We are four days away from the end of midterm voting. Four days.
Michael S. Schmidt and Jim Rutenberg (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
Whenever Norm Eisen, a leader of the legal resistance against President Trump, wanted to try to hold Mr. Trump accountable over the last decade, one of his first calls was to Brad Karp, the chairman of the white shoe law firm Paul Weiss.
Without hesitation, Mr. Karp would give Mr. Eisen free legal counsel on how to best oppose Mr. Trump, and would then deploy the firm’s vast legal muscle — at no cost — to help.
“He was one of the greatest champions of voting and civil rights — and for democracy — in the country, and to have someone like that advising you, resourcing you and fighting for you was indispensable,” Mr. Eisen said.
Now, as Mr. Eisen prepares to lead a coalition that has vowed to stop Mr. Trump if he tries to interfere in the midterm elections, Paul Weiss, one of nine firms to strike deals with the administration to avoid crippling executive orders, is largely on the sidelines, according to Mr. Eisen and a lawyer with direct knowledge of the matter.
The void left by Paul Weiss is only a sliver of the impact of the deals the nine firms made with Mr. Trump early in his second term. In exchange, they pledged to do nearly a billion dollars in free legal work to causes Mr. Trump champions, casting doubt on whether they would be willing to stand up to the president.
Measuring the consequences of the deals is difficult, but the lead-up to the midterm elections offers new clues. Few of the nine firms are publicly involved in the major legal efforts to check Mr. Trump and his administration’s attempts to meddle, a review of public documents and interviews with democracy advocates, election lawyers and voting rights litigators shows.
The absence of the firms has raised serious worries about whether the legal profession is equipped to respond to the administration, which has already begun to file litigation intended to sow confusion about the outcome of the election. But lawyers like Mr. Eisen say that they are just as prepared and point to a string of recent court victories as evidence of their prowess.
First off, shame on the law firms who cowered. Secondly, there's not a real and functioning law firm that can't find a loophole in the agreements they made with Chump. Worse comes to worse, they could assert that the deal was made under duress and that it goes against the practice of the law to sideline one's self when democracy is at stake.
A federal judge on Saturday once again threw out President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting that linked the president and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The president had argued that The Journal had maligned his “character and integrity” when it published an article in 2025 about a lewd birthday greeting that Mr. Trump appeared to have written to Mr. Epstein more than 20 years earlier. Mr. Trump denied writing the greeting and sued The Journal, asking for $10 billion in damages.
On Saturday, Judge Darrin P. Gayles of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted The Journal’s request that the complaint be dismissed, writing that the president “has failed” to prove that The Journal had “acted with actual malice.”
[. . .]
Judge Gayles dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the claim cannot be refiled again.
Perhaps the most remarkable portion of the ruling concerned Trump’s apparent belief that his denials alone should have prevented the newspaper from publishing its story.
“In effect, President Trump argues that once he declared the Letter a ‘fake,’ Defendants should have disregarded everything else they learned in their investigation and not published the story,” Gayles wrote.
The judge flatly rejected that position, warning that accepting it would effectively empower public figures to block unfavorable reporting simply by denying allegations against them.
The court also noted that the Journal had included Trump’s denials in its original coverage, giving readers an opportunity to evaluate the competing accounts for themselves.
Chump did the greeting. Congress has the book. The greeting is in there. Chump lied the way he always does when he's rightly connected to Jeffrey Epstein. It's his guilt over sharing women and girls with Epstein, engaging in the sex trafficking most likely. From
Tuesday's snapshot:
Starting with the deceased Jeffrey Epstein and his still-alive roll dog Donald Chump. The two began hanging together in the 80s. Epstein was a sex trafficker and pedophile. Chump was his best buddy. The two pursued women (and girls?) together. And though Chump has lied repeatedly to the press -- and some press idiots have run with the lie -- that he was completely exonerated by the Justice Dept, that was never true. He's claimed that. But since February of this year, that claim has seemed more and more untrue.
Democrats just dropped a heavy hammer on the president, eight days out from Election Day.
House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a 50-page report Monday morning accusing Donald Trump of participating in Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal sex schemes. The caucus also accused the Trump administration of a broad cover-up, designed to shield the president from blowback as they tried to roll out the release of the Epstein files to the general public.
The report cites the experiences of 11 women, FBI records, and documents released through the Epstein Files Transparency Act. At least five women accused Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein’s company, according to interviews conducted by the committee. Others said there were “apparent attempts” by Epstein and his longtime girlfriend and associate Ghislaine Maxwell to traffic them to the real estate magnate.
Beatrice Keul told lawmakers that Trump “violently raped” her at a November 1993 pageant at the Plaza Hotel. She further described the beauty pageants as a “hunting ground” that Epstein and Trump would use to find and “prey” on young women and girls. Jill Harth also shared an account of a party at Mar-a-Lago in 1994, where she said Trump aggressively pursued and sexually assaulted her. Trump and Epstein were the only men present, Harth told lawmakers. In total, at least 28 women have accused Trump of rape or sexual misconduct.
The report concludes that Trump and Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent and longtime friend of the president as well as a former senior Trump administration official, “may have been co-conspirators” in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring in the 1990s.
The report also claims that Trump’s Justice Department deliberately or prematurely shut down investigations into Trump-related allegations made by some Epstein survivors. It also accuses Attorney General Todd Blanche of specifically instructing Maxwell not to discuss a survivor whose account implicated the president.
The report covers a great deal:
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in
Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s. The Department of
Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are doing everything they can to keep the
American people in the dark about it.
From the very first weeks of the Trump Administration, DOJ shut down ongoing criminal
investigations into Epstein’s enablers and co-conspirators, lied about clear evidence of crimes in
its possession, and sought to silence survivors. In July 2025, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd
Blanche and one of his senior deputies, Emil Bove -- both former criminal defense lawyers for
Donald Trump -- released a memorandum stating that DOJ and FBI had determined that “no further disclosure” of the Epstein files would be “appropriate or warranted.”
Trump has claimed that the Epstein files “totally exonerate” him, but the evidence, as
detailed in this Staff Report, could not be less exonerating. The historical record shows that Trump was a close friend and confidant of Epstein. Trump flew on his jet with Epstein’s victims and made shared references to lusting after young women. The record shows that Epstein and Trump, working with other predators like Paolo Zampolli and John Casablancas, exploited the thin veneer of professionalism offered by the 1990s modeling industry to lure victims into their orbit. The evidence, much of it still hiding behind redactions in DOJ vaults, shows that Trump lied about kicking Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club and strongly suggests that Epstein introduced Trump to his wife Melania. The evidence demonstrates that Trump has lied about the nature and extent of his relationship with Epstein dozens of times -- incriminating behavior for someone who supposedly has nothing to hide.
Above all, the actual evidence we have seen -- as shared in the accounts and stories of 11
women, each described below -- indicates that Trump abused, assaulted, and even raped numerous women alongside, and in coordination with, the most infamous sex trafficker in history.
[. . .]
Of the 11 women who tie Donald Trump to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, five of
them -- Beatrice Keul, Stacey Williams, Jill Harth, Katie Johnson, and a Jane Doe -- have
directly accused Trump of raping or sexually assaulting them in Epstein’s company or direct
physical presence:
• Beatrice Keul, whose account is comprehensively set forth for the first time in this
report, credibly alleges that Trump violently raped her at a November 1993 pageant
at the Plaza Hotel in New York City and that Epstein, Trump, and others used this
pageant as a “hunting ground” to prey on vulnerable young women and girls;
• Stacey Williams, who offered a detailed and corroborated account of Trump
sexually assaulting her in the early 1990s while she was alone with him and Epstein
in an office at Trump Tower;
• Jill Harth, who has also publicly detailed Trump aggressively pursuing and
violently sexually assaulting her and another woman in 1994 at a Mar-a-Lago party
where Epstein and Trump were the only men present;
• Katie Johnson, who gave FBI a detailed account of her repeated rape at the hands
of Trump and Epstein in 1994 in New York City when she was a minor; and
• A Jane Doe, who offered FBI a graphic account of Trump assaulting her when she
was a minor in the mid-1980s in New York by forcibly pushing her head down to
his exposed penis.
Beyond these direct allegations of physical assault, three survivors speak of
encounters with Trump whose circumstances indicate that he was a participant in Epstein’s
crimes, as shown by how Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, tried to make (or
made) these women available for sex.
• Two Epstein survivors -- “Jane” and “Kate” -- told FBI that either Epstein or
Maxwell seemingly offered them up to Trump for the purposes of sex or indicated
their availability. Jane and Kate were deemed so credible that federal prosecutors
called them to testify as government witnesses -- subject to probing crossexamination—against Ghislaine Maxwell at her criminal trial.
• Another survivor, Maria Farmer, described how Epstein had to actively prevent
Trump from preying on her late at night after Trump confused her with a teenage
girl potentially victimized by Epstein.
Kate’s story is particularly suggestive of Trump’s active involvement in Epstein’s sex
trafficking ring. Her FBI witness interview, released in the Epstein files, details how Ghislaine
Maxwell took her to a party in New York where Maxwell “presented” Kate to Trump. Kate, a
young model, remarked that this was the same way Maxwell “introduced [Kate] to Epstein.”
Another document in the file confirms that Maxwell set Kate up on a date with Trump, and other
sources show Maxwell, Trump, and Kate then traveled together on Trump’s private jet to Florida.
Maxwell’s role of introducing young women to Trump was so well known that a tabloid covered
it in 1997, remarking how Trump was friends with “Robert Maxwell’s daughter Ghislaine, who
has introduced several of her attractive friends to the property developer.”
Beyond direct victim accounts of rape and assault, three additional women appeared to
have shared a possibly sexual relationship with Epstein and Trump. In one case, Epstein joked
perversely that he sold “a fully depreciated woman” to Trump: the woman in question was a young, foreign, recent college graduate who dated both men. Other accounts describe Trump’s assault of a young model, Lauren Petrella, at a party where Epstein was present. And Trump paid for yet another young model to live at one of his buildings in New York, around the time when she was flying on Epstein’s jet with Maxwell and Prince Andrew.
These reports do not stand alone, and they are not aberrations. They are remarkably
consistent with the extensive public reports of Trump’s sexual misconduct at the time. Other
women have accused Trump of a range of sexual misconduct at similar modeling events and parties in New York and Palm Beach -- including Trump arranging for pageant contestants as young as to dance for him and his frequent practice of walking into changing rooms while young girls were in a state of undress. Indeed, Trump has acknowledged this lecherous behavior, boasting he could “get away with it” because he owned the pageants in question. In 2005, in the now notorious Access Hollywood recording, Trump bragged that “when you’re a star, [beautiful women] let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.” When asked about this video in a civil deposition, Trump defended this statement, stating that he was one such “star.”
In the face of this wave of evidence, the only recourse for the President has been to spread
lies and obfuscation. In July 2019, after Epstein was arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic
minors, Donald Trump claimed that he knew Epstein “just like everybody in Palm Beach knew
him” and insisted that he “had no idea” about Epstein’s crimes.
This evasion and this denial are contradicted by almost all of the available evidence,
including Trump and Epstein’s own words and the documents contained in the Epstein files.
Epstein bragged he was Trump’s “closest friend for 10 years.” In 2002, Trump said of Epstein:
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes
beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Since these
statements, and the world’s discovery of Epstein’s crimes, Trump has unleashed a string of easily
refutable lies about their relationship. He has falsely claimed that he never rode on Epstein’s private jet (he did, repeatedly), that he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago Club (he did not), and that he did not write Epstein a lewd birthday note (he most certainly did, as the whole world can see). This Staff Report, relying on redacted passages in the Epstein files and new, never-before-released whistleblower testimony, further reveals the full scope and brazenness of Trump’s lies.
Now pay attention to this section especially:
As revealed by this Staff Report, documents in the Epstein files show that then-Deputy
Attorney General Todd Blanche likely knew about certain survivors’ claims against the President
when he traveled to Tallahassee, Florida, to interview Epstein co-conspirator Maxwell in federal
prison. The transcript of that meeting shows that on at least three separate occasions, Blanche
directed Maxwell not to discuss one individual, Jane, whose report to FBI implicated Donald
Trump in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, but whose claims were not yet known to the public. In
other words, Attorney General Blanche may have engaged in criminal obstruction of justice while
acting on a mission to protect Trump.
He wasn't the one who should have been questioning Maxwell. Remember that. He was Deputy Attorney General. Maurene Comey -- who would be fired after Toad spoke to Maxwell was the Justice Dept person who should have been questioning Maxwell. Toad coached Maxwell and encouraged her not to discuss Jane.
JANE DOE 1 (A.K.A. JANE) – 14 YEARS OLD
DOJ documents released pursuant to EFTA include an allegation that in 1994 at Mar-aLago, Jeffrey Epstein “introduced [a victim] to Trump saying ‘This is a good one, huh’ and Trump
responded ‘Yes.’”67 The victim was 14 years old at this time. As made apparent when viewed in
the version made available to Members of Congress, but not to the public, Jane Doe 1 was viewed
as a credible witness by DOJ investigators and prosecutors, and she was one of four women to
testify against Ghislaine Maxwell during her criminal trial under the pseudonym “Jane.”68 Jane’s
testimony was devastating for Maxwell’s defense. She described, in detail, abuse and sex acts that
occurred at Epstein’s properties in Florida, New Mexico, and New York, sometimes involving
Maxwell and groups of people.6
This slide deck of “Prominent Names” in the Epstein investigation, was created by DOJ
and FBI personnel in the weeks leading up to Todd Blanche’s interview of Maxwell and seemingly
initiated in “Response to 07/10/2025 Director’s call.”70 The slide deck includes a reference to
Jane’s account of Trump and Epstein’s conversation. Yet, strikingly, when then-Deputy Attorney
General Blanche interviewed Maxwell, ostensibly to “pursue justice wherever the facts may lead”
in the Jeffrey Epstein case, he did not ask any questions at all about Jane’s allegations.71 In fact,
when on several different occasions, Maxwell proactively referenced Jane, he quickly redirected
Maxwell away from any further discussion of “Jane” or her claims.
In one instance, Maxwell volunteered to Attorney General Blanche: “I believe you’re
talking about Jane,” to which he responded “yeah” -- indicating he was aware of her allegations.
However, as soon as Maxwell began to “address that,” meaning Jane’s claims, Attorney General
Blanche cut her off and instructed her not to share specifics. At various points during the interview, Attorney General Blanche interrupted Maxwell and instructed her not to discuss Jane’s claims, for instance, saying “yeah, yeah, I don’t want to get into … he said, she said.” Maxwell responded “Absolutely, not. I’m not -- I don’t want to go there either” and even more explicitly, “I’m not going to do that.” At another point, Maxwell again raises Jane on her own and Attorney General Blanche abruptly cuts in saying, pointedly, “Let’s not talk about individuals.” The whole point of the conversation was not to uncover information but to create a conspiracy of silence and strategically deter Ghislaine Maxwell from sharing information that was not public at the time regarding the relationship between Trump and Epstein.
Attorney General Blanche’s actions, while perhaps not surprising given his former role as
Donald Trump’s defense attorney, potentially constituted witness tampering and obstruction of an
official proceeding -- serious felonies. At the time of this interview, the House Oversight
Committee had scheduled an interview with Maxwell for August 11 -- less than two weeks later.
Blanche’s apparent instructions not to discuss a specific Epstein victim, and how that victim could
implicate Donald Trump, could easily run afoul of 18 U.S.C. § 1512, which forbids hindering or
delaying the communication of information relating to the potential commission of a federal
offense to a law enforcement officer, as well as corruptly influencing the testimony of any person
in an official proceeding -- such as a congressional interview and investigation. Similarly, 18 U.S.C. 1505 forbids corruptly influencing, obstructing, or impeding any pending proceeding before Congress -- a crime which would almost certainly encompass indicating to a witness that they should not provide Congress with specific information that could implicate the President of the United States.
---------- end of excerpt --------------
He lies all the time about his relationship with Epstein. He lies that he was never on Epstein's jet, he lies that kicked Epstein out of Mar a Lago. He lies about it all. And his lies have cost him support among MAGA. He's been exposed as a liar. Former US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene has declared that she was told by Chump to drop the Epstein issue because a lot of his friends could suffer. Friends? He means himself. He has no friends. He's surrounded by suck-ups and losers. He's the only one he cares about and he was afraid that if she pursued the release of The Epstein Files, the truth would come out. A lot of it has and we now know what we long suspected, Chump was involved in it.
On Monday, Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the committee, called for a special counsel to be appointed to “investigate Epstein’s co-conspirators” and the administration’s “cover-up” of Trump’s involvement. He also released a 52-page report written by Democratic staffers that accuses the president of being “an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s” and alleges that “the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it.”
[. . .]
Trump accused of raping five women and girls
The report alleges that there are 11 women who “tie Donald Trump to Epstein’s sex trafficking operations,” five of whom “have directly accused Trump of raping or sexually assaulting them in Epstein’s company or direct physical presence.”
The five women are Beatrice Keul, who alleges, per the report, that “Trump violently raped her at a November 1993 pageant, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City”; Stacey Williams, who “offered a detailed and corroborated account of Trump sexually assaulting her in the early 1990s while she was alone with him and Epstein in an office at Trump Tower”; Jill Harth, who has accused Trump of “violently sexually assaulting her and another woman in 1994 at a Mar-a-Lago party where Epstein and Trump were the only men present”; Katie Johnson, who “gave FBI a detailed account of her repeated rape at the hands of Trump and Epstein in 1994 in New York City when she was a minor”; and a Jane Doe, who gave the FBI a “graphic account of Trump assaulting her when she was a minor in the mid-1980s in New York.”
In conversations with committee staffers, Keul alleged that the assault caused bleeding and bruising, and that afterward, “Trump sat her on the edge of the bed, repeated his promises to arrange for a visa and NYU admission, and made her promise she would keep quiet, saying, ‘[T]he show must go on.’” Keul also said that Epstein told her he was “Don’s best friend.”
The report recounts that in April 2016, a lawsuit was filed by a woman using the pseudonym “Katie Johnson,” who alleged that she was raped by both Trump and Epstein when she was 13 years old. According to an excerpt of an FBI complaint included in the report, Johnson was ordered by both men not to reveal what happened. They allegedly told her that if she didn’t comply, “we’ll make you disappear like [redacted].”
Per the report, a victim going by Jane Doe alleged that Epstein introduced her to Trump when she was 14 years old, saying, “This is a good one, huh,” to which Trump allegedly responded “yes.” Doe testified against Ghislane Maxwell during her criminal trial, describing to jurors the “abuse and sex acts that occurred at Epstein’s properties in Florida, New Mexico, and New York, sometimes involving Maxwell and groups of people.”
But according to the report, when he visited Maxwell in prison, then–Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche very pointedly did not want to discuss Doe’s claim, at one point saying, “Yeah, yeah, I don’t want to get into … he said, she said,” to which Maxwell responded, “Absolutely, not. I’m not — I don’t want to go there either” and, even more explicitly, “I’m not going to do that.”
The president of the United States of America has been accused of rape. Again. The president of the United States has been accused of rape in a report issued by the Democrats of the House Judiciary Committee, as part of their ongoing investigation of Donald Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The president has been accused of raping two women, one when she was as young as 13, and sexually assaulting three more. They are among 11 women who provided evidence or testimony that Trump “abused, assaulted, and even raped numerous women alongside, and in coordination with, the most infamous sex trafficker in history.” I have been made to understand that many people do not know about the Judiciary Comittee report—and the fact that five women have accused Trump of sexual assault while in or near the presence of noted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. I have been made to understand that this is because the mainstream media finds former president Barack Obama’s comments about the [checks notes] Cheesecake Factory more worthy of their attention than the current president’s abuse of multiple women.
If asked, mainstream media types would no doubt argue that the lack of coverage of these latest rape allegations stems from the fact that previous rape allegations failed to “move the needle.” Trump’s sexual misconduct (both alleged and litigated) is “baked in” to people’s understanding of the man. People either won’t believe the charges or won’t care—or else they do believe the women and do care and vote accordingly—but everybody knows what he’s been accused of, generally speaking at least.
I find this line of argument unadulterated bollocks that reveals the deep failure of our mainstream media. It is news when the president is credibly accused of rape. It is important news. While I, too, don’t think these latest sexual assault accusations will materially change the national conversation about Trump or his presidency, that is not an excuse for ignoring, downplaying, or skipping over brutal allegations that he repeatedly assaulted women, including minors.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden, and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.) demanded answers from Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum over his role in helping broker deals to build data centers on public lands.
In September, reporting revealed that the Trump Administration aims to hijack nearly 18,000 acres of public land across Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah for the development of new data centers. The DOI subsequently released internal calendars showing that Burgum has met repeatedly with known data center developers since 2025.
“The timing of these meetings taking place concurrently with the administration’s efforts to pursue data center development on public lands raises serious questions about your involvement in these deals,” the Senators wrote. “The complete lack of transparency regarding these actions compounds our concerns. Given Congress’s role in funding and conducting oversight over the responsible management of public lands, the DOI has an obligation to respond to Congressional oversight inquiries.”
Padilla has fought tirelessly to protect and conserve public lands against the Trump Administration’s repeated attacks. Last month, Padilla condemned the Trump Administration’s attempts to repeal the Roadless Rule, which protects nearly 60 million acres of undeveloped National Forest Service lands. Padilla also led a bipartisan group of 153 lawmakers in demanding the DOI abandon its proposed Yosemite land transfer to a Trump donor. Last year, Padilla introduced the Protecting Unique and Beautiful Landscapes by Investing in California (PUBLIC) Lands Act, legislation that would protect and restore over 1.7 million acres of California’s public lands throughout northwest California, the Central Coast, and Los Angeles County.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
Secretary Burgum,
On September 18, The Washington Sun reported that the Trump administration is preparing to develop new, privately-owned data centers and related infrastructure on nearly 18,000 acres of public lands for the across six western states, including Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
Recently, the Department of the Interior (DOI) released limited details regarding meetings that you have taken over the last year and a half with wealthy data center developers and investors. The timing of these meetings taking place concurrently with the administration’s efforts to pursue data center development on public lands raises serious questions about your involvement in these deals. The complete lack of transparency regarding these actions compounds our concerns.
The numerous risks posed to communities by rapid data center development are well documented. These projects are consuming unprecedented amounts of water, further exacerbating drought conditions in the West, and driving up energy costs for millions of Americans. Effectively privatizing public lands owned by American taxpayers sends a clear message that the Trump administration continues to prioritize the profits of tech CEOs and shareholders over the American people that rely on public lands for hunting, fishing, recreation, and livestock grazing.
Moreover, the extent of harm to our communities cannot be fully known when the DOI has failed to meaningfully consult with tribes and provide details and opportunity to comment to the public.
Given Congress’s role in funding and conducting oversight over the responsible management of public lands, the DOI has an obligation to respond to Congressional oversight inquiries.
For all of these reasons, we demand that you immediately cease all efforts to hijack public lands for the development of data centers, and urge you to provide full transparency on your role in the DOI’s efforts to site data centers with a written response no later than November 16, 2026.
Sincerely,
###
The following sites updated:
