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Black Friday Now Brown Friday

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 18, 2025

Watch your backs in church (and while shopping)

By Zarn02 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23240069

Here’s a lengthy report about DHS plans to make America’s holidays brighter. The unconfirmed reporting (take it advisedly) comes via local This Week in Worcester and three Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys cited anonymously (for obvious reasons):

Agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) intend to implement a comprehensive plan to target Spanish-speaking churches across the country during the upcoming holiday season between Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25.

Three U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys, including one assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the district of Massachusetts, one to the district of Rhode Island office, and the third posted at an office in New York told This Week in Worcester they received briefings on the plan.

The attorney in the Massachusetts office said that they attend a Baptist church in Massachusetts and is a registered Republican. He said that he does not see how this plan is in line with either American values or Biblical doctrine.

The attorney in the Rhode Island office confirmed both the briefing and internal discussions about the legal issues surrounding arrests at churches over the past three months.

The attorney in the New York office spoke in depth about the plan being recently updated to include mosques and liberal synagogues in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s recent win in the New York City mayor’s race.

The attorneys spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. All three said the plan is not regional to New England, but a nationwide strategy.

Black Friday? Meet Brown Friday. That’s right. Secretary Kristi Noem’s thugs plan to raid churches over the holidays so DHS can “take ’em out, take ’em down,” as Jeff Goldblum once said about alien aliens. They’ve already done that in Charlotte, sending “some worshippers fleeing into the woods while children sobbed inside.”

DHS is coming to town

They’re making their lists, checking them twice, This Week in Worcester continues:

A Hispanic pastor who leads a Pentecostal denomination in New England told This Week in Worcester that ICE agents visited his church several times and another visit came from an individual who identified themselves as an FBI agent. In all three conversations, agents asked questions about the names of specific congregation members, their home addresses, and the frequency they attended church services.

Does DHS think the public cannot see a pattern of subterfuge and meritless accusations here?

Both Southern Baptist pastors told This Week in Worcester that they fear scenes similar to the arrest of Rosanne Ferreira de Oliveira on Eureka Street in Worcester on May 8 unfolding inside their churches. On that day, DHS, CBP, ICE and other federal agents held de Oliveira’s children in custody to get her outside her home and to the scene, so they could conduct an arrest without a warrant.

After de Oliveira’s arrest, ICE released a statement saying she is in the country illegally and a violent criminal who attacked a pregnant woman.

The court dropped criminal charges against de Oliveira at her next court appearance. As multiple outlets later reported, de Oliveira had authorization for legal presence in the United States with a pending application for asylum. While in custody after her arrest, a judge approved de Oliveira’s application for asylum.

The federal government did not appeal that decision, despite having the right to. Instead, they released de Oliveira.

Surprise! Latinos “despise, hate Donald Trump” on immigration. Overall? Trump is down 34 points, a shift of 32 points from February.

To make your holidays brighter still in what Trump calls “the greatest economy,” Fox News now advises that you not spend anything: “Adults don’t need gifts…. Now is not the time to spend.”

(h/t FC)

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Embarrassing Amateur Hour

Published by digby on November 17, 2025

The judge in the Comey case let fly earlier with a scathing indictment of the unprofessional, inexperienced Lindsey Halligan’s handling of the case. Josh Marshall goes over all of that and you should read it.

But I thought this was even more interesting because it goes all the way back to the original investigation:

On the original issues that Comey raised as a basis for accessing the grand jury material, the judge ruled in his favor to the maximum extent possible, arguably going even further than Comey had in finding flaws with the how the government handled some of the evidence in the case.

At issue were four search warrants executed by DOJ in the earlier and separate Arctic Haze investigation during the Trump I presidency. The subject of the search warrants was Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman, a friend of Comey’s who would also end up representing him in a lawyer-client relationship. That made some of the materials covered by the search warrant potentially privileged, creating a whole constellation of issues that are not uncommon in criminal investigations but which the judge found the Justice Department botched in nine different ways.

  1. The government may have violated the 4th Amendment in how it executed the search warrants in the first place way back in 2019-2020, including taking insufficient steps to protect potentially privileged information and never engaging Comey in the process of how privileged information would be handled, the judge concluded. The judge found nothing in the record to show that the government made any attempt to ascertain what of the materials they seized from Richman was evidence of the crimes for which he was being investigated.
  2. The government may have violated the 4th Amendment by exceeding the scope of the original search warrants.
  3. The government may have violated the 4th Amendment by holding the seized materials for so long after the Arctic Haze investigation was closed in 2021 and then searching them anew in 2025 in Comey’s separate case without a new warrant.
  4. The government may have violated the 4th Amendment by seizing the materials anew in 2025 thus exceeding the scope of the original warrants since Comey was being investigated for different crimes arising from different facts.
  5. “The government’s potential violations of the 4th Amendment and court orders establish a reasonable basis to question whether the government’s conduct was willful or in reckless disregard of the law,” the judge concluded in opening the door wide to Comey’s already pending vindictive prosecution claim.
  6. The government’s conduct gives Comey a “reasonable basis” to show he was prejudiced by the use of the seized materials in the grand jury since they were central to the case prosecutors presented.
  7. Comey may also challenge whether the government took sufficient steps to protect his privileged information, “including the reasons why Mr. Comey was never afforded the opportunity to assert a privilege over his communications until after the indictment was obtained.”
  8. The government’s sole witness — a FBI agent — was exposed to privileged information shortly before he testified, which gives a “reasonable basis” for Comey to challenge whether the government used privileged information, directly or indirectly, for preparing its grand jury presentation.
  9. Comey has a “reasonable basis” to question whether the government’s disclosure of potentially privileged information “was willful or in reckless disregard of the law,” especially since the FBI agent who was the sole witness “chose to testify before the grand jury rather than separate himself from the investigation.”

I should note here that the judge hasn’t reached a conclusion on each of these issues yet, but having reviewed the search warrants, the grand jury materials in chambers, and the record before him decided the questions they raised were serious enough to give multiple separate grounds for Comey to seek dismissal of the indictment and to give him access to the grand jury materials as a result.

The U.S. Justice Department is falling apart at the seams. And with every day that passes it gets worse as they fire people for failing to show fealty to Donald Trump and the rest of the competent people get out while the getting’s good.

Did they not know that James Comey had been the head of the SDNY? The Director of the FBI? He’s one of America’s top lawyers and his own attorney now, Patrick Fitzgerald, is likewise one of the top lawyers in America and former US Attorney. They just completely ignored the 4th Amendment at the beginning of the case and then put a beauty queen insurance lawyer in charge of this case when the real prosecutors refused to file the case? Crazy.

Old Man Conversation

Published by digby on November 17, 2025

Q: Your voice sounds rough. Are you feeling alright?

TRUMP: I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something having to do with trade and a country. I blew my stack at these people

Q: Well it sounds like there’s a follow up there–

TRUMP: What? I thought you said there was a polyp. I don’t want to hear that!

That’s the kind of thing you would hear from a lot of 80 year olds. “What?? Polyp? You think I have a polyp???”

He looks like crap today too. His eyes appear to almost be swollen shut the bags underneath are so prominent. He looks reptilian.

Meanwhile:

Meanwhile …,

On Trump’s U-Turn

Published by digby on November 17, 2025

JV Last has it right:

Why did President Trump instruct House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files last night? Because they were going to do it, no matter what he said.

Trump had a choice between (1) trying to wage a war of retribution against dozens (scores?) of Republican defections, or (2) pretending that they were doing what he wanted.

That he felt he couldn’t do retribution is a sign of weakness. The old man has lost a step.

Why? Lots of reasons:

  • He has tanked the economy, so his public support is near lowest-low.
  • The government shutdown hurt his standing, too.
  • The election results were so much worse than expected that Republicans are nervously looking at the exit and hoping that Trump will declare he’s not running in 2028 and release them from service before 2026.

But the biggest reason Trump had to retreat was that he found himself on the wrong side of a conspiracy theory.

Conspiracy theories are loyalty tests. The people who believe the conspiracy are on the outside, insisting that that the Others, on the inside, are hiding some truth. The political dynamic of a conspiracy theory is not like a policy fight. In a policy disagreement, one side says that Policy X is good, the other side says it’s bad. Policy fights are judgment fights.

When people fight over a conspiracy theory, it’s about identity and belonging. Marjorie Taylor Greene is sitting on the outside; she says there’s a hidden, secret truth to the Epstein files. Donald Trump is inside the story insisting that there’s nothing to see and everything is perfectly normal. Which makes him both part of the conspiracy and part of the establishment.

I’m not sure the MAGA movement can accept that position. Even from their god-king.

I’m not sure either but I’m skeptical that it signals a real break. The biggest influencers have all been pushing hard to “get over it” and concentrate of destroying “the left.” So far, it hasn’t worked but maybe Trump’s transparent gambit will do the trick.

Trump Enters The MAGA Fray

Published by digby on November 17, 2025

Backs the Nazis

Axios reports:

President Trump backed Tucker Carlson on Sunday after the ex-Fox News host’s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes triggered contentious MAGA-world infighting.

Trump’s defense of Carlson interviewing a man labeled a white supremacist by the Justice Department puts him at odds with Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who have condemned Carlson. More broadly, it underscores MAGA’s divided approach toward tolerating racism, sexism and antisemitism on the far right.

Trump on Sunday finally waded into the Republican warfare after weeks of critics blasting Carlson for hosting the Holocaust denier on his podcast. The president didn’t address Fuentes’ comments but said “you can’t tell him [Carlson] who to interview.” He said he found Carlson “to be good,” adding he “said good things about me.”

Trump continued, “if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out. Let him, you know, people have to decide.”

I know what you’re thinking. This vacuous, demented fool can’t hear himself. He’s constantly saying that various critics should be silenced, banned, arrested etc. But because Tucker has said something good about him, he’s now a crusader for free speech. (In reality, he’s just fine with the Nazis — always has been.)

When asked if the president condemned Fuentes’ racist and antisemitic rhetoric, the White House pointed Axios to the president’s remarks. Trump said he didn’t “know much about him” but did not criticize Fuentes Sunday.

Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. The president has been adamant that Ye brought Fuentes, whom he said he knew nothing about.

He reiterated that Sunday when a reporter mentioned the dinner, saying, “I didn’t know he was coming.” Trump added, “Kanye asked if he could have dinner, and he brought Nick. I didn’t know Nick at the time, and he did.”

This has become a major rift and it isn’t getting any better. Carlson, Fuentes, Ted Cruz, The Heritage Foundation, Ben Shapiro and thousands of other influencers are all at each others’ throats. It’s awesome. And here comes Trump, trying to say he knows nothing about the Nazi MAGA’s but they do say nice things about it so…

It’s undoubtedly enjoyable to watch them fight amongst themselves, but we should be aware that the mainstreaming of fascist monsters like Fuentes is not a good development under any circumstances. According to people who know, the federal government is full of his little army of young “groypers.” Not good.

It’s The Corruption, Stupid

Published by digby on November 17, 2025

You need to watch that if you can. First, it’s good news that 60 Minutes is still allowed to do a story like this. I am surprised. Second, it is a scathing indictment of Trump and his massively corrupt regime.

Here’s a little piece of the transcript:

In the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump offered full-throated support for the crypto industry. And, online, he, his family and partners announced they were opening a crypto firm of their own.

Trump World Liberty Financial promo: We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind that’s what we wanna do. Go to World Liberty Financial dot com.

World Liberty Financial would be like a bank offering financial services in digital currencies. Its pitch to investors usually called a “white paper” was gilded as a “gold paper.”

Scott Pelley: When World Liberty Financial launched before the election, was it a big success?

Austin Campbell: It was largely unknown. They had had a fundraising round that had only been partially filled. They had a team that I think only had one, or maybe a handful of engineers at best, and honestly not much was going on there.

Austin Campbell is a former banker who’s briefed Congress on crypto. He was a crypto executive and now teaches at New York University. 

Scott Pelley: If you’re starting a crypto company from scratch, what are the technical hurdles?

Austin Campbell: You need to hire engineers, you need to deploy all of the infrastructure that you’ll need, essentially, to run a tech company. 

Enter Changpeng Zhao, last fall, fresh out of prison. Sources tell us Zhao’s company, Binance, donated software to World Liberty to help the Trump family venture launch a cryptocurrency. A source familiar with events told us, without Zhao, quote, “the technology doesn’t exist.” 

The next month, Changpeng Zhao applied for a presidential pardon. And shortly after the application, he was at the center of a blockbuster deal that put World Liberty on the map. Zhao is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf and in May, an Emirati fund put $2 billion in Zhao’s Binance. Of all the currencies in the world, the deal was done in World Liberty crypto. 

Austin Campbell: So it took World Liberty from being a small project that maybe was on the road map after the election, purely for the name, to being one of the largest stablecoins in the world in a single transaction. So, it vaulted them from small time to the big leagues.

The Emirates entrusted two billion to a currency that had been on the market five weeks. One source told us, “it wasn’t strange. It was nuts.” 

Lawrence Lessig: The only reason it makes sense is to ingratiate with the president.

Lawrence Lessig has spent nearly 20 years on ethics in politics. He teaches law at Harvard and has campaigned with the left and the right against the corrupting influence of money.

Scott Pelley: Are you saying that the president is compromised by this transaction?

Lawrence Lessig: “Compromised” is exactly the description because we can’t know what’s the actual reason for the decisions that the administration is making. Are the reasons helping America, or are the reasons helping America and also helping them privately?

Trump believes that what’s good for Trump is good for the USA so that’s not a question for him. The rest of us should be appalled. But are we? Is this kleptocracy our new normal?

I’m not sure exactly how we get around this. Trump can just assert that any dealing he has with a foreign country which automatically makes it an “official duty” and who’s going to argue? Presidential “immunity” covers a lot of ground.

The precedent exists now and I just wonder if America has completely lost its moral muscle memory that would lead it to reject any leader who follows in his footsteps.

Pardons For Everyone!

Published by digby on November 17, 2025

These days, the Justice Department is so busy pursuing revenge against President Donald Trump’s enemies it’s a wonder they have time to do anything else. In fact, nearly half of all FBI agents in the major field offices have been reassigned to assist the Department of Homeland Security in rounding up undocumented day laborers and daycare workers, illustrating Trump’s priorities. But it’s a mistake to think the administration is solely focused on vengeance. The president is also liberally using his authority to reward his friends.

Trump likes to say he can do anything he wants because he “has an Article II.” Until now, at least, that has been an exaggeration. He has a great deal of power, to be sure, but it has not been unlimited. The Constitution explicitly grants power to the legislative and judicial branches too, which we all learned in elementary school is called the balance of power. This president is pushing the limits beyond all previous understanding, and his actions have provoked numerous legal challenges that are likely to be decided by the Supreme Court. 

However, there is one area in which the president does have absolute plenary authority: The power of the pardon. And Donald Trump is using it liberally.

As ProPublica reported, by skipping over the Justice Department’s usual standards and requirements and pretty much running an ad hoc system right out of the White House, he is not following any of the usual rules that have governed presidents in the past. The result? Thousands of people requesting pardons and clemency are waiting in line, while Trump’s buddies, and those who have the money or access to get to him directly, are successful in their quest. 

The biggest story of the week was the House Oversight Committee’s release of over 20,000 pages of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including emails and texts, and the success of the discharge petition, which requires a vote by the full House on releasing all the files held by the Justice Department.

Amidst all the hoopla, more under the radar was the story of Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s very special treatment in the cushy low-security prison to which she was transferred after giving Deputy Attorney General — and former Trump personal attorney — Todd Blanche a friendly interview. According to reports, she is working on a commutation application. 

Near the end of Trump’s interview on the Nov. 2 episode of “60 Minutes,” CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell asked the president about his recent pardon of crypto-billionaire Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ) who has extensive business dealings with World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump that has garnered them billions of dollars in profits since their father returned to the White House. The mere appearance of such a thing is staggeringly corrupt, and Trump’s long, rambling explanation did nothing to dispel that impression.

“Okay, are you ready?” he asked O’Donnell, before launching into a remarkable answer. “I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.” But Trump soon digressed, dancing as fast as he could, admitting that his sons are very involved in crypto but saying he doesn’t know much about it — except that China is going to be doing it if America doesn’t. He admitted the connection “might look bad” if that had been his motivation, but he knew nothing about it because he was too busy doing other things. He went on and on like this until O’Donnell finally asked, “So, not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?” Trump replied, “I can’t say, because — I can’t say — I’m not concerned. I don’t — I’d rather not have you ask the question…” 

Let’s pause to consider this: Trump said he didn’t know the man who had made his family billions of dollars. He also claims that former president Joe Biden’s pardons are null and void because he used an autopen, which is perfectly legal. He said, “In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!” His Justice Department has launched a formal investigation into the matter. Meanwhile, there’s no word on whether Trump personally signed each clemency document of the nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 insurrectionists he pardoned on his first day in office, or the second pardon he issued a few days ago to a defendant convicted of a gun crime.

It’s impossible to imagine any other president in American history getting away with such shameless hypocrisy, but Trump’s rampant misuse of the pardon power is so commonplace that it’s barely a blip on the media’s radar.

In a recent column, the New York Times’ David French discussed some of Trump’s pardon recipients who have gone on to commit more crimes, some of them violent, which would normally be a scandal in itself. But French proceeded to note that the possibility of a president abusing this power was one of the founders’ great worries.

Anti-federalists such as George Mason wrote that the president “ought not to have the power of pardoning, because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself” and that “it may happen, at some future day that he will establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic.” Another warned that the pardon power could be used “to the purposes of gratifying their own interest and ambition, and it is scarcely possible, in a very large republic, to call them to account for their misconduct, or to prevent their abuse of power.” These words couldn’t be more relevant to our current situation. 

As French pointed out, the Federalists replied that there was no reason to worry because the Congress would impeach any president who dared to do such things. Right. How’s that worked out for us so far? 

Trump’s flagrant abuse of the pardon power to help his friends and make money for his family is yet another of his grotesque assaults on the presidency. But the threat to the Constitution and our democratic system is even greater. The immunity for “official acts” conferred on him — and future presidents — by the Supreme Court’s July 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, along with the pardon power, amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card for himself and anyone who carries out his wishes. And he has shown that he will have no compunction about doing just that. 

Just last week, Trump preemptively pardoned dozens of his associates who attempted to overturn the 2020 election, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman. Next time, everyone involved will know they have nothing to fear from the law if they try it again — including Trump himself.

Salon

So Many Nonviolent Snatchees

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2025

So little time

Gregory Bovino, as seen in a video he posted on X on November 16, 2025.

Two and a half percent, the Chicago Tribune reported over the weekend:

The Trump administration on Friday released the names of 614 people whose Chicago-area immigration arrests may have violated a 2022 consent decree, and only 16 of them have criminal histories that present a “high public safety risk.”

The list was produced as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging immigration agents have repeatedly violated the terms of the in-court settlement, mostly during “Operation Midway Blitz,” that puts a high bar on making so-called warrantless arrests without a prior warrant or probable cause.

The Department of Homeland Security has claimed since the outset of the operation that they were going after the “worst of the worst,” including convicted murderers, rapists and other violent offenders who were allegedly taking advantage of Illinois’ sanctuary policies to terrorize the citizenry.

Customs and Border Patrol celebrated “a minimum of 50 people taken into custody” in its snarkily named “Charlotte’s Web” operation in Charlotte over the weekend (The Guardian):

Some businesses in Charlotte chose to stay closed at the weekend and many areas that would often be bustling on a Saturday afternoon were quiet as people stayed home in fear of anti-immigration raids and sweeps.

Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on a similar operation in Chicago, took to social media to document some of the arrests, a total that he said now stands at 81. He added that many of those taken into custody had “significant criminal and immigration history” and that the mass arrests were accomplished in “about 5 hours”.

Given his history in Chicago, it is not surpriging that Bovino is not more specific about how many of the 81 have criminal histories. He was quick to display photos of eight alleged criminal detainees. Except several with “significant criminal” histories had DUI records (not to minimize that), one had a standing removal order, a couple had felony larceny and assault charges, one had a hit-and-run compounding DUI, and there was one Honduran with “multiple simple assaults, shoplifting, and an aggravated felony assault that put him behind bars for 4 years.” Q: Why was the man incarcerated for 4 years not deported upon his release? What about the other 73 alleged worst-of-the-worst?

BTW, Bovino is originally from Watauga County, NC and attended Western Carolina University as an undergraduate. He won’t be inducted into the The Order of the Long Leaf Pine by a Democratic governor.

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement 
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Trump’s Threats Aren’t Working

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2025

The pressure is getting to him

“There are about a thousand of us.” https://x.com/AaronParnas/status/1990203634152529965?s=20

The once and future god-emperor of Mar-a-Lago is a chocolate mess. Wag the dog, wag the pardon, investigate enemies, blow up a boat, invade another U.S. city. Donald Trump is flailing. Could it be that the prospect of the Epstein files going public has his troubled mind even more troubled?

Greg Sargent offers a rundown ahead of his Monday podcast:

Anxiety is rising among President Trump’s staunchest allies that he’s politically lost his way. The New York Times reports that his advisers fear he’s alienating key voters in his own coalition. And CNN reports that some Republicans are openly warning the White  House that the GOP is in trouble in the midterm elections. Meanwhile, Trump just erupted in a furious new tirade about the Jeffrey Epstein fiasco. In it, he ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Democrats. Bondi immediately did his bidding. That Trump has now formally turned the Justice Department loose in this way shows his anger over Epstein has hit new highs. Some Republicans say all these things are related: Trump is so consumed with Epstein that he’s letting everything else go to hell.

Trump on Sunday suddenly reversed himself on the coming Epstein files vote in the House:

Mr. Trump said on social media that House Republicans should vote to release files related to the sex offender “because we have nothing to hide.” It was a striking shift in his stance as he faced the possibility that dozens of G.O.P. lawmakers could support the measure in a floor vote expected this week.

“It’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,’” he wrote.

Trump added, “the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT,” meaning the economy where “where we are winning BIG!” He hasn’t forgotten to manifest his preferred version of reality by repeating his “Trump always wins” mantras. So, there’s still something of the old real estate huckster in there.

But Trump sees he is set to lose and lose big in the upcoming House vote on releasing the Epstein files. He might as well join the winning side beforehand and avoid crowning himself a lame duck. He still has a chance to arm-twist remaining allies in the Senate into killing the measure. That would avoid him having to veto the bill when it gets to his desk and give him someone else to blame for it. But there are 20 GOP senators up for reelection in 2026 and only a handful are retiring or running for higher office.

After the White House’s failure last week to put the thumbscrews to Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado — in the Situation Room, no less — or to persuade Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina to take their names of the House discharge petition, Trump’s confidence that he can stop the bill in the Senate has to be flagging. Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is lost to him. (She is now “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene.”) But Trump’s Senate fight is for another day. His Senate whip count won’t mean much until the measure passes the House.

Again, given all the White House pardon activity and the concierge treatment for Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell at her new Club Fed digs, I still suspect Trump is working up a “the dog ate my homework” explanation for not releasing the files. Unless he believes his attempts to link Democrats to Epstein will somehow dampen the blowback from their release. If Trump’s name appears over 1,600 times in the emails released last week from the Epstein estate, he has to know there will be far more mentions in the DOJ’s trove. And that’s whether or not anything of him and sex-trafficking surfaces. (It is still possible that evidence Trump laundered money for Russian oligarchs could turn up in there.)

So pressure on Trump is building. This new PSA from Epstein survivors will turn it up another notch. And the dial hasn’t reached 11 yet.

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement 
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Published by digby on November 16, 2025

It’s true. They are hell on mortgage fraud which coincidentally seems to be something of a Democratic crime spree. (There are evidently no Republicans who have homes in their districts and homes in DC. I guess they all live in their offices.) They do keep having problems finding prosecutors who are willing to argue the cases because they are so obviously ridiculous and clearly vindictive prosecutions against Trump’s enemies but they can always dredge up a beauty queen insurance lawyer or two to sign the indictments so it’s perfectly fine.

You won’t find them prosecuting anyone for staging a coup or storming the capital during a joint session of Congress to try to kill the Vice President though, no sirree. That would be lawfare. And any of Trump’s pals should feel free to commit as many crimes as they want because there will be no prosecutions and, at worst, they’d be pardoned anyway.

How about this fatuous garbage?

Not 4 months ago the DOJ released a report saying this:

As part of our commitment to transparency, the Department of Justice and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation have conducted an exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein. To ensure that the review was thorough, the FBI conducted digital searches of its databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as physical searches of squad areas, locked cabinets, desks, closets, and other areas where responsive material may have been stored. These uncovered a significant amount of material, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence.

The files relating to Epstein include a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos
of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography. Teams of agents, analysts, attorneys, and privacy and civil liberties experts combed through the digital and documentary evidence with the aim of providing as much information as possible to the public while simultaneously protecting victims. Much of the material is subject to court-ordered sealing. Only fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial, as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing. Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography.
This systematic review revealed no incriminating “client list.”

There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.

Blanche was a prosecutor in the SDNY for many years and apparently highly respected. I just don’t know what to do with that.