Deputy AG says justice department will release ‘several hundred thousand’ Epstein files today with more to come
The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said the justice department will release “several hundred thousand documents” from the Epstein files today but hinted that some may be held back – at least temporarily – citing the need to protect victims.
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” he added.
“We’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms, photographs, and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” he told Fox & Friends.
Now, the most important thing that the attorney general [Pam Bondi] has talked about, that [FBI] director [Kash] Patel has talked about is that we protect victims. And so what we’re doing is, we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim – their name, their identity, their story, to the extent these are protected – is completely protected.
I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand. And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.
Key events
Democrats ‘examining all legal options’ in face of Trump administration’s ‘violation of federal law’ over Epstein files release
Further to that, the ranking members on the House oversight and judiciary committees respectively, Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, have issued this statement slamming the Trump administration’s “decision to defy the Epstein Files Transparency Act”.
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” they said.
Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring. For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law. We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.
Republican representative Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act with Democrat Ro Khanna, shared a picture of the text of the law in a post on X this morning, highlighting the part that says “all” of the files must be released within 30 days. In another post Massie wrote: “Time’s up. Release the files.”
Yesterday Massie shared a 14-minute video explaining what people can expect if the justice department does or does not disclose all of its information on Epstein on its Friday deadline. He said he had spoken with the victims’ lawyers “and collectively they know there are at least 20 names of men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI”.
“If we get a large production on December 19 and it does not contain a single name of any male who is accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven’t produced all the documents,” Massie said. “It’s that simple.”
Per our earlier post, Khanna also posted a video on social media last night threatening legal action in the event of “tampering or excessive redaction” of the documents.
“Any person who attempts to conceal or scrub the files will be subject to prosecution under the law,” wrote on X. In the video, he said:
Let me be very clear, we need a full release. Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice.
We will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee. We need full transparency and justice for the survivors tomorrow. Finally, rich and powerful men who raped underage girls or who covered up for this abuse will help be held accountable. The Epstein class needs to go.
Schumer slams DoJ’s plan to not release all Epstein files today
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has laid into the justice department over its plan to release some of the Epstein files today but not all.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told Fox News this morning that he expected the department to release several hundred thousand documents today and several hundred thousand more “over the next couple of weeks”.
“The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be — the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some,” Schumer said in a statement. “Failing to do so is breaking the law. This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth.”
He said Senate Democrats are working with the attorneys representing Epstein survivors as well as outside legal experts “to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by [attorney general] Pam Bondi”. “We will not stop until the whole truth comes out,” he said.
A reminder that Democrats on the House oversight committee ramped up the pressure on the Trump administration yesterday when they released a new batch of 68 pictures from Epstein’s estate.
One showed Epstein sitting with the philosopher Noam Chomsky on a plane while another showed Bill Gates, the philanthropist and Microsoft founder, posing beside a woman whose face was redacted.
The Democrats said the images came from a larger trove of more than 95,000 photographs turned over last week by the Epstein estate. The photos were provided to Congress without context, timing, or locations.
The images also included heavily redacted photos of women’s passports from Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, Italy, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. There were also multiple photographs of a woman’s body on which quotes from Lolita, the Vladimir Nabokov novel about a man’s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl, were written. A screenshot of a text message appeared to involve a discussion about recruiting an 18-year-old woman to meet Epstein.
Robert Tait
Speculation surrounding the affairs of Jeffrey Epstein is expected to reach a defining moment of revelation today with the much-anticipated publication of files relating to the disgraced late financier and convicted sex trafficker.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said the justice department plans to release documents today from the government’s files, but added they won’t all come out at once and more would be released “over the next couple of weeks”.
After months of delay and stalling, the Trump administration is legally obliged to publish a massive archive of documents that could shine fresh light on Epstein’s misdeeds and his connections with key public figures, including Donald Trump himself.
Under the terms of the Epstein Files Transparency Act – passed by Congress in November following months of resistance from the White House – Pam Bondi, the attorney general, must release by midnight on Friday “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” linked to Epstein, his jailed associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and individuals named in connection with his criminal activities.
The files are required to be released in “searchable and downloadable” formats.
The publication will come after months of clamoring for the release of the files from Trump’s Maga base, which has shown signs of fracturing over the issue.
The Kennedy Center has begun adding Donald Trump’s name to the building this morning, a day after the president’s handpicked board voted to rename it “the Trump-Kennedy Center” and despite questions around the legality of a name change.
Critics of the vote, including Democratic members of Congress who are ex-officio board members and members of the Kennedy family, as well as some historians, insist that only Congress can change the name.
Joe Kennedy III, grandnephew of the former president who also served a congressman for Massachusetts, yesterday also expressed doubt the center’s name could legally be changed, writing on X:
The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.
Earlier this year, House Republicans proposed changing the name of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”. It has also ordered a review of the Smithsonian Institution and is seeking to build a huge ballroom adjacent to the White House in the place of the East Wing, which was demolished over the summer.
Yesterday, US congresswoman Joyce Beatty posted on X that the decision to rename the institution as the Trump-Kennedy Center was not unanimous.
“For the record. This was not unanimous,” said Beatty, who serves as an ex-officio member of the center. “I was muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move.”
She said the center’s renaming was “just another attempt to evade the law and not have the people have a say”.
Trump to announce news deals to lower drug prices
On that announcement we said was coming at 1pm from Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that it will be about new agreements to lower drug prices. She wrote on X:
TODAY AT 1PM AT THE WHITE HOUSE: President Trump will be announcing more incredible deals that will lower prices of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
CNN reports that representatives from at least five companies will be present at the White House event, though “the attendee list remains in flux and could still change depending on which agreements the administration can finalize in time for the announcement”.
As part of his “most favored nation” push for more affordable drug pricing, Trump sent letters to the leaders of 17 major pharmaceutical companies in July demanding lower prices, and has since announced deals with five of them – Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and EMD Serono.
Among the 12 remaining companies that have yet to strike agreements with the administration, several outlets are reporting that the likes of Merck, Gilead, Roche, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, AbbVie and Sanofi could be involved today.
Erika Kirk endorses JD Vance for president in 2028
Last night, Erika Kirk, Turning Point CEO and widow of the late Charlie Kirk, endorsed vice-president JD Vance for president in the 2028 election.
She told the thousands-strong crowd at the opening night of Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona:
We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 [the number of the next president] in the most resounding way possible.
Vance hasn’t yet announced any plans to run in 2028, but Kirk’s endorsement is significant given Turning Point USA’s influence among young conservatives and in the Maga movement more widely.
The vice-president is widely considered to be Trump’s de facto heir apparent, with Trump himself acknowledging earlier his year that Vance will “most likely” be the one he passes the Maga torch to. Trump also suggested he should run on a joint ticket with secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Vance and Charlie Kirk were close friends until the Kirk’s death in September. Vance paid tribute to his “true friend” after he was fatally shot in Utah, calling him “a great family man”. Kirk’s casket was also brought back to Arizona from Utah on Air Force Two, the vice-president’s plane.
Vance also hosted an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show later that month from the White House. During that two-hour livestream, he spoke about Kirk’s political legacy, telling viewers:
If it weren’t for Charlie Kirk, I would not be vice-president of the United States.
And speaking at Kirk’s memorial service, Vance said the rightwing activist had changed the course of American history in helping Trump get elected last year. Noting the number of Trump administration officials at the service, he said of Kirk:
We know we wouldn’t be here without him.
Vance is due to speak at the AmericaFest conference on Sunday.
Trump says he’s not ruling out war with Venezuela and Maduro ‘knows exactly what I want’
In an overnight interview with NBC News released today, Donald Trump said he is not ruling out the possibility of war with Venezuela.
“I don’t rule it out, no,” he said in a phone interview, days after he ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving from Venezuela, and his administration’s strikes on 28 alleged drug boats in the Caribbean have killed at least 104 people.
The US also last week seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, an act the Venezuelan government decried as “an act of international piracy”. Asked whether more seizures of oil tankers should be expected, Trump told the reporter: “Yes.” Asked about timing, he said:
It depends. If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors.
Trump, who campaigned on a platform to keep the United States out of foreign conflicts, also refused to tell NBC News whether removing Nicolás Maduro was his ultimate goal – which experts widely agree it is. But he said the Venezuelan president “knows exactly what I want”. “He knows better than anybody,” Trump added.
On the president’s schedule today is an announcement at 1pm ET from the Roosevelt Room in the White House. If we get any idea what this could be about as the day progresses we’ll update you here.
Trump will then participate in a closed-to-press Christmas reception in the Grand Foyer at 5.45pm. He’ll then depart at 7.05pm for Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where he’s due to deliver remarks about the economy at 9pm.
Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and Maga influencer who has had the president’s ear on a number of occasions this year, has told Politico that she expects today’s release of the Epstein files to be “another big ‘get-Trump’ nothingburger”.
The Epstein issue has been the headache that won’t go away for the Trump administration, cutting through and prompting a full-blown revolt among his ultra-loyal Maga base – and eventually a U-turn from the president on their release.
A reminder that earlier this week, we learned that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that attorney general Pam Bondi had “completely whiffed” her early handling of the Epstein files and failed to appreciate how much Trump’s supporters cared about the issue.
First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.
Today, Loomer told Politico:
There’s no denying that binder-gate was a total fiasco and it was a big blunder that was really the first negative PR blunder for this administration thus far.
She added that she didn’t think today’s release would put the issue to bed.
Because there are people out there who are determined to use this as a way to get Trump. Remember, I said, this is the new Russia collusion hoax. They are going to use this messaging in the 2026 midterms and possibly into the 2028 presidential election.
As we await the release of the Epstein files, Ro Khanna, one of the Democratic lawmakers who sponsored the bill to force the release of the documents, said today was about “the survivors, justice, and truth. The Epstein Class has to go.”
Ro Khanna, one of the Democratic members of Congress who sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act that mandates the release of the files, has posted a video on social media threatening legal action in the event of “tampering or excessive redaction” of the documents.
“Let me be very clear, we need a full release,” Khanna said. “Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice.
“We will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee. We need full transparency and justice for the survivors tomorrow. Finally, rich and powerful men who raped underage girls or who covered up for this abuse will help be held accountable. The Epstein class needs to go.”
Deputy AG says justice department will release ‘several hundred thousand’ Epstein files today with more to come
The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said the justice department will release “several hundred thousand documents” from the Epstein files today but hinted that some may be held back – at least temporarily – citing the need to protect victims.
“I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” he added.
“We’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms, photographs, and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” he told Fox & Friends.
Now, the most important thing that the attorney general [Pam Bondi] has talked about, that [FBI] director [Kash] Patel has talked about is that we protect victims. And so what we’re doing is, we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim – their name, their identity, their story, to the extent these are protected – is completely protected.
I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand. And then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.
Donald Trump will visit North Carolina on a campaigning trip on what is shaping up to be one of the most momentous days of his second presidency.
With the long-awaited Epstein files due to be released sometime before midnight under federal law, Trump will go to the city of Rocky Mount, amid reports that locals have been dissatisfied with the results of the administration’s economic policies.
The trip echoes the president’s recent visit to Pennsylvania, a battleground state in which he was supposed to persuade voters that he was addressing “affordability” concerns – but ended up dismissing the issue as a “Democrat hoax”.
With North Carolina home to a tight Senate race in the 2026 midterm elections, Trump needs to tackle waning Republican support reflected in a recent poll that showed 60% of local voters disapproving his performance on inflation and 52% disagreeing with his tariff policies.
Trump has carried North Carolina in each of the last three presidential elections.
Pentagon fails annual audit for eighth year in a row
For the eighth year in a row, the Pentagon has failed as annual audit, the Department of Defense said on Friday, continuing a pattern of financial accountability problems that have drawn bipartisan criticism and emerged as a campaign issue.
“The Department cannot resolve decades of war, neglect of America’s defense industrial base, and soaring national debt through unchecked spending.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement released with the audit.
The White House has consistently denied that Donald Trump has ever engaged in conflicts of interest while president. But experts have been tallying up examples of decisions made over the last 12 months which, they say, amount to corruption coming from the highest office.
Jonathan Freedland is joined by the anthropologist Prof Janine Wedel, as they wade through the most egregious allegations of corruption from Trump’s first year in office, in the Politics Weekly America podcast: