Tag: doj

DOJ releases shocking fake video of Jeffrey Epstein suicide as part of file dump

The DOJ on Monday released shocking footage that appeared to be a recreation of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in his Manhattan jail cell — and it briefly set the Internet on fire until it was revealed to be fake.

The video was posted without explanation to the Justice Department’s website as part of its Epstein file dump — with the footage just the latest item among a trove of documents and images to be revealed after the complete horde was ordered released in November.

The grainy, 12-second, computer-generated clip showed a white-haired man in an orange jumpsuit struggling and jerking his head about while kneeling at the base of a jail-cell bunk bed.

The time stamp on the video was 4:29 a.m. Aug. 10, 2019 — two hours before the pedophile’s body was found in his cell that day at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility.

The scene in the video seemed to match Epstein’s cell, where officials determined he hung himself while awaiting trial for a litany of sex-trafficking charges.

But a closer examination of the clip showed things were not quite right – with a pile of orange prison clothes strewn about the ground looking like puddles without any texture, and the door to the jail cell not matching the one in Epstein’s behind-bars compartment.

It soon was revealed in another dumped document that the clip was in fact a fake video that circulated on 4chan and was flagged by investigators by a Florida conspiracy theorist.

A Trump administration official later confirmed to The Post that the video was bogus and has been on YouTube for years. It was eventually taken down from the DOJ’s site Monday.

But its appearance had already caused a flurry of interest online, with many viewers thinking footage of Epstein’s death had finally been revealed.

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Epstein seen kissing, cuddling little girls in stomach-turning new photos released by DOJ

The latest tranche of photos from the Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Justice Department includes disturbing pictures that appear to show the dead pedophile kissing and cozying up to little girls.

One image, displayed on a wall, shows a naked infant in a bath.

The vile, never-before-seen snapshots were framed and displayed on an intricately carved wooden bookshelf at his sprawling estate on Little St. James Island in the US Virgin Islands.

The unnamed kids appear to be much younger than the teenagers whom Epstein copped to paying for sex as part of his sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in 2008.

The new photos come as one whistleblower was vindicated by the document dump after she said she warned the FBI in 1996 about Epstein’s sickening interest in child pornography.

It’s not clear who the children are, or if any of them are Epstein’s victims.

In the new photos, the disgraced financier is seen draped in a robe, looking content with his eyes closed as he cradles what appears to be a very young blond girl in his arms.

Another shows him smiling widely while seated in a plush seat on a private jet with his arm wrapped around a young girl wearing a powder blue sweatshirt.

Epstein looks directly at the camera as he kisses a redheaded girl wearing what appears to be pigtails in a third chilling photo.

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DOJ Charges California Food Stamp Official for Sending Benefits to Dead People – Then Spending Them

Federal prosecutors have charged a longtime California welfare worker with carrying out a multi-year fraud scheme involving food assistance benefits and dead people.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of former Madera County benefits eligibility worker Leticia Mariscal, 55, of Madera.

Prosecutors alleged that Mariscal stole tens of thousands of dollars in CalFresh benefits by exploiting her access to county databases.

CalFresh is California’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

According to the Justice Department, the alleged scheme took place between December 2020 and April 2025.

Mariscal is accused of improperly accessing identifying information for elderly and deceased individuals.

Authorities said she secretly approved those individuals for CalFresh benefits.

Prosecutors alleged that she then printed EBT cards in their names. Benefits were then deposited onto the cards and allegedly spent by Mariscal herself.

Federal authorities say that more than 15 identities were used in the scheme, The New York Post reported.

The total amount allegedly stolen was at least $40,000.

The case reportedly came to light after the son of a 91-year-old woman living in a nursing home questioned why his mother was receiving food assistance.

Investigators later confronted Mariscal with security footage, according to the complaint.

She allegedly admitted to the conduct after being shown the footage.

Prosecutors said she attempted to shift blame to a former boyfriend she had described as a gang member.

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At least 16 files disappear from DOJ site for Epstein documents, including Trump photo

At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Donald Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.

The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Justice Department did not say why the files were removed or whether their disappearance was intentional. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

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Ro Khanna Says He and Thomas Massie May Bring Articles of Impeachment Against Bondi Over Epstein Release

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (CA) on Friday said in a CNN appearance that he and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) are currently drafting articles of impeachment against Attorney General Pam Bondi and weighing the pragmatism behind proceeding with the move. 

Last month, President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law to release all files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

And the Department of Justice released documents on Friday, which showed a heavy Bill Clinton presence around the late pedophile and young women.

But Massie and Khanna said it wasn’t enough.

Ro Khanna released a video statement on Friday, highlighting redactions in the files and saying the document dump “does not comply with Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act.” He then floated the impeachment of people at the DOJ.

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Justice Department Sues Four States Including Georgia After Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Sides With Democrats in Failure to Produce Voter Rolls

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has launched federal lawsuits against four states, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, for refusing to turn over full, unredacted voter registration lists upon request, according to official DOJ filings and press statements.

This latest filing brings the total number of federal lawsuits against states over voter data to 22 nationwide.

The centerpiece of the legal offensive is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who has inexplicably aligned with Democratic state officials and election bureaucrats in resisting federal efforts to access complete voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterms.

DOJ attorneys filed their lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia after the materials provided by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office were incomplete and failed to include key data fields requested by federal officials, such as voters’ full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, state driver’s license numbers, or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

Raffensperger, however, said his office provided the Justice Department with documentation outlining the state’s voter roll maintenance practices along with the publicly available voter registration data.

“Georgia has the cleanest voter rolls in the country because we verify citizenship through the federal SAVE database, use SSA (Social Security Administration) data to remove dead voters, and share data with other states to identify and remove voters who have moved,” Secretary Raffensperger said in a statement.

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DOJ Wins Motion to Unseal Documents on Investigation into Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks

The Department of Justice announced that it successfully moved to unseal documents related to the investigation into would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks. 

“The Department of Justice received court approval to disclose to Congress documents gathered as part of the FBI’s investigation of Thomas Crooks and his attempt to assassinate President Trump,” the Western District of Pennsylvania announced on X.

A copy of the motion and order can be found here.

On July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot President Trump in the ear from a nearby rooftop as he was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania. One rallygoer was killed in the shooting, and two were injured.

Questions still remain surrounding the failure by law enforcement and Secret Service to secure the area, as well as Crooks’s background.

Crooks used a range finder device and flew a drone at the Butler rally site between approximately 3:50 and 4:05 pm that day, during a period when the Secret Service was allegedly experiencing connectivity issues.

An eyewitness at the scene told the BBC that several people witnessed the shooter crawling on the roof of a local building with a rifle before Trump was shot, but they did not act until Trump was shot. According to later reports, a police officer encountered the shooter on the roof but let him go after he pointed the gun at him and before he shot Trump.

It seems unlikely we will get answers, as the FBI recently concluded that he acted alone.

The records sought by the DOJ, “such as telephone and internet service providers, email services, financial institutions, and others,” relate to the grand jury investigation and were obtained under a grand jury subpoena.

“The United States seeks to disclose pre-existing business records that were created for purposes independent of the Crooks grand jury investigation. Disclosure will reveal only the information contained in the documents, and will not reveal what, if anything, occurred before the grand jury,” the motion reads.

“By moving to unseal these documents, we hope to give the American people more answers about that fateful day in Butler, Pennsylvania,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X, touting the Trump Administration as “the most transparent administration in American history.”

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Massie says DOJ’s Epstein release ‘grossly fails’ to meet legal obligations

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a leading sponsor of the law requiring the Trump administration to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files, said Friday that the Justice Department is “grossly” violating its legal obligations. 

In a social media post, Massie said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and her chief deputy, Todd Blanche, who orchestrated Friday’s document release, are skirting the law that President Trump enacted exactly a month ago.

“Unfortunately, today’s document release by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago,” Massie posted on X. 

He referred to a similarly critical post that Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of the Epstein transparency law, had published shortly beforehand, which accused the DOJ of using heavy-handed redactions without explanation. 

“One document, 119 pages of Grand Jury testimony, was completely redacted,” Khanna said.

“@RepRoKhanna is correct,” Massie wrote in response.

Khanna and Massie had joined forces on legislation to release the full Epstein files, which was initially opposed by Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. That changed over the summer, when the pair brought a number of alleged victims of the late sex offender to Capitol Hill, where they pressed GOP leaders to stage a vote on the legislation. 

It didn’t work initially. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refused those entreaties, saying the better strategy for investigating Epstein’s associates was through the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is conducting its own probe. 

The tipping point came in November, after the government shutdown, when Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) was sworn in to replace her late father and immediately signed a discharge petition to force the Khanna bill to the floor. 

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Justice Department Quietly Reverses Clinton-Era Rule On Immigrant Welfare Benefits

For almost 30 years, a key part of America’s 1996 welfare reform laws has existed mostly on paper after the Clinton DOJ effectively nullified it with a loophole. Now, the Trump DOJ says it’s time to enforce those laws as Congress originally wrote them.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel quietly reversed a Clinton-era legal opinion that had sharply limited when immigrants could be denied federal welfare benefits. The earlier interpretation narrowed the law so much, critics say, that it allowed many immigrants – including some who were not lawfully eligible – to continue receiving benefits Congress intended to restrict.

The new DOJ opinion restores a broader reading of the law, potentially expanding waiting periods for benefits, strengthening sponsor repayment requirements, and closing loopholes that have existed since the late 1990s.

What Congress Intended in 1996

In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) along with major immigration reforms. The message was straightforward: immigrants should be self-sufficient, public benefits should not encourage immigration, and American taxpayers should not be responsible for supporting new arrivals.

To enforce those goals, Congress created several rules:

  • Most lawful permanent residents were barred from receiving “means-tested” federal benefits during their first five years in the U.S.
  • Family members who sponsored immigrants had to sign legally binding affidavits promising to support them.
  • If a sponsored immigrant received certain benefits, the government could seek reimbursement from the sponsor.
  • When agencies evaluated eligibility for benefits, they were required to count the sponsor’s income as part of the immigrant’s resources.

Congress defined “federal public benefit” broadly but never formally defined the term “federal means-tested public benefit.” That gap would become critical.

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Timeline: The Sabotage Of The Clinton Foundation Investigation

This week, Senator Chuck Grassley released Department of Justice and FBI records that provide a new look on how FBI and DOJ leadership sabotaged the investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

These records, which include internal emails, summaries of high-level meetings and calls, and intelligence from confidential human sources, reveal the Clinton Foundation investigation was sabotaged from the start.

During the Obama Administration, both DOJ and FBI leadership were openly hostile to the investigation. US Attorneys declined to cooperate, denying requests for subpoenas or other investigative support. And during the first Trump Administration, actors within the FBI and DOJ obstructed and delayed the development of the investigation by not approving the release of FBI materials and slowing the release of witness interviews to investigators. A frustrating tale of corruption and incompetence.

Relying on these new documents, as well as other public source materials and Special Counsel John Durham’s report, here is the comprehensive timeline of the Clinton Foundation investigation, as well as other parts of the overall Clinton corruption investigation that are relevant. It is an infuriating tale of corruption and incompetence from the highest levels of government which ultimately protected the Clinton’s schemes to trade on their political influence for millions of dollars.

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