Ruth's Report

Friday, March 13, 2026

Where Chump has led us

CNN headline "Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz." That is not what anyone wants to see, certainly not the person who started this illegal war of choice. But it is accurate as to what Convicted Felon Donald Chump has done. Zachary Cohen, Phil Mattingly, Kevin Liptak and Kylie Atwood report:

The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration, the sources said.

While key officials from the Departments of Energy and Treasury were present for some of the official planning meetings about the operation before it started, sources said, the agency analysis and forecasts that would be integral elements of the decision-making process in past administrations were secondary considerations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have been key players throughout the planning and execution stages of the conflict, the sources acknowledged. But Trump’s preference of leaning on a tight circle of close advisers in his national security decision making had the effect of sidelining interagency debate over the potential economic fallout if Iran were to respond to US-Israeli strikes by closing the strait.

And now it may be weeks before the administration’s efforts to alleviate the intensifying economic fallout take hold, officials said Thursday, including high-risk naval escorts of oil tankers through the strait that the Pentagon believes are currently too dangerous to conduct. The president, meanwhile, has continued to downplay the tumult in energy markets.

The reality in the strait has left diplomatic counterparts, former US economic and energy officials and industry executives who spoke with CNN in a state of confusion and disbelief.

“Planning around preventing this exact scenario — impossible as it has long seemed — has been a bedrock principle of US national security policy for decades,” a former US official who served in Republican and Democratic administrations said. “I’m dumbfounded.”

I think we are all frequently dumbfounded by what Mr. Chump elects to do. Emily Chang and Alexandra Hutzler (ABC NEWS) add:

President Donald Trump is facing an escalating crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply remains caught in the crosshairs of the U.S. and Israeli war with Tehran.

Trump downplayed the virtual standstill in and near the vital shipping route, saying on Wednesday it was in "great shape."

Trump dismisses soaring gas prices as 'a little glitch' of Iran war, but potential political costs loom

But Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in a purported first message since taking over for his father, vowed Thursday that his country will continue to block the strait as leverage and capitalize on Iran's economic weapon.

Attacks on shipping vessels have surged in the Persian Gulf this week, and oil prices jumped to more than $100 per barrel. In the U.S., gas prices rose to a national average of $3.59 a gallon, according to data from AAA.

The International Energy Agency said on Thursday the Middle East conflict is creating "the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market."

Nitish Pahwa (SLATE) notes:

As the United States’ latest military operation kicks off the worst global energy shock since the 1970s, Iran is doing everything it can to target Donald Trump’s greatest weakness: fossil fuels. The regime, responding in kind to the devastating strikes on its oil and gas facilities, is directly attacking energy infrastructure in the surrounding region and shutting down the Strait of Hormuz—a key transmission point for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply—until further notice. Gasoline prices are up. Strategic stocks are low. European and Asian countries with robust liquefied natural gas supply chains are again reconsidering whether they should stay dependent on that primary source of fuel, especially as Qatar halts all LNG exports and Gulf gas production slows dramatically.

Through it all, in a defining motif of this Trump term, a key U.S. nemesis stands to benefit most of all: China. No country on Earth is fully insulated from the Iran fallout, but China has a better shot than any other global superpower of weathering this crisis over the long term, as it drastically reduced its need for oil through a blitz of electrification and renewables development. The U.S., meanwhile, has done the exact opposite under Trump—to its detriment on the world stage, now and in the future.

Intuitively, it may seem the damages should have fallen differently: China is the world’s biggest net crude oil importer, and the U.S. is the biggest net crude exporter. But China’s rapid efforts to shrink its fossil-fuel dependence are paying off here. Electric and hybrid cars have overtaken the roadways. New power generation is largely covered by solar and wind sources, plus battery storage. Overall demand for oil and gas is projected to peak and decline by the next decade. For sectors where fossil fuels remain necessary (e.g., industrial factories, heavy-duty transportation), China prepared by stocking up on oil imports earlier in the year, filling up enough reserves to last it for months on end. The effect has been to increase China’s business appeal, even to its nemeses: Canada is welcoming Chinese electric vehicles, and India (which is particularly sensitive to high fuel prices) is softening its trade-warring to take in Chinese solar equipment.

The United States, on the other hand, is flailing mightily. Throughout his second term, Trump has done everything possible to sabotage the nation’s solar, wind, and EV developments, which had experienced an upswing thanks to their extremely cheap costs. In crushing government backing for massive green-tech projects while rebooting shuttered coal plants and keeping other countries—like the now-suffering Japan—hooked on pricey American LNG exports, Trump has left our fragile economy (and that of our allies) with a weaker buffer against this self-imposed energy crunch. Power costs were already increasing before this invasion, thanks in no small part to the rush of new data centers and their fossil-fuel hookups. But the effect of the Iran conflict has laid bare how any “energy dominance” agenda without clean tech is a sham. To make electrical generation dependent on fossil fuels, to keep buildings hooked to gas, to discard energy efficiency standards, to disparage the burgeoning EV sector—none of it has made America more secure or affordable in this moment.

Mr. Chump has steadily brought us to this point. This is not happening by chance, it arises from his own actions. He is 100% responsible for this. Both for starting this war and for all the costs -- including lives -- that are now resulting from it.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for today:

Friday, March 13, 2026. Four more US service members killed in Chump's illegal war, ICE gets rebuked in court again, the Epstein scandal gets pooh-pahhed by Dan Abrams, and much more.

Four more US service members have passed away in Donald Chump and Benjamin Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran. Helene Cooper, Greg Jaffe and Eric Schmitt (NEW YORK TIMES) announce:

Four of six crew members died after a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft that was part of the American war against Iran crashed in neighboring Iraq, United States Central Command said on Friday.

In a statement, it said that rescue efforts were continuing and that the circumstances of the crash were under investigation, but added that “the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

The deaths brought the number of U.S. service members killed in operations related to the Iran conflict to at least 11.

Iranians are being killed daily in this war. One of the worst known attacks was at the start of the war when the US bombed a girl's school. And this week, we did learn that it was the US who bombed the school. Katie Herchenroeder (MOTHER JONES) notes:

The United States is responsible for killing at least 175 people, many of them children, in a Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school on the last day of February, according to US officials and others familiar with the ongoing military investigation who spoke with the New York Times. The death toll was reported by Iranian officials.

The deadly strike on the girls’ school, Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary, followed incorrect targeting intelligence about the area. The school is nearby buildings used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Navy—which the US also targeted on the same day it decimated Shajarah Tayyebeh. Before it was a school, the site was connected to the base. But, according to a visual analysis for the Times, the school area has been sectioned off from the base for at least a decade. US military intelligence, the preliminary report findings indicate, might have been operating off of old data.

The investigation isn’t over and more information is poised to come out about how the school became designated as a target. While there have reportedly been instances of the US using Claude, the AI model created by Anthropic, in their offensive against Iran, it is unclear if the AI was used in the strike against the school. Government officials told the Times that it may have been the result of human error.

This reflects on Donald Chump and on Pete Hegseth. On the latter, Charlie Savage (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made contempt for what he calls “stupid rules of engagement” — limits meant to reduce risks to civilians — central to his political identity, and has boasted that he unleashed the military to use “maximum authorities on the battlefield” in the Iran war.

“Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly,” Mr. Hegseth said at a briefing four days after the war started. “Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it.”

This and similar statements are now the backdrop to a body of evidence that the destruction of an Iranian elementary school during the opening hours of the war was likely caused by an American missile strike. The preliminary finding of an ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States was responsible, The New York Times has reported.

The destruction of the school, which coincided with an attack on an adjacent Iranian naval base, killed about 175 civilians, most of them children, according to Iranian officials.

Long before this war, Mr. Hegseth’s opposition to stricter versions of limits on what U.S. forces need to see and know about a potential target before they may open fire drew criticism. Retired commanders argue that the point of such constraints is not just law, morality and honor, but strategic self-interest. Mistakes that kill civilians stoke anti-Americanism — alienating allies, creating new enemies and making wars harder to win.

“You don’t want to turn the entire population against the United States,” said Mark Hertling, a retired three-star Army general. “If you are bombing indiscriminately — like may have happened on several occasions, to include the girls’ school — that would negate any opportunity to have a positive regime change.”

At MOTHER JONES, Damien Gayle notes the damage from bombing the oil facilities:

On Monday, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “Damage to petroleum facilities in Iran risks contaminating food, water, and air—hazards that can have severe health impacts especially on children, older people, and people with pre-existing medical conditions.”

Iran’s deputy health minister, Ali Jafarian, told Al Jazeera that the soil and water supplies around Tehran were already beginning to be contaminated by the fallout from the weekend’s explosions.

The black rain that fell across Tehran in the hours after the bombings was a mixture of soot and fine particulate matter from the explosions with rain from a storm that was already moving across the region, according to Dr Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading.

“The airstrikes on oil depots released soot, smoke, oil particles, sulfur compounds, and likely heavy metals and inorganic materials from the buildings, whilst a low‑pressure weather system, which typically sweeps across Iran and west Asia around this time of year, created conditions favorable for rainfall,” Deoras said.

“In terms of atmospheric chemistry, the oil fires produce sulphur and nitrogen compounds that could form acids if they dissolve in rainwater,” he said. “The risks to human health come from inhaling or touching the smoke and particles. Immediate impacts can include headaches, irritation of the eyes and skin, and difficulty breathing—particularly for people with asthma, lung disease, older adults, young children, and those with disabilities.”

And then there is the damage the war is causing in the US. Sarah Lazare (THE AMERICAN PROSPECT) reports:

Brenda is confounded that while so many people are struggling to eat and staring down major cuts to federal nutrition assistance, the U.S. government is spending billions of dollars on a war with Iran. “What I see every day in my community is there are hard-working, single-parent households out here,” says Brenda, who is going by a pseudonym to protect against retaliation. “They’re struggling to afford basics, just like I am. Groceries are costing more. Rent costs more. A lot of people are having to choose between paying their electric bill or buying medication or keeping a roof over their head … Our own people are dying because of a lack of necessities.”

“The government could end all of the suffering in our country,” she continued. “We could have health care and access to food, healthy foods, fresh food, we could have good doctors. We should be asking, ‘Why are we investing billions of dollars into another war across the seas?’”

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon stretches into its second week, it is bringing death and destruction across the region. On the first day of the war, the United States bombed an elementary school in Minab, in southern Iran, killing 168 people, 110 of them children. The U.S.-Israel coalition went on to heavily bomb residential areas in Iran and Lebanon, and strike oil depots around Tehran, filling the air with thick, black smoke that blots out the sun and unleashes oily, toxic rain. Trump administration officials are openly boasting about the death toll. When asked whether Russia’s involvement endangers American personnel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS that “the only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re gonna live.”

The Pentagon estimates that the war costs $1 billion a day, according to Atlantic journalist Nancy Youssef, who cites “a congressional official.” For that amount, the United States instead could be paying the daily cost of food stamps for the 41 million people who need them, or the daily costs of Medicaid for the 16 million people who are expected to lose their coverage due to recent cuts, according to Alliyah Lusuegro and Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project, an organization that researches federal budgets.

“The primary concern is the death in Iran,” says Koshgarian, who is NPP’s program director. “Having a foreign government come and invade your country and bomb it is not giving you self-determination. And then it’s not protecting Americans, but it is preventing Americans from having enough resources.”

The American people are strongly against this illegal war.

Donald Chump continues 'winning' in the polls. Sam Stevenson (NEWSWEEK) reports:

President Donald Trump is posting his weakest approval numbers yet with independent voters, a warning sign for a White House heading toward a volatile midterm election cycle, according to CNN’s chief data analyst.

[. . .]

Independent voters often decide close elections, and their growing disapproval is historically severe at this stage of a second term.

If it holds, it could shape turnout and congressional control in the midterms.

Independent voters sit at the political center of the electorate, and Trump is losing them by a wider margin than any recent president at the same point in a second term, according to CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten.

Speaking on CNN News Central, Enten said Trump is now “38 points underwater” with independents, a level of unpopularity that exceeds the second-term standings of both Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

“That is worse than Obama by 20 points,” Enten said. “That is worse than George W. Bush by double digits.”

CNN anchor John Berman noted that Bush’s second term eventually unraveled amid Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war and the Great Recession, adding that the historical comparison is not one any White House would want.

The problem, Enten argued, is not just partisan polarization but a growing sense among voters in the middle that the administration is focused on the wrong priorities.

Sam Stevenson also reports:

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings on immigration and the economy have sunk to new second-term lows, according to data from a national polling series.

[. . .]

The latest numbers point to mounting dissatisfaction during Trump’s second term as voters weigh economic pressures, immigration policy and election concerns.

With midterms approaching, sustained weakness on core issues could shape turnout and control of Congress.

Trump’s overall job approval remains underwater and is at second-term low on two defining issues of his presidency, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

In this polling series, Trump’s approval ratings on immigration and the economy have fallen to their lowest recorded levels of his second term, though the figures are little changed from February.

In fairness to Chump, he has done one thing that most Americans agree with: Fire Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security. Sarah Davis (THE HILL) reports:

Kristi Noem’s ouster at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the beginning of March was widely lauded by Democrats in Congress — and some Republicans. A new poll finds that the majority of Americans also agree with the move.

Fifty-five percent of respondents in a YouGov survey released Tuesday said they approved of President Trump’s decision to fire the DHS secretary. The move garnered bipartisan support, with 64 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans indicating support for her firing.

Chump is caught in a death spiral when it comes to polling. Nick Lichtenberg (FORTUNE) notes what Morgan Stanley has offered regarding the upcoming mid-terms:

President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran is rattling global oil markets, threatening to reignite inflation—and according to Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Office, it could cost Republicans their Senate majority and send the national debt into overdrive.

The firm’s investment strategist and head of U.S. policy, Monica Guerra, published a detailed analysis Thursday warning about the obvious: The incumbent’s party tends to lose seats in midterm elections, and this particular conflict has triggered one of the most consequential energy-supply shocks in recent memory. The implications stretch from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path all the way to November’s midterm ballot box.

On Feb. 28, U.S. and Israeli forces launched coordinated missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, military infrastructure, and senior leadership. Iran retaliated against Israel, U.S. bases, and regional allies—and the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil supply flows, or approximately 21 million barrels per day, effectively shut down.

Crude prices surged above $100 a barrel almost immediately. Oil is now up over 51% for the year to date. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has jumped 27 basis points since the conflict began, reflecting renewed inflation fears and growing concern about deficit spending.

[. . .]

Here’s the political math Morgan Stanley lays out: Since 1922, the sitting president’s party has lost an average of 30 House seats and four Senate seats in midterm elections. Republicans currently hold a 53–47 Senate majority—a margin Morgan Stanley says could narrow significantly with a prolonged energy shock.

The firm’s base case is that the GOP loses the House and keeps the Senate. But a sustained oil shock could tighten the Senate race in ways that scramble that forecast.

The reason is simple and visceral: gas prices. The bottom 20% of consumers spend four times more of their budget on energy than the top 20%. Rising prices at the pump, Morgan Stanley notes, are “one of the most visible signs of daily affordability for most voters”—and affordability is the top voter concern heading into the midterms.

Economist Paul Krugman is also raising concerns regarding the economy. Tushar Auddy (INQUISITR) notes:

Appearing as a guest on All In (via YouTube), Krugman dissected the ongoing supply shock of oil that the U.S. is currently facing. He explained that the situation is “potentially really terrible” because the current price of oil is still uncertain, as the war might last for another week or two.

The problem arises because this 20% of the oil is stuck at the Strait of Hormuz, which is significant enough to “shock world oil supplies.” He added, “That’s a much bigger shock to world oil supplies than the oil shocks of the 1970s. This is just a gigantic disruption to world energy supplies.”

The economist feared that the oil prices could easily go much higher than they are now, “if it’s sustained.” However, he ruled out that possibility because it is “basically impossible, and that’s nasty.” He assured that the world is less oil dependent than it was in the 70s, but if they added all the bad things that have happened in the past six decades of US economic history, it would lead to what is currently happening right now.

On Homeland Security, they continue to struggle. Colin Kalmbacher (LAW & CRIME) reports:

A federal judge in Utah dealt the Trump administration a loss after immigration agents attempted to deport a man who was arrested for an alleged drug crime that turned out to be nothing of the sort.

The nine-page order offers a novel variation on a recent theme of numerous district court judges rejecting controversial efforts to reshape how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) classifies immigrants in order to detain them.

The petitioner, Lorenzo Chavez Rascon, won a temporary restraining order in a habeas corpus case by convincing U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby, a Barack Obama appointee, that "emergency relief" was necessary "to ensure" that his "due process rights are not violated."

In 2017, Chavez – then a minor – entered the country with his family and immediately applied for asylum. Then, during the litigation of the asylum case, Chavez applied for a U-visa, which the court refers to as "a type of temporary visa available to certain undocumented persons within the United States who cooperate with law enforcement."

In early February, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) determined his visa petition was "bona fide," the judge notes. During the waiting period when such a determination is made, the government is allowed to grant deferred action status – a form of status that will put a halt on any deportation proceedings.

In late February, Chavez was arrested by authorities in Utah over a suspected drug sale. That arrest proved unnecessary.

"However, the narcotics involved in the suspected sale were later determined to be dried pinto beans," the court explains.

At which point, ICE seized him. The judge said no:

The court makes short work of the underlying arrest.

"While Chavez was arrested by state police on charges related to selling narcotics (in and of itself grounds for detention and removal), Chavez was not charged by the State of Utah with any crime," Shelby goes on. "The alleged narcotic proved to be pinto beans."

To that end, because the initially alleged crime literally amounted to a pile of beans, the court says the government does not really have any actual reason to suggest that Chavez's deferred action status "has been revoked or is expected to be revoked." And that means his deportation is far from happening – if it ever comes at all.

Turning to the Epstein scandal, Lesley Abravanel (OK!) reports on Donald Chump's friend Ghislaine Maxwell:

Author Amy Wallace — who co-authored and posthumously published Virginia Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody's Girl — claimed that Ghislaine Maxwell was "fully involved" in Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory schemes.

Speaking at the All About Women event titled “Inside the Epstein Files” in Sydney, Australia, Wallace described Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator as the "apex predator" of the operation, emphasizing that her role extended far beyond mere recruitment.

“She [Maxwell] had the connections,” Wallace said on Sunday, March 8. “Virginia referred to her as an ‘apex predator,' because remember, this is not a woman who just recruited, she had s-- with the girls, she forced them to service her sexually. This is not someone who just wanted to keep him [Epstein] happy… She was fully involved in the predation.”

Wallace stated that the former British socialite made Epstein's access to high-society circles and young victims possible.

Contrary to defense arguments that she was a "scapegoat," Wallace alleged Maxwell was a hands-on participant who personally abused victims.

Wallace explained that Maxwell used her status as a sophisticated Oxford graduate to build trust with young women, often offering them "mentorship" or "travel opportunities" before the relationship shifted into exploitation.

British journalist Emily Maitlis, whose 2019 BBC interview with the former Prince Andrew was described by media and public alike as a "car crash" and was a turning point in the Epstein scandal, agreed and characterized Maxwell as far more than an accomplice, describing her as a "central "architect" and a "driving force" who was "fully involved in the predation" of the s--trafficking network.

“If you’re trafficked, you do not get to choose,” Maitlis said. “If you’re underage, you do not get to choose. If you’re a child, it’s not prostitution. It’s rape.”

That's Chump's friend they're talking about. The woman he may pardon because, hey, sexual exploitation, is no big thing to Chump. He's already moved her to from the secure prison she was in to Club Fed in Bryan, Texas back in August. She's not supposed to be there, it's too low of a level for someone with her hard convictions. But she reached out to Chump, he sent Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to chat with her and she got moved to Club Fed.

One hour and five minutes in on the video above, Katie Couric speaks with THE ATLANTIC's Sarah Fitzpatrick about developments in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation including that many witnesses are not seeing their complaints among the released files from the FBI. Katie and Sarah are covering the last two weeks of Epstein news including the news that Donald Chump has never been questioned by the FBI regarding Jeffrey Epstein.

Dan Abrams? He did an 'Epstein' segment yesterday. He's never done a segment on NPR and MS NOW's reporting that resulted in the release of three FBI files on a woman who told the FBI in 2019 that when she was a teenager Epstein sexually trafficked her to Donald Trump. She had four interviews. The first one was released. In it she spoke only of Epstein. The other three only were released after NPR began reporting on the fact that they weren't released.

From last Friday's NPR POLITICAL PODCAST:

TAMARA KEITH: And we're back. And NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler is here with us. Hey, Stephen.

STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hello.

KEITH: There were a number of developments in the long-running Epstein files story this week. And Stephen, I want to start with your latest reporting on files that were missing or redacted from the original public release. Some of those files have now been posted by the Justice Department. What do they have in them?

FOWLER: Just to recap, we found that there were 53 pages that appeared to be missing from that public Epstein files database. They all related to an allegation that President Trump sexually abused a minor in the early 1980s. There was a mention of this explicit allegation found in a Justice Department PowerPoint from last year that was in the files and also an FBI email kind of recapping all of the claims made about Trump, but we couldn't find it anywhere else in these files. Looking at some of the other documents, we were able to find that the FBI interviewed this woman as an adult in 2019 four separate times. Only one of those interviews was initially published in the Epstein files, and it didn't mention Trump at all.

Now, we do have some of those files, 16 pages covering three other interviews, plus a two-page sheet detailing the initial tip that was called in. These interviews do go into more explicit detail about what Trump was alleged to have done to her when she was a teenager, forcing her head down onto his penis. She allegedly bit it. He said foul words and hit her head. There's also an interview, which was the final one in 2019, and this woman was asked whether she, quote, "felt comfortable" detailing her contacts with Trump, and she reportedly asked, quote, "what the point would be of providing this information at this point in her life when there was a strong possibility nothing could be done about it." And remember, these interviews took place during Trump's first term in office.

KEITH: Stephen, how is the White House responding to this?

FOWLER: We should also note here that Trump denies any wrongdoing related to Epstein and has not been charged with a crime. The White House has repeatedly said that Trump is, quote, "totally exonerated" by the Epstein files. The latest statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that these are completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence. They also point on background to two different articles that claim to discredit the woman's accusations, but we haven't verified those things. In fact, Tam, looking at the release of these documents, it doesn't actually shine any more light on how credible federal investigators viewed these claims or how they were resolved, or why these allegations were included in the Justice Department slide presentation summarizing the cases against Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

KEITH: But there are still records that haven't been released. What has the government said about the delays in the release?

FOWLER: It's been a shifting story. I mean, back when the Epstein files were released on January 30, the Justice Department said they were all done in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act law Congress passed. When we asked specifically about these documents, the Justice Department would not comment on them directly and said anything that might've been withheld was because of privilege, or they were duplicates, or they were part of an ongoing federal investigation. After more people reported on the documents and there was more of a public backlash, the story changed again. The Justice Department said they were reviewing to see if anything was accidentally mistakenly tagged as duplicate, and if they found something, of course, they would publish it.

So fast-forward to Thursday night, where there were a thousand new pages uploaded, including some documents that it discovered were, quote, "incorrectly coded as duplicative" and a few more documents related to prosecution memos that the Southern District of Florida determined could be published while protecting privileged materials. That said, we still know based on looking at the serial numbers stamped onto these documents and the logs of files turned over to Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney in her case, that there are still 37 pages, at least, that still haven't been published.

KEITH: Domenico, this is a story that is just not going away for the administration, and it comes when they have all kinds of other issues related to their base and possible disillusionment with respect to the war with Iran. You know, it's one thing to be fighting a messaging battle on one front, but this is now two fronts that they're on. Where do you see this going?

MONTANARO: Well, certainly, this isn't going to go away anytime soon. You know, it's going to continue to be a thorn in the Trump administration's side. I mean, Trump would very much like this to go away, but there are a lot of people on both sides of the aisle who don't want that to be the case, and it's not necessarily because they're targeting Trump. You know, there are lots of men with power and influence who are named in these files, many of whom have not faced any consequences whatsoever. You have lots of victims who are continuing to speak out and are trying to make sure this story doesn't go away.

Dan's never felt the need to cover that story. In fact, he largely ignores the Epstein files and the scandal. But yesterday he brought on Ankush Khardori -- the POLITICO reporter we were calling out yesterday morning. The two lie and spin about how there's nothing there and there's no special favors going on and there's no to one arrest and blah blah blah this is how it happens.

No.

People are being protected and have been protected. There was Epstein's sweetheart deal. There was the 2019 decision -- yesterday's snapshot quoted James Comer of the House Oversight Committee talking about this -- by the US Justice Dept to call off New Mexico's investigation into Epstein and his ranch. There's the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell -- a product of upper society -- got moved from the prison she was in to a cushy prison that her crimes don't allow her to be in. There's the fact that the three statements about Donald Chump were not released until NPR began calling them out on not releasing them.

This isn't minor.

The Epstein Class has been protected throughout.

And for Dan and Ankush to pretend otherwise is sickening and shameful.

And this morning, Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) reports:

A top Justice Department official currently “leading investigations” into Jeffrey Epstein was hit with accusations Thursday of holding a “very personal interest” in limiting the scope of the agency’s probe into the disgraced financier and any potential co-conspirators, The Lever reported.

That official is Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a position he was nominated for by President Donald Trump last November.

“Jay Clayton has a very personal interest in seeing the Epstein story as a cabined-off story involving a mysterious ‘who could have ever known it’ villain, rather than the story of interconnected immoral elites it appears to be to impartial people,” said Jeff Hauser, the executive director of Revolving Door Project, a government watchdog group, speaking with The Lever.

“That’s a really paralyzing bias to bring to the role of prosecutor. We should want professional skeptics to serve our prosecutors, not the credulous.”

Accusations of Clayton harboring a “personal interest” in narrowing the scope of the probe into Epstein stem from a series of newly released emails from the DOJ that revealed communications between Epstein and leadership at the asset management firm Apollo Global Management, communications that took place as recently as 2016, nearly a decade after Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor.

And, according to financial disclosures, Clayton continues to hold somewhere between $1.5 million and $6 million in Apollo holdings, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in stocks from banks currently being investigated for potentially facilitating “suspicious financial transactions tied to sex trafficking crimes committed by Epstein.”

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

The Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act would codify rights to minimum wage and overtime pay for home care workers and domestic workers

As Trump and Republicans strip home care workers of their right to minimum wage and overtime pay, Murray and Democrats fight to protect fair wages

***WATCH PRESS CONFERENCE HERE***

Washington, D.C. – Today,U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced the bicameral Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act, alongside Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ), in response to Trump ripping away home care workers’ right to minimum wage and overtime pay. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) introduced companion legislation in the House. The Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act addresses a longstanding injustice in our country—home care workers have been unfairly excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act. This legislation would codify minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers in federal labor law, and expand overtime protections to domestic workers as well. Senator Murray and Senator Kim were also joined by Miranda Bridges, a caregiver from Moses Lake, Washington, and SEIU 775 member, and Jenn Stowe, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

In the U.S., there are more than 3 million home care workers who support almost 10 million people with disabilities and older adults with everyday tasks like eating, dressing, and bathing. In July 2025, the Trump administration took action to roll back a 2013 rule – seeking to strip home care workers’ rights to minimum wage and overtime pay. If the Trump administration’s proposal is finalized, home care workers who reside in states with no additional wage protections will lose their right to minimum wage and overtime protections. If passed, the Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act would codify home care workers’ rights to minimum wage and overtime pay in statute and expand overtime protections to domestic workers as well.

“In Washington state and across our country, home care workers ensure that seniors and people with disabilities can live in their homes with dignity and respect. They play a vital role in our communities and too many of them are struggling to make ends meet on the low wages they’re receiving,” said Senator Murray. “Instead of supporting these workers, Donald Trump wants to overturn a rule that ensures that home care workers receive the same basic minimum wage and overtime protections as everyone else. That’s why today we are Introducing the Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act. This bill makes sure that home care workers and domestic workers at least have the basic wage protections they deserve and can continue to earn a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work. No loopholes, exceptions, or sabotage from a billionaire President without a clue.”

“No one should get less than a fair wage for their work in our country,” said Senator Kim. “As the need for caregivers only grows, we cannot allow the Trump administration to abandon home care and domestic workers to live in poverty. Care workers go above and beyond to look after our loved ones. Congress needs to step up to codify the fair pay they deserve and support their essential service at the heart of addressing our country’s care crisis.”

“Congress has a moral obligation to protect those who care for our most vulnerable communities and home care workers are the backbone of our long-term care system,” said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “I am proud to introduce the Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act with Senator Patty Murray to finally codify the minimum wage and overtime protections our home care workers deserve and prevent future attacks on their livelihoods.”

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) created a right to minimum wage and overtime pay for most workers in the U.S., but the FLSA continued to exclude some categories of workers, such as home care workers. In 1974, Congress amended the FLSA to cover home care workers; unfortunately, that amendment included a loophole that was interpreted to allow for the continued exclusion of most home care workers. In 2013, The U.S. Department of Labor finalized regulations, interpreting these amendments and expanding labor protections for most home care workers.

In July 2025, the Trump administration took action to roll back the 2013 rule—seeking to strip home care workers’ rights to minimum wage and overtime pay—and revert to a previous interpretation of the 1974 amendments. If the Trump administration’s proposal is finalized, home care workers who reside in states with no additional wage protections—more than one-quarter of all home care workers in the country—will lose their right to minimum wage and overtime protections.

“Ask any care worker about their hours and compensation, you’ll hear about recurring stories, you’ll hear how our voices go unheard, our needs often go overlooked, especially if we don’t have a union. We work unpaid hours because we refuse to leave our clients, our neighbors, and our loved ones without the dignity of care. We perform essential work that holds the economy together, yet we are often the ones struggling to make ends meet. Care givers deserve respect, and the people we care for deserve respect. The work we do is essential, that’s why we need a strong care workforce, and that’s why SEIU stands in strong support of the Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act. This legislation is a vital step towards ensuring home care workers receive fair compensation for every hour worked. We are done waiting for someday—we cannot wait. Congress must act now, it is time to pass the Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act, and finally invest in and support the people who are at the heart of our health care system,” said Miranda Bridges, a caregiver from Moses Lake, Washington, and SEIU 775 member.

“We are at a crossroads in this country. Our need for care is growing every single day, yet we continue to treat the home care workforce as disposable. We cannot allow the fundamental right to a minimum wage and overtime to be at the whim and mercy of this administration. Rolling back these protections would hurt an already struggling workforce and the millions of families who rely on their care. The Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act is our chance to finally enshrine these protections in federal law and help ensure that the workers who enable the dignity of our older and disabled loved ones are able to work with dignity too,” said Ai-Jen Poo, President of National Domestic Workers Alliance.

“Home care workers represent a lifeline for millions of families—yet too many are denied even a minimum wage and often go unpaid for hours spent off the clock keeping their clients safe. Poverty wages are driving caregivers out of this lifesaving field, leaving families without support, hospitals and nursing homes overwhelmed, and seniors and people with disabilities at risk of losing the freedom to live with dignity in their own homes. Congress must act now to protect these essential workers and the families who depend on them. On behalf of the thousands of AFSCME members in home care, we thank Senator Murray and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez for introducing this critical legislation, and urge Congress to pass it now,” said Lee Saunders, President of President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

In addition to Senators Murray and Kim, the Senate bill is co-sponsored by: Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Maizie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

In addition to Representative Ocasio-Cortez, the House bill is co-sponsored by: Alma Adams (NC-12), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Becca Balint (VT-AL), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Wesley Bell (MO-01), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), André Carson (IN-07), Judy Chu (CA-28), Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Daniel Goldman (NY-10), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Raúl Grijalva (AZ-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Val Hoyle (OR-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Julie Johnson (TX-32), Tim Kennedy (NY-26), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), George Latimer (NY-16), Ted Lieu (CA-36), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), John Mannion (NY-22), Lucy McBath (GA-06), Sarah McBride (DE-AL), Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), Jim McGovern (MA-02), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Jerry Nadler (NY-12), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Brittany Pettersen (CO-07), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), Eric Swalwell (CA-14), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and Frederica Wilson (FL-24).

The legislation has been endorsed by: 1199SEIU; A Better Balance; ACLU; ADAPT Montana; ADAPT National; Adhikaar for Human Rights and Social Justice; The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD); American Friends Service Committee; AFSCME; Alliance for Retired Americans; ANCOR; The ARC of Illinois; The ARC of the United States; Autistic People of Color Fund; Autistic Self Advocacy Network; Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network; Blue Future; Business for a Fair Minimum Wage; Care in Action; Caring Across Generations; Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP); Coalition on Human Needs; Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition; Colorado Fiscal Institute; CommunicationFIRST; Community Catalyst; Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care; Democratic Women’s Caucus; Detroit Disability Power; Disciples Center for Public Witness; Diverse Elders Coalition; Economic Policy Institute; Equal Rights Advocates; eQuality HomeCare Co-op; Family Voices National; Family Values @ Work; Family Values @ Work Action; Fe y Justicia Worker Center; Filipino Advocates for Justice; Food Research & Action Center; Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network; Institute for Women’s Policy Research; Justice in Aging; Justice for Migrant Women; Lazos America Unida; LeadingAge; Liberty Resources Inc.; Matahari Women Workers Center; MomsRising; National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; National Coalition for the Homeless; National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare; National Council of Jewish Women; National Council on Independent Living (NCIL); National Disability Institute; National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA); National Employment Law Project (NELP); National Health Law Program; National Immigration Law Center; National Indian Council on Aging; National Nurses United; National Partnership for Women & Families; National Respite Coalition; National Women’s Law Center; National Women’s Political Caucus; NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; New Disabled South; New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty; North Carolina Justice Center; Nuevo Sol Day Labor and Domestic Workers; Oxfam America; Paid Leave for All Action; The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies; PEAK Parent Center; People’s Action Institute; PHI; Public Justice Center; SCIboston; SEIU; SEIU 775; Serving At Risk Families Everywhere Inc.; Sur Legal Collaborative; UNITE HERE!; United Church of Christ; United Domestic Workers of America (UDW); Voices for Progress; Women Employed; Women Working Together USA; WorkLife Law.

As the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee from 2015-2022 and a champion of workers’ rights, Senator Murray has been a longtime leader pushing to raise the minimum wage, establish a national paid leave program, and expand workers’ rights. Among many other pieces of pro-worker legislation, Murray also leads the Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act, to fight wage theft and protect workers’ hard earned wages, and the Paycheck Fairness Act, to combat wage discrimination and help close the gender pay gap. Senator Murray has helped lead the fight for paid family and medical leave since she first joined Congress. Murray continues to push for the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would guarantee up to 12 weeks of partial income for workers who have to take leave for serious medical and family events. Murray also helped reintroduce the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to protect workers’ right to join and form a union in order to demand better pay, benefits, and working conditions—legislation she first introduced in the 116^th Congress. Senator Murray also leads the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act, comprehensive legislation to prevent workplace harassment, strengthen and expand key protections for workers, and support workers in seeking accountability and justice. Earlier this month, Senator Murray slammed the Trump administration’s moves to roll back worker protections—forcefully calling out the Administration’s extreme anti-worker policies.

A fact sheet on the legislation is available HERE.

Text of the legislation is available HERE.

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The following sites updated:

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Chump's war should not distract from his destruction of our economy

Convicted Felon Donald Chump ended the penny. Probably it had something to do with envy against President Abraham Lincoln. But Mr. Lincoln had been dead for over 150 years when Mr. Chump made his move. So it is us who are impacted by another disaster decision from the non-thinking Mr. Chump. Libby MacDonald (MONEYWISE) reports:

Dr. Scott Strong, a college professor and numbers expert, recently had an eye-opening experience at White Castle when the restaurant didn’t give him the penny he was owed in his change.

By Scott’s math, if every White Castle location nationwide kept just one penny per cash transaction, the restaurant would be taking in an extra $835,000 a year. And if the practice becomes commonplace, it could result in a 3% to 5% increase in transaction costs for consumers, or even more for those who use cash regularly.

In Scott’s case, asking for the manager resulted in him going home with a shiny nickel for his troubles, but his experience is one aspect of the confusion that's hitting consumers at the cash register in the early goings of our post-penny world. The rules are now inconsistent and depend on the store, the chain, the location and possibly the cashier’s mood.

For consumers on fixed budgets, that means they’re no longer able to predict the final price of a purchase down to the cent when paying with cash.

It’s been just over a year since President Trump took to Truth Social to announce the phasing out of the one-cent piece in February 2025, stating that pennies “literally cost us more than two cents” to make (2). According to the U.S. Mint, over the past decade the cost of producing each penny has risen from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents (3).

Pennies are nothing to Chump. He has never had to count them. CBS NEWS notes:

Months after the last of the United States' one-cent coins were pressed, some states are beginning to offer their own two cents on the penny problem by setting rounding guidance for cash purchases.

President Trump announced an end to penny production early last year, saying it was wasteful. It cost 3.7 cents to make each 1-cent coin in 2024, according to the U.S. Mint's annual report from that year.

The move led to a shortage of pennies in cash registers last summer, forcing consumers and businesses to confront a penniless future in which making exact change would be difficult.

Some retailers began pulling out all the stops just to scrounge up some pennies.

Major retailers took varied approaches.

The Treasury Department has said it will continue circulating the roughly 114 billion pennies that exist for "as long as possible." Pennies must still be accepted as payment.

One solution to the penny problem is rounding to the nearest nickel, using a practice called symmetrical rounding. If the final price, after taxes, ends in one, two, six or seven cents, payments in cash round down. For example, $1.91 or $1.92 becomes $1.90. If the price ends in three, four, eight or nine, cash payments round up. For $1.98 or $1.99, the consumer pays $2.

The penny problem is a real problem but it is only one of many problems that Mr. Chump has created with his destruction of our economy. Maurie Backman (THE STREET) notes:

Shopping for groceries and other essentials used to be a fairly boring experience. You'd make a list, grab your haul, and move on with your afternoon.

These days, consumers need to spend more time shopping for groceries and essentials. The reason? Everything is up.

In February, food costs rose 3.1% on an annual basis, according to the Consumer Price Index. The cost of groceries specifically rose 2.4%, while the cost of dining out increased 3.9%.

Of course, price increases like these tend to hurt lower-income households the most. But even higher earners are feeling squeezed.

In a CBS News poll conducted last year, 19% of people with incomes of $100,000 or more rated their financial situation as "bad." And if prices continue to climb, it won't be surprising to see higher earners start to make serious cuts.

And Jasmine Laws (NEWSWEEK) reports:

The cost of food increased by 0.3 percent in February, according to newly released data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Specifically, grocery prices rose by an average of 0.2 percent, while the cost of food away from home, such as in restaurants, cafeterias or from vending machines, rose by an average of 0.3 percent last month.

The cost of all food items analyzed in BLS’s database in February were 3.1 percent higher last month compared with a year ago, and were 1 percent higher than costs logged at the end of 2025.

The high costs of living in America has been a key point of contention over the past year, as President Donald Trump vowed to make lowering the cost of food a major part of his administration’s efforts.

Many Americans have been struggling to cover the increasing costs of groceries, and concerns have been raised about nationwide changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, as well as the tightening of its eligibility criteria, which could affect around a million Americans.

The food items that went up in price by the most significant amount last month were fruits and vegetables, which saw an increase in cost of 2.4 percent compared with January 2026. This marked a 4.7 percent increase compared with February last year.

It is outrageous and it only gets worse each month. Remember Mr. Chump's claim that he would lower the price of food? Like everything else he promised, that was a lie. Oh wait, he promised mass deportations and he kept his word on that. Of course, now that America has seen mass deportation they no longer support it and Mr. Chump told House Republicans on Monday not to use the term "mass deportation" anymore because it was hurting his political party.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for today:

Thursday, March 12, 2026. The House Oversight Committee hears from Epstein's accountant that a woman who accused Epstein and Donald Chump of assault got a settlement, questions remain about where the other papers from The Epstein Files are on the woman accusing Chump of assaulting her when she was underage (and no one knows if this is the same woman that Epstein's accountant was speaking of), Chump has wasted over 11 billion of our tax dollars on his illegal war of choice with Iran, Senator Patty Murray calls out Republicans who don't want to get honest about ICE, and much more.

Jeffrey Epstein. Chump's friend from the 80s through when? No one's really sure. Chump likes to pretend it was 2005 or 2006 but there are e-mails carrying the timeline up to 2016 -- November of 2016. Jeffrey Epstein was Chump's friend for years. He died in prison. In 2019. With new revelations regarding Epstein's death, Ari's put together a timeline.

Bill Barr was Attorney General in 2019 -- under Chump. He remembers or 'remembers' (I don't buy what he says, he wasn't at all convincing when he spoke to Tara Palmeri) having two conversations about Epstein with Chump -- the first when Chump told him that he and Epstein were no longer friends and the second was after Epstein died in prison when he says he broke the news to Chump.

Those were their only conversations? They didn't have one about New Mexico? Even though something happened in New Mexico when Barr was in charge of the Justice Dept?

I ask because Zachary Leeman (MEDIAITE) notes:

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice asked New Mexico investigators to shut down a 2019 probe into a ranch owned by convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Comer joined Fox News’s Jesse Watters on Tuesday evening after New Mexico authorities searched a ranch in the state once owned by Epstein. Victims of Epstein have said they were trafficked at the ranch. This is the second time the property has been investigated.

The property was being probed in 2019, but federal investigators reportedly took over and shut things down. Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while incarcerated awaiting sex trafficking charges.

Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said on Tuesday:

The federal government asked New Mexico to stop their investigation, I believe, back in 2019 of that ranch. So there’s just so many questions about how the government failed, the victims and how government failed in trying to prosecute Epstein sooner. I mean, this whole thing doesn’t make sense. Everyone has conspiracy theories on how Epstein was able to get away with it. Was it because he had powerful friends? Was it because he was an agent? We don’t know, but we’re gonna find out and I’m glad that they’re on the ground now in New Mexico searching that property.

Bill Barr was Attorney General when that investigation was shut down.

Did Comer ask him about that? Did anyone?

Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzalez were supposed to be deposed by Comer's Committee; however, they both swore in letters that they had no knowledge of anything. And then they were told that they didn't have to testify. So why did they make Hillary Clinton testify? She'd been very clear prior to appearing before the Committee that she had no knowledge of Epstein.

Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee sought to depose another witness. Graham Kates (CBS NEWS) reports:

An accountant who worked closely with Jeffrey Epstein for more than a decade and serves as an executor of his estate told members of Congress on Wednesday that he "was not aware of the nature or extent of Epstein's abuse of so many women until after Epstein's death."

Richard Kahn was one of Epstein's closest associates in his final years, managing his finances, investments and other minutiae, such as renovations on Epstein's private Caribbean island. He was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee, and testified behind closed doors that he did not socialize with Epstein.

"Had I learned of any of his horrific behavior, I would have quit work immediately," he said, according to his prepared opening statement, which was provided to CBS News.

Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia said during a lunch break that Kahn told the committee the Epstein's estate had reached a settlement with a person who had also made accusations related to President Trump. Subramanyam did not give further detail on what was said about that settlement or the accuser.

Was that person -- the one who had also made accusations regarding Chump -- the same woman that NPR discovered? Or is this another woman who has accused Chump of assault?

From Friday's NPR POLITICAL PODCAST:

TAMARA KEITH: And we're back. And NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler is here with us. Hey, Stephen.

STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hello.

KEITH: Stephen, how is the White House responding to this?

KEITH: But there are still records that haven't been released. What has the government said about the delays in the release?

And from Friday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Last week, an NPR investigation revealed some Epstein files related to President Trump were being withheld from the public. They related to an allegation that Trump sexually abused a minor in the 1980s. Now some of those documents have been published, and they raise new questions. And a warning, we want to let you know the story does include a description of sexual abuse. NPR's Stephen Fowler is here with an update. Hi, Stephen.

STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.

DETROW: Let's start with this - remind us how we knew there were documents missing and that they mentioned the president.

FOWLER: Well, in the millions of Epstein files that were released, there was this PowerPoint slide and an email from the FBI that talked about a claim that Trump sexually abused a minor four decades ago, but there was no other mention of where it came from, what investigators did about it, or why it made it into this roundup about the Epstein case. NPR was the first to piece together other records in the files to discover the FBI interviewed this woman four times in 2019. Only one interview was made public, and there was no mention of the abuse claim.

DETROW: OK, so that was the initial reporting. We have now gone from documents that were missing to the Justice Department publishing some of them yesterday.

FOWLER: Well, at first, the Justice Department would not directly comment about these documents. They said that, generally speaking, they wouldn't publish anything that included privileged information, duplicates or documents that were related to an ongoing federal investigation. The House Oversight Committee had some members ask the attorney general to answer if there was an ongoing investigation. They noted that there was nothing that appeared to be privileged related to these interviews and pointed out that you can't have duplicates of something that doesn't exist. So then the Justice Department said they were checking to see if something was mistakenly flagged as a duplicate, and if it was, they'd publish it, which they did Thursday night, along with 1,000-plus other pages that were flagged.

DETROW: And ever since then, you have had a chance to read through these interviews. What do they tell us about the allegation against President Trump?

FOWLER: An adult woman in 2019 gave graphic details during interviews with the FBI about what she said Trump did when she was a teenager, mainly that he forced her to perform oral sex and then he reacted angrily when she bit him. In the fourth and final interview, she reportedly asked the agents, quote, "what the point would be of providing the information at this point in her life," because she said, "there was a strong possibility nothing could be done about it."

DETROW: Are there any indications whether investigators viewed this as a credible allegation?

FOWLER: We don't know. We know that Trump has not faced criminal charges from this claim. We don't know ultimately how this was addressed or resolved. We also don't know why this allegation was included in the Justice Department's slide deck presentation last year that gave an overview of the cases against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his accomplice. And the new release of materials is 16 pages, meaning there are at least 37 more pages related to these claims that still are not published.

Tuesday, Josh Fiallo (DAILY BEAST) noted:

Documents detailing FBI interviews with a Jeffrey Epstein victim who accused President Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13 are being kept under wraps.

More than three dozen pages remain missing, according to an NPR analysis, including “files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor.”

The Department of Justice, which has slow-walked its legally-mandated release of the Epstein files, published 16 pages regarding the accuser last week. However, 37 pages, including notes from the interviews, a law enforcement report, and license records, are still classified.

At POLITICO, Ankush Khardori types:

Meanwhile, as entirely new conspiracy theories have begun to flourish, pretty much no one in America is happy — not the victims who were insulted by Attorney General Pam Bondi during her latest daylong series of outbursts on Capitol Hill; not President Donald Trump, who effectively created this mess by fueling Epstein conspiracies as a presidential candidate and who remains the subject of intense scrutiny based on unverified allegations against him in the documents that he has strenuously denied; not the American public, most of whom believe that the government is still hiding information; and not the lawmakers who drafted and ultimately passed the law requiring disclosures with the near-unanimous consent of their colleagues in both houses of Congress. In a remarkable bipartisan rebuke, the House Oversight Committee voted last week to subpoena Bondi to testify with five Republicans joining the Democrats on the committee over the objection of Chair James Comer (R-Ky.).

"who remains the subject of intense scrutiny based on unverified allegations against him in the documents that he has strenuously denied"

Huh?

Chump has claimed the files exonerated him. That was before NPR, MS NOW and others discovered -- after Chump began saying he was exonerated by the files released -- that the Justice Dept had held back three reports on one woman who was accusing Chump of assaulting her when she was underage. I've never heard Chump address that. Those are allegations. He has not "strenuously denied" them.

Ankush is an attorney, he knows words and he knows words matter. To read his trash piece for POLITICO is to know that he's downgrading The Epstein Files and doing so intentionally. He really goes after Virginia Giuffre, for example.

Chump's guilt? It can't be determined at this point. But he looks guilty. That judgment call is based on the sweetheart deal he gave to Ghislaine Maxwell and upon his refusal to state, "No, I won't pardon her. She was convicted of preying on young women and girls and I will not pardon her."

Rebecca Friedman (OK!) reports on Maxwell:

New details have emerged about Ghislaine Maxwell's lonely life behind bars.

In a recent interview, a woman using the pseudonym Raven Johnson — who said she was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee from November 2023 to November 2025 — alleged the disgraced British socialite, 64, stood out among inmates for her behavior, hygiene habits and sense of entitlement.

Johnson claimed Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and abuse underage girls, was often viewed harshly by fellow prisoners.

"People don’t look at you as if you’re actually even human," Johnson alleged of inmates convicted of crimes involving minors while speaking to The U.S. Sun. "If you have crimes against children, you’re trash. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or who you are in the real world."

According to Johnson, Maxwell’s reputation inside the facility meant she kept a relatively small social circle. The former inmate claimed the socialite primarily spent time with women convicted of violent crimes, including one prisoner who had been jailed for murdering members of her own family.

Johnson also alleged Maxwell frequently tried to bend prison rules to her advantage.

"She could file a complaint, and things are going to change," Johnson claimed, adding that Maxwell reportedly submitted hundreds of grievances about everything from food portions to shower conditions.

At mealtimes, Johnson said Maxwell would allegedly bypass long cafeteria lines.

"There could be 50 or 60 people waiting in the chow hall," she recalled. "She’d just walk right past."

The former inmate further claimed Maxwell’s personal hygiene became a running joke among prisoners.

"This lady worked out every day but rarely showered," Johnson alleged. "There are a lot of bad smells in prison, but she still stood out."

That's when Maxwell was in a prison that her crimes demanded she be in. Then she met with Chump's Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch last summer and got transferred to Club Fed in Bryant, Texas. She also had the documents that NPR found. They were turned over to her attorneys in discovery. We don't know if she let Todd Blanche know about that. We just know that Chump campaigned on protecting women and girls and taking on the Epsteins of this world. But he put Maxwell in a comfy prison that she's not legally allowed to be in due to what she was convicted of. He's breaking the rules for her.

It makes him look guilty. David Edwards (RAW STORY) notes, "Trump, however, appeared far more times in the files on the infamous sex offender. The New York Times found that Trump was referenced in more than 5,300 of the files released so far. Reportedly, hundreds of thousands of files have not been made public." So much has still not been released -- and this despite Congress passing a law. Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) notes Congressional anger regarding Attorney General Pam Bondi:

Attorney General Pam Bondi has come under fire as a bipartisan group of senators has called for a new investigation on Wednesday over her handling of the Epstein files.

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have demanded that the Government Accountability Office launch a probe to investigate the Department of Justice's efforts, The Daily Beast reported.

The group has questioned Bondi's DOJ and its "controversial efforts" with its partial release of documents, such as missing the December deadline required under the Epstein Transparency Act to release all the materials.

"This sloppy job was nearly the opposite of how information regarding some powerful people was treated, they argued," The Beast reported.

Meanwhile, REUTERS broke the news yesterday of a hack:

A foreign hacker compromised files relating to the FBI’s investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a break-in at the bureau’s New York Field Office three years ago, according to a source familiar with the matter and recently published Justice Department documents reviewed by Reuters.

The details of who accessed a server at the FBI’s New York Field Office, including the allegation that a foreign hacker was involved, are being reported here for the first time.

In a statement, the FBI said what it described as a “cyber incident” was “an isolated one.”

“The FBI restricted access to the malicious actor and rectified the network. The investigation remains ongoing, so we do not have further comments to provide at this time.”

Turning to Chump's illegal war on Iran, Eva Roytburg (FORTUNE) notes:

On Tuesday afternoon, Energy Secretary Chris Wright posted six words on X that moved global oil markets more than any airstrike this week: The Navy, he wrote, had “successfully escorted an oil tanker” through the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude cratered at the fastest pace in years. West Texas Intermediate, a reliable benchmark, plunged as much as 19% as traders who had spent days pricing in a prolonged closure of the world’s most critical energy chokepoint suddenly scrambled to unwind their positions. An exchange-traded fund tied to oil futures shed $84 million in market cap in just ten minutes. Then, the post disappeared, and the White House confirmed no such escort had taken place. A Department of Energy spokesperson called it an “incorrectly captioned” video clip. But the damage was already done.

“The market is depending on accurate information from the administration,” Andy Lipow, president of analyst firm Lipow Oil Associates, told Fortune. “And when a tweet is posted and deleted quite rapidly, it brings into question what exactly is happening.”

What exactly is happening, over the past few days, has depended entirely on which administration official you’re listening to.

On Monday, crude oil had surged to $119, until President Donald Trump told CBS that the war was “very complete, pretty much.” After that, crude slid by nearly $34 in a matter of hours, dropping below the psychological barrier of $100 a barrel. Then, on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised that day would contain the most intense strikes yet— “the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.” It didn’t seem like the war was over, so oil climbed back toward $90. Wright then said the Strait disruption would last “weeks, certainly not months.”

The result of all the mixed messaging is a market that has swung 36% from peak to trough in two sessions—the largest such move since April 2020—driven less by the fundamentals than by the inability of traders to distinguish signal from noise when the executive happens to be the source of both.

In last night's "We've all grown tired and disgusted by Chump," Ruth noted the confusion is created by Chump who doesn't know what he's doing, doesn't have a plan or a clue. This has he wastes billions of US tax dollars on this war. Euan Ward, Catie Edmondson, Abdi Latif Dahir, Rebecca Elliott and Liam Stack (NEW YORK TIMES) note:

Waves of airstrikes shook Beirut and Tehran on Wednesday and into Thursday morning, adding to the toll of the war in the Middle East, as the Pentagon told Congress that the U.S. cost of the war was more than $11.3 billion in just the first six days.

The dollar figure, disclosed in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill, did not include many of the expenses associated with the operation, now in its 12th day, so the ultimate cost for American taxpayers is expected to be much higher. The briefing was described by three people familiar with it, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

The Middle East war showed no sign of letup on multiple fronts.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Senate Republicans once again block Murray’s bill to fund everything at DHS but ICE and Border Patrol, as they drag their feet on common-sense reforms to protect Americans from violence at the hands of ICE

Murray: “Democrats are not going to write a blank check for rogue agencies that are trampling on the rights of Americans. Nor are we going to accept the premise that the only way to fund TSA or disaster relief is by giving money to ICE. That’s absurd.”

Murray: “Here’s the simple truth: if Republicans agreed to simple reforms, all of DHS could be funded tomorrow. And if Republicans stopped blocking the bill I just offered, TSA could be funded today.”

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s floor remarks***

Washington, D.C. — Senate Republicans once again blocked straightforward legislation to fund every agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—except Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Office of the Secretary. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took to the Senate floor to slam Republicans for dragging their feet in ongoing negotiations over common-sense reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol.

Senator Murray sought unanimous consent to pass her legislation to fund DHS agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and other important DHS functions while talks on ICE and CBP proceed.

Yet again, Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) blocked Senator Murray’s request to pass the legislation.

While negotiations on ICE and CBP proceed, Senator Murray’s bill:

Funds FEMA, TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Secret Service, CISA, and other important DHS components.
Excludes funding for ICE, CBP, and the Office of the Secretary.

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

“M. President, it’s extremely frustrating to me that despite all their talk about how important it is we fund TSA, and FEMA, and CISA, and more—and despite Republicans’ own acknowledgement that they already funded ICE and Border Patrol with their big reconciliation, I call it the big ugly bill, from last summer—now Republicans are unwilling to work with us to fund some of these programs that keep Americans safe, while we keep trying to get somewhere on ICE and Border Patrol accountability.

“Worse than that—they are acting like they have no idea why Democrats are not willing to accept the premise that to fund TSA, we have to cut some blank check for ICE.

“Republicans are acting like they didn’t see the same awful footage of Renee Good and Alex Pretti getting shot in cold blood. Republicans are acting like they don’t remember that little boy in the bunny hat arrested like some violent criminal. Republicans are acting like they don’t remember the family that got tear gassed on the way back from a basketball game, or the American citizen marched out of his house, in the freezing cold, in his underwear.

“As a reminder because apparently Republicans need it: The Senate has had at least two hearings on this since Alex Pretti was murdered by CBP officers. And with a couple of exceptions, we have not heard any Republicans in those hearings suggest they want to work with us on reforming the agencies and reining in DHS.

“And yet, some Republicans, are acting like they have no idea why we are demanding things like body cameras, visible identification, adequate training standards, and basic standards, as the senator just spoke about—same as our local police—on things like use of force and requiring warrants before some agents smashes in your door and drags someone away.

“Republicans know exactly what Democrats have been asking for, because weeks ago, Democrats provided Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune a list of ten critical reforms needed to pass the Homeland Security bill.

“Unfortunately, Republicans have been saying no on many of these items—as far back as last year. Or in some cases, first, they would say ‘Sure we’ll work with you,’ and then Stephen Miller and the White House would get involved and Republicans would say, ‘never mind!’

“Last year—Democrats were already talking about many of the reforms we are talking about today. In July, some of us introduced a bill calling for no masks and for clear identification.

“And then we saw federal agents shoot citizens and lie about it, like in the case of Marimar Martinez. And we heard horror stories of masked agents dragging away American citizens for no reason.

“One American citizen was dragged off and detained twice. Not charged with any crime. Not arrested with a warrant. Just picked off his worksite—until ICE realized he was a citizen. That happened twice to the same guy!

“That’s exactly why Democrats had been saying—let’s take off the masks, we cannot have unaccountable agents. But Republicans said no to that idea.

“And then the world watched, as Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent, and denied any medical care—something even the most basic training—to say nothing of morals—should have told officers was wrong.

“So, Democrats pushed in our DHS funding negotiations, we said—this is exactly the kind of thing we are gravely concerned about. We need serious reforms and accountability. Still, Republicans said no.

“Then an innocent man, an American citizen, was dragged out of his home in the freezing cold in his underwear. Agents refused to even look at his ID which showed—they had completely the wrong guy. And yet when Democrats pushed to require real judicial warrants, Republicans said no.

“A little boy in bunny ears was ripped away from his home for absolutely no reason, Republicans said no.

“A family on their way home from a basketball game was tear gassed. Republicans said no.

“A woman on the way to a doctor’s appointment had her window smashed—she was dragged out of her car, Republicans said no.

“And Alex Pretti was tackled to the ground and shot in the back several times by federal agents—another completely unjustified killing. A murder of an American citizen. And the Trump Administration tried to slander him as a terrorist!

“For a moment, even some Republicans said that was concerning, that was unacceptable, that was wrong. But we all know what’s ultimately happened: Republicans have, for weeks now, refused some pretty basic steps to make these agencies accountable. Once again—Republicans have said no.

“Well—the American people are not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.

“Stephen Miller is not above the Constitution. Donald Trump is not a king who can just sic an army of masked thugs on whatever city he wants to punish next.

“And Democrats are not going to write a blank check for rogue agencies that are trampling on the rights of Americans. Nor are we going to accept the premise that the only way to fund TSA or disaster relief is by giving money to ICE. That’s absurd.

“Now, some on the other side are claiming that the bill I just offered would defund Customs—or Homeland Security Investigations. M. President, that too is absurd.

“All the bill I just offered does is fund the rest of DHS while talks continue on ICE and Border Patrol—and the simple fact is Republicans have already funded these agencies when they gave them more money, than most militaries by the way, in their Big Ugly Bill.

“And Republicans’ latest tactic—trying to use a war as leverage against accountability for Americans is just plain wrong. It’s cynical and it is utterly transparent.

“We are not going to give Trump a pass on citizens getting shot and killed here in America, just because he singlehandedly chose to start a war that has led to Americans being killed across the globe as well.

“Who in the world thought that argument would fly? Did Stephen Miller tell Republicans two wrongs make a right here? Did you think that was going to convince anybody?

“Look—we are going to hold Trump accountable for his reckless war, and we are going to hold him accountable for using ICE to terrorize American cities.

“As for the rest of DHS that does important work to keep Americans safe like FEMA, Coast Guard, TSA, Democrats are here, we are trying to fund those agencies—while ICE and Border Patrol negotiations continue. But, Republicans will neither agree to the reforms we need to rein in ICE and protect Americans nor fund the rest of DHS while those talks continue.

“Here’s the simple truth: if Republicans agreed to simple reforms, all of DHS could be funded tomorrow. And if Republicans stopped blocking the bill that I just offered, TSA could be funded today.

“But Republicans don’t want to take serious action to prevent rogue government agencies from gunning down American citizens, we just heard that on the floor from several Republican senators who spoke. They don’t want to take new steps to make sure masked federal agents don’t kidnap people off the street. They don’t want to pass legislation to make sure federal agents only target people who they have a judicial warrant for—instead of breaking down windows and dragging away completely innocent people. That is the crux of the problem right now.

“Let me state that again: the problem right now is not a lack of communication between both the sides—that’s absurd—the problem is a lack of willingness on the part of Republicans to pass some pretty basic reforms—or to even fund the rest of DHS while talks continue.

“Republicans don’t want to protect Americans from rogue ICE agents. You know how I know that? Just listen to what they said—and what they didn’t say—right here on the floor.

“Are Republicans talking about the fact American citizens have been gunned down by ICE and Border Patrol? Are Republicans talking about the fact that peaceful protesters are being tear gassed, or pepper sprayed, or tackled to the ground?

“Not a word about that right here.If Republicans cannot talk about the obvious, blatant abuse we have all see from ICE and Border Patrol, how do they expect to work with us to address that? The answer is they don’t.

“Instead, they are pretending this is about FEMA—which I’ve offered to fund, or TSA—which I’ve offered to fund, or CISA—which I’ve offered to fund, and they are pretending this is about ICE funds running low—even after Republicans spent weeks acknowledging the agency has plenty of funding left from their Big Ugly Bill.

“What this debate actually is about is accountability. It is long past time Republicans get serious about that.”

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