Tuesday, September 09, 2025

The Snapshot

 Tuesday, September 9, 2025.  Chump is exposed as a liar yet again, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL is vindicated, Mike Johnson insists Chump was a snitch to the feds and then walks it back, Senator Patty Murray calls for the HELP Committee to hold a hearing and call the Secretary of Health and Human Services to appear for questioning, and much more.

 Starting with the litigious.  Bad news for the Convicted Felon in the Oval Office, he now needs to sue the House of Representatives for defamation.  Remember two months ago when THE WALL ST. JOURNAL reported on his birthday letter to pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein?  Chump shrieked it was defamation and it was "false, malicious and defamatory."  Also it was "FAKE" -- all caps.  


The House Oversight Committee now has the book -- given to the Committee by the Epstein estate -- and Kevin Breuninger (CNBC) reported yesterday afternoon:

House Democrats on Monday released a screenshot of what appears to be a letter signed by President Donald Trump that was included in a collection of notes sent to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.

The letter features a conversation between Trump and Epstein inside of an apparently hand-drawn outline of a woman's torso.
Trump's signature is located just below the thighs of the drawing.

"HERE IT IS: We got Trump's birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the President said doesn't exist," the X account for the House Oversight Committee's Democratic minority wrote in a post revealing the letter.

In other words, Chump is a liar.  He lied when he said it wasn't him.  He lied when accused THE WALL STREET JOURNAL of defamation.  Repeating, Chump exposed yet again as a liar.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's reporting was 100% accurate.  Chump wasted the court's time with a fake lawsuit.  He lied to the American people.  He is a cheap liar and this needs to register.  

If THE WALL STREET JOURNAL was as litigious as Chump, they would sue him for lying and insulting their integrity publicly.  



Michelle L. Price (AP) reminds, "Trump has said he did not write the letter or create the drawing of a curvaceous woman that surrounds the letter. He filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for a report on the alleged letter."

But he did.  


Last night on THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, Lawrence walked the country though what happened and what it meant while providing a document of his own that showed Chump's two signatures -- his formal one for the bank and his Donald with the last d extended out -- the way he signed Epstein's card -- for friendly correspondence.  


After the segment above, US House Rep Ro Khanna came on the program to thank Lawrence and his staff.  It was the work of Lawrence and his staff that led the Oversight Committee to the estate of Jeffrey Epstein and to the book with Donald's b-day wishes to his old pal Epstein.  


At CNN this morning, Aaron Blake notes:

             

We got more Jeffrey Epstein documents from the House Oversight Committee late Monday. And unlike last week, these actually contained some real news.

The big news is that we finally are able to see the letter signed in now-President Donald Trump’s name for Epstein’s 50th birthday back in 2003, which the Wall Street Journal first reported back in July.

Despite Trump’s claim that the lewd letter is a fake – he’s suing the Journal over the matter – two new factors appear to lend legitimacy to it. For one, it was turned over by Epstein’s estate, meaning it had apparently been in Epstein’s possession. For another, it features a “Donald” signature that seems to match contemporaneous documents circulating online from that period.

But that’s not the only thing we learned from the documents themselves and the reactions.     

[. . .]

         2. The other intriguing document

Another document in the “birthday book” section caught more than a few people’s attention and was highlighted by Democrats.

             It’s a letter with a photo of Epstein holding an oversized, novelty $22,500 check made to look like a payment from Trump to Epstein.

“Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women!” the text reads. “Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [REDACTED] to Donald Trump for $22,500. … Even though I handled the deal I didn’t bet any of the money on the girl!”

The redacted portion appears to be a woman’s name.

We don’t know the full context of the photo – CNN has reached out to the White House and those identified related to the photo. It could just be a crude joke, and one Trump didn’t have anything to do with aside from being mentioned. But the letter reinforces how Trump’s name could appear in the documents in ways the White House would prefer not to have to address.     


Andrew Beaujon  (THE WASHINGTONIAN) provides this walk through:


The doodle abides: Here’s how the Wall Street Journal described a 2003 letter from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein in a bombshell report this past July:

It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The White House vehemently denied such a letter existed. Trump sued the Wall Street Journal. Vice President JD Vance said the article was “complete and utter bulls**t.” On Monday, the House Oversight Committee released an image of the letter provided by lawyers for Epstein’s estate, and it looks…exactly as described. (WSJ) The signature, typeface, lines, and word choices strongly resemble other content Trump has produced. (WSJ) Trump usually signs letters with his whole name, but has signed many notes, often personal ones, with only his first name. Have a look and compare them with the Epstein letter. (NYT)   The White House nonetheless claimed the letter was fake. “No one is falling for this BS,” Vance posted. (NOTUS) The book, compiled by Epstein’s associate and now convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, contains tributes from famous people and others in Epstein’s circle, and there are “numerous references to Mr. Epstein’s sexual conquests and female genitalia.” (NYT) Have a look at more pages, including letters from Bill Clinton, Peter Mandelson, and Leon Black. (WSJ) Not completely unrelated: Trump claimed in a speech yesterday that crime had vanished in DC since his takeover of the city’s police force, but that “Things that take place in the home they call crime,” adding, “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime scene.” (NYT)


In other news about the liar in the Oval Office, Colby Hall (MEDIAITE) reports:

Andrew Bates isn’t exactly a household name, at least outside the households of DC and NYC area political media obsessives. But an interaction he had with reporters has gone viral in a manner that could lead to him becoming more widely known, if not celebrated in some progressive circles.
The former deputy communications officer in the Biden White House was called before the House Oversight Committee this week to testify about what he knew of former President Joe Biden’s health and mental acuity. And to be clear, there are legitimate questions there. The president’s age, verbal slips, and visible stumbles have fueled growing concern. Republicans are eager to exploit any opportunity to keep that conversation alive, and perhaps distract from narratives less kind to President Donald Trump. 

When Bates left the hearing, however, he declined to address any of it. Surrounded by reporters pressing him on Biden’s health, he ignored the questions and instead tossed out one of his own: Why was convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell quietly moved to a minimum-security prison?

“Do you have any updates about President Biden’s health? Did you know he had cancer when he was still in the White House? Were you aware of that?” a reporter shouted as he entered an elevator.
“I want to know why Ghislaine Maxwell is in a minimum security prison,” he calmly replied as the elevator doors closed for dramatic effect.


We all want to know that.  We all want to know why the Convicted Felon gave Maxwell a sweetheart deal and moved her to Club Fed in Bryan, Texas when she belongs in a real prison. It's an issue Rachel Maddow raised last night on her program.


Rachel notes how Deputy AG Todd Blanche does everything but his job while chatting up Ghislaine Maxwell.  Ghislaine tells him multiple members of Chump's cabinet were involved with Epstein.  Rachel plays the tape.  A real investigation requires Blanche to immediately ask for those names.

Does he?

No. 

Rachel plays the tape.  Maxwell says that multiple members of Chump's administration were close to the convicted pedophile and Blanche is silent before responding. 



That's Todd Blanche's "Doh!" (Homer Simpson), his "How you doin'?" (Joey on FRIENDS), etc.  It's his catch phrase.  



We all need to remember it and we all need to share it.

Told that multiple members of Chump's administration were involved with Jeffrey Epstein, Blanche doesn't ask for names, he changes the subject with "Uhm . . .  so . . . when's the last time you think you were with Mr. Epstein when he got a massage."

It's right up there with Martha Stewart's "I'm just going concentrate on my salad."


 Chump does not protect children, he protects pedophiles.  That's all he does and all he will ever do. Use your eyes if this confuses you.  If you use your eyes and you're still confused, you're deluding yourself and no one can help someone who doesn't want to be helped.  

Chump was attacking Tom Hanks yesterday and that was to feed his QAnon idiot base.  They had spread ahead of during Chump's first term the lie that Tom was part of a global cabal of people preying on children.  That's why Chump attacked Tom Hanks.  To try to rally QAnon to his side because even they are starting to grasp that Chump's words and actions don't meet up.

He is not a protector of children.  He never has been and he never will be.  Let's drop back to July 30th when Senator Ron Wyden's office issued this:

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called for an immediate investigation of reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has drastically diverted resources away from investigations into serious crimes against children, including child sexual abuse and human trafficking, in order to devote more resources to rounding up immigrants.

“Instead of locking up rapists, child predators and other violent criminals, Trump appears to be diverting investigators to target cooks, farm workers and students. Congress and the American people will not tolerate the Trump administration ignoring the ongoing sexual abuse of vulnerable children,” wrote Wyden in the letter to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) at DHS is responsible for investigating serious crimes, and is one of the leading agencies charged with investigating child sexual abuse materials online. The 7,000 HSI agents are supposed to focus on investigating drug smuggling, human trafficking, and child sex trafficking, among other crossborder criminal activities. According to DHS, HSI arrested over 3,000 individuals for crimes against children and rescued over 1,000 victims of child exploitation in 2020 alone.

Wyden’s letter cites a recent report published by the Atlantic, which stated that HSI “supervisors have waved agents off new cases so they have more time to make immigration-enforcement arrests,” and quoted one agent describing the impact: “No drug cases, no human trafficking, no child exploitation.” 

Wyden has been a staunch advocate in the Senate for increasing resources for investigating sex trafficking and prosecuting predators to protect vulnerable children. In January 2024, Wyden introduced bipartisan legislation to protect children from online exploitation. In June 2024, he released information from his investigation into child abuse and neglect in youth residential treatment facilities across the United States. In September 2024, he urged existing authorities to protect and strengthen services for children susceptible to abuse enrolled in Medicaid in the child welfare program.

The full text of the letter is here.

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People who want to protect children do not divert resources away from needed investigations.  Chump's a liar and is exposed as a liar. 


A lot of news is coming out on Chump's now-deceased roll dog Jeffrey Epstein.  Renuka Bangale (RETECHTIMES) reports:

JPMorgan Chase, one of America’s biggest banks, had a long and complicated relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious financier who was also a convicted sex offender. While most people remember Epstein for his crimes against young women, his financial dealings reveal another troubling story. Reports show that the bank not only handled Epstein’s money but also benefited financially from him.
During the years when Epstein was abusing teenage girls and young women, JPMorgan processed more than 4,700 transactions for him. These transactions totaled over $1.1 billion. Some payments went directly to his victims. The bank also sent money to Russian and Eastern European accounts that were connected to Epstein’s operations.

JPMorgan allowed Epstein to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars each month. These large withdrawals should have been a warning sign for suspicious activity. In some cases, the bank opened accounts for Epstein’s assistants and victims without proper checks. Experts say this could have helped Epstein move money easily and continue his crimes.

Bank employees noticed red flags early on. Some staff members raised concerns in 2006, after Epstein was arrested for soliciting a teenage girl. They highlighted unusual cash withdrawals and the risk to the bank’s reputation. Yet, despite these warnings, the bank continued to serve Epstein.


The banking records contain a lot of evidence.  That's why Senator Ron Wyden has been calling for them to be turned over.  We noted this press release last week but let's note it again:

Washington, D.C. – Expanding his three-year investigation into the financing of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday renewing his demand for the department to produce its extensive Epstein files to the Finance Committee. He also named several dozen individuals and entities with documented Epstein ties, seeking all files related to transactions with Epstein and any co-conspirators. Bessent twice this year has refused to provide these records to the Finance Committee, making him a willing participant in the Trump administration’s Epstein cover-up.

“Given the scale of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, which victimized thousands of women and girls and reached around the globe, it is preposterous and unacceptable that only Epstein himself and Ghislaine Maxwell have faced prosecution. There is no doubt that the Trump administration’s ongoing coverup of the Epstein files is giving comfort to the pedophiles and accomplices who were a part of his sex trafficking ring,” Senator Wyden wrote. “The Treasury records shine a light on how high-profile individuals paid Epstein staggering sums of money, which was then used to move women around the world or engage in dubious transactions indicative of money laundering. They also show how U.S. financial institutions turned a blind eye to the financing of Epstein’s criminal network, simply waiving the payments through without properly reporting them to U.S. authorities in a timely fashion, as required by law. Financial institutions, attorneys and agents actively participated in Epstein’s illegal operations or were grossly negligent. They must all be held accountable.”

Senator Wyden’s letter, available in full here, sought “all Treasury Department documents, including suspicious activity reports, concerning transactions with Jeffrey Epstein and any of his co-conspirators (whether indicted or unindicted), including, but not limited to transactions between Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and any of the following individuals and entities:”

  1. Jeffrey Epstein

  2. Ghislaine Maxwell

  3. Darren K. Indyke

  4. Richard D. Kahn

  5. Harry Beller

  6. Erika Kellerhals

  7. Southern Trust Company, Inc.

  8. Southern Financial LLC

  9. Haze Trust

  10. Environmental Solutions Worldwide, Inc.

  11. The 1953 Trust

  12. Plan D, LLC

  13. Great St. Jim, LLC

  14. Nautilus, Inc.

  15. Hyperion Air, LLC

  16. Poplar, Inc.

  17. J Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation Inc.

  18. Gratitude America Ltd. (501c3 entity)

  19. Butterfly Trust

  20. La Hougue (trust in island of Jersey)

  21. Scott Borgerson

  22. Malcolm Grumbridge

  23. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (and subsidiaries)

  24. Deutsche Bank (and subsidiaries)

  25. Bank of America (and subsidiaries)

  26. Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (and subsidiaries)

  27. UBS Financial Services

  28. Wells Fargo

  29. Alfa Bank

  30. Sberbank

  31. Jes Staley

  32. Leon D. Black

  33. Debra R. Black

  34. Black Family Partners, LP

  35. Elysium Trust

  36. Elysium Management, LLC

  37. J Black Trust

  38. Melanie Spinella

  39. BV70, LLC

  40. Les Wexner

  41. Bella Wexner

  42. Abigail Wexner

  43. The Wexner Foundation

  44. Arts Interests

  45. Health and Science Interests

  46. The Wexner Children’s Trust II

  47. International Charitable Interests

  48. L Brands (formerly Limited Brands)

  49. Alan Dershowitz

  50. Glenn Dubin

  51. Christie’s

  52. Sotheby’s

  53. HB Multi-Strategy Holdings, Ltd

  54. Highbridge Capital Corporation

  55. AP Narrows Holding AP

  56. LDB 2011 LLC

  57. Elizabeth Johnson

  58. Johnson & Johnson

 

###




Let's also note Air's MSNBC segment on the topic of JPMorgan and the financials from yesterday.  






The weirdest Epstein news of late?  Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson insisting that Chump was an informant for law enforcement and then taking it back.  




House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Sunday backed off his claim that President Donald Trump was an FBI informant in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

While Trump has said that he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, his members-only club in Florida, he has also recently called the latest demands for the release of more information on the Epstein case a “Democrat hoax that never ends.”
Last week, Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump cares deeply about the crimes Epstein committed and said that Trump “was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”

On Sunday, his office released a statement modifying that claim.

“The Speaker is reiterating what the victims’ attorney said, which is that Donald Trump — who kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago — was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator,” the statement from Johnson’s office read.

Trump and Epstein were onetime friends who had a falling out, particularly after a fight between the two in 2004 over buying an oceanfront property in Palm Beach, Florida, which Trump went on to win.


Did Johnson not grasp that he was calling Chump a snitch?  Or that a snitch is someone who's been caught in illegal activities and, to protect themselves, rolls over and snitches on someone else to save their own ass?  


Ben covered this a day ago for MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.





Trump administration officials are perplexed, as many people are, by House Speaker Mike Johnson's claims that Donald Trump was an FBI informant in the case against Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused and trafficked scores of underage girls. The president and Epstein had a well-documented friendship.
On Friday, Johnson made the confusing remarks about the president when a reporter asked him about Trump repeatedly referring to the Epstein scandal as "the Democrat Epstein Hoax."

"What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him," Johnson said, claiming the president's feelings on the topic had been "misrepresented." "He is not saying what Epstein did is a hoax. It's a terrible, unspeakable evil, and he believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago."

Johnson then added the head-scratching claim that Trump "was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down."



 
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wondered why President Donald Trump had called the Jeffrey Epstein case a "hoax" even though House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) seemed to claim that the commander-in-chief had once been an FBI "informant" against the sex offender.

"Congressman Massie, let me begin with you and get your response to Speaker Johnson," ABC host George Stephanopoulos told the Republican in a Sunday interview. "He says you've been misled. He also suggested at one point this week seemed to suggest that Donald Trump, President Trump, was an informant to the FBI about Jeffrey Epstein."
"Now, I don't know if the speaker misspoke when he said that Donald Trump was an informant," Massie replied. "The lawyers for the victim said that Donald Trump had been helpful in 2009 in their case by giving them information."


So was Mike Johnson talking out of his ass as usual or does he actually know something?  If Chump was dropping a dime on Epstein, that needs to be public knowledge.  If he was dropping a dime on Epstein that manes the feds probably had something on Chump.  It also means that Chump knew what Epstein was doing -- trafficking females.  Johnson's claim raises a ton of questions.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

ICYMI: On Senate Floor, Senator Murray Demands Immediate Firing of RFK Jr.: “This Man is Burning Down Our Public Health System from the Inside”

ICYMI: Senator Murray Calls for Immediate Firing of RFK Jr., Commends CDC Director Monarez’s Stand for Science and Public Health

Murray: “If Republicans refuse to allow our committee to exercise its oversight responsibilities, and instead just insist that we stand by and watch a conspiracy theorist burn our public health agencies to the ground, what are they even here for?”

Washington, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement calling for HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to hold an oversight hearing with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. calling on him to answer for his increasingly dangerous attacks on lifesaving vaccines and America’s public health infrastructure, and his recent forcing out of newly-confirmed Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez and other top experts who dared to stand up for basic science. The CDC Director is a Senate-confirmed position for the first time this year thanks to the bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act Senator Murray negotiated and passed into law as HELP Chair in 2022. Director Monarez was in the role for less than a month before being forced out by Secretary Kennedy.

“In light of RFK Jr.’s recent, unprecedented moves to fire the CDC Director and push out public health experts, and the bipartisan concern about whether science or politics is driving vaccine policy decisions at HHS—the time has come for the ‘radical transparency’ we were once promised. For the good of the American people, RFK Jr. must immediately be called in to testify publicly before the HELP Committee.

“The American people deserve answers about why the conspiracy theorist atop HHS is blocking them from getting the vaccines they need to stay safe, and how exactly decisions affecting their health are being made. They deserve answers about the exact sequence of events that led to RFK Jr. attempting to fire Susan Monarez—the first Senate-confirmed CDC Director—from her position, and whether he lied about it in front of Congress last week. They need to know why RFK Jr. threw promising vaccine research and potential cancer breakthroughs into the shredder by canceling research into the very technology that powered Operation Warp Speed.

“The HELP Committee must have the opportunity to not only question RFK Jr., but to also hear from Susan Monarez and other former CDC officials in a public setting as well—Americans deserve the truth. If Republicans refuse to allow our committee to exercise its oversight responsibilities, and instead just insist that we stand by and watch a conspiracy theorist burn our public health agencies to the ground, what are they even here for?”      

Senator Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care who has led hearings on addressing vaccine hesitancy, has been a leader in raising the alarm over RFK Jr.’s nomination since the beginning—speaking out on the Senate floor, holding numerous events, raising the alarm after meeting with him, and hammering the threat he poses to Americans’ health nonstop. She led the opposition to the Trump administration’s disastrous plan to dismantle HHS and fire tens of thousands of staff in critical positions across CDC, NIH, FDA, and other agencies, and spoke out forcefully against RFK Jr.’s ousting of the entire CDC vaccine advisory board, including one ACIP member from Washington state. Senator Murray has held countless events across Washington state and in Washington, D.C. with doctors, patients, and former HHS officials to lift up how Trump and Republicans’ attacks on health care will be devastating for families. Last week, Senator Murray took to the Senate floor again to reiterate her call for RFK Jr. to be fired immediately.

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The following sites updated:




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