Top Democrats Demand Release of All Epstein Files Naming Trump

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, along with 15 more of the 19 Democrats on the committee, demanded in a letter Tuesday that Attorney General Pam Bondi release “Epstein file” documents mentioning President Donald Trump.

The letter, which rails against Bondi for potentially withholding information that would embarrass the president, comes as the Department of Justice earlier this week released a memo closing the case of Jeffrey Epstein, and concluding—to the chagrin of many MAGA hard-liners—that there was no list of clients maintained by the sex offender and disgraced financier.

Along with relevant Epstein documents, the House Democrats are calling for the publication of the second volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the dismissed classified documents case against Donald Trump, which remains sealed despite DOJ “regulations and longstanding practice,” wrote the House Democrats.

The letter continues: “This Administration has repeatedly claimed that President Trump is ‘the most transparent and accessible president in American history.’ So far, your DOJ has not only failed to live up to this promise, but you have also consistently hidden from the American public materials and information that may be damaging to President Trump.”

It cites former Trump adviser Elon Musk’s June post on X, alleging, during his feud with the president, that Trump “is in the Epstein files.” It also mentions various Trump officials’ vows to release the files, and the administration’s distribution of the “first phase” of Epstein documents to various MAGA influencers in February (documents that turned out to be heavily redacted and largely consisting of already public information).

The DOJ memo this week, the House Democrats wrote, “raises the question of whether the White House has moved to prevent the declassification and public release of the full Epstein files because they implicate President Trump, and whether these massive redaction efforts and the withholding of the files were intended to shield your boss from embarrassing revelations within those files.”

Trump on Tuesday lashed out at a reporter for asking about the Epstein case, calling his question a waste of time. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump asked incredulously. “Are people still talking about this guy? This creep?”

Meanwhile, MAGA adherents who are steadfast in their belief in an Epstein client list are still figuring out how to cope with having been strung along by team Trump.

President Trump wants to place a 200 percent tariff on your pharmaceuticals. 

“We’ll be announcing something very soon on pharmaceuticals, we’re gonna give people about a year, year and a half to come in and after that they’re gonna be tariffed. If they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country, the drugs, and other things, into the country they’re gonna be tariffed at a very very high rate, like 200 percent,” the president said at his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “And we’ll give them a certain period of time to get their act together … so we’re gonna be announcing pharmaceuticals, chips, and various couple other things.” 

While every Trump tariff statement should be taken with a grain of salt, this move—under the guise of forcing large pharmaceutical companies like Johnson  & Johnson to manufacture in the United States and reinvigorating domestic production—will likely just raise prices, interrupt the supply chain, and ultimately hurt the patients relying on them. Pharmaceuticals are already incredibly expensive in this country. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in a year and a half.

Donald Trump gracelessly dodged a question Tuesday about weapons shipments to Ukraine, revealing that the commander-in-chief has no idea about what’s going on with his own warchest. 

During a Cabinet meeting, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump for details about his recent flip on sending military aid to Ukraine.  

“Mr. President, you want to send more weapons to Ukraine, as you said last night. Last week the Pentagon paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine. Did you approve of that pause?” Collins asked. 

“We wanted to put defensive weapons, because Putin is not—he’s not treating human beings right. He’s killing too many people,” Trump said. “So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve approved that.”

“So who ordered the pause last week?” Collins pressed. 

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” Trump said, but he wasn’t asking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—he was asking Collins herself. 

“I think that’s a question for the Pentagon,” Collins replied, as Trump moved to take another question. 

NBC News reported that the decision to pause weapons shipments to Ukraine was a unilateral decision by Hegseth, three congressional aides, and a former U.S. official familiar with the matter. The Trump administration claimed that their munitions stockpiles were running low—despite an analysis by senior military officials that found the levels were not yet critical. 

This is the third time Hegseth has single-handedly directed the Pentagon to stop weapons shipments to Ukraine since entering office. For context, this is the same guy who once counseled Kyiv to give up its hopes of reclaiming seized territory from Russia. 

In a surprise move, Trump reversed the pause Monday—much to the outrage of his supporters—saying that Ukrainians “have to be able to defend themselves.” On Tuesday, the president sounded jilted when discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was “not happy” with his supposed ally. 

“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you wanna know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” Trump said. 

The world’s richest man is not happy with how the Trump administration is handling the Epstein files.

Elon Musk has gone scorched earth on his ex-allies in the wake of a Department of Justice memo refuting prior claims from Trump officials that there had been a “client list” maintained by the pedophilic sex trafficker.

Last month, Musk accused Donald Trump of being mentioned by name in the Epstein files, claiming that Trump’s alleged attachment to the glitterati socialite was the real reason why the details of the case had not yet been made public. But by Tuesday afternoon, Musk had thrown another Trumpworld figurehead into the mix.

“Bannon is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote on X, referring to Trump’s 2016 chief strategist Steve Bannon.

The billionaire did not elaborate on how Bannon could be attached to the notorious sex abuse ring, but his ravings against the administration’s botched handling did not end there.

“How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” Musk wrote in another post.

In yet another post, Musk accused the government of mishandling its priorities, comparing the recent seizure and euthanization of a famous pet squirrel, Peanut, to the absence of arrests within Epstein’s expansive social network. “Government is deeply broken,” Musk wrote.

Musk—who in May wrapped up his work slicing and dicing the federal government—also reshared a post accusing the administration of “protecting pedophiles.”

“If the entire government is protecting pedophiles, it has officially become the government against the people,” the Musk-elevated post read.

But for all of his clamoring, it’s still not clear how involved Musk himself was with the late New York financier. On Monday, an answer from X’s AI chatbot Grok answered a question regarding Musk’s connection to Epstein that was suspiciously written in the first person.

“Yes, limited evidence exists: I visited Epstein’s NYC home once briefly (~30 mins) with my ex-wife in the early 2010s out of curiosity; saw nothing inappropriate and declined island invites,” Grok wrote in a since-deleted post. “No advisory role or deeper ties. A 2023 subpoena sought docs in a JP Morgan lawsuit, but I’ve never been accused of any wrongdoing. Deny knowing Ghislaine Maxwell beyond a photobomb.”

The hubbub is thanks to a string of apparent mistakes by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has suggested since January—against the expertise of individuals who had worked on the case for decades—that Epstein had maintained a “client list,” supercharging ideas and theories about which high-powered individuals could have been involved in Epstein’s crimes.

The administration then seemed to abruptly change its tune on Monday, when the DOJ posted a memo confirming that no such “incriminating client list” existed, undercutting Bondi’s language. Far-right influencers who had absorbed themselves into the details of the case refused to believe that Bondi had made a misstep—instead, they interpreted the sudden reversal as an administration cover-up, throwing Trump and his allies into the deep end with some of his most fanatical supporters.

The 79-year-old billionaire has achieved messiah-like status within the QAnon conspiracy circle for years thanks to the group’s principal belief that, despite his being named and photographed as an associate of Epstein’s and being a reputed fraudster, and despite being found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, Trump will rid the world of Satan-worshiping, liberal-minded pedophiles who run the government and media.

As flash flooding over the July 4 weekend took the lives of at least 109 people in Texas, Mexican emergency personnel have volunteered their services to ongoing response efforts.

In the wake of the tragedy, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent firefighters and rescue personnel from the Fire Department and Civil Protection team of Acuña (a city located just below the U.S.-Mexico border) with volunteers from the Mexican nonprofit Fundación 911 to Kerrville, Texas.

The team of just over a dozen people arrived Sunday to join local search and rescue efforts, according to a Facebook post from the Acuña-based emergency response team.

“There’s a bunch of firefighters that have visas and we were like, ‘Let’s just go and help,’” one volunteer, Jesus Gomez, told CBS News. “Sometimes people from the other side cross and help us. It’s time to give a little bit.”

In a statement posted to X on Sunday, U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson thanked the government of Mexico “for their solidarity and support following the floods in Texas.”

On Monday, Johnson also noted the presence of “Mexican K9 teams, trained with U.S. support for law enforcement missions,” which have been mobilized in Texas to help “families find missing loved ones.”

A local CBS affiliate reports: “As recovery operations continue, Fundación 911 will remain in the area for the coming weeks, aiding alongside Texas first responders to clear debris, locate missing individuals, and bring closure to those affected by this sudden and tragic flooding.”

The striking show of international solidarity comes at a tense time for U.S.-Mexico relations, in large part thanks to Trump’s proposed tariffs and immigration agenda. Nonetheless, Gomez said, “There’s no flag or countries in between firefighters. We’re humans and we’re helping humans, that’s what matters.”