Closing summary
Here’s what happened today in US politics:
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s abuse released a new statement on Monday criticizing the Trump administration’s justice department for failing to release all of the documents related to the case by the 19 December deadline. The survivors say the documents are “a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation.”
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, has announced he will introduce a resolution directing the Senate to take legal action against the justice department over its incomplete release of files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A spokesperson for Bill Clinton has accused DOJ officials of “using selective releases to imply wrongdoing” and called on the department to “immediately release any remaining materials” from the Epstein files that refer to, mention or picture the former president.
Trump announces that he’s approved a plan for the Navy to begin construction of “two very large, largest we’ve ever built battleships”.
Bari Weiss reportedly killed a CBS 60 Minutes investigation into El Salvador’s CECOT prison just three hours before it was set to air Sunday night because the White House refused to grant an interview. The move led to outcries from members of Congress slammed CBS’s eleventh-hour decision to kill a fully reported 60 Minutes investigation into Trump deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison.
The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland have demanded respect for their borders after Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to the largely self-governing Danish territory, which he has said repeatedly should be under US control.
Trump’s FBI director Kash Patel is using a fleet of armoured luxury BMW X5s that he requested the agency purchase for his travel, MS Now reports, in Patel’s latest questionable use of taxpayers dollars.
A federal judge will decide today whether Kilmar Ábrego García should be returned to immigration custody after being free for just over a week, the Associated Press reports.
Trump says US has to have Greenland 'for national security'
Trump has also renewed his call to annex Greenland, saying: “We need it for national security. We have to have it and he wanted to lead the charge.”
Earlier today, the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland demanded respect for their borders after Trump appointed Louisiana governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, with Landry calling his appointment an “honor” to work to “make Greenland a part of the US”.
“We have said it very clearly before. Now we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law … You cannot annex other countries,” Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement.
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Trump also says Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro has “got to watch his ass”.
Trump has said recently that Colombia could be the next target for his so-called “war on drugs” in Latin America, accusing Petro of failing to do enough to tackle cocaine production. Petro has also been one of the most vocal critics of Trump’s military strikes on alleged drug boats in the region.
Asked why Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro should take his threats of potential land strikes seriously, Trump says:
He can do whatever he wants. If he plays tough it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.
Asked if he would commit to releasing all the Epstein files before the end of the year, Trump – in his first public remarks since the DOJ began releasing files on Friday – gives a vague answer, saying, “Everyone was friendly with this guy” and repeating that he “threw him out of Mar-a-Lago”.
He also says the public is focusing on Epstein as “a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican party has”.
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Trump says US will keep oil and ships seized off coasts of Venezuela
Taking questions from reporters, Trump says the US is going to keep the 1.9 million barrels of oil that were on a tanker seized off the coast of Venezuela.
We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also.
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Trump says he will meet with defense contractors next week in Florida to talk about speeding up production schedules, saying, “they’re too slow … they don’t produce them fast enough.”
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Donald Trump at his announcement about the Navy’s so-called “Golden Fleet”, as secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and Navy secretary John Phelan listen, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
He says starting with these two new battleships, the project will eventually be expanded 10 to encompass 20-25 vessels.
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Trump says they’ll also be “upping” aircraft carriers.
Trump announces that he’s approved a plan for the Navy to begin construction of “two very large, largest we’ve ever built battleships”.
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Trump has arrived, flanked by secretary of state Marco Rubio as well as the billed defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy secretary John Phelan.
Trump to announce plans for new 'Trump-class' battleship for Navy's 'Golden Fleet'
Further, the Wall Street Journal reports that the new class of Navy battleship will be known as “Trump-class”, and will be the centerpiece for the so-called “Golden Fleet”. The New York Times hears the same, citing a Pentagon official.
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Earlier we told you Donald Trump, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy secretary John Phelan are scheduled to make an announcement at 4:30pm ET from Palm Beach, Florida, reportedly related to “shipbuilding”.
The Associated Press reports that Trump is going to announce plans to build a new, large warship that he’s calling a “battleship” as part of a larger vision to create a “Golden Fleet”.
Retired rear admiral Mark Montgomery, who is now a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and familiar with the discussions, told the AP the announcement will include a new, large “surface combatant class” of ship and as many as 50 support ships.
Trumphas previously criticized the appearance of Navy warships covered in rust. The event hasn’t started yet but we’ll bring you all the key lines once it gets underway.
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Bill Clinton's spokesperson calls on DOJ to immediately release Epstein files referring to former president
A spokesperson for Bill Clinton has accused DOJ officials of “using selective releases to imply wrongdoing” and called on the department to “immediately release any remaining materials” from the Epstein files that refer to, mention or picture the former president.
Angel Ureña, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, said today in a statement on X that under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the DOJ is required to “produce the full and complete record the public demands and deserves”.
Echoing lawmakers’ criticisms that the files released so far have been heavily redacted, Ureña said that what the justice department “has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected.”
We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.
Accordingly, we call on President Trump to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials referring to, mentioning, or containing a photograph of Bill Clinton.
Clinton featured prominently in DOJ’s initial drop on Friday, including in photos in a hot tub with a young woman whose identity is shielded, and with another, whose identity is redacted, sitting on his lap.
In a statement late on Friday, Ureña accused the White House of using Clinton as a scapegoat.
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Number of people in ICE detention hits record high, data shows
Will Craft and Andrew Witherspoon in New York
The number of people in immigration detention in the US has hit an all-time high according to data published by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The data, which comes out every two weeks, shows that as of 14 December 2025, ICE held more than 68,400 people.
This many people in immigration detention is a new record, breaking the previous high set at the beginning of December.
The Guardian, using ICE’s data, has continued to track the number of people arrested, detained and deported by the agency. The latest, published on 22 December covers 1 October through 14 December 2025. The Guardian has been tracking this data and has calculated the total number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported since January 2025.
In total, the administration has arrested more than 328,000 and deported nearly 327,000.
In one of the biggest changes in immigration enforcement policies, immigrants with no criminal record continue to make up the largest group in US immigration detention, despite the administration’s rhetoric about focusing its anti-immigration efforts on “the worst of the worst” criminals. Being undocumented in the US is a civil not a criminal infraction. The Trump administration has also moved to invalidate protections for many immigrants staying in the US legally.
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The New York Times has more on that, reporting that the government’s lawyers told US judge Paula Xinis that it had not decided whether to arrest Kilmar Ábrego García again, to which Xinis sounded skeptical. “Why should I lift it — so he can get arrested in the middle of the night?” she reportedly asked, referring to the court order.
According to the Times, Xinis set a deadline of Friday for the government to decide if it would arrest him and, if so, provide a lawful reason. And she extended the order protecting him from being detained again until then.
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Federal judge to decide whether Kilmar Ábrego García should return to immigration custody
A federal judge will decide today whether Kilmar Ábrego García should be returned to immigration custody after being free for just over a week, the Associated Press reports.
“This is an extremely irregular and extraordinary situation,” US district judge Paula Xinis told attorneys at the hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. “I am trying to get to the bottom of whether there are going to be any removal proceedings,” she said as she tried to get information from the government’s lawyer on the status of Ábrego García’s case. “You haven’t told me what you’re going to do next.”
Ábrego García, his wife and legal team were met at the federal court building by a boisterous reception that included a choir, bullhorn and drum as scores of supporters cheered, according to the AP. His wrongful deportation to El Salvador earlier this year has made him a symbol of Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration policies.
He had been in immigration detention since August before his 11 December release. In that time, the government has said it planned to deport him to various African countries. However, officials have made no effort to deport him to the one country he has agreed to go to — Costa Rica. Xinis has even accused the government of misleading her by falsely claiming that Costa Rica was unwilling to take him.
In court today, Ábrego García’s lawyers reiterated that he is prepared to go to Costa Rica “today”.
Xinis’ 11 December order that Ábrego García be released from immigration custody also concluded that the immigration judge who heard his case in 2019 had failed to issue an order of removal from the US, and he cannot be deported anywhere without a removal order.
In filings last week, government attorneys argued that, with or without a final order of removal, they are still working to deport Ábrego García, so they can legally detain him during the process.
“If there is no final order of removal, immigration proceedings are ongoing, and Petitioner is subject to pre-final order detention,” they wrote.
For their part, Ábrego García’s attorneys cited a US supreme court ruling that “because immigration proceedings ‘are civil, not criminal’ detention must be ‘nonpunitive’”. They argued that in this case, detention is punitive because the government wants to be allowed to hold him indefinitely without a viable plan to deport him.
“If immigration detention does not serve the legitimate purpose of effectuating reasonably foreseeable removal, it is punitive, potentially indefinite, and unconstitutional,” they wrote.
Also in that New York Times report is the case of Isabela Herrera, who donated $2.5m to MAGA Inc. late last year. At the time, her father, Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker, was being prosecuted by the justice department for trying to bribe the governor of Puerto Rico, the Times reports.
He hired a former personal lawyer for Trump, who alleged that the case was an example of the political weaponization of the criminal justice system. Top justice department officials then “authorized a misdemeanor plea deal to settle the case and overruling career prosecutors who had pushed for a harsher sentence”.
Herrera could still face a year in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for next month. Herrera and a lawyer for him declined to comment on the Times’s report.
A DOJ spokeswoman told the Times “the decision to settle this case was made through the proper channels and was not influenced by any donation to MAGA Inc.”
But John D. Keller, who oversaw the justice department division that handled the case, told the paper that “the difference between the deal and the more than 20 years Herrera could have faced if convicted of the original charges was ‘striking’. Keller, who resigned in protest when he was directed by Trump’s appointees to drop another politically fraught prosecution, said the Herrera case ‘appears to be another example of political considerations dictating the outcome in an individual criminal case’.”
In an analysis of more than half a billion dollars in contributions from hundreds of donors, the New York Times reports that those deep-pocketed individuals and corporations have received pardons, favorable regulatory moves, jobs, access to the president, dropping of legal cases and other valuable gains since Donald Trump returned to office.
An extract from the NYT’s investigation reads:
Since President Trump was elected a second time, he and his allies have raised nearly $2bn for his favored political causes and passion projects … [We] traced a large portion of the funds raised - more than half a billion dollars’ worth - back to 346 donors who each gave at least $250,000. It also found that more than half of them have benefited, or are involved in an industry that has benefited, from the actions or statements of Mr. Trump, the White House or federal agencies.
Take, for example, previously unreported donations and pledges to Trump’s White House ballroom project. According to the NYT, one $2.5m pledged donation came from engineering firm Parsons Corporation, which is “jockeying for some of the more than $1tn in contracts that could be awarded to build a missile defense system proposed by the president called the “Golden Dome”. Lockheed Martin, the primary maker of F-35 fighter jets and another firm expected to compete for work related to the “Golden Dome”, also donated $10m to the Trust for the National Mall for Trump’s ballroom.
The chief executive of Roblox, who has “applauded a Trump executive order and other initiatives involving children’s use of AI”, is also giving $2.5m to the ballroom project. Tech firm Palantir, which donated $10m to the project, has “secured federal contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including to develop software to help ICE deport people”.
Crypto trading platform Ripple also donated to ballroom; the Securities and Exchange Commission ended its lawsuits against Ripple and other platforms earlier this year after the companies each donated $m or more to Trump’s inaugural committee.
And, per the New York Times’s report:
While a foundation funded by Miriam Adelson, a casino magnate, mostly supports Jewish and Israeli causes, it pledged to donate $25m to the ballroom project, according to two people familiar with the donation. In a speech at a White House Hanukkah party last week, Mr. Trump praised Dr. Adelson, a physician by training, for donating tens of millions of dollars to help his campaigns and using her access to lobby for greater U.S. backing for Israel. Calling her to the lectern, Mr. Trump said, “When somebody can give you $250m, I think that we should give her the opportunity to say hello.” The two embraced and bantered about how Dr. Adelson would be willing to donate $250m more to help Mr. Trump seek an unconstitutional third term.
Schumer to ask Senate to back legal action over DOJ's 'blatant disregard of the law' with partial Epstein files release
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, has announced he will introduce a resolution directing the Senate to take legal action against the justice department over its incomplete release of files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I am introducing a resolution directing the Senate to initiate legal action against DoJ for its blatant disregard of the law in its refusal to release the complete Epstein files,” Schumer said in a statement on social media.
The American people deserve full transparency, and Senate Democrats will use every tool at our disposal to ensure they get it. This administration cannot be allowed to hide the truth.
If passed, the resolution would authorize the Senate to file a lawsuit seeking a court order forcing the justice department to release the complete set of documents.
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There have been plenty of questions surrounding the action that could be taken against Trump’s justice department for failure to produce all of the Epstein documents by the legal 19 December deadline.
But, as my colleague Victoria Bekiempis writes, while there are avenues of action, each of them seem like … an uphill battle for those looking for accountability.
She writes:
Several attorneys told the Guardian that those making the legal threats do have tools with which to try to follow through. But there’s a major obstacle: those with legal authority in this case are the ones accused of failing to follow the law.
You can read her full analysis at the link below:
More Epstein files expected this afternoon, transparency bill co-sponsor says
Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie’s co-sponsor on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, says they expect more documents to be released this afternoon, but there is uncertainty in what exactly will be released.
In a post on X, Khanna wrote:
We hear there will be another DOJ Epstein release this afternoon. Here is what @RepThomasMassie, survivors and I want.
1) The FBI witness interviews which names other men
2) The Epstein emails seized from his computer
3) The 60 count draft indictment
4) The 82 page prosecution memo
The DOJ must stop protecting rich & powerful men who were not charged or those who sabotaged the prosecution.
Massie attacks justice department for 'protecting the rich, powerful and politically connected'
Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, responded to the survivors’ statement on X by echoing their calls for full accountability from the justice department.
The survivors deserve justice. The DOJ release does not comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and does not provide what the survivors are guaranteed under the new law.
Massie also posted the results of a poll he conducted on the social media platform that revealed 97% of the 181,000 users who responded think the “DOJ is not transparent.”
“The results are in: nobody is buying this bogus Epstein release,” he wrote. “The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected.”
Epstein survivors call out Trump's justice department for 'extreme redactions' in latest file release
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s abuse released a new statement on Monday criticizing the Trump administration’s justice department for failing to release all of the documents related to the case by the 19 December deadline.
The statement, posted in full on X by CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane, says the release was “a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation.”
The survivors also accuse the justice department of leaving identities of some of the victims unredacted, “causing real and immediate harm.”
It is alarming that the United States Department of Justice, the very agency tasked with upholding the law, has violated the law, both by withholding massive quantities of documents, and by failing to redact survivor identities.
The statement also calls out the lack of ability to search within the released files, making it impossible for survivors to find pertinent information to their cases.
There has been no communication with survivors or our representatives as to what was withheld from release, or why hundreds of thousand of documents have not been disclosed by the legal deadline, or how DOJ will ensure that no more victim names are wrongly disclosed. While clearer communication would not change the fact that a law was broken, its absence suggests an ongoing intent to keep survivors and the public in the dark as much as possible and as long as possible.
House Democrat Eric Swalwell was quick to criticize Kash Patel’s armored BMW use, as reported by MS Now.
The California congressman, who announced his bid governor last month, said in a post on X:
It’s time to KASH OUT. Director Patel has lost the confidence of the team he must lead. Their leaks are desperate pleas to give them a director who can keep us safe. PATEL MUST RESIGN.
Kash Patel reportedly using armored BMW as transport, raising questions
Trump’s FBI director Kash Patel is using a fleet of armoured luxury BMW X5s that he requested the agency purchase for his travel, MS Now reports, in Patel’s latest questionable use of taxpayers dollars.
Patel, who is already facing a House investigation for his alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, pressed for the vehicles so he could be less “conspicuous” on his outings, four sources familiar with his transportation told the outlet.
FBI directors, who are protected by a security detail, typically travel in Chevrolet Suburbans, though the US government does use the same class of BMWs to protect state department officials and diplomats in high-risk international areas around the world.
Former justice department official Stacey Young, told MS Now that the BMW request was another example of Patel putting his public image ahead of concern for taxpayer resources, calling it “an embarrassment”. She added:
He needs a field jacket that fits just right, a ‘Punisher’-inspired challenge coin and a new fleet of foreign cars to drive around in.
Defending the choice to MS Now, FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson said the BMWs were chosen because they were more cost-effective than other upgraded vehicles the agency could’ve purchased. Without disclosing how much they cost, he said the move was “evaluated partly as a way to save taxpayers millions by picking cheaper selections or making cost structures more efficient”.
Patel has come under fire for his taxpayer expenses, including taking personal trips on the FBI’s Gulfstream private jet for a date night his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins and reportedly hiring a FBI security detail for her.
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Trump and Hegseth to make announcement, reportedly about 'shipbuilding'
Donald Trump, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy secretary John Phelan are scheduled to make an announcement at 4:30pm ET from Palm Beach, Florida.
The White House hasn’t provided details, and Reuters is reporting that it’ll be a “shipbuilding announcement”. When we get further clarity, we’ll let you know here.
It follows Trump’s signing of a $900bn defense policy bill last week and against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela. The US is currently in active pursuit of a third oil tanker accused of carrying Venezuelan oil, NBC News reported last night. “It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” an official told the outlet.
In an interview with NBC News last week, Trump left the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table. The US military has killed more than 100 people in strikes on alleged drug boats in the region and seized two oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast, as part of Trump’s campaign to isolate and pressurize Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
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CNN reports that some CBS staffers are “threatening to quit” over the controversial cancellation of a 60 Minutes investigation into the brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants.
Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’s decision to pull the story – taken last night three hours before broadcast - has been blasted by members of Congress and the veteran correspondent involved, Sharyn Alfonsi, who had interviewed people deported by the Trump administration to the notorious mega-prison about the “brutal and torturous conditions” they faced.
The New York Times reported that Weiss had seen the segment on Thursday and raised questions about it to its producers, asked for new material to be added, and suggested a new interview with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the rightwing architect of Trump’s anti-immigration policy.
The NYT also reported that Weiss questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the approximately 252 Venezuelan men who were deported on flights to El Salvador’s Cecot in March and April this year.
CBS said in a statement that the story “needed additional reporting” and will air at a later date.
Alfonsi said in a private note to her CBS colleagues yesterday that the episode “was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
Elsewhere in the note, Alfonsi said her team had requested comment from the White House, the state department, and the Department of Homeland Security. “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” she said.
“We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.”
“I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,” she wrote.
Weiss, whose appointment sparked controversy among some CBS journalists who feared its owners were taking the network in a more conservative direction, said in a statement: “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason – that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices – happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
Furthermore, RADAR online, which filed suit eight years ago after the FBI failed to disclose Epstein investigative files under an April 2017 public records request, noted that the Epstein Files Transparency Act didn’t spell out what happens if DOJ officials don’t follow the law.
“There is no mechanism for non-compliance in the Act. Some members of Congress have suggested impeachment is the appropriate remedy,” the spokesperson said.
Radar online pointed out that court intervention could help with disclosure in some capacity.
“There remains a possible legal avenue to get withheld files if the DOJ doesn’t act,” the spokesperson said. “To the extent the files overlap with Radar’s FOIA request we will be able to challenge an incomplete or overly redacted production.”
A hearing is scheduled in Radar’s lawsuit on 28 January.
Epstein files chaotic rollout could imperil public record releases, expert warns
As Donald Trump’s justice department faces ongoing criticism for its lackluster rollout of the Epstein files – and mysterious removal of some documents – public records experts are weighing in.
Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse School’s Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University in New York, said:
This document dump, I believe, does little to clear things up and now that files are disappearing or being so heavily redacted that they are useless.
“It is not too surprising that things might not be fully released or might be withheld, less out of concern for privacy of the victims, but more for political purposes,” he said. Gutterman initially commented before missing documents were re-released, and said later he believes his statements still stand.
Related: US justice department restores photo featuring Trump from Epstein files
Journalists, investigators, and generally concerned citizens have a right to records produced and held by public agencies, with few exceptions, and can seek legal redress if they’re not provided within a specific time period.
This slow trickle of Epstein documents, which is in contravention of the law passed mandating that Trump’s DOJ release all Epstein files by 19 December, also raises questions about these papers’ intersection with the traditional public records laws that protect this right to access.
“These documents are a little outside the normal area for traditional public records reporters seek and uncover through freedom of information laws, which are part of the bedrock of our democracy and an important tool for understanding how government operates,” Gutterman said.
“When I was a reporter, I frequently used public records laws to get documents for stories, and some agencies were a lot more responsive than others. As skeptical as I was … I rarely felt that a records request was being denied for political purposes. But that was a long time ago in a universe far away,” he continued.
The Epstein records are different because they are part of a government investigation and include grand jury documents and some documents with legitimately private information about victims. Plus, the release was compelled by Congress. So, this is a very different type of public records case. But we know that.
If an agency doesn’t follow through, by abusing claims of exceptions, those seeking records can fight it in court “if the requester has the time and resources to litigate”, he said.
Sometimes withholding can be for perfectly legitimate reasons. But sometimes a court will need to make decisions.
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You cannot annex other countries, Danish and Greenlandic leaders tell Trump after new envoy says he will serve to make Greenland part of US
The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland have demanded respect for their borders after Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to the largely self-governing Danish territory, which he has said repeatedly should be under US control.
“We have said it very clearly before. Now we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law … You cannot annex other countries,” Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement.
The two leaders added that “fundamental principles” were at stake. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the US should not take over Greenland,” they said. “We expect respect for our common territorial integrity.”
Trump on Sunday appointed the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as US special envoy to the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island. Landry thanked Trump for the appointment, calling it an “honor” to work to “make Greenland a part of the US”.
The US president has on several occasions said the US needs to acquire Greenland for security reasons, while refusing to rule out the use of force. The US president wrote on social media:
Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.
Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told Danish television today that he would summon Washington’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Ken Howery, to the ministry in the coming days “to get an explanation”.
Rasmussen said he was “deeply upset by this appointment of a special envoy”, and “particularly upset” by Landry’s statement, which he said Denmark had found “completely unacceptable”.
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Members of Congress slammed CBS’s eleventh-hour decision to kill a fully reported 60 Minutes investigation into Trump deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison.
Senator from Hawaii Brian Schatz called it “a terrible embarrassment,” writing on X that “if executives think they can build shareholder value by avoiding journalism that might offend the Mad King they are about to learn a tough lesson. This is still America and we don’t enjoy bullshit like this.”
Representative from Rhode Island Seth Magaziner said: “Most of the men sent to Cecot had no criminal records. Some never even entered the US illegally (like Andry Hernandez Romero – look him up). If the Trump admin can send these men to a torture prison w no due process they can do it to anyone. That’s the truth they don’t want told.”
Representative from California Doris Matsui connected the cancellation directly to CBS parent company Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance, which requires Trump administration approval:
“This is exactly what happens when broadcasters bend to political pressure,” she said. “CBS pulling a fully reported 60 Minutes segment just 2 hours before airtime – while Paramount pursues a merger requiring Trump administration approval – is a textbook case of self-censorship.”
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In the email, Alfonsi wrote:
“If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interview,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.
These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
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CBS' Bari Weiss spikes 60 Minutes story on El Salvador's CECOT prison
Bari Weiss reportedly killed a CBS 60 Minutes investigation into El Salvador’s CECOT prison just three hours before it was set to air Sunday night because the White House refused to grant an interview.
In an email to colleagues, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi blasted the decision, saying the segment on Trump deportees was fully vetted and “pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” Alfonsi said that Weiss did not discuss the decision with them to spike the story.
She warned that CBS had effectively given the government a “kill switch” for inconvenient reporting. The story was replaced with another segment on classical musicians.
My colleagues have more on the story here:
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Senate minority leader Schumer announces legal action for Epstein files
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer announced Monday morning he is introducing a resolution to force the Senate to initiate legal action against the justice department for refusing to release the complete Epstein files.
“I am introducing a resolution directing the Senate to initiate legal action against the DOJ for its blatant disregard of the law in its refusal to release the complete Epstein files,” Schumer posted on social media. “The American people deserve full transparency, and Senate Democrats will use every tool at our disposal to ensure they get it. This Administration cannot be allowed to hide the truth.”
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Other reactions from lawmakers after the document release:
Ahead of the weekend, top democrat on the oversight committee Robert Garcia and top Democrat on the judiciary committee Jamie Raskin announced they are examining all legal options after the heavily redacted document dump, which they say violated federal law.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer accused the administration of deliberately hiding the truth and said Senate Democrats would work with victims’ attorneys to determine what’s being withheld.
Before the deadline, five lawmakers from both parties – including Republican senator Lisa Murkowski and Democrat senator Jeff Merkley – had already written to Bondi requesting a briefing on compliance plans.
And on Friday evening, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted on social media “Bondi should resign tonight” and “Everyone involved will have to answer for this”.
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After slow rolling the Epstein file release, and failing to drop them all on the 19 December deadline, representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are moving towards penalties that would hold attorney general Pam Bondi in inherent contempt of Congress.
Speaking on CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday, Khanna said the move would fine Bondi for every day she fails to release the documents, and would only require House approval.
“We only need the House for inherent contempt, and we’re building a bipartisan coalition, and it would fine Pam Bondi for every day that she’s not releasing these documents,” he said.
The California Democrat added that he’d spoken with survivors who were outraged that their abusers’ names remain redacted while their own identities were accidentally released – noting there are 1,200 victims still waiting for accountability.
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