even if the Supreme Court says we can never touch Trump for any of this shit, the next admin should go after everyone involved in buying and selling pardons and they should do it loudly and aggressively

Speaks to something deeply wrong with capitalism that Lampert was allowed to annihilate the value of this company to less than nothing while still walking away with hundreds of millions in profits for himself from the saga.

Amazing: “But the Kennedy Center is not the current owner of trumpkennedycenter.org or trumpkennedycenter.com — because back in August, comedy writer Toby Morton registered those two domain names, expecting Trump and his allies to add Trump’s name to the D.C. landmark.”

America has 925 billionaires as of this year. Collectively they have a record $6.9 trillion in wealth. The bottom 50% of Americans control $4.2 trillion in wealth. When 925 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

GOP operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, convicted election fraudsters, were paid $960,000 in the second quarter to secure a pardon for a former nursing-home operator who defrauded the government of $38 million. Trump pardoned the man, Joseph Schwartz, last month.

The blatant selling of pardons is perhaps the clearest instance of criminal conduct authorized by SCOTUS. Pardons are a quintessential "official act." So, even when Trump takes a bribe to issue one, he is presumably above the criminal law.

Christ on a bike, this is brilliant. And disgustingly historically accurate. 10/10

Another reminder that FBI tasked 934 agents and other personnel to review & redact Epstein files between March & May & prepare the docs for public release. FBI paid $851K in OT/premium pay for a week's worth of work. Via my #FOIA www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

When you're grumpy because three annoying ghosts kept you up all night.

Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com

?????

The FBI was supposed to deliver all the Epstein files to @AGPamBondi's desk by 8 AM on Feb. 28, 2025. That's almost ten months ago. This seems like something @JusticeOIG would need to dig into www.justice.gov/ag/media/139...

"We have a different and particularly bad electoral system" is the simple reason behind so many problems that people want to attribute to the character or culture of Americans.

Since we’re on the topic of asking people for comment …

An enraging trend right now, from CBS to the CDC, of people actively undermining institutions, then taking the reins of those institutions and claiming they need to rebuild the trust they helped destroy. (Also, people already trusted 60 Minutes.) bsky.app/profile/just...

“Like prime, but with human beings”

Further confirmation of Epstein money laundering investigations first reported by @jasonleopold.bsky.social, @dmehro.bsky.social and the other folks at @bloomberg.com (Document: EFTA00037469)

Garcia: They are, on one hand, putting names of survivors in these documents that are not redacted. And in these same documents, they're taking extra time and being extra careful to redact the names of the coconspirators

The government has broad authority to control admission but courts have held *repeatedly*, over more than half a century, that the First Amendment bars the government from denying visas to foreign citizens simply because it dislikes what they have to say. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/b...

The AG is *supposed* to be the people’s lawyer, not the president’s. This is outrageous. It also indicates Trump feels that he needs protection from Epstein file disclosures.

jesus the Palm Beach Police really sought arrest warrants against underage Epstein victims for coming forward and cooperating, and (purported) admitting to crimes, and it caused the victims to become uncooperative with the federal investigation

This is quite the opening on justiciability: Judge Ali says the Trump admin's "position is premised on ignoring binding precedent that says [courts may review a decision to revoke security clearance], including simply omitting relevant caselaw from the motion to dismiss."

“Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein, told the FBI in 2023 that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell because he was about to ‘name names.’ Mark Epstein, 71, who has long believed that his brother was killed, also alleged in the tip that President Trump ‘authorized’ the late sex trafficker’s murder.”

Nina Jankowicz: “They’re not doing this because they have any evidence of censorship — they lost a Supreme Court case that made those claims… They’re doing this because the group of researchers and advocates have stood up to liars like Donald Trump and the platforms that enable them.”

We don’t spend enough time discussing how the entire MAGA movement is kept afloat by the constant threats of stochastic terrorism orchestrated by the president of the United States. Congress, the courts, much of the media … all kept in line by the mob boss and his army of anonymous goons.

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

I wanted to figure out what changed between the DOJ's initial Epstein Files Vol. 8 document dump (which they quickly pulled) and the version they replaced it with. I had a few hours of free time for PDF forensics hacking today. Here's my initial analysis of what changed: github.com/chad-loder/e...

Now that Stephen Miller is calling for CBS to fire journalists who are trying to tell the truth about Trump's mass deportations, it's a good time to check out our deep reported dive into Miller's real worldview and agenda:

"Some girl with a funny name" is the most important detail in this from the standpoint of assessing credibility That's obviously Ghislaine Maxwell and also obviously not the way anyone making a wholly false report would refer to Maxwell

Brett Kavanaugh (September 2025): The facts and how they relate to the law don’t matter. Assume ICE and other federal forces always act with integrity, always respect rights, and consistently impose minimal burden. Brett Kavanaugh (December 2025): Should I not have done that? Was that wrong?

BREAKING: Huge loss for Trump administration at Supreme Court, which rules that the Trump administration had lacked authority to federalize and deploy the National Guard to execute laws in Illinois. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

I just penned this piece with Tom Joscelyn Fact Checking Bari Weiss: The Stated Reasons for Spiking 60 Minutes “Inside CECOT” "If 60 Minutes had 'explained this' as Weiss described they should, the segment would have included false or highly misleading information."

The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

also interesting that the administration thinks it has a say in CBS News personnel matters. perhaps they've been given an indication that they do.

This story is another BIG problem for the Trump admin; in Abrego Garcia's criminal case in Tennessee, evidence shows the DOJ seriously mislead the judge about the extent to which Deputy AG Blanche and his office were involved in filing the case, bolstering the case for dismissal.

Happy Holidays www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

NYT shows how Bari Weiss really screwed this up. She didn't attend any of the 5 screenings of the story, which began on Dec. 12. She only first weighed in on Thursday, and the show incorporated her suggestions. She then waited until weekend to ask for more edits. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/b...

🚨 Epstein Files: In his letter to Congress, Todd Blanche says docs were withheld under the deliberative process, atty-client privilege & atty work product. In #FOIA that's the equivalent of a B5 exemption. 🧵

While Bari Weiss scrambled to remove the video from YouTube, the Canadian bootleg I posted on Substack last night is still there.

My investigators are back with more on our follow the money investigation into Epstein. Here’s a thread for anyone interested in learning about another major Epstein mystery:

"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), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case”

I'm telling you. There's good reason to believe Bannon has some serious dirt on Trump regarding Epstein.

New: Months before Bari Weiss pulled the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, her outlet The Free Press was joking about the megaprison Trump has lawlessly deported people to. "The hottest campaign spot…the new Jeffrey Epstein jet…the place to see and be seen." @andrewperez.bsky.social @swin24.bsky.social

This has been made available, so for purposes of commenting on Bari Weiss's decision to spike the story, here's a live-post of that segment. It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process

Found the actual men in women's bathrooms assaulting women.

A free press cannot function if the government is able to exercise veto power over critical reporting simply by refusing to engage. The public has the right to question how CBS will ensure the independence and integrity of its journalism going forward.

Re-upping the back page of the current @theonion.com print edition in light of Bari’s new explanation below

no foreign enemy has ever done more damage to the USA than this administration — not all of them combined throughout history www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/c...

In every way he can, Vance—THE LEADER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR UP TO THE NEXT 40 YEARS—keeps saying, "Republicans must accept Hitler lovers into the fold." And the press refuses to act like that's even odd.

The 60 Minutes team has much to learn about the rigor and craft that drives investigative journalism. by David Ellison and Bari Weiss