This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 275

… DOJ is under fire from both Democrats and Republicans as they failed to comply with the law to release all the Epstein files by the Dec. 19. AP: “At least 16 files disappeared from DOJ’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein - including a photograph showing Trump - less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the govt and no notice to the public.”

… “The missing files, which were available Fri and no longer accessible by Sat, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.”

… DOJ didn’t answer questions Sat about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”

… “Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: ‘What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.’”

… DOJ’s post received the following fact-check Community Note on X: “The actions of the DOJ aren’t ‘consistent with the law’ that was enacted. 1. EFTA compels the DOJ to release ALL files. Only some of them were released. 2. EFTA allows only for limited redactions to protect victims. Today’s partial release contains excessive redactions. The law requires that all files should have already been released. Excessive redactions to protect politically exposed persons, such as Trump, are not permitted. Files have been redacted for no legitimate reason and without explanation.”

… The Telegraph: “Young women, some of them undressed, appear in videos contained in the Epstein files, signaling that DOJ failed to shield the identities of potential victims. But while the majority of the documents were heavily redacted, images of several girls were not blurred in footage released by DOJ, despite the pictures being covered up in previous releases.”

… “In one video, which appears to show an officer recording a walk-through of Epstein’s home, images on the walls show young women who can clearly be seen with their faces unobscured. At least one of the women is naked, and two others are topless. It is not clear whether the women pictured were victims of Epstein, but their unredacted images raise questions as to whether DOJ failed to protect their identities.”

… Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda, who was sexually assaulted by Epstein when she was 14: “Just put out the files, and stop redacting names that don’t need to be redacted. In the beginning, they were calling us a hoax, right? Now they’re like ‘we believe you, we’re gonna release the files’, but yet you still haven’t released the files and it’s not even fully transparent.”

… CBS: “DOJ released thousands of new records on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Fri, but at least 550 pages in the documents were fully redacted in the initial release. One series of 3 consecutive documents - totaling 255 pages - is entirely redacted, with each page covered by a black box. A fourth 119-page document labeled ‘Grand Jury-NY’ is also entirely redacted. At least 180 blacked-out pages appear in files that are mostly but not entirely redacted.”

… Todd Blanche on NBC: Q - “Why was this photo of a desk with a drawer open containing photos of Trump taken down? Blanche: You can see in that photo there are photographs of women. We learned after released it that there were concerns about those women. Q - Are you claiming that one or more of those women is a victim of Epstein? Blanche: No, that’s not what I’m saying.”

… Q - “Why was Ghislaine Maxwell moved just days after you interviewed her?
Blanche: So that’s a Bureau of Prison security issue that I will not talk about. Q - Did you have anything to do with it? Blanche: I am responsible for the Bureau of Prisons. Every decision they make lands on my desk.”

… Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA): “Is the security issue making sure Ghislaine keeps quiet about the powerful men who abused women and girls?”

… Q - “Is any info about Trump redacted in any of the files that have or will be released? Blanche: No. Not unless it’s supposed to be redacted under the law, which means victim information or any sort of privilege like attorney client privilege.”

… Wait a minute. Blanche is suggesting here that he may have redacted Trump info in the files based on attorney-client privilege!?!

… Robert Garcia on MS NOW: “If you are a whistleblower at the FBI, at the DOJ, if you worked hard to put the files together and are seeing your work now being hidden by your own DOJ, contact the Oversight Committee. We have whistleblower protections. We want to make sure that the truth gets out, that the survivors are protected. And we are hearing from folks across our govt who have seen or know what are in these files.”

… Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) discussing Pam Bondi on CNN: “Massie and I are drafting articles of impeachment and inherent contempt. We haven’t decided whether to move it forward yet. The issue for her is not, ‘are there 212 Democrats who would support it?’ The issue is how many Republicans and MAGA supporters would support it. My hope is, she looks at the outrage that MAGA has, she looks at the disappointment the survivors have, and makes a decision over the next 2 weeks to release these documents. She may lose more Republicans than she anticipates.”

… Khanna: “The problem here is there are rich and powerful people who either engaged in this abuse, covered it up, or we’re on this island. What the American people want to know is who are these people? Instead of holding them accountable, Pam Bondi is breaking the law.”

… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on CBS: Q - “This isn’t everything you asked for just yet, but would you acknowledge that they are complying with the spirit if not the intent of your law? Massie: No. They’re flouting the spirit and the letter of the law. It’s very troubling the posture that they’ve taken.”

… Nice question. The new CBS.

… Q - “What are you going to do to force DOJ to comply? Massie: The quickest way and most expeditious way to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi. That doesn’t require going through the courts. We’re drafting that right now.”

… Epstein Survivor Jess Michaels: “I'm feeling strangely validated. Because in plain sight, and with even with an act of Congress, we're seeing the exact same delays, negligence, corruption, incompetence that we've seen consistently and have been advocating about. They've actually proved our point.”

… MS NOW legal analyst Lisa Rubin: “These documents were supposed to be searchable. In the text of the bill, it says they had to be delivered in a searchable and publicly accessible format. Right now, the full Epstein library on the DOJ's website doesn't have search functionality. If you're a survivor sitting at home, and you've been waiting for this day, that doesn't help you a whole lot.”

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “I think it all should be released. I think it’s a big mistake. Any indication that there’s not a full reveal on this, it will just plague them for months and months more.”

… Yahoo Sports: “Pro-Trump UFC star Sean Strickland has no interest in participating in the president’s WH fight night due to the controversy involving Epstein. For several months now, Trump has expressed his desire to host a UFC event at the WH. If such an event does come to fruition, Trump can count Strickland out despite the fighter being among the president’s most vocal supporters in the sport.”

… Strickland was asked on a podcast if he was going to participate: “But like, just to go hang out with the fucking Epstein list? I’m good, dog. I’m good, dude.”

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… At a NC rally this weekend, Trump went after Marge Greene again: “Marjorie Traitor Brown because green turns to brown under stress. I call her Traitor Brown which I don’t like doing, 2 words is too much, 2 out of 3, we’re changing two. I like Marjorie Taylor Brown better. What the hell happened to her? She’s a stone cold liberal, she’s on CNN all the time. What the hell happened to Marjorie Traitor Greene?”

… Greene responded: “Breaking the chains from the bully is freeing. It’s also taking hold of real power over one’s self and the future. They’ve divided us for far too long and it’s destroyed too much. I refuse to be divided any longer. I refuse to hate my fellow Americans. I love my fellow Americans and I love my country. The old guard is dying, the bully is becoming a lame duck, and real America is rising.”

… Trump then endorsed Pillow Man Mike Lindell for governor: “I hope he does great. He deserves to do good. That guy deserves to be governor of Minnesota.”

… MN Gov Tim Walz is in the middle of a major welfare fraud scandal in his state, then Trump gives him an early Christmas gift.

… Trump then talked to his rally attendees in the high school gymnasium-sized venue about his health: “There will be a time when perhaps I won’t be 100%. When that time comes, I’ll let you know about it. You probably will find out about it just by watching me.”

… I think we already found out a while ago.

… Trump also dropped this pearl of wisdom: “The world is actually bigger than the US, in terms of people.”

… A little known fact - it is also bigger in terms of land mass.

… ABC: “The Coast Guard seized another oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela – the second time in less than two weeks. But unlike that first vessel, this tanker is not on any sanctions list maintained by the US, EU, UK or UN. The Trump admin is putting pressure on the Venezuelan regime’s economic lifeblood: oil.”

… Sen. Rand Paul on ABC: “All these designations are steps towards war - calling people terrorists, calling the drug runners terrorists, saying, ‘Oh, if they have a designation’. Well, how did they get the designation? ‘Oh, we gave it to them.’ And then why is the former president of Honduras, who was in jail for 45 years, why is he released? So some narcoterrorists are ok and others we’re going to blow up. It’s a bizarre and contradictory policy, and I sure hope we don’t go to war with Venezuela.”

… The Atlantic on Trump’s claim that each of his boat strikes saves 25,000 American lives: “Although Trump and other officials have repeatedly said that the goal of the strikes is to combat the trafficking of illicit fentanyl—the synthetic opioid chiefly responsible for an epidemic of fatal overdoses over the past decade—the drug does not come from South America. It enters America primarily across the border with Mexico and is produced using precursor chemicals from China. Venezuela, however, is primarily a transit country for cocaine bound for Europe.”

… “In a briefing with lawmakers early last month, top officials acknowledged that they believed it was cocaine, not fentanyl, on the boats. A former senior Coast Guard official told me that in his more than 3 decades in the service, he has not been aware of a single instance of an intercepted load in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific containing fentanyl. In sum, the boats being struck aren’t carrying the drug that is the leading cause of overdose deaths in the US - and what drugs they may be carrying aren’t coming to America. So it is hard to see how each strike saves 25,000 American lives.”

… “Bill Baumgartner, a retired Coast Guard rear admiral who directed the agency’s operations in the Caribbean, told me that number ‘is just complete and pure fantasy.’ The only way to arrive at that total of saved lives is if you would have rounded up 25,000 people and forced them to consume lethal doses of cocaine—a claim ‘just as stupid as saying that there’s a box of ammunition; if you confiscate a box of ammunition, you have saved 100 lives because there were 100 bullets there.’”

… “The CDC estimates that in the past year there were about 73,690 total drug overdose deaths in the US. If it were the case that each strike has saved 25,000 American lives, and given that 28 boats have been destroyed to date, the operation would have saved 700,000 lives - more than 9 times the total US drug overdose deaths in a year.”

… Pete Hegseth at a conference to military recruiters: “I know it’s not easy for you. Too many of our young people are too are too fat or dumb. You know, we’re just not educating them properly.”

… WaPo: “Researchers and activists increasingly fear that under the Trump admin, the US govt is abdicating its historic role as a clearinghouse for reliable info - a momentous shift for what has been the world’s foremost producer of widely accepted data for everyone including academic researchers, local govts and ordinary citizens. Despite sharp swings in the worldview of successive presidents, most agencies have maintained their reputation for evenhanded info. That may now be under threat.”

… Climate scientist Daniel Swain: “Fed agencies, especially the ones that have historically been nonpartisan, have done historically a pretty good job of maintaining credibility across admins. What we have seen in the last few months is the complete and total collapse of that credibility.”

… “The issue arose again Thur when the Labor Dept announced a surprisingly low inflation figure of 2.7% for Nov. Economists immediately noted quirks that could have artificially lowered the rate: prices were not gathered until the second half of Nov, when Thanksgiving discounts kicked in, and no increase was shown in housing costs, though they clearly went up.”

… “Across the govt, much info is simply no longer being collected. DHS for years had issued monthly reports on immigration statistics; the Trump admin stopped that practice in Feb. The law requires the admin to conduct an annual report on the federal workforce; officials did not deliver it this year. Dozens of climate change reports and data collections have been taken down across the govt.”

… “When info is produced, it may be in skeletal form. The Education Dept is required by law to produce a yearly report on the condition of education in America, but the 2025 version omits key data. A number of ongoing surveys have also been dropped, including the Agricultural Labor Survey, which collected wage info from farms; the Drug Abuse Warning Network, which monitored hospital data on substance abuse; and a household survey on hunger.”

… The lunacy continued this weekend at the big annual event hosted by Erika Kirk’s TPUSA. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) addressed the various civil wars between MAGA influencers: “You may not like Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Steve Bannon. And you may not like me either. But if the radical left wins, WE ALL HANG TOGETHER. It’s important to remember who the real enemy is: the radical left responsible for killing my friend Charlie Kirk.”

… Luna then asked the crowd about her latest scheme: “Do you think the Speaker of the House should put a statue of Charlie Kirk in the US Capitol?”

… US Senate candidate and current TX AG Ken Paxton: “There’s somebody else that was on earth that accomplished a lot in a short time just like Charlie - his name was Jesus.”

… Nikki Minaj was on stage with Erika Kirk: "For young men, don’t be a Gavin Newscum. You have amazing role models like our handsome dashing president. And you have amazing role models like the assassin, JD Vance, our vice president.”

… Interesting language to use at a Charlie Kirk event.

… JD Vance showed up to turn it into a Klan rally: “In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore!”

… Vance: "By the grace of God we always will be a Christian nation."

… Vance: "Greatness awaits every single one of you in the America First movement we are building together, but we need your help to get there. Do you want more prosecutions? Great. So do we. Trump and I have a list of better judges and prosecutors to enact swifter justice."

… Vance: "I remember watching every video of the assassination looking for clues, trying to understand what happened. I tried to hide my friend and that terrible bullet hitting him, but I would try to look around. I stayed up all night for many nights in a row researching every conspiracy theory."

… Good to know he’s using his time wisely.

… Tulsi Gabbard also spoke at the event: “Deep State warmongers and their Propaganda Media are again trying to undermine Trump’s efforts to bring peace to Ukraine—and indeed Europe—by falsely claiming that the ‘US intelligence community’ agrees to and supports EU/NATO viewpoint that Russia’s aim is to invade/conquer Europe in order to gin up support for their pro-war policies.”

… Timothy Ash: “It’s sad that you have incompetents and Putin stooges now running US intelligence. Tulsi Gabbard running DNI makes US intelligence an oxymoron. I have spent close to 40 yrs studying Russia and Ukraine, written thousands of articles on both. I predicted the Orange Revolution, the Euromaydan and the full scale invasion in 22’, way back as early as 15’. Gabbard has no clue. Putin absolutely wants the whole of Ukraine.”

… WSJ: “Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real-estate developer and longtime golfing partner of Trump, was just days into his job as the new president’s special envoy to the Middle East when he received a tantalizing message from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Putin was interested in meeting Witkoff—so interested that he might consider releasing an American prisoner to him. The invitation came from a Kremlin moneyman named Kirill Dmitriev, using the de facto Saudi ruler, MBS, as an intermediary.”

… “There was just one thing: Witkoff would be expected to come alone, without any CIA handlers, diplomats or even an interpreter, a person familiar with the outreach said. The Russian president had been studying psychological profiles of the officials around Trump, including Keith Kellogg, the retired 3-star general Trump had named as America’s envoy to Russia and Ukraine. Putin’s intelligence-agency reports stressed that Kellogg’s daughter ran a charity in Ukraine—a red flag signaling he might be hostile to Russian demands during coming peace talks.”

… “Perhaps there was someone else in Trump’s inner circle who might make a better fit? 10 months later, Kellogg is out and Witkoff and Dmitriev, two businessmen with strong personal connections to their respective presidents, are sketching a new economic and security order for Europe. Jared Kushner has pitched in to help negotiate where Russia’s borders will end, the shape of Ukraine’s army and how quickly Trump could tear down the new Iron Curtain of sanctions blockading Russia’s troubled economy.

… Miami Herald: “A Muslim civil rights group filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis over his executive order last week that designated it and another organization as ‘foreign terrorist organizations,’ arguing the move was unconstitutional and ‘discriminatory.’ CAIR is a Muslim civil rights nonprofit org with over 20 chapters nationwide, including one in FL, known for its legal work, advocacy and education outreach to ‘enhance the public’s understanding of Islam.’”

… Lawsuit: “He has violated the Constitution’s guarantee of due process by unilaterally declaring CAIR a terrorist organization and then ordering immediate punitive, discriminatory action against CAIR and its supporters.” In addition to declaring CAIR as a foreign terrorist org, DeSantis’ executive order directed FL’s local and state agencies to deny contracts, employment, funding, benefits and privileges to CAIR.”

… “In the lawsuit, CAIR states that its advocacy for Palestinian human rights and criticism of Israel’s govt stand in direct opposition to the viewpoints of the governor, who has been a staunch supporter of the Israeli govt and its people. CAIR attorney Omar Saleh: “It’s clearly retaliatory. After over 25 years of being in FL, all of a sudden, we’re illegal? I think we would have been in trouble a long time ago, but our record’s impeccable. Our relationships speak for themselves.”

… A new CBS/YouGov poll on Trump’s approval: Disapprove 59%. Approve 41%.

… The specific category numbers in the poll also weren’t great.

… Even the latest Fox poll also has dismal numbers for Trump.

… NY Post: “Shocked NY Republicans said Rep. Elise Stefanik likely decided to end her gubernatorial campaign after Trump hedged his endorsement - raising the prospect of her eventual defeat. It was the second major let-down for the upstate Republican and loyal Trump backer, and prompted her to end her bid for Albany just weeks after her Nov. 7 campaign launch.”

… “The key moment came last week, when Trump publicly called Stefanik and primary challenger Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman – his longtime friend – ‘two fantastic people’. He underlined his neutrality by hosting each of them separately at the WH in the days that followed.”

… One NY Republican operative: “That has to be demoralizing when you kind of hitch your wagon to him and then he doesn’t come out and emphatically endorse you. That has to be difficult, especially when you got your nomination to the UN pulled and then all of a sudden you don’t have 100 million percent backing.”

… A second GOP operative said Stefanik “was not happy with how the WH handled this. Every passing day there was increasing frustration. I’m sensing frustration both with being in Congress in DC politics in general, and if he’s not going to clear the field then this hurts my chances at winning then why am I doing this? This is the second time I’m being stabbed by the WH.”

… WH economic advisor Kevin Hassett on the tariff case: “If the Supreme Court doesn't find with us, refunds would go to whoever cut the check for the tariff. Q - Doesn't the admin claim it was the country that paid that? Hassett: Uhh … It would be … like, I’m not talking about the incidents, right, so the incidents of the tariff. So in the end, who pays the tariff depends on supply and demand, but the people who actually paid for the good would be the first line of defense for refunding the tariff.”

… Hassett serving up a brutal word salad knowing that he just got caught in a blatant lie.

… Q - “The president said 'inflation has stopped.' You'd acknowledge that's an exaggeration? Hassett: Inflation being above the target has stopped. Inflation is not zero also. That's fair. Host - Trump did not give those caveats. He just said 'inflation has stopped'.”

… KABC: “An LA tow truck driver has been found not guilty of fed charges after being accused of towing a govt vehicle used by ICE during an immigration arrest earlier this year. Bobby Nuñez was charged with theft of govt property and faced up to 10 years in prison before a jury found him not guilty.”

… DOJ released a video in Sept showing a tow truck driver snatching an immigration agent’s SUV in the middle of a raid in downtown LA in Aug. Agents were sent scrambling when the tow truck operator took off with one of their vehicles as they were making the arrest. Prosecutor Bill Essayli posted the video of the arrest with the caption: “Apparently he thought it would be funny to interfere with our immigration enforcement operations. Now he can laugh behind bars while he faces justice.”

… Not guilty.

… Stephen Miller: “Another example of blatant jury nullification in a blue city. The justice system depends on a jury of peers with a shared system of interests and values. Mass migration tribalizes the entire legal system.”

… Poor Miller hates the 5th amendment right to due process and the 6th amendment right to a jury trial by your peers. He views the Constitution is just an obstacle for him to overcome. Well, at least the good guys won this one.