The Common Ills: The Snapshot

Friday, December 19, 2025

The Snapshot

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.

Bondi's madly censoring documents as we speak -- refer to this video.

..

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.

Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister (AP) report:

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.”

Robert Alexander (NEWSWEEK) adds:

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, argues that the evidence now available demonstrates that “no reasonable juror would have convicted her,” citing alleged juror misconduct, undisclosed government materials, and contradictions in witness testimony that she says were not fully explored at trial.

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, 

###

And let's note this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:

The Black Commentator

Issue #1068

is now Online

December 18, 2025