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DOJ releases long-awaited tranche of Epstein files<\/p>\n
And just like that, the justice department has just begun publishing the long-awaited cache of Jeffrey Epstein files. We\u2019ve launched a dedicated blog, see you over there.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a016.05 EST<\/p>\n I hope that recap was useful! Back to the present day, Democratic senator Alex Padilla has said<\/a> on X:<\/p>\n Reminder that if Trump fails to release the Epstein files today, he\u2019d be breaking the law. Again.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The week prior, on 2 September, the committee released 33,000 pages of records<\/a>, a lot of which was already public, including years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell, as well as what appeared to be bodycam footage from police searches and police interviews.<\/p>\n It also included flight logs from Customs and Border Protection showing travel to and from his private island, and a video of Epstein\u2019s cell block from before his death that included the so-called \u201cmissing minute\u201d<\/a> from earlier videos, contradicting the assertion of attorney general Pam Bondi that it was recorded over.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n And on 8 September, the House oversight committee released another tranche of material from Epstein\u2019s estate, including the now-infamous birthday book. <\/p>\n The 238-page scrapbook was given to Epstein as a present on his 50th birthday and featured contributions attributed to high-profile figures including Trump, Bill Clinton and the then UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson (Mandelson was sacked a few days later).<\/p>\n The most explosive section was an apparent birthday note from Trump<\/a>, contained within a sketch of a naked woman\u2019s torso. The drawing has \u201cDonald\u201d signed below its pelvis, along with an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein.<\/p>\n A cryptic message quotes Trump as saying: \u201cWe have certain things in common, Jeffrey,\u201d wishing that \u201cevery day be another wonderful secret\u201d and adding: \u201cEnigmas never age, have you noticed that?\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has denied drawing the figure or writing the note.<\/p>\n Another image showed Epstein standing among palm trees and holding an oversized cheque for $22,500 with a \u201cTrump\u201d signature on it. Partly redacted writing below the image says Epstein showed \u201cearly talents with money + women\u201d and had sold a \u201cfully depreciated [redacted] to Donald Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Going back further, on 12 November the committee released damning emails that suggested Donald Trump<\/a> knew about Epstein\u2019s conduct, including one in which Epstein said \u201cof course [Trump] knew about the girls\u201d procured for his sex-trafficking ring, and another that said Trump \u201cspent hours\u201d with one victim at Epstein\u2019s house.<\/p>\n In one of the memos, Epstein alleged to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in April 2011 that Trump had had a lengthy engagement in the company of one of the disgraced financier\u2019s sex-trafficked victims.<\/p>\n \u201cI want you to realize that that dog that hasn\u2019t barked is trump.. [victim\u2019s name redacted] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned,\u201d the message reads.<\/p>\n In her reply, Maxwell said: \u201cI have been thinking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n A second message, sent by Epstein to Trump biographer Michael Wolff in January 2019, indicates that Trump had asked him to resign from Mar-a-Lago, the president\u2019s exclusive members-only club in Florida.<\/p>\n But, Epstein says, he was \u201cnever a member ever\u201d and adds \u201cof course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop\u201d.<\/p>\n Later that day, the committee\u2019s Republican majority countered by releasing its own tranche of 23,000 documents<\/a>, accusing Democrats of \u201ccherrypicking\u201d the memos \u201cto generate clickbait\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.38 EST<\/p>\n On 3 December, Democrats on the committee also released 73 photos and four videos<\/a> of Epstein\u2019s private island home, where he is alleged to have trafficked young girls.<\/p>\n The images and videos showed Epstein\u2019s home, including bedrooms, a telephone, what appeared to be an office or library, and a chalkboard on which the words \u201cfin\u201d, \u201cintellectual\u201d, \u201cdeception\u201d and \u201cpower\u201d are written. Several photos show a room with a dentist chair and masks hanging on the wall. The New York Times reported<\/a> that Epstein\u2019s last girlfriend was a dentist who shared an office with one of his shell companies. The videos appear to be a walk-through of the property.<\/p>\n The materials were from law enforcement authorities in the US Virgin Islands. They were taken in 2020, the year after Epstein died by suicide in jail.<\/p>\n What appears to be a dentist\u2019s chair in one room with masks on the wall from the property on Little St James. Photograph: US Virgin Island Authorities\/ZUMA Press Wire\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\n As well as the new batch of 68 photos released yesterday from a trove of about 95,000 the committee obtained from Epstein\u2019s estate (see my recap here<\/a>), Democrats on the House oversight committee have published tens of thousands of documents over the past year.<\/p>\n In a previous drop from 12 December, the committee released a tranche of what they called \u201cdisturbing\u201d photographs \u2013 some of which had been seen before \u2013 featuring prominent figures including Donald Trump, former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former president Bill Clinton, former treasury secretary Larry Summers, film director Woody Allen, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Trump\u2019s former political adviser Steve Bannon, and Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire.<\/p>\n A reminder that there is no suggestion of wrongdoing and the photos do not implicate any of the individuals pictured in Epstein\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n Other photos showed construction work on the exterior of Epstein\u2019s island home, and included more photographs of the yellow dentist\u2019s office that was featured in a similar release of images and videos<\/a> by the committee on 3 December, as well as a bathroom, a \u201cTrumpkin\u201d (a pumpkin decorated as Donald Trump), and Epstein in a bathtub.<\/p>\n Trump features in three of the 19 images initially released in that drop. In one, he is photographed with six women, some in Hawaii dress, and whose faces are blacked out. In the second, he is seen alongside Epstein listening to a woman with blond hair who appears to be sharing a joke. In the third, apparently taken onboard an aircraft, he is sitting alongside another woman with longer blond hair, and whose face is also blacked out.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s face in cartoon form, and the words \u201cI\u2019m huuuuge\u201d, appear in another image on square packets with a sign advertising a \u201cTrump condom\u201d for $4.50. The novelty items were on sale<\/a> before Trump\u2019s first election win in 2016, and earned a place in the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s political satire collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n A collection of sex toys, including restraints, a catalog and a guide to the Japanese art of shibari (a form of bondage), appear in three more images. Epstein was accused of hosting sex parties for clients at his homes in New York, Florida and at his private Caribbean island retreat, Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.39 EST<\/p>\n Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined the chorus of US legislators<\/a> reminding the justice department of its legal obligations after it said this morning it won\u2019t meet its deadline to release all the Epstein files today.<\/p>\n The Republican representative wrote on X:<\/p>\n My goodness, what is in the Epstein files? Release all the files. It\u2019s literally the law.<\/p>\n As I reported earlier<\/a>, her colleague Thomas Massie, who co-led the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the files, also stressed that he wanted all the documents released today.<\/p>\n He shared a picture of the text of the law in a post<\/a> on X this morning, highlighting the part that says \u201call\u201d of the files must be released within 30 days.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.09 EST<\/p>\n Wisconsin Republicans have threatened to impeach Judge Hannah Dugan unless she resigns following her conviction on charges of obstructing federal officers who were trying to arrest an undocumented immigrant outside her courtroom<\/p>\n Dugan faces up to five years in prison after a jury on Thursday found her guilty of felony charges. Federal prosecutors alleged that she distracted agents trying to arrest the man and led him out through a private door.<\/p>\n Conviction in the high-profile case represents a boost for Donald Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant deportation agenda.<\/p>\n While the Wisconsin constitution bars convicted felons of holding public office, state law also lays down that a convicted office holder\u2019s seat does not become vacant until they have been sentenced. No sentencing date has been set for Dugan.<\/p>\n However, Wisconsin\u2019s Republican state assembly speaker, Robin Vos, and majority leader, Tyler August, called on her to resign immediately or face impeachment.<\/p>\n \u201c Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.06 EST<\/p>\n Trump announces deals with another nine drugmakers to lower prices<\/p>\n A short while ago, Donald Trump announced deals with nine major pharmaceutical companies that will lower the prices of some medicines.<\/p>\n It brings the total number of drugmakers the administration has reached deals with to 14, with Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche\u2019s Genentech unit, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi all participating in today\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug pricing and on healthcare. This will have a tremendous impact on health care itself,\u201d Trump said in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, flanked by the pharmaceutical companies\u2019 chief executives.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to pay our country the lowest price paid anywhere in the world, and they will list their most popular drugs on TrumpRX.gov,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Trump previously announced agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, EMD Serono, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk after he sent letters out in July to all 17 companies, urging them to offer so-called most-favored-nation prices to Medicaid and ensure new medicines launch at prices no higher than those in other wealthy countries. In return, the companies that reached deals secured three-year exemptions from any tariffs Trump might slap on imported pharmaceuticals in the future.<\/p>\n AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron are the last major drugmakers that have yet to announce deals with the administration. Trump said he would be meeting with them in the coming weeks in an effort to get them to sign on to lowering their costs.<\/p>\n Donald Trump makes an announcement about lowering the cost of drug prices in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.45 EST<\/p>\n A judge in Texas has ordered the unsealing of documents in the divorce case of the state\u2019s attorney general, Ken Paxton, in a move with potential implications for a forthcoming Senate race.<\/p>\n Paxton\u2019s wife of 38 years, is suing him for divorce on \u201cbiblical grounds\u201d and \u201crecent discoveries\u201d, having previously stood by him in a 2023 impeachment trial, which exposed an extramarital affair, and a succession of other legal troubles.<\/p>\n The judge\u2019s order followed an agreement between lawyers for Paxton and a coalition of news outlets to make the records public.<\/p>\n Their disclosure could provide fodder for opposition attacks on Paxton in the campaign leading up to the Republican primary scheduled for 3 March, in which the attorney general is seeking to unseat the sitting GOP senator, John Cornyn.<\/p>\n Groups supporting Cornyn, who has been criticized for a willingness to work with Democrats, have already spent $21m on television campaign adverts aimed at warding off the threat from Paxton, who is seen as a loyal acolyte of Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a014.37 EST<\/p>\n Secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke about Russia-Ukraine peace efforts and defended the Trump administration\u2019s increasing military pressure on Venezuela during an end-of-year news conference today.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no peace deal unless Ukraine agrees to it. But there\u2019s also no peace deal unless Russia agrees to it,\u201d Rubio said. \u2033So our job is not to force anything on anyone. It is to try to figure out if we can nudge both sides to a common place.\u201d<\/p>\n The US proposal has been through numerous versions with Trump going back and forth between offering support and encouragement for Ukraine and then seemingly sympathizing with Putin\u2019s hardline stances by pushing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to territorial concessions. Kyiv has rejected that concession in return for security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from future Russian incursions.<\/p>\n Rubio has also been a leading proponent of military operations against suspected drug-running vessels from Venezuela that have been targeted by the Pentagon in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September.<\/p>\n In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Trump would not rule out a war with Venezuela. Rubio sidestepped a direct question about whether the US wants \u201cregime change in 2026\u201d in the South American country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a regime that\u2019s illegitimate, that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narco-trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations,\u201d Rubio said, \u201cincluding not just protecting their shipments and allowing them to operate with impunity, but also allows some of them to control territory.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a014.15 EST<\/p>\n Senator Adam Schiff of California has joined a wave of lawmakers today who are demanding that the Trump administration<\/a> honor the law by releasing the full Epstein files after deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the justice department won\u2019t meet its Friday deadline for full disclosure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Epstein Files Transparency Act is clear: while protecting survivors, ALL of these records are required to be released today. Not just some,\u201d Schiff wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cThe Trump administration can\u2019t move the goalposts. They\u2019re cemented in law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind,\u201d they said in a joint statement. \u201cJudge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n