This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Senate Democrats appear likely to deal yet another blow to Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump’s embattled pick to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
That’s the principle the federal government has long used to investigate and remedy disparities based on race, color or national origin in education and other programs receiving federal funds. But no longer, according to a new rule Attorney General Pam Bondi posted last week.
The regulation does not “sufficiently serve the public interest” and violates President Trump’s executive order about promoting meritocracy, she wrote. The law, she said, “promises that people are treated as individuals, not components of a particular race or group.”
The provision stems from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in education, housing, health care and transportation. Historically, federal agencies used the law to warn districts that they could lose federal funds if they didn’t comply with orders to desegregate schools. Under the Department of Justice rule, officials could use data to determine whether discrimination exists.
In a 2014 case, for example, an investigation in New Hampshire showed that under the Manchester district’s policy for assigning students to Advanced Placement and honors courses, Black students were enrolled in those classes at far lower rates.
While Title VI applies to multiple programs and activities, from access to advanced classes to enrollment procedures, school discipline has been at the forefront of the debate over using data to prove discrimination exists. Federal data consistently shows that Black students are disciplined at higher rates than their peers, disparities that districts have been under pressure to address.
Bondi’s move to rescind the 50-year-old rule means that the government will no longer hold schools responsible for any neutral policies or behavior that, according to data, negatively affect students of a certain race or nationality. The action, without offering any opportunity for public comment, aligns with the Trump administration’s push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the nation’s schools. Fear of a federal investigation, conservatives argue, can interfere with districts’ ability to manage their schools.
Others argue rescinding the rule decreases the chances all students will receive an equal education.
As we were noting on Friday, Attorney General Pam da Bimbo Bondi keeps attacking the judiciary and pretending she's done everything by the books when, in fact, she hasn't. Judicial review happens in every administration; however, if Pam feels it's happening more for her, maybe she could stop breaking the laws and stop lying? Eric Tucker (AP) reports:
The Justice Department violated the constitutional rights of a close friend of James Comey and must return to him computer files that prosecutors had hoped to use for a potential criminal case against the former FBI director, a federal judge said Friday.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly represents not only a stern rebuke of the conduct of Justice Department prosecutors but also imposes a dramatic hurdle to government efforts to seek a new indictment against Comey after an initial one was dismissed last month.
Pam's department "violated the Constitutional rights" of a US citizen. And Pam feels persecuted? The Constitution is the highest law of the land. Pam took an oath to uphold the Constitution and yet, not even one full year in as AG, she's violated the Constitution. She's lawless and she's ignorant and she's a huge fake ass.
And all she does is lie. Under her, the Justice Dept lies non-stop. Emily Prescott (THE KANSAS CITY STAR) notes:
NYU law professor Ryan Goodman claimed to have found dozens of rulings where judges claimed the DOJ provided false information. Goodman said, “We found over 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said what the government is providing is false information.” Goodman added, “It might be intentionally false information, including false sworn declarations time and again.”
That kind of record? We've talked about it before. When you get that kind of record, the courts should take every claim you make with a grain of salt. The burden of proof in any case should be even more on you because of the fact that you have knowingly and repeatedly lied to the court. It's the sort of thing that Pam could lose her license over and should.
She doesn't stand for America and she doesn't stand for democracy. She's a disgusting whore who violates her oath to serve Convicted Felon Donald Chump and not the American people. SOUTH PARK rightly portrays her as such a brown noser to Chump that she has s**t on her nose.
Warnings are being made but I don't know that people are paying attention. Thomas E. Brzozowski (LAWFARE) reports:
In two of the high-profile cases where Bondi tried to sidestep the judges and lost, she continues to try to come up with workarounds to control the appointments herself, rather than ceding the power to the district judges.
In New Jersey — even after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in the Giraud case that Alina Habba was not validly appointed as U.S. attorney and she resigned this week — Bondi took the unusual step of appointing a troika of attorneys on Monday to run the U.S. attorney’s office.
In a Dec. 8 memo approved by the Office of Legal Counsel, Henry C. Whitaker, who serves as counselor to the attorney general, wrote that the appointment of three lawyers who hold titles as special attorney, special counsel, and executive assistant U.S. attorney would be in compliance with the Constitution’s Appointment Clause: “This proposed order would divide the responsibilities of the United States Attorney among three officials so that the district may have continuity of leadership while the Department considers next steps in the Giraud litigation.”
On one level, you can understand why the administration would not want to cede appointment power to judges before it has decided whether to appeal the Third Circuit’s decision on Habba. Once it gives up that power and an interim U.S. attorney is appointed by the judges, the administration can’t get it back. But when you step back a bit, the pattern of refusing to yield to the statutory scheme that gives federal judges a role in naming interims after 120 days becomes more clear.
In the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan’s name continues to appear on government legal filings as interim U.S. attorney despite a court ruling that she was invalidly appointed. Federal judges in the district have called her out in recent days, and one judge went as far as saying Halligan should resign like Habba did. “That’s the proper position, in my view,” U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said during a hearing Tuesday.
“These victims have spoken. They've been very clear about who has caused them harm, and we need to believe these women,” says Lauren Hersh, who founded World Without Exploitation to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation in 2016. She was the organizer of the gathering, where she served as poster-board distributor and marker replacer. She is also one of the strategists whose efforts on behalf of the women on that roof and those like them helped upended the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.
In short order, these women helped force the hand of Congress, Trump, and all Americans to move toward disclosing the sins of Epstein and Maxwell—and possibly others in power. By Dec. 19, the Department of Justice must, by a bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump, disclose what it knows about the sex trafficking operations that sprawled across years and states. Three times this month, judges have sided with those who have asked to see previously secret grand jury records, in part opened because of the Trump-backed measure. And on Thursday, Senate Democrats wrote to Justice’s internal watchdog asking for an independent check to make sure everything is handled properly.
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement after the Oversight Committee received new photos from the Epstein estate. This latest production contains over 95,000 photos, including images of the wealthy and powerful men who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein. Images also include thousands of photographs of women and Epstein properties. Oversight Democrats are reviewing the full set of photos and will continue to release photos to the public in the days and weeks ahead. Committee Democrats are committed to protecting the identities of the survivors. 19 photos can be accessed here.
“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia. “These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
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Even with all released on Friday, Democrats withheld some items. David Gilmour (MEDIAITE) explains what happened Friday on CNN:
CNN host Kasie Hunt was left unnerved after pressing Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) for details on the “disturbing” and “sexually explicit” nature of images from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate seen by House Democrats that they chose not to include in Friday’s release.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday released two batches of photographs, offering a new glimpse into the convicted sex offender’s social orbit. The images show Epstein alongside a range of powerful figures, including former President Bill Clinton, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, and billionaires Bill Gates and Richard Branson.
President Donald Trump appeared in several of the photos, one of which includes Epstein. Another shows Trump standing with a woman whose face has been redacted, while a third depicts him with six women, all similarly obscured.
The release awaits curating by the media. Anna Kaufman (USA TODAY) notes one early standout:
So now that the DoJ apparently has opened some new criminal investigation into somebody or something, it will have the power under the new law to withhold any Epstein-related documents that might touch on those probes. Yet we don’t know exactly who is under investigation or how broadly those inquiries might span. Anyone outside the DoJ therefore will be essentially blind. We won’t know what we won’t know, and we’ll all just have to take Bondi’s word for it.
But surely the Justice Department — this Justice Department — isn’t investigating Trump himself. So any documents about his relationship with Epstein wouldn’t be covered by the criminal-investigations clause. And that brings us to the second exception: The law permits the Justice Department to withhold or redact any information that could compromise “national defense or foreign policy” or “the national security of the United States.”
Well, one might reasonably wonder, how could information about Trump and Epstein going club-hopping and female-ogling in the 1990s possibly put the country’s safety at risk? The answer, again, lies with Bondi alone. Couldn’t our servile attorney general conclude that any materials that might embarrass the president — our commander-in-chief and chief foreign diplomat — could harm his standing with other nations, thereby undermining our foreign policy?
Roll your eyes if you will — I’m with you — but that decision, again, will be Bondi’s alone. And, again, neither you nor I, and neither Congress nor the victims and anyone else in any position to object, will know what documents Bondi has chosen to withhold and why. All she needs is a hook, and the new law provides her with enough of those to do essentially whatever she wants.
We’ll see the Epstein files, or some portion of them, next week. We can reasonably expect to learn new details about Epstein’s criminal ring and about bad conduct by prominent men. But the new law, by its broad exemptions, ensures that we won’t get the most important answers — especially when Pam Bondi is the one who gets to decide.
Epstein is dead. His criminal co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell remains behind bars -- Chump's transferred the vile woman to a cushy Club Fed prison. RAW STORY's Matthew Chapman reports:
"Julie,
let's talk about Ghislaine Maxwell, because there's a lot of headlines
about her," said Velshi. "There's a lot of machination on her part to
get commutation of her sentence. Nobody in the administration has said
that's a nonstarter. But this is a convicted sex offender who already,
as a result of a very unorthodox interview with the deputy attorney
general, seems to have been getting preferential treatment."
"What's your sense of what Ghislaine Maxwell's role in this current set of developments can be?" Velshi asked.
"Well, I think that she's aiming for a pardon," agreed Brown. "I think that she has — I think she knows a lot of information. She obviously knows who was involved with Epstein, who helped Epstein. She really can provide a key for exactly how it operated. But of course, during her trial and even after, she's claimed she didn't know anything, she had no information."
NEW FROM JEC: Declining Canadian Tourism is Harming American Businesses in States Along the United States-Canada Border
ICYMI THIS WEEK: Senator Murray Grills Trump’s Trade Representative Over Administration’s Reckless Tariffs Driving Up Prices, Devastating Small Businesses
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement in response to a new report from the U.S Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) which found that Trump’s tariffs on Canada and trade war provocations with our neighbor and close ally have led to a steep drop in Canadian tourism that is harming American businesses in Washington state and other states along the United States-Canada border.
The JEC report found that every state along the United States-Canada border is facing declines in tourism and rising economic pressures. Many states along the border, like Washington state, are home to hundreds of businesses that rely on Canadian tourism to survive. Canadian tourism contributed $20.5 billion to the U.S. economy and supported 140,000 jobs in 2024. In 2025, between January and October, the number of passenger vehicles crossing the United States-Canada border declined by nearly 20 percent compared to 2024. In Washington state, passenger vehicle border crossings were down more than 24 percent for that time period.
“While Trump hikes up tariffs via tweet and threatens to annex our close allies—businesses and communities in the United States are the ones who suffer. It’s both stupid and wrong. In Washington state, so many small businesses along the border rely on Canadian tourism and trade to survive—but Trump’s attacks on Canada have pushed our neighbors away and forced business and tourism to plummet.
“I’ve heard firsthand this year how many small businesses in our state are being forced to raise prices or close their doors altogether. This isn’t just bad economic policy, it is real American families’ livelihoods being hurt, lost revenue for local businesses, less hotel demand, fewer visitors at events, lost jobs, and fewer dollars being invested into our Northern border communities. Trump doesn’t know the first thing about trade, and businesses and consumers in Washington state are being forced to pay the price. Here’s what people need to understand: we could end this pointless trade war with Canada tomorrow if Republicans would stop blocking a simple vote to reverse Trump’s tariffs and reclaim Congress’ power over trade. Republicans need to stop bending the knee to Trump and start listening to their own constituents who are begging them to put an end to these tariffs.”
In Washington state, the JEC report found:
- Estimates have found Seattle will see an almost 27 percent decrease in international overnight stays in 2025 compared to 2024, almost exclusively driven by the loss of Canadian tourists.
- Spokane saw 33 percent fewer visitors in March 2025 than in March 2024.
- Ridership on the Clipper between Victoria and Seattle is down 30 percent this year, causing Clipper Navigation to have to lay off a quarter of its workforce.
- Over 30 businesses in Bellingham reported losses due to a decline in cross-border travel.
- The Bellingham Chamber of Commerce has found the city has seen a drop in visits, overnight stays, and spending by Canadian travelers—a downturn which has been devastating for many businesses.
Kevin Coleman, Executive Director of SeaFeast in Whatcom County, told JEC that the area has seen a drastic decline in Canadian traffic: “Since March of this year, we have not only seen Canadian traffic drop drastically, but we have also seen a drop in our number of attendees at our festival this year in late September. We knew that after March, we could not rely on our Canadian business because of fear at the border and lack of understanding of what is happening with tariffs and Canada drawing a strong line of promoting Canada first.”
A nonpartisan analysis by the Washington State Office of Financial Management found that if the current Trump tariffs stay in effect for the next four years, they will cost Washington state up to 25,000 jobs—and if Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are fully implemented, they would cost Washington state $2.2 billion and 31,900 jobs over the next four years and significantly drive up the cost of food, clothing, cars, and much more.
Washington state has one of the most trade-dependent economies of any state in the country, with 40 percent of jobs in the state tied to international commerce. In 2024, Washington exported $57.8 billion of goods to the world, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), making Washington state the 9th-largest state exporter of goods last year. Washington state is also the top U.S. producer of apples, blueberries, hops, pears, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries—all of which risk losing vital export markets due to retaliatory tariffs from key trading partners, including Canada.
Senator Murray has been vocal in responding to Trump’s trade war, holding events in every part of Washington state, and hammering the Trump administration for driving up the cost of just about everything through their chaotic and thoughtless trade policies. When Trump first announced new tariffs, Senator Murray brought together leaders across Washington state to discuss how Trump’s trade war threatens Washington state’s economy, and spoke out on the Senate floor against Trump’s chaotic trade war, calling on Republicans in Congress to join Democrats in reasserting Congress’s power over trade. She has held several events across Washington state to hear directly from constituents and small business owners about how Trump’s tariffs are harming them—including in Tacoma, Yakima, Vancouver, Seattle, Skagit County, and Blaine, just across the border from Canada. On August 1st, as Trump hiked “reciprocal” tariffs on some of our closest trading partners, Senator Murray held another virtual press conference with Washington state businesses to sound the alarm. She held another roundtable with small business owners in Vancouver in September, and slammed Trump for the new port fees that had been hitting ships at West Coast Ports as a result of Trump’s trade war with China. Last month, Senator Murray released a statement criticizing Trump’s tariffs and calling on Republicans to step up to put an end to them after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the legality of Trump’s disastrous tariffs.
Earlier this week at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing, Senator Murray grilled U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on how President Trump’s trade war with Canada is hurting Washington state businesses and consumers—VIDEO HERE.
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