Dear Everybody:
The big news today was the DOJ document drop of 30,000 more pages--which the DOJ then immediately yanked:
--The Washington Post and other news sites managed to download them before they did. (These people absolutely do not understand how the internet works.) Also, the fact that they released, then pulled the documents will convince everyone to look REALLY HARD at them to see what’s in them. (They apparently don’t understand that, either.) Also, why didn’t they wait just one more day to release them? Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, when hardly anyone is paying attention to the news.
--And just in case they didn’t already totally look like they were hiding something, the DOJ then released this statement: "The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already." (Note: Many of the documents in question are dated long before that.)
--Ron Filipkowski: "DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!"
--MJ: "I just love how the Department of Justice is out there putting up alibis and excuses for not investigating or even suspecting Donald of wrongdoing. It’s almost like they’re acting as his personal attorneys. I thought they were supposed to be impartial?" (Note: Todd Blanche was in fact Trump’s personal attorney before he became deputy AG.)
So what’s in this batch of pages?
--One thing is a letter from Epstein that was delivered to Larry Nasser after Epstein’s death. (Larry Nasser is the "doctor" who abused all those girls on the US Gymnastics Team.) It was postmarked just days after Epstein died in 2019. The Guardian reported on the letter’s existence earlier this year, saying it was "found returned to sender in the jail’s mailroom weeks after Epstein’s death."
--The letter reads: "Dear L.N., As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home. Good luck! We shared one thing...our love and caring for young ladies in the hope they’d reach their full potential. Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab pussy,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair. Yours J. Epstein."
--It was uploaded and then removed within hours last night, with the two files--one for the envelope and the other for the letter--turning up an error message reading "Access Denied."
--Journalist Micah Erfan called the letter "a bombshell" and argued that the "newly released Epstein letter directly implicates Trump."
--Polling USA said of the letter, "It might be the beginning of the end for the big man honestly."
--Especially since it was uploaded and then removed within hours last night.
--There was also a photo that was uploaded and then deleted was of Trump on Epstein’s plane, surrounded by four VERY YOUNG girls who look no older than twelve.
--The newly released files include an email from a DoJ investigator that says "For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware) during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case. In particular, he is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 19986, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric. On one flight Trump and Epstein are the only two listed passengers, on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and 20-year old (name redacted.) On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case."
--And there are documents that show that during Trump’s first term, the DOJ declined to prosecute 10 of Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators.
--Aaron Rupar: "By far the most important document released overnight. 10 conspirators investigated. None charged."
And the released documents include a number of tips that people turned into the FBI, including that of a limo driver who said he had Trump as a passenger in 1999 when he drove him to DFW on Christmas Eve.
--He reported some of the things President Trump had spoken about on his cell phone during the ride. He said he continually stated the name "Jeffrey" and made references to abusing some girl. He said what he heard was "very concerning."
--He reported that later he was telling a female passenger about this incident, and she went "stone cold and said, ‘He raped me" The limo driver said, "What?" and the girl said Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein, that "some girl with a funny name took me into a fancy hotel or building and that’s how it happened." The limo driver told her she should tell the police, but she said she couldn’t because "they will kill me." He said he tried to follow up with the passenger and learned she had died and was found with her head blown off in Kiefer, Oklahoma and that it was ruled a suicide.
--The limo driver could just have been talking and making stuff up, of course, but there is NO RECORD AT ALL that the FBI did anything to follow up on this tip, even though he provided a lot of specific details.
--This goes for all the tips. "No public record exists that law enforcement investigated or confirmed their authenticity."
--These allegations were similar to those raised in multiple lawsuits filed in 2016 when Jane Doe accused Trump and Epstein of raping her when she was a 13-year-old aspiring teen model.
--And Trump’s not the only one who showed up in this batch of files.
--There’s also a photo of Trump a DOJ investigator who was investigating Bannon’s "Big Wall" scam found: "As I was going through the images from that phone, I found an image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell on Bannon’s phone. I discussed with Sunny and we wanted to flag this for you, in case it was of any importance to you, since you are on both cases." (Names of recipient and sender redacted.) Another investigator responded, thanking him and saying there was "no need to do anything with this one." (The attached photo is completely redacted.)
--There’s a string of emails from someone named "A" and/or "The Invisible Man" at Balmoral, obviously (former) Prince Andrew, who asked Ghislaine Maxwell, "Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?" Other emails are about arranging for a trip to Peru and talking about setting up girls for him there. (As if he weren’t already in enough trouble.)
--SomaSailor9: "I can’t help but suspect that someone is allowing these little bomblets through the screen Trump and DOJ have tried to create. Of course, it could also reflect the utter incompetence of the people he has hired."
Meanwhile, Trump is on a rampage on Truth Social this morning:
--Trump: "I’m dealing with THE POISONING OF AMERICA!"
--Trump: "The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation. Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DJT."
--He also continued to downplay his involvement with Epstein. Trump: "Everybody was friendly with this guy."
And then Alan Dershowitz took it upon himself to go on Newsmax and smear one of the Epstein victims:
--He lashed out at Maria Farmer, saying, "She is a complete and total nut job! Of course the FBI didn’t believe her in 1996!" He said she was "completely non-credible" and that "You said that the woman was vindicated! She wasn’t vindicated!" (She had said she was vindicated because she had claimed she reported Epstein to the DOJ for stealing photos of her younger sisters and selling them to men and the DOJ had denied she had ever done that, but her report appeared in the first batch of documents to be released.)
--He also said, "The same women, the same, what do they call themselves, survivors who claim that they want transparency. They want transparency for thee, but not for me. They don’t want transparency about the women who themselves were procuring young girls for Jeffrey Epstein and getting paid $250. They don’t want that kind of transparency." (Note: That’s not QUITE how it was. Epstein forced the girls to procure other girls for him.)
--Mandolin: "The girls who were getting other girls for Epstein are still victims. They were groomed to do this. Predators like Trump and Epstein know how to pick the most vulnerable and make them feel like they don’t have choices. Most of them have/had limited choices. Throw in money, guilt, and shame, and those choices are even fewer. Fuck Dershowitz."
--Dershowitz was furious because "no congressman, senator, and except for you and a few other people, no member of the media is prepared to get up and say, I doubt the words of these accusers, I doubt the words of these victims, I doubt the words of these survivors! If you dare, dare to suggest that some of these alleged victims and survivors are phonies and they’re making up stories for their own lining their own pocket, you’re called a victim-shamer, and you’re called an Epstein supporter. Well, I’m prepared to take that on. Where’s the ACLU? They’re supposed to defend civil liberties!"
--(Note: I’d just like to say that I doubt the words of Dershowitz, who has already admitted--when confronted with evidence--that yes, he was at Epstein’s house, and yes, he did have a massage, "but I kept my underwear on. I had my underwear on. I had my underwear on!")
--Vit: "’I was wearing my shorts’ Dershowitz is proving what a monster he has become."
--Woke AF: ‘Holy fuck, Alan. YOU are the one who sounds like a total nutjob! Also we KNOW you’re all over Epstein’s files, too."
--Hellbound: "Sarah Ransome says she has receipts...emails and video of Dershowitz and others she turned over to the FBI. They’re in the files tucked away somewhere. Also video of Clinton, Branson, Prince Andrew, and others."
So, yesterday I told you how CBS shamelessly pulled the 60 MINUTES segment on the CECOT prison in El Salvador. Well, you can still see it in its entirety:
--Somebody at CBS--maybe Bari Weiss, who yanked the segment--forgot to yank it from the version of 60 MINUTES they sent Canadian television, and they promptly aired it. Everybody else bootlegged it, and it popped up all over the internet. (Trump’s people do NOT understand the internet.)
--CBS spent the night frantically taking it down wherever it turned up, but it was like playing a game of Whack-a-Mole. As soon as they took it down, it popped up someplace else. At this point, you can watch it lots of places, including on MuellerSheWrote’s Bluesky feed (just type in MuellerSheWrote Bluesky and scroll down.)
--It’s created a classic case of the Streisand Effect. Far more people have already watched it online than would ever have watched it on TV, and because it’s verboten, even more will want to do so.
--George Conway: "This could wind up being the most-watched newsmagazine segment in television history!! Congratulations to the Ellisons and Bari Weiss!!!" (Note: The new owners of CBS are the Ellisons, who are big Trump supporters and the reason for all this censorship.)
--Cliff Schecter: "Trump outsourced torture carried out with American money, American authority, and deliberate deniability."
In Ukraine news:
--Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Saratov was killed in a car bomb explosion. (That’s the third general killed in car bombings this year.)
--Ukrainian forces sneaked into a hangar and set two jet fighters on fire at Lipetsk Air Base, 400 miles south of Moscow. --Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, says "Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine." (Sure.)
--Russia and the US’s peace deal for Ukraine: "Ukraine gives up. Ukraine says thank you."
In resistance news:
--In August ICE was conducting a raid when a tow truck driver towed their SUV away. He was charged with stealing government property. Last week the case went on trial, and the jury found him not guilty.
--The developer of ICEBlock, an app that alerts people to ICE’s presence and movements, sued Trump and top administration officials, accusing them of pressuring Apple to stifle free speech and his right to create, distribute, and promote the app.
In other news:
--Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced that the Trump administration is sending notification to 5 offshore wind projects that they are being suspended because of national security concerns. They are claiming they have proof that wind farms cause radar interference.
--Southern California is experiencing an atmospheric river, with residents bracing for five days of rainfall and a total of 4 to 7 inches of rain. They’re especially worried about mudslides from the fires last year.
--At Turning Point USA convention this weekend, the members took a straw poll of which cabinet member they liked least. It was Pam Bondi, who only 32.9% of the attendees liked, mostly due to her botched handling of the Epstein files.
In good news:
--New Jersey Dem Gov Phil Murphy signed a law to prohibit public and school libraries from banning books in the state and protecting librarians who comply with the law.
--The NRA is burning through its investment portfolio to pay its bills because it keeps getting sued AND its membership is declining.
--Remember how I told you the Potawatomi Tribe’s board had contracted for an ICE detention facility on their land, which led to a huge outcry from the members of the tribe and the firing of the board. Potawotami lawyers have now announced they are out of the contract.
In Christmas news:
--The movie CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan, which came out right after the end of World War II (and not at Christmas either) is about a sailor who has spent two weeks on a raft after his destroyer was sunk by a Japanese sub who a magazine publisher invites for a good, old-fashioned Christmas dinner at the Connecticut farm of his food columnist and her family. The only problem is that said food columnist lives in Manhattan in an apartment, isn’t married, and can’t cook. The machinations of everybody to keep the magazine publisher (who also invites himself along) from finding that out as the columnist falls in love with the sailor make for a charming movie.
--We always watch it at Christmas and we especially love Barbara Stanwyck’s uncle, played by S.Z. Sakal, and the magazine publisher, played by Sydney Greenstreet, who have been favorites of ours since they were in CASABLANCA.
--What I didn’t know was that the food columnist was based on the real food columnist for Family Circle Magazine, Gladys Taber, who lived on Stillmeadow Farm in Connecticut (though she actually DID live on a farm. And could cook.) I ALSO didn’t know that Taber was born in Colorado Springs or that she wrote 59 books, many of them set at Stillmeadow Farm.
Best comment of the day, from Gladys Taber: "Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today’s Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday."
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis