Tag: sex trafficking

Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna Announce Plans to Bring Inherent Contempt Charges Against Attorney General Pam Bondi Over Epstein Files – “We’re Building a Bipartisan Coalition”

During a joint Sunday appearance on Face the Nation, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), the authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump last month, announced their intention to bring charges for inherent contempt against Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

Under the rarely used congressional power, “the House or Senate has its Sergeant-At-Arms, or deputy, take a person into custody for proceedings to be held in Congress,” according to the National Constitution Center. However, it is unclear how effective this would be in the face of legal challenges and the executive branch’s power.

This is the latest in an escalating saga of threats, with Massie and Khanna claiming the DOJ has not complied fully with the law due to redactions in the files and not releasing every document available.

Khanna told CNN on Friday that he and Massie are currently drafting articles of impeachment or inherent contempt against Attorney General Pam Bondi, The Gateway Pundit reported.

“Massey and I aren’t going to just do something for the show of it, but my sense is, just looking at the initial reactions from people in MAGA, from survivors, is that this release is going to cause as much grief for Pam Bondi as the earlier releases,” Khanna told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in reference to Bondi’s dumpsterfire release with MAGA influencers earlier this year. “The issue for her is not are there going to be 212 Democrats who would support it. The issue for her is how many Republicans and MAGA supporters would support it?”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, where he dared Massie and Khanna to “bring it on,” maintaining that the DOJ is simply following the law and taking the necessary time to make redactions before releasing all of the files.

Blanche told NBC’s Kristen Welker that ensuring victim information is redacted “very much Trumps some deadline in the statute,” and he dared Khanna and Massie to file Articles of Impeachment. “We are complying with the statute, we will continue to comply with the statute, and if by complying with the statute, we don’t produce everything on Friday, we produce things next week, and the week after, that’s still compliance with the statute,” Blanche added.

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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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MORE Epstein files are released as sickening details emerge from victims’ testimony in pedophile’s grand jury records

The Department of Justice has released two more batches of the Epstein files, including grand jury transcripts from cases against Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

In one document from a grand jury hearing ahead of Epstein’s 2019 trial, which never occurred because he died in jail, there were horrific details about what young girls were asked to do.

Included in data set 6, the first batch of documents released by the DOJ on Saturday, an FBI agent testified that a 14-year-old girl went to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, to massage him in her underwear. The girl was paid $300 per session, according to the agent’s testimony.

The girl told the agent about how the massage room had lotions and moisturizers. She also detailed how the walls were covered in sketches or paintings of naked females.

A library in the home was straight out of Beauty and the Beast, according to the hearing’s transcript.

The latest disclosure comes after a judge ruled on December 9 that the DOJ was legally allowed to release grand jury materials from Maxwell’s sex trafficking investigation.

Because grand jury proceedings are secret by their very nature, it was unclear whether the DOJ would be able to release these documents as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was signed by President Donald Trump last month.

US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said the grand jury materials had to be released because of that law, but he said mechanisms needed to be put in place to protect victims from disclosures that could ‘identify them or otherwise invade their privacy’.

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Who is named in the Epstein files? List of famous people exposed in bombshell release

The Justice Department has finally begun releasing the long‑awaited trove of Jeffrey Epstein files — and the initial batch of never‑before‑seen photos and documents includes a jaw‑dropping lineup of high‑profile figures who had contacts with the notorious financier and child rapist.

While the images are explosive, the DOJ has said that being photographed with Epstein doesn’t equate to criminal guilt, and many of the appearances in past photos released — including those by President Trump — are social or casual in nature.

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Bill Clinton’s Spox Responds to Bombshell Photos of Former President in Hot Tub with Epstein Sex-Trafficking Victim

Bill Clinton’s spokesman responded to the latest Epstein document dump showing Bill Clinton in a hot tub with a mystery woman who is likely a sex-trafficking victim.

The Justice Department on Friday released a new batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking cases.

The trove of documents was released after a federal judge in New York recently ordered the release of Jeffrey Epstein documents related to a 2019 sex trafficking case.

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

The documents were released on the DOJ’s website in the “Epstein Library.”

The new trove of documents includes never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton in a hot tub, swimming with a mystery woman.

The individual’s face was redacted which means she is either a sex-trafficking victim and or a minor.

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Over 500 pages in Epstein files were entirely blacked out, CBS News finds

The Justice Department released thousands of new records on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, but at least 550 pages in the documents are fully redacted, CBS News has found.

The newly released files included photos of several prominent people in Epstein’s orbit, images from his homes and investigative records that detail disturbing allegations against the late sex offender. But the heavy redactions in many of the records have drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, as the department defends its handling of the files.

One series of three consecutive documents — totaling 255 pages — is entirely redacted, with each page covered by a black box. A fourth 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY” is also entirely redacted. It’s unclear what proceedings it stemmed from, but the document listed immediately before it is a transcript in which a prosecutor asks a grand jury in 2020 to consider evidence for a superseding indictment of Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

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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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Bill Clinton breaks silence on damning Epstein file photos with blistering accusation about Trump

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice on Friday released more than 300,000 pages of photos and evidence connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The vast trove includes images showing the disgraced financier and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell socializing with high-profile figures, including former president Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson.

One photograph appears to show Clinton in a swimming pool alongside Maxwell and several unidentified, partially clothed women.

Clinton broke his silence on Friday to turn the tables on Trump, releasing a statement that declared: ‘The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever.’ 

Britain’s disgraced former royal, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also appears in the material, along with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson. References to Trump are limited in the documents, and he has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the case.

The Department of Justice acknowledged that not all of the documents have yet been released, and said additional material is expected to be unsealed before the end of the year.

The DOJ did not provide any context for the images of people included in the files. Being named or pictured in the files is not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing with Epstein. 

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Epstein’s depraved handbook revealing he would ‘make sure’ girls were underage exposed in files

Jeffrey Epstein requested that underage girls show their IDs to prove that they were under 18 as new files further expose the late billionaire pedophile’s depravity.

The file were released as part of the Justice Department’s drop of hundreds of thousands of the files after a law signed by President Donald Trump passed through both houses of Congress. 

A set of investigative notes, called EFTA00004179, from a May 2, 2019 interview with someone whose name is redacted reveals the disturbing passage showing how determined Epstein was to procure new victims. 

They appear to come from the FBI, as they begin with a formal FBI evidence cover sheet. 

The notes scribbled long-hand say that a redacted person ‘witnessed him asking for ID’ to a girl because he wanted to ‘make sure’ she was under 18 and didn’t believe them.

An additional redacted person had ‘messed up by bringing more older girls,’ the notes also say.  

Epstein was also apparently annoyed with an associate because he had brought a ‘Dominican, darker-skinned’ girl to him,’ adding ‘JE didn’t want Spanish or dark girl.’

When the redacted associate pointed out that he’d been ordered to bring a ‘young girl,’ Epstein replied: ‘Yea, but not dark.’

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David Brooks Said ‘Count Me Out’ Of Epstein Story, Then Wound Up In Epstein Photos

A few weeks ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks urged people to move on from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal already.

“The Epstein Story? Count Me Out,” reads the title of his Nov. 21 op-ed. In it, he laments that America’s political class has spent months trying to get a clearer picture of the late convicted sex offender’s ties to President Donald Trump and other powerful people, and what they may have known about Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring.

There are much more pressing issues facing the country, Brooks argued, and the real reason people are so focused on the Epstein scandal is because “the QAnon mentality has taken over America,” a reference to a far-right political conspiracy theory centered on a deep-state cabal of elite liberal pedophiles.

It’s also not fair to lump all wealthy and well-connected people into the category of “the Epstein class,” he argued. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has been using this phrase, something he’s said he picked up from voters who have asked him if he’s on the side of “forgotten Americans” or “the Epstein class.”

“I know a thing or two about the American elite, ahem, and if you’ve read my work, you may be sick of my assaults on the educated elites for being insular, self-indulgent and smug,” Brooks wrote. “But the phrase ‘the Epstein class’ is inaccurate, unfair and irresponsible. Say what you will about our financial, educational, nonprofit and political elites, but they are not mass rapists.”

The longtime New York Times columnist may have wanted to turn away from the Epstein scandal, but it found him on Thursday, when Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released more photos provided by Epstein’s estate ― and Brooks was in them.

He appears in four of these photos, all of which seem to be from the same event. One shows Brooks smiling for the camera, and another shows him seated at a table near Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Two more images show Brooks in the background, apparently holding a glass of wine, and then again, talking to Brin.

Epstein doesn’t appear in any of the pictures with Brooks, but is in two separate photos that seem to be from the same event.

The pictures don’t show Brooks doing anything weird or wrong. He was just hanging out with a group of rich and famous powerful men, one of whom happened to be a registered sex offender who’d pleaded guilty three years earlier to state charges for procurement of minors to engage in prostitution.

Asked for comment about Brooks appearing in the latest Epstein photo dump, The New York Times responded almost immediately.

“As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner,” Danielle Rhoades Ha, senior vice president of communications at The New York Times, told HuffPost in an emailed statement.

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