situation far worse. The President’s Fiscal
Year 26 budget request slashed funding for FWS’s overall Resource
Management account, which included a proposed 22 percent cut to the
National Wildlife Refuge System. Moreover, the administration has
indicated that it is planning more firings for public land agencies,” the senators continued.
“The consequences of slashing the FWS workforce are already being felt
across the nation. The collapse of staffing capacity within the Refuge
System leaves refuges open to damage, vandalism, flooding, fire, and
loss of protection and conservation measures for threatened and
endangered wildlife species who rely on these refuges for survival. FWS
staffing losses also hurt resilience because FWS employees carry out
projects to control flooding and prevent catastrophic wildfires.”
In addition to Senators Murray and Schiff, the letter was signed by
U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard
Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mazie Hirono
(D-HI), Edward Markey (D-MA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Jeff
Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen
(D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen
(D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Senator Murray is a leading voice pushing back against the Trump administration’s attacks on federal agencies. In February, she released a fact sheet
on how staffing cuts at federal agencies under the Trump administration
would jeopardize critical functions of agencies, including the 2,300
employees laid off at the Department of the Interior and FWS at the
beginning of this year. She and U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (D,
WA-02) led the Washington Democratic Congressional delegation in a letter
to Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in August, urging him
to reverse the Trump administration’s disastrous decision to eliminate
funding for Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups (RFEGs), a blow to
widely supported salmon recovery and habitat restoration efforts that
also impacted FWS staffing. As Vice Chair of the Appropriations
Committee, Senator Murray has consistently fought to secure funding for
fish and wildlife conservation projects in Washington state and across
the country.
The lawmakers’ full letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Burgum and Director Nesvik:
We write to sound the alarm on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s
(FWS) staffing crisis, which is causing particular harm to the National
Wildlife Refuge System. A startling amount of staff and expertise needed
to manage the Refuge System and protect America’s wildlife have been
lost due to the administration’s firings, early retirement programs, and
other efforts to push staff out of FWS. The agency is losing the
capacity to manage America’s wildlife refuges and struggling to even
keep them open. We ask that you provide Congress with your plan to
address FWS’s staffing crisis and immediately act to ensure that FWS and
the Refuge System have the staff and resources needed to guarantee a
safe, quality experience for visitors to the Refuge System and to
protect the invaluable wildlife species under the agency’s care.
Americans of all backgrounds love their public lands, and protecting
wildlife refuges is a bipartisan cause that brings together
environmentalists, sportsmen, and all who enjoy the outdoor recreation
opportunities provided by America’s National Wildlife Refuge System. The
Refuge System is the only federal network of public lands that is
primarily dedicated to the conservation, management, and restoration of
fish, wildlife, and plant species and their habitats. There are 573
national wildlife refuges across the country, with a footprint in every
state. The Refuge System also utilizes a unique conservation approach
through community-based initiatives that provide recreational and
sporting opportunities and other localized needs. According to FWS,
wildlife refuge recreation generates $3.2 billion in local economic
activity each year. Every dollar that is invested in the Refuge System
generates $3.12 in U.S. economic activity, a tremendous return on
investment for the American taxpayer.
However, according to recently released internal agency documents,
almost 60 percent of the nation’s wildlife refuges lack the resources
and staff needed to fulfill their missions. FWS has experienced a
staggering 29 percent loss of employees who work for the Refuge System.
This downward trend did not begin under the Trump administration. Yet
the current administration has not only shown an unwillingness to
address the problem—it has made the situation far worse. The President’s
Fiscal Year 26 budget request slashed funding for FWS’s overall
Resource Management account, which included a proposed 22 percent cut to
the National Wildlife Refuge System. Moreover, the administration has
indicated that it is planning more firings for public land agencies.
Staffing reductions have negatively impacted national wildlife
refuges across the country, forcing multiple wildlife refuges to operate
with few or no employees. FWS’s internal estimates indicate that 9
percent of wildlife refuges are now classified as “shuttered.” It
appears that FWS has abandoned these refuges, as there may not be a
single employee on the ground to manage the refuge.
The consequences of slashing the FWS workforce are already being felt
across the nation. The collapse of staffing capacity within the Refuge
System leaves refuges open to damage, vandalism, flooding, fire, and
loss of protection and conservation measures for threatened and
endangered wildlife species who rely on these refuges for survival. FWS
staffing losses also hurt resilience because FWS employees carry out
projects to control flooding and prevent catastrophic wildfires.
It has also become more difficult for the agency to meet deadlines to
list species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species
Act, an already challenging but essential obligation. This delay in work
pushes endangered species closer to extinction and prevents
infrastructure projects from moving forward, as they may encounter
difficulties with acquiring needed permits amid such regulatory
uncertainty.
Considering the alarming scale of FWS’s staffing crisis, we request answers to the following by January 2, 2026:
1. Will you commit to reversing the staffing losses at FWS? What is your plan to address FWS’s debilitating loss in capacity?
2. Has the Administration considered the impact of decimating the FWS workforce on the economics of gateway communities?
3. Does the Administration still plan on moving forward with firing
more FWS employees, even as those firings are being stopped by federal
courts?
4. How is FWS planning to meet deadlines to list species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act?
Protecting natural resources for Americans has always been a
bipartisan effort and it is important that FWS has the workforce
required to meet its core mandates. Thank you, and we look forward to
your response.
Sincerely,
###
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