Further to that, the ranking members on the House oversight and judiciary committees respectively, Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, have issued this statement slamming the Trump administration’s “decision to defy the Epstein Files Transparency Act” by not releasing all the Epstein files today.
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” they said.
Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring. For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law. We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined the chorus of US legislators reminding the justice department of its legal obligations after it said this morning it won’t meet its deadline to release all the Epstein files today.
The Republican representative wrote on X:
My goodness, what is in the Epstein files? Release all the files. It’s literally the law.
As I reported earlier, 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.
He shared a picture of the text of the law in a post on X this morning, highlighting the part that says “all” of the files must be released within 30 days.
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
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.
Conviction in the high-profile case represents a boost for Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant deportation agenda.
While the Wisconsin constitution bars convicted felons of holding public office, state law also lays down that a convicted office holder’s seat does not become vacant until they have been sentenced. No sentencing date has been set for Dugan.
However, Wisconsin’s Republican state assembly speaker, Robin Vos, and majority leader, Tyler August, called on her to resign immediately or face impeachment.
““Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind,” they said in a joint statement. “Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end.”
A short while ago, Donald Trump announced deals with nine major pharmaceutical companies that will lower the prices of some medicines.
It brings the total number of drugmakers the administration has reached deals with to 14, with Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche’s Genentech unit, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi all participating in today’s announcement.
“This is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug pricing and on healthcare. This will have a tremendous impact on health care itself,” Trump said in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, flanked by the pharmaceutical companies’ chief executives.
“They’re going to pay our country the lowest price paid anywhere in the world, and they will list their most popular drugs on TrumpRX.gov,” he added.
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.
AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron are the last major drugmakers that have yet to announce deals with the administration. They would be “coming in next week”, Trump said.
A judge in Texas has ordered the unsealing of documents in the divorce case of the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, in a move with potential implications for a forthcoming Senate race.
Paxton’s wife of 38 years, is suing him for divorce on “biblical grounds” and “recent discoveries”, having previously stood by him in a 2023 impeachment trial, which exposed an extramarital affair, and a succession of other legal troubles.
The judge’s order followed an agreement between lawyers for Paxton and a coalition of news outlets to make the records public.
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.
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.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke about Russia-Ukraine peace efforts and defended the Trump administration’s increasing military pressure on Venezuela during an end-of-year news conference today.
“There’s no peace deal unless Ukraine agrees to it. But there’s also no peace deal unless Russia agrees to it,” Rubio said. ″So 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.”
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’s 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.
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.
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 “regime change in 2026” in the South American country.
“We have a regime that’s illegitimate, that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narco-trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations,” Rubio said, “including not just protecting their shipments and allowing them to operate with impunity, but also allows some of them to control territory.”
Senator Adam Schiff of California has joined a wave of lawmakers today who are demanding that the Trump administration honor the law by releasing the full Epstein files after deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the justice department won’t meet its Friday deadline for full disclosure.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act is clear: while protecting survivors, ALL of these records are required to be released today. Not just some,” Schiff wrote on X. “The Trump administration can’t move the goalposts. They’re cemented in law.”
Two rightwing influencers have clashed at the annual youth conference of Turning Point USA, the conservative pressure group founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
The fissures within the movement were laid bare on the stage in Phoenix when Ben Shapiro, a prominent podcaster, attacked the former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, and other figures on the right as grifters and charlatans who mislead their followers with conspiracy theories and false narratives, AP reported.
Shapiro also accused Carlson of “an act of moral imbecility” over his recent podcast interview with the far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes, who has peddled antisemitic views and voiced admiration for Hitler.
Carlson responded with mockery less than an hour later, saying he “laughed” at what he called Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform” him.
“To hear calls for deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event, I’m like, what?” Carlson said. “This is hilarious.”
José Olivares in New York
Border officials are pressuring unaccompanied children who arrive in the US as undocumented immigrants to quickly agree to return to their countries of origin, even if they express fear for their safety there – or else face “prolonged” detention and other consequences, a federal government document reveals.
The document, which emerged as an attachment in a court filing made by immigration attorneys, is understood to be presented or read to children within the first few days of them entering the US while they are still in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), before they can see any relatives in the US.
The document is termed an “advisal” and was attached as exhibit A at the bottom of a court filing by advocates. It says:
If you choose to seek a hearing with an immigration judge or indicate a fear of returning to your country you can expect the following: you will be detained in the custody of the United States Government for a prolonged period of time.
It goes on to say that the child’s sponsor – usually a family member residing in the US who will care for the child – “may be arrested, prosecuted and deported” if they do not have legal status, or prosecuted “for aiding your illegal entry”, and adds that if the child turns 18 in government custody they “will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] for removal (deportation) …”
A US senator is now demanding “this cruel policy” be abolished, saying it “cynically exploits” unaccompanied children’s unique vulnerabilities as a way of pushing the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Democrat Ron Wyden from Oregon, who’s also the ranking member of the Senate’s finance committee, has written to CBP accusing the agency of trying to frighten children into abandoning their rights by showing them a document with choices that he describes as “shockingly coercive”.
He added in the letter, shared exclusively with the Guardian, that the policy was “clearly intended to frighten unaccompanied children into abandoning the legal relief and protections they are seeking”.
Read José’s full report here:
While we wait for the Department of Justice to release (some, but not all) files relating to Jeffrey Epstein this evening, in today’s episode of Today in Focus, Guardian columnist and host of our Politics Weekly America podcast Jonathan Freedland joins Lucy Hough to discuss why it’s such a big moment that could shed further light on Epstein’s misdeeds and his connections with key public figures – including Donald Trump.
Further to my earlier post about the work already under way to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center building this morning – despite concerns over the legality of the move to rename the institution – the latest images on the wires show that the president’s full name has now made it on there.
Further to that, the ranking members on the House oversight and judiciary committees respectively, Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, have issued this statement slamming the Trump administration’s “decision to defy the Epstein Files Transparency Act” by not releasing all the Epstein files today.
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” they said.
Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring. For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law. We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.
Republican representative Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act with Democrat Ro Khanna, shared a picture of the text of the law in a post on X this morning, highlighting the part that says “all” of the files must be released within 30 days. In another post Massie wrote: “Time’s up. Release the files.”
Yesterday Massie shared a 14-minute video explaining what people can expect if the justice department does or does not disclose all of its information on Epstein on its Friday deadline. He said he had spoken with the victims’ lawyers “and collectively they know there are at least 20 names of men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI”.
“If we get a large production on December 19 and it does not contain a single name of any male who is accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven’t produced all the documents,” Massie said. “It’s that simple.”
Per our earlier post, Khanna also posted a video on social media last night threatening legal action in the event of “tampering or excessive redaction” of the documents.
“Any person who attempts to conceal or scrub the files will be subject to prosecution under the law,” wrote on X. In the video, he said:
Let me be very clear, we need a full release. Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice.
We will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee. We need full transparency and justice for the survivors tomorrow. Finally, rich and powerful men who raped underage girls or who covered up for this abuse will help be held accountable. The Epstein class needs to go.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has laid into the justice department over its plan to release some of the Epstein files today but not all.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told Fox News this morning that he expected the department to release several hundred thousand documents today and several hundred thousand more “over the next couple of weeks”.
“The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be — the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some,” Schumer said in a statement. “Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth.”
He said Senate Democrats are working with the attorneys representing Epstein survivors as well as outside legal experts “to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by [attorney general] Pam Bondi”. “We will not stop until the whole truth comes out,” he said.
A reminder that Democrats on the House oversight committee ramped up the pressure on the Trump administration yesterday when they released a new batch of 68 pictures from Epstein’s estate.
One showed Epstein sitting with the philosopher Noam Chomsky on a plane while another showed Bill Gates, the philanthropist and Microsoft founder, posing beside a woman whose face was redacted.
The Democrats said the images came from a larger trove of more than 95,000 photographs turned over last week by the Epstein estate. The photos were provided to Congress without context, timing, or locations.
The images also included heavily redacted photos of women’s passports from Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, Italy, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. There were also multiple photographs of a woman’s body on which quotes from Lolita, the Vladimir Nabokov novel about a man’s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl, were written. A screenshot of a text message appeared to involve a discussion about recruiting an 18-year-old woman to meet Epstein.
Speculation surrounding the affairs of Jeffrey Epstein is expected to reach a defining moment of revelation today with the much-anticipated publication of files relating to the disgraced late financier and convicted sex trafficker.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the justice department plans to release documents today from the government’s files, but added they won’t all come out at once and more would be released “over the next couple of weeks”.
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.
The files are required to be released in “searchable and downloadable” formats.
The publication will come after months of clamoring for the release of the files from Trump’s Maga base, which has shown signs of fracturing over the issue.
The Kennedy Center has begun adding Donald Trump’s name to the building this morning, a day after the president’s handpicked board voted to rename it “the Trump-Kennedy Center” and despite questions around the legality of a name change.
At the time of writing, “THE DONALD” is visible as workers on a forklift work on the building.
Democratic members of Congress who are ex-officio board members and members of the Kennedy family, as well as some historians, have expressed outrage over the vote and insist that only Congress can change the name.
Joe Kennedy III, grandnephew of the former president who also served a congressman for Massachusetts, yesterday also expressed doubt the center’s name could legally be changed, writing on X:
The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.
Earlier this year, House Republicans proposed changing the name of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. It has also ordered a review of the Smithsonian Institution and is seeking to build a huge ballroom adjacent to the White House in the place of the East Wing, which was demolished over the summer.
Yesterday, US congresswoman Joyce Beatty posted on X that the decision to rename the institution as the Trump-Kennedy Center was not unanimous.
“For the record. This was not unanimous,” said Beatty, who serves as an ex-officio member of the center. “I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move.”
She said the center’s renaming was “just another attempt to evade the law and not have the people have a say”.
On that announcement we said was coming at 1pm from Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that it will be about new agreements to lower drug prices. She wrote on X:
TODAY AT 1PM AT THE WHITE HOUSE: President Trump will be announcing more incredible deals that will lower prices of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
CNN reports that representatives from at least five companies will be present at the White House event, though “the attendee list remains in flux and could still change depending on which agreements the administration can finalize in time for the announcement”.
As part of his “most favored nation” push for more affordable drug pricing, Trump sent letters to the leaders of 17 major pharmaceutical companies in July demanding lower prices, and has since announced deals with five of them – Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and EMD Serono.
Among the 12 remaining companies that have yet to strike agreements with the administration, several outlets are reporting that the likes of Merck, Gilead, Roche, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Sanofi could be involved today.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
