Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:
The bill mandating the Department of Justice to release the Jeffrey Epstein files has been signed into law, but certain parts may still never be seen by the public.
That’s at least in part because the DOJ has been paying FBI agents nearly $1 million in overtime to work on the “Epstein Transparency Project” at a bureau facility in Winchester, Virginia. FBI Director Kash Patel has tasked nearly 1,000 agents on the project, which, according to internal reports, has also been referred to as the “Special Redaction Project.”
Between March 17 and March 22, the bureau spent $851,344, according to a Bloomberg report, and agents racked up 4,737 hours of overtime pay between January and July looking through the DOJ’s evidence on Epstein. This included the investigation into Epstein’s 2019 prison death, as well as “search warrant execution photos,” “street surveillance video,” and aerial footage.
The DOJ’s remaining, unreleased Epstein documents amount to nearly 100,000 pages, and Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi have told the FBI to flag every mention of Donald Trump. There are also 40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs, and six recording devices collectively containing over 300 gigabytes of data.
Physical evidence includes photographs, travel logs, employee lists, over $17,000 in cash, five massage tables, blueprints of Epstein’s island and Manhattan home, four busts of female body parts, a pair of women’s cowboy boots, one stuffed dog, a logbook of visitors to Epstein’s private island, and a list described as a “document with names,” which could be Epstein’s rumored client list.
If the information sounds familiar it's because MEDIASTOUCH NEWS' Allison Gill has been covring this for sometime. Here's a video, for example, that we noted five times this month.
You can also check out her writings on SUBSTACK. Tonight Frank Yemi (INQUISITR) reports tonight:
FBI Director Kash Patel is facing increasing criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They accuse him of avoiding clear answers about whether the bureau has followed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. This law aims to uncover long-hidden records related to Jeffrey Epstein. What should have been a simple update on transparency has turned into a political fight, with Patel in the middle of it.
The Transparency Act requires federal agencies to release materials connected to Epstein unless a clear legal exception applies. Since taking charge, Patel has avoided saying directly whether the FBI has fully met those obligations. Lawmakers from both parties say that his careful wording looks less like caution and more like stonewalling.
Pressed yet again this week, Patel said the FBI is trying to navigate a maze of legal restrictions. “Well, we are working with our partners at the Department of Justice… to release what we can lawfully, legally produce,” he said. He added that the bureau is prepared to release “anything more from the Jeffrey Epstein files that can be released to the public.”
That explanation did little to calm the critics. They argue that Patel’s answers repeat the same talking point without clarifying whether the FBI is withholding documents simply because it can, rather than because it must. The bigger concern is that government agencies could use vague exceptions in the law to keep politically sensitive material under wraps, undermining the very purpose of the act.
They'll do anything to avoid accountability and to avoid the truth. It's the same thing with Chump's war on Venezuela. CBS NEWS notes it's a war the American people aren't on board with:
In the meantime, Americans do not think of Venezuela as a major threat to the US. Instead, more see a minor one, and they are largely opposed to potential military action.
So, the idea of potential U.S. military action in Venezuela meets with widespread disapproval. It doesn't get overwhelming backing from Republicans either.
Three in four Americans also say Trump would need congressional approval before taking military action in Venezuela, including just over half of Republicans.
While he wants to go to war with Venezuela over his allegations that they're trafficking in drugs, he's now eager to free someone convicted of drug trafficking. Santul Nerkar, Annie Correal and Colin Moynihan (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
He once boasted that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.” He accepted a $1 million bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras. A man was killed in prison to protect him.
At the federal trial of Juan Orlando Hernández in New York, testimony and evidence showed how the former president maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade. He orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions for cartels while keeping Honduras one of Central America’s poorest, most violent and most corrupt countries.
Last year, Mr. Hernández was convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. It was one of the most sweeping drug-trafficking cases to come before a U.S. court since the trial of the Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega three decades before.
Americans worked very hard on that conviction and taxpayers footed the bill. But our Convicted Felon Donald chump wants to set the man free. Just a case of one crook scratching the back of another. Nadine Yousif (BBC NEWS) adds:
Hernández was found guilty in March 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and of possessing machine guns. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Trump also threw his support behind conservative presidential candidate Nasry "Tito" Asfura in the Central American nation's general election, due to be held on Sunday.
Hernández, a member of the National Party, who served as Honduras's president from 2014 to 2022, was extradited to the US in April 2022 to stand trial for running a violent drug trafficking conspiracy and helping to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US.
During his trial, prosecutors in New York said Hernández ran the Central American country like a "narco-state" and accepted millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers to shield them from the law.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of $8m (£6m) as part of his sentence.
When do people start getting outraged over Chump's pardons? Chump is an illegal embarrassment who should be kicked out of office due to his dementia alone. He's incapable of ruling. Pete Hegseth was never qualified to be the Secretary of Defense. Once wrongly confirmed, he then revealed war plans in texts -- unsecure texts. And he should have been fired for that. But Chump is asleep at the wheel so Hegseth has remained in his post and now appears to have committed a War Crime. Michael Gold (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:
A top Republican and Democrats in Congress suggested on Sunday that American military officials might have committed a war crime in President Trump’s offensive against boats in the Caribbean after a news report said that during one such attack, a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors.
The remarks came in response to a Washington Post report on Friday that said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a verbal order to kill everyone aboard boats suspected of smuggling drugs, and that this led a military commander to carry out a second strike to kill those who had initially survived an attack in early September.
“Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Representative Mike Turner, Republican of Ohio and a former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said on CBS that if the report was accurate, the attack “rises to the level of a war crime.” And on CNN, when asked if he believed a second strike to kill survivors constituted a war crime, Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, answered, “It seems to.”
How bad is it? Hegseth hasn't Tweeted himself today. He's just reposted other people's Tweets for the last 24 hours. Running scared. Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:
President Donald Trump seemingly distanced himself from the latest controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The self-styled secretary of war reportedly ordered a second missile strike on two alleged smugglers who survived an attack on a boat administration officials say was carrying drugs from Venezuela to the U.S., and many military and legal experts say Hegseth's "no quarter" order violated international and U.S. laws.
"I don’t know that that happened and Pete said he did not want them, even know what people were talking about, so we'll look in –we'll look into it," Trump told reporters. "But no, I wouldn’t have wanted a second strike. The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, and if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn't happen. I have great confidence."
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, joined with Democratic lawmakers in condemning Hegseth's alleged "kill everyone" follow-on order as illegal, and social media users highlighted Trump's comments as a significant break from his frequently embattled Pentagon chief.
"Pete Hegseth, you in danger, girl," warned X user Keith Edwards.
"Trump beginning the process of throwing Hegseth under the bus," noted former Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Mazie Hirono's office:
Sen. Hirono: “Instead of trying to strengthen the Department of Education’s support for our nation’s public schools, Trump and his allies are trying to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education completely.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) took to the Senate floor to slam the Trump Administration’s attacks on the Department of Education (ED) and highlight the importance of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ahead of its upcoming 50th anniversary on November 29. From withholding billions in federal funding to firing nearly half of the Department’s staff, since the beginning of his second term, Trump has conducted countless illegal actions against ED, an agency that supports over 50 million students across the country.
“It’s clear Trump doesn’t give a rip about our government or the millions of Americans who rely on the services it provides,” said Senator Hirono during her remarks. “Instead of trying to strengthen the Department of Education’s support for our nation’s public schools, Trump and his allies are trying to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education completely.”
For decades, ED has worked to protect students against discrimination and ensure equal opportunities in public schools, especially for students with disabilities. Signed into law in 1975, IDEA protects the rights of more than seven million students with disabilities across the country, helping to ensure these students receive free and appropriate education that meets their needs by providing funding and federal oversight of critical services. However, the Trump Administration has taken several steps to undermine the IDEA, even as it announced last week that it would accelerate plans to reorganize ED by moving dozens of other programs to different agencies.
“Before IDEA was enacted, we did not have these kinds of federal protections for students with disabilities. As a result, there was no way to ensure that students with disabilities were not denied access to education or neglected in our schools,” said Senator Hirono. “Despite the success of IDEA and programs like this, this regime is accelerating plans to dismantle the Department of Education and roll back the progress it has enabled by moving important programs to other departments with no education expertise.”
“I heard from a middle school teacher on Hawaii Island, who emphasized just how unrealistic Trump’s plan is to move oversight of IDEA to another agency outside of the Education Department,” continued Senator Hirono. “He rightly pointed out that other agencies have ‘no expertise in the complex education law that is IDEA.’”
During the recent government shutdown, the Trump Administration illegally fired hundreds of workers from ED, including employees from the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office for Civil Rights, which play an important role in the implementation of the IDEA. Millions of students rely on the services and programs provided by these offices and the Administration’s actions jeopardized their ability to receive the education they need and deserve. ED Secretary Linda McMahon then made the baseless claim that the shutdown proved ED to be unnecessary.
“This regime makes these kinds of unsubstantiated claims on a regular basis to justify its ill-conceived and often illegal acts,” continued Senator Hirono. “In reality, I had constituents reaching out to my office during the shutdown to share concerns about how furloughs at the Department of Education were impacting Hawaii’s public schools and the students they serve, including the students with disabilities.”
While Trump has stated multiple times that his plan is to eliminate ED as a whole, this action cannot be done without Congressional approval. During her speech, Senator Hirono emphasized that the reckless actions taken by the Trump Administration against ED are all alternative attempts to dismantle the Department.
“This regime is not committed to public education,” concluded the senator. “They don’t see a federal role for public education and that is the long and short of it. We can and must do better to support the education of 50 million plus children in our country.”
The full transcript of Senator Hirono’s speech is available below. Video of Senator Hirono’s floor speech is available here.
I want to thank my colleague from Maryland for his passionate advocacy for IDEA. IDEA is a critical program of the U.S. Department of Education. But let me tell you what is happening to the U.S. Department of Education under President Trump. Mr. President, we have a regime—that’s what I call the Trump Administration—it is a regime hellbent on dismantling the federal government. From withholding billions in federal funding, to conducting mass firings of federal workers, shuttering critical agencies, and implementing countless harmful executive actions, the Trump regime has sown chaos, corruption, and cruelty from Day One. It’s no wonder there are now over 300 lawsuits to stop Trump’s illegal actions.
It’s clear Trump doesn’t give a rip about our government or the millions of Americans who rely on the services it provides. That includes the U.S. Department of Education, which does critical work to ensure our country’s more than 50 million, 50 million public school students can get a quality education. So, instead of trying to strengthen the Department of Education’s support for our nation’s public schools, Trump and his allies are trying to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education completely.
And this has always been part of his plan. He began his second term by summarily, as mentioned, firing nearly half of the Department’s workforce. He did this in one fell swoop. These committed people at the Department of Education were told ‘you don’t have to come to work tomorrow.’ So, this followed the plan laid out basically for President Trump in Project 2025. And just this week, his Secretary of Education laid out plans to slash and dismantle the Department even further.
Mr. President, education is foundational. It certainly was for me, as an immigrant who came to this country not knowing any English—didn’t read or write English—it’s the education system that this country afforded me that provided me [with] the opportunities that resulted in my standing here, giving these remarks. So, while we can all agree there are ways we can improve our education system, we should also be able to agree that there is a role for the federal government in helping to ensure all students—50 million—receive a quality education.
For decades, the Department of Education has played that role—working to protect students against discrimination and ensure equal opportunities in our schools. Of course, one of the ways it does so is by supporting students with disabilities. As noted, signed into law in 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, protects the rights of more than seven million students with disabilities across the country. Seven million. IDEA helps to ensure these students receive free and appropriate public education that meets their needs. It also provides funding—yes, and we need to fund IDEA to the extent that is required—but it does provide funding to help support these students and ensures federal oversight of services for students with disabilities.
Before IDEA was enacted, we did not have these kinds of federal protections for students with disabilities. As a result, there was no way to ensure that students with disabilities were not denied access to education or neglected in our schools. As noted by my colleague from Maryland, many of these students didn’t even get to go to school. They didn’t have IDEA. So, later this month, we’ll celebrate the 50th year of IDEA, the landmark law that has provided millions of young people with access to free and appropriate public education. Despite the success of IDEA and programs like this, this regime is accelerating plans to dismantle the Department of Education and roll back the progress it has enabled by moving important programs to other departments with no education expertise.
Recently, for example, Trump tried to take advantage of the shutdown to illegally fire hundreds more workers from the Education Department, including at the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office for Civil Rights. Education Secretary McMahon, herself one of Trump’s billionaire buddies, has made the preposterous claim that the shutdown proved the Education Department is unnecessary. This is the kind of unsubstantiated—I can hardly believe that she would consider this proof of any kind—but this is the kind of stuff that this Trump Administration always claims. And this regime makes these kinds of unsubstantiated claims on a regular basis to justify its ill-conceived and often illegal acts.
In reality, I had constituents reaching out to my office during the shutdown to share concerns about how furloughs at the Department of Education were impacting Hawaii’s public schools and the students they serve, including the students with disabilities. I heard from the mother of a four-year-old boy who attends a Title I school in Hawaii. She was concerned about how the mass firings of special education staff threaten the services her son relies on. Every public-school child who receives special education must have, as mentioned, an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, a plan to help meet the unique needs of each student. But without the necessary trained staff to support oversight of these programs, there is no one to help guide teachers or schools in developing these plans and ensuring that they are implemented or followed.
And as I mentioned, just yesterday, Secretary McMahon released a detailed plan for reorganizing the Department of Education by moving dozens of programs and services to other agencies that do not have the necessary staffing, funding, or expertise to oversee these programs.
And we can expect that she will try to move IDEA, too. I heard from a middle school teacher on Hawaii Island, who emphasized just how unrealistic Trump’s plan is to move oversight of IDEA to another agency outside of the Education Department. He rightly pointed out that other agencies “ha[ve] no expertise in the complex education law that is IDEA.” Education specialists, officers, and analysts with the office of special education programs are trained to best support IDEA. It’s not as though you can just move this program to Homeland Security or Human Services and expect them to be able to provide the kind of support that IDEA requires. So moving this program would mean a loss of expertise that will not be rebuilt quickly, leaving our most vulnerable students to pay the price.
As another example of moving programs out of the Department of Education as part of the dismantling of the Department, I could not resist this example. So, President Trump proposes to move the student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration, which has neither the capacity nor the expertise needed to handle this massive program. The SBA is one of the smallest federal government agencies. How is it supposed to handle a Department of Education program with over 40 million borrowers and over $1.5 trillion in loans? It can’t, clearly. Neither Trump nor Secretary McMahon says, she does not see a federal role in education because they are just moving programs without figuring out how these programs are even going to be continued. In fact, that is not their intention. Their intention is to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education and they can’t do that because only Congress can do that. So what do they come up with? These alternative ways to dismantle the department.
So, shouldn’t supporting our public schools and our children’s education be a national priority? I mean, obviously President Trump and Secretary McMahon don’t think it is a national priority. It certainly is a national priority in other countries. Why? Because these other countries know, as I said earlier, that education is foundational, and that an educated populace is an engaged populace.
By gutting staff and funding that students rely on and attempting to eliminate the department altogether—a plan that will inevitably hurt our students—this regime’s actions make it abundantly clear that they don’t want an engaged populace. One can’t help but wonder why. Mr. President, this regime is not committed to public education—they’re not committed to public education—they don’t see a federal role for public education and that is the long and short of it. We can and must do better to support the education of 50 million plus children in our country. Thank you, Mr. President.
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