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justice department
Trump’s Latest Epstein Gambit
The next time you hear that Trump has somehow reversed his earlier resistance to releasing the Epstein files, remember that he hasn’t. He could have ordered their disclosure long ago; he never needed a congressional resolution compelling it.
Nov 20, 2025
Jeffrey Epstein may have committed suicide in 2019, but he remains an albatross around President Donald Trump’s neck. During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised to release all of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. As president, he could honor that pledge with the stroke of a social media post. Instead, he has done everything in his power to prevent such disclosure.
Some pundits claim that Trump has finally reversed his earlier resistance to releasing the files. He hasn’t. Rather, he has deployed yet another strategy to achieve his true objective—continued secrecy. And he’s relying on his faithful sycophant, Attorney General Pam Bondi, to execute it.
Attempt #1: Stonewalling
Back in July, Bondi’s Justice Department, together with FBI Director Kash Patel, declared that after an exhaustive review of the entire file, the investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors was over: “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The department would release no additional materials from the Epstein files: “No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
Attempt #2: The Attack
As Trump’s MAGA base erupted over his administration’s refusal to release the files, he lashed out at fellow Republicans. He called supporters clamoring for greater transparency “stupid,” “foolish,” and victims of a “Democrat hoax.”
It didn’t work.
Attempt #3: The Disingenuous Directive
MAGA’s anger grew. So Trump directed Bondi to ask that the courts release the grand jury transcripts in the cases against Epstein and his coconspirator, Ghislane Maxwell.
It was a ruse. Trump and his lawyers knew that the courts were not likely to release the material, which was a tiny fraction of the DOJ file anyway. Sure enough, they didn’t. And several judges wrote blistering opinions exposing the farce and blasting Bondi for pursuing the effort.
Attempt #4: The Illusion of Transparency
Bondi’s next ploy on Trump’s behalf was the production of documents in response to a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee. It turned out that only 3% of the 20,000 documents was new. And courts had confirmed that there were 100,000 documents in the Epstein files. Where were the rest?
Attempt #5: The Shutdown
A Democrat won the Arizona special election to the US House of Representatives. As a result, a discharge petition on the resolution demanding disclosure of the Epstein files would now have the crucial 218th signature required to force a vote on the House floor.
But Trump’s lackey in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), refused to swear in the newly-elected member. He claimed that because the House was in recess due to the government shutdown, he could not admit her. It was a subterfuge that gave Trump time to twist arms in an effort to change votes.
Attempt #6: The Strongarm
Three Republicans had sided with the Democrats to reach the 218-vote threshold required to move the Epstein resolution forward in the House. Bondi and Patel met with one of them, Rep. Laura Boebert (R-Colo.), in the White House Situation Room. A second target was Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). Trump attacked the third GOP defector, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), publicly: He withdrew his endorsement and called her “wacky,” “a disgrace,” “a traitor,” and “a nuisance.”
None of the Republicans budged. Trump was going to lose the House vote.
Attempt #7: Back to Bondi
Faced with the reality that he couldn’t stop the House from passing the resolution requiring release of the Epstein files, Trump said that he would sign the resolution after it passed the Senate.
That’s a ruse too. And once again, he turned to Bondi for another escape hatch. In a social media post, Trump declared:
I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.
Only 217 minutes later, Bondi responded:
Thank you, Mr. President. SDNY U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country, and I’ve asked him to take the lead. As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.
Now the punchline: The Justice Department will not release materials relating to an active investigation. The investigations that Trump has ordered could well suffice. Jay Clayton, who has no criminal law experience but enjoyed a stellar pre-Trump reputation as a corporate partner in the elite firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, now faces a crucial test of character.
The stated basis for the DOJ rule is that disclosure could compromise the investigative process. Never mind that in July, Bondi said that the department’s thorough investigation of the entire file “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
And the department can release—or not release—whatever it chooses. There is no meaningful enforcement mechanism. If DOJ withholds Epstein material related to Trump, the public will never know, unless there’s a whistleblower somewhere. But Trump, Bondi, and Patel have purged the top ranks of the Justice Department of anyone who is not a Trump loyalist.
The next time you hear that Trump has somehow reversed his earlier resistance to releasing the Epstein files, remember that he hasn’t. He could have ordered their disclosure long ago; he never needed a congressional resolution compelling it.
But Pam Bondi has reversed her position that the files contain nothing that warrants further investigation of anyone associated with Epstein.
Leading America’s Department of Justice is someone whom no one can trust—except Donald Trump.
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Comey Indictment 'Isn’t Justice–It’s Revenge': Trump Weaponizes DOJ
"Installing a hand-picked prosecutor to bring a meritless case demonstrates the danger our democracy is in from this wannabe dictator."
Sep 26, 2025
The federal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday night unleashed a deluge of contempt directed at President Donald Trump, who pursued the case from his perch in the Oval Office, shattering the line that has long separated the operations of the Justice Department from direct presidential influence.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the charges against Comey—filed by one of Trump's former personal defense attorneys, Lindsey Halligan, installed as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia just days ago, show that Trump "refuses to allow the facts or the law to stand in the way of his wrath and vengeance campaign."
Comey is charged with lying to Congress and obstruction of congressional proceedings related to testimony he gave to a US Senate committee in 2020. Still, the previous prosecutorial team in the Eastern District concluded there was not sufficient evidence to bring such a case. Earlier this week, Trump forced Halligan's predecessor, Erik Siebert, to resign after he refused to bring the charges. "He didn't quit," Trump said of Siebert, "I fired him."
Trump has named Comey as a political enemy and accused the former director of misconduct in relation to the 2016 FBI investigation into Trump and his staff over alleged ties to Russian interference with that year's presidential campaign, which Trump ultimately won against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
"This vindictive prosecution shows just how far Trump and his toadies will go to exact retribution on perceived enemies."
The relentless pursuit of Comey by Trump since then, and now a federal indictment, say critics, shows that Trump is the one willing to weaponize the Justice Department against perceived political enemies, regardless of the existence or quality of evidence.
As The New York Times notes:
[The indictment] represents the most significant legal step yet by theTrump administration to harry, punish and humiliate a former official the president identified as an enemy, at the expense of procedural safeguards intended to shield the Justice Department from political interference and personal vendettas.
The bare-bones, two-page indictment was signed only by Ms. Halligan, a former defense lawyer for Mr. Trump who personally presented the case to the jury, despite her lack of any previous prosecutorial experience. Typically such filings are also endorsed by career prosecutors who have gathered the evidence in the case.
The president, said Raskin in his statement, "forced Mr. Seibert to resign in order to replace him with one of his former defense attorneys, Lindsey Halligan, who has literally no prosecutorial experience but is clearly willing to blindly carry out the president’s orders. As if by magic, within mere days of being appointed, Ms. Halligan delivered for the president by filing the exact baseless charges against Mr. Comey that her predecessor had rejected."
Trump responded to the charges on Thursday night by declaring, "Justice in America!" in a social media post, while Comey professed his innocence in a statement, saying he looks forward to defending himself at trial and that he would not be cowed. “We will not live on our knees," said Comey, "and you shouldn’t either.”
The indictment of Comey, said Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, "isn’t justice – it’s revenge."
“By weaponizing the DOJ to settle political scores," said Harvey, Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi "have shredded the last scraps of the Department’s independence. Americans do not want our president using taxpayer-funded prosecutors and law enforcement to exact revenge.”
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, called Comey's indictment "a perversion of our justice system" and a worrying sign of what's to come.
"This vindictive prosecution shows just how far Trump and his toadies will go to exact retribution on perceived enemies. And how large perceived slights loom on the president’s priorities list," warned Gilbert. "Installing a hand-picked prosecutor to bring a meritless case demonstrates the danger our democracy is in from this wannabe dictator."
The co-chairs of the Not Above the Law coalition, which includes Public Citizen, the Constitutional Accountability Center, MoveOn, and Stand Up America, released a joint statement, saying the prosecution of Comey represents the "dangerous ongoing weaponization of our justice system" and continued:
This has all the hallmarks of a vindictive and meritless prosecution. Yet Trump's handpicked replacement is proceeding anyway, ignoring both DOJ guidelines and prosecutorial ethics. When the Department of Justice becomes a tool for settling personal grudges rather than protecting Americans from real threats, our liberties are in grave danger. Agencies that should investigate terrorism and organized crime must not become personal revenge squads for the president. Congress must act to restore independence to our justice system and stop this authoritarian abuse of power—Trump’s attorney general has made clear she won’t.
For Raskin's part, he said, "I have no doubt that a jury of his peers will acquit and vindicate Mr. Comey after being afforded the opportunity to hear all the relevant evidence. But, until that happens, Mr. Comey will be forced to spend time, money, and energy defending himself against this blatantly fraudulent and vindictive indictment."
"The rule of law was supposed to replace vendettas, blood feuds, and mad kings exacting vengeance on their perceived enemies," he added. "This sordid episode is one more savage assault on justice in America.”
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'Release the Tapes': Lawmakers Demand Answers Over Alleged $50,000 Bribe of Trump Border Czar Tom Homan
"Seriously though, has anyone ever been handed $50,000 cash in a paper bag for something legit?"
Sep 21, 2025
Accusations of supreme corruption, demands for an investigation, and calls for impeachment proceedings for several high-level Trump administration officials erupted on Saturday after it was reported that a Justice Department probe into Tom Homan, who serves as President Donald Trump's border czar, was dropped despite documented evidence he accepted a bribe of $50,000 delivered in a bag by undercover FBI agents as part of a sting operation.
Citing multiple people "familiar with the probe," a review of internal documents, MSNBC was the first to report that during "an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan [...] accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents—who were posing as business executives—win government contracts in a second Trump administration."
The New York Times, which also spoke to people familiar with the case, reported that the "cash payment, which was made inside a bag from the food chain Cava, grew out of a long-running counterintelligence investigation that had not been targeting Mr. Homan," and that the encounter, as MSNBC also reported, was recorded. The Times indicates that the recording was audio, while MSNBC's version of the evidence suggests that video footage exists.
"Americans deserve disclosure of evidence showing top DHS official Homan accepting a bag full of $50,000 in cash We need to know why the investigation was dropped—all the facts and evidence." —Sen. Richard Blumenthal
The case implicates both FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney Pam Bondi, who heads the Justice Department. Both were appointed by Trump and are deeply loyal to him politically.
MSNBC reports:
It’s unclear what reasons FBI and Justice Department officials gave for shutting down the investigation. But a Trump Justice Department appointee called the case a “deep state” probe in early 2025 and no further investigative steps were taken, the sources say.
On Sept. 20, 2024, with hidden cameras recording the scene at a meeting spot in Texas, Homan accepted $50,000 in bills, according to an internal summary of the case and sources.
The federal investigation was launched in western Texas in the summer of 2024 after a subject in a separate investigation claimed Homan was soliciting payments in exchange for awarding contracts should Trump win the presidential election, according to an internal Justice Department summary of the probe reviewed by MSNBC and people familiar with the case. The U.S. Attorney’s office in the Western District of Texas, working with the FBI, asked the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section to join its ongoing probe “into the Border Czar and former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan and others based on evidence of payment from FBI undercover agents in exchange for facilitating future contracts related to border enforcement.”
The revelations prompted Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to declare that Trump's second term is the "most corrupt administration we have ever seen."
Matt Duss, executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy, asked: "Seriously though, has anyone ever been handed $50,000 cash in a paper bag for something legit?"
While that's not a legal standard, news of the dropped case against Homan, given his central role in Trump's ramped-up attacks on migrants and communities nationwide, sparked an array of outrage, many questions, and a demand for more answers from the Justice Department.
"Who's the illegal now, Tom Homan?" asked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
"Tom Homan should be fired immediately and charged," said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.). "Kash Patel should be suspended pending impeachment proceedings, and anyone who aided in this cover-up should be held accountable. Homan’s relationship with GEO Group, who own Delaney Hall in Newark, should be thoroughly investigated, and the facility closed pending that investigation. The amount of corruption in this administration is endless."
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) had a similar reaction. "Corruption that’s stunning even for this administration," Markey said. "Homan and anyone who knew and covered this up must resign."
As the Times reporting notes, the "episode raises questions about whether the administration has sought to shield one of its own officials from legal consequences, and whether Mr. Homan’s actions were considered by the White House when he was appointed to his government role."
In response to questions from MSNBC and the Times, Trump officials downplayed the seriousness of the case. They said that after it was investigated, the bribery allegations did not stand up.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson told MSNBC the probe that led to the recording of Homan was a "blatantly political investigation." However, it's clear from the reporting that the original investigation was not targeting Homan at all.
In a joint statement issued Saturday, Patel and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said the investigation “was subjected to a full review by F.B.I. agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.”
That hardly satisfied Democrats in Congress, who said it's clear the public has a right to know every detail about what occurred and why the case was dropped.
"Release the tapes—Americans deserve disclosure of evidence showing top DHS official Homan accepting a bag full of $50,000 in cash," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). "We need to know why the investigation was dropped—all the facts and evidence."
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