Saturday, August 16, 2025

Epstein scandal continues and ICE fires repeatedly on a San Bernardino family

Chump's back on the mainland since Friday's snapshot -- although, he might think he's back in the country since his stupidity or dementia led him to announce he would be in Russia on Friday (he was in Alaska).  He's back and probably sad since it turns out he couldn't erase the Epstein scandal from the news cycler. Laura Mitchell (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER) reports:

National Center on Sexual Exploitation survivor services coordinator Teresa Helm has called for the release of federal documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s case. She stressed the need for greater accountability, particularly following Virginia Giuffre’s death. Helm argued that political motivations should not hinder the pursuit of justice.

Giuffre, who accused Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, died by suicide at 41. Her settled lawsuit against Prince Andrew was a key moment in exposing sexual exploitation.

Following FBI and DOJ claims that no “incriminating client list” exists, demands for document disclosure have grown. Giuffre’s family stated, “Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.”


It's not going away and Chump's distractions and efforts to fool the American people are just not working.  Grand jury testimonies don't get released and also aren't very detailed and this one wouldn't have featured any details not already in the public square..  The grand jury is what decides whether or not a case should move forward, not a body that determines guilt or innocence.  It was all an effort to distract by Chump.  And, as Steven Harper notes, even the judge was straight forward about that:



Trump has tried desperately to walk away from the Epstein conspiracy theories that he had pushed to energize his MAGA base. But nothing has worked. As the MAGA core cracked, pressure mounted and he made a hollow pledge: Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the courts’ permission to release grand jury materials relating to Epstein and Maxwell.

As I observed previously, that was a head fake toward transparency because: 1) grand jury materials are a tiny slice of the Justice Department’s files on Epstein; and 2) the courts could refuse to release anything at all.

And the courts have done just that. So far, Bondi is now 0-for-2 in her effort to obtain judicial release of the Epstein-Maxwell grand jury materials.

Bondi’s latest rebuke came on August 11 in New York. In a blistering opinion, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer called out Trump’s subterfuge. The court observed that the “special circumstances” required for releasing Maxwell’s grand jury materials are not present:

The Government’s invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the threshold. Its entire premise—that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them—is demonstrably false.

The court continued:

A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the Government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new.

Turning the government’s words back on it, the judge ruled:

A “public official,” “lawmaker,” “pundit,” or “ordinary citizen” “deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,” Motion to Unseal at 3, and who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no “there” there.

Judge Engelmayer’s most insightful and telling passage was also his most direct:

The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal. A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at “transparency” but at diversion—aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.

Judge Engelmayer’s powerful condemnation is remarkable. He blasted Bondi’s attempt to use the court as a vehicle for Trump’s deflection, distraction, and diversion playbook. 


Then there's the con game James Comer and many other Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting:  Elie Honig (INTELLIENCER) explains:


At bottom, the House’s investigative effort is unserious. If this were truly about seeking meaningful answers, Comer could have started with a subpoena to Alexander Acosta — the disgraced former U.S. Attorney (and former Trump Cabinet secretary) who was presented a case involving at least three dozen child victims and chose to let Epstein off the hook for petty state-level charges and a 13-month sentence, much of it served out of custody. In the process, Acosta’s office misled Epstein’s victims, assuring them in writing that the matter was “ongoing,” even after the softball deal had already been executed.

This week, Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna — the same person who introduced legislation to engrave Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore — publicly raised the possibility of Acosta’s testimony. “At any time, he can be called to testify,” she noted correctly. When Congress returns, we’ll see if Comer heeds Luna’s words or pretends he never heard them.

And then there’s the House subpoena to the Justice Department, calling for the release of “the full, complete, unredacted Epstein Files.” (The House later came to its senses and agreed to necessary redactions of victim names and identifiers.)

Comer might not have thought this one through; his document subpoena places another Trump loyalist, Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a bind. The AG can choose to produce the requested documents to Congress. But she has conspicuously declined to disclose them so far, even though she could have released the vast bulk of the files on her own accord. Or Bondi can resist and challenge the subpoena in court. But that would make the AG — who claims to be all about “transparency and lifting the veil” — look flatly obstructionist.

The American people see what's going on.  Robert R. Ries writes the editors of THE SHEBOYGAN PRESS about Chump's war on immigrants:


These are not the “worst of the worst,” yet these immigrants are treated worse than murderers and child molesters.

Trump has pardoned all these types of criminals. Right now, after talking to a Trump lawyer, super sex predator Ghislaine Maxwell is serving out her time in a luxury prison in Texas. And all she had to do, presumably, was give Trump some names on a silver platter, which she likely gladly did in exchange for a few favors. I’ll bet that in a month or two her pardon will be forthcoming — in exchange for her testimony against some of those names.

Yes, our president and his Justice Department are really going after the “worst of the worst.” Watch out all you jaywalkers out there. If you’re brown, Trump will hunt you down. You are a hardened criminal, after all. Ask Kristi Noem, the head of Homeland Security.


Whether it's Epstein, Maxwell or ICE agents,  Chump is always on the side of the crooks.


Crooks.  That's ICE for you.  They're untrained and they don't respect the law because they don't know the law.  Chump and Noem hired them because they're so stupid.  How stupid are they?  They fired on a family today.  They fired guns at a family.  That's how damn stupid they are. They are a danger to the people and they need to be taken off the streets immediately.  KTLA reports:


A Saturday morning confrontation between federal immigration agents and a local family in San Bernardino escalated into gunfire and a seven-hour standoff before ending without arrests, according to both advocates and police.

The incident began at about 8:40 a.m. on Aug. 16, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped a man near 1030 N. Mountain View Avenue, according to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. The advocacy group said the agents, who did not present a warrant, fired three times at the man’s vehicle before he returned home with his family and called 911.


And look what's going on as school starts back up across the nation.  Brittany Defran (FOX 5 VEGAS) reports:

Clark County officials gathered to address students’ safety concerns from traffic to immigration fears.

Las Vegas Valley residents had the chance to hear from elected officials at Manny Cortez Elementary School. 

“It is no secret that many families who are part of our immigrant community are afraid right now.” said Brenda Zamora, CCSD VP Board of Trustees.

Stories of ice agents showing up to California campuses have created an increased fear that kids who go to school may not come home. 


Wow.  And an earlier generation thought they had it bad with duck-and-cover drills in the 50s.  Kids today have to worry that they or their parents or their classmates or their classmates parents might be grabbed at schools.  Think it can't happen?  It has happened.  In fact, it happened again this week.  Thomas Smith (NEWSBREAK) reports:


Federal immigration authorities have taken into custody a 7-year-old New York City public school student, making her the youngest-known local student detained under the second Trump administration.

Dayra, an Ecuadorian student at P.S. 89 The Jose Peralta School of Dreamers in Queens, and her mother were separated from her 19-year-old brother during an immigration check-in on Tuesday at 26 Federal Plaza, according to the family and advocates. Her last name is being withheld because she is a minor.

“We were all very scared,” said Patricio, Dayra’s mother’s boyfriend who lives with the family, in Spanish. “Because we knew they were going to arrest them.”


The thugs of ICE  The American people are seeing this.  And they're seeing who the heroes are -- the people fighting back, the activists working to end this persecution, the clergy staing this is not right and this is not acceptable.  Aleja Hertzler-McCain (NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER) REPORTS:

San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido noticed the way a father held his young daughter and stood close to his wife and teenage daughter in the courtroom. The love and care they had for each other was palpable on Tuesday (Aug. 12), when Pulido accompanied the asylum-seeking family for an immigration court hearing.

“As an immigrant, I got emotional because of that connection I have with my own family — I put myself in his shoes,” said the Catholic bishop, who was born in the Mexican state of Michoacán before immigrating to Yakima Valley in Washington as a teenager. He finished high school there, worked picking produce and eventually was ordained a priest.

Immigrants are facing court appointments with newly heightened levels of fear as the Trump administration has begun sending agents to detain migrants as they leave the courtroom. If immigration judges dismiss their cases, they can immediately face expedited removal proceedings without a chance to make their case for asylum. Previously, a 10-day response time  to the dismissal was allowed.

Guided by their faith, clergy like Pulido and other representatives from religious groups are accompanying immigrants to court appointments to provide comfort and information and, in cases where their worst fears are realized, to pick up the pieces of a shattered American dream.


The following sites updated:



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