MLK Jr.’s Daughter Brutally Taunts Trump Over Epstein Files

Donald Trump’s administration is now hoping to distract Americans from Jeffrey Epstein by declassifying documents related to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and no one is impressed—including King’s own children.

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard announced Monday that the government would release 230,000 files on the federal investigation into King’s assasination.

But Bernice King, who was only 5 when her father was killed, wasn’t falling for the government’s blatant misdirect. “Now, do the Epstein files,” she wrote on X Monday night.

In a statement following the files’ release, Bernice and her brother Martin Luther King III urged that the “files must be viewed within their full historical context” and echoed the family’s long-held contention that the man who’d been convicted of King’s assassination, James Earl Ray, was not solely responsible for the death of the civil rights leader.

“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief—a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met—an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,” they wrote. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

This is the third week of fallout from the Trump administration’s disastrous rollout of the Epstein files—or lack thereof. The Justice Department announced earlier this month that the sex offender kept no incriminating “client list,” even though Trump’s attorney general claimed one had been sitting on her desk, sparking widespread backlash among Trump’s conspiracy-addled following.

The Trump administration has already tried several other subjects for its disastrous bait and switch, including threatening to prosecute and imprison several of the president’s political enemies, such as former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Senator Adam Schiff.

As Donald Trump seeks to allay public outcry over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, a top Justice Department official vowed Tuesday to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted Epstein accomplice currently serving out a 20-year sentence for her role in the late financier’s sex-trafficking operation.

In a statement on X, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced: “I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department. I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days.”

The deputy attorney general promised to hear out information she may have “about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.” In a follow-up post, Blanche added, “For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?”

In response, FBI Director Kash Patel approvingly wrote, “Get it.”

David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, confirmed on X “that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”

Blanche’s announcement stood by the Justice Department’s findings in its July 6 memo, which stirred an uproar on both sides of the political aisle—but most notably among Trump’s base—by deflating Epstein-related conspiracy theories previously elevated by the president (despite his own storied history with Epstein).

Trump has not taken kindly to the clamor, lashing out against, and even disowning, supporters of his who remain interested in the case, which he now considers a hoax spun by his Democratic adversaries.

But, in recent days, the gravity of the scandal has seemingly become clear to the president. Over the weekend, he requested the release of grand jury testimony related to the case of United States v. Epstein. Critics, however, interpreted this request as a mere sop to his angry supporters; after all, if it’s granted—after a lengthy legal process—it would still fall far short of many’s hopes for the publication of all Epstein-related DOJ files.

It remains to be seen whether Blanche’s planned meeting with Maxwell will be viewed similarly—as a half-measure to quell MAGA infighting while snubbing calls to release the “Epstein files” in full—or if it will help restore Trump supporters’ trust in an administration that has, for over two weeks now, left them feeling jilted.

President Trump is excoriating another one of his own party members for asking him for basic transparency on the Jeffrey Epstein case.  

Representative Thomas Massie, who filed a bipartisan discharge petition with Ro Khanna calling for the Justice Department to release the files in full, had blunt words for Speaker Mike Johnson’s lack of initiative on the issue.

“I think this is the referendum on [Johnson’s] leadership,” Massie said on Monday, according to Punchbowl News. “Who’s he gonna pick? Is he going to stand with the pedophiles and underage sex traffickers? Or is he gonna pick the American people and justice for the victims? This is the ultimate decision the speaker needs to make. And it’s irrespective of what the president wants.”

Trump, who had a personal relationship with Epstein, lashed out at Massie. 

“Thomas Massie, the worst Republican Congressman, and an almost guaranteed NO VOTE each and every time, is an Embarrassment to Kentucky. He’s lazy, slow moving, and totally disingenuous—A real loser! Never has anything positive to add,” Trump wrote Monday evening on Truth Social, attaching a link to an attack ad about Massie. “Looking for someone good to run against this guy, someone I can Endorse and vigorously campaign for!”

It’s painfully obvious at this point that the president is on the extreme defensive on Epstein, urging his own base to simply forget about a Holy Grail–level issue he dangled in front of them for years. Trump has been speaking condescendingly about this to his own supporters for some time now, saying that anyone who is still interested in the case of a wealthy pedophile socialite who killed himself in prison is a bad person. And now he’s talking about funding campaigns against a member of his own party for disagreeing with him. 

Republicans are taking an early summer break as infighting intensifies over the Epstein scandal.

Caucus leadership is sending everyone home early, Politico reported Tuesday, canceling all votes from Thursday. The schedule change comes after the Rules Committee recessed Monday night when Democrats threatened to force a vote on the Epstein files.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters earlier Tuesday it was “unlikely” that the committee would reconvene, a decision that will stall any progress conservatives were hoping to make this week on several key agenda items, including an immigration bill.

South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman told ABC News Monday that several Republicans on the committee, including himself, did not want to vote on the Democrat-led effort to uncover more details pertaining to the Epstein case, deriding the vote as “grandstanding.”

It’s the second week in a row that the House has become completely paralyzed by debate over the potential release of records regarding the notorious child sex trafficker.

The botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague the Trump administration since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epstein’s so-called “client list.” A YouGov/Economist poll conducted last week found that the majority of Americans—67 percent, including 59 percent of self-identified Trump voters—believed that the administration is “covering up evidence relating to the Epstein case.”

But if Republicans want transparency, they have a funny way of showing it. Last week, conservative lawmakers unquestioningly fell in line to support Donald Trump’s narrative that there’s nothing to see here, blocking a Democratic-led effort to release the Epstein files. The final vote was 211 to 210—just one dissenting Republican would have tipped the scales.

Republicans are scheduled to meet behind closed doors Tuesday morning for their weekly conference meeting. Evacuating the lower chamber over a tough vote on the Epstein files also likely won’t play well with Trump, who is hosting a megabill celebration for Republican lawmakers at the White House Tuesday evening.

House Speaker Mike Johnson initially refuted the possibility of an early exit, telling Politico that “we’re not sending anybody home.”

But Johnson was proven wrong before Noon. House GOP leadership announced that “votes are no longer expected in the House on Thursday,” with last votes taking place on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. ET, ending the schedule a day early.

This story has been updated.

Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart cursed out Donald Trump and CBS News Monday night following last week’s announcement that the Late Show With Stephen Colbert had been canceled. 

During his show, Colbert took a moment to respond to Trump celebrating the news that the Late Show was ending. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last week. 

“How dare you, sir,” Colbert said. “Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go fuck yourself.”

During Colbert’s show Monday, several other late-night hosts appeared in the audience to lend their support. While Weird Al Yankovic and Lin Manuel Miranda sang Viva la Vida by Coldplay, the camera scanned the audience, landing on Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, then Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, before jumping to Jon Stewart and John Oliver. 

Finally, the camera rested on an animated Trump spooning the Paramount logo, a reference to the viral kiss cam video from a recent Coldplay concert that led to the resignation of a data company CEO. As the spotlight shone on them, the animated Trump ducked down and crawled away. 

There had been some speculation that Colbert’s ousting was the result of  his accusing Paramount of paying a “big fat bribe” to Trump in the form of a $16 million settlement over the editing of Kamala Harris’s interview on CBS News’s 60 Minutes last fall. Colbert claimed that CBS had acknowledged the lawsuit was “completely without merit” but agreed to pay a large sum to ease its sale to Skydance Media—a deal that needs approval from the president.

Prior to Colbert’s show, Stewart slammed CBS for its cowardice in the face of the Trump administration during Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Comedy Central is also owned by Paramount. 

“The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number one rated network late-night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everyone wonder, ‘What’s this? Purely financial? Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger?’” Stewart said. 

Stewart argued that the Late Show wasn’t ending for financial reasons, or even because Trump had directly threatened it. “I think the answer is in the fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America’s institutions at this very moment,” he said. 

Stewart argued that it was the very shows CBS sought to censor that had provided the value of Paramount’s $8 billion deal. “Shows that say something, shows that take a stand, shows that are unafraid—this is not a ‘We speak truth to power.’ We don’t,” Stewart said. “We speak opinions to television cameras. But we try. We fucking try, every night.”

“And if you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourself so innocuous, that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king’s radar, (a) why will anyone watch you? And you are fucking wrong,” he said. 

Stewart also pointed out that straying away from criticizing Trump would do little to protect the channel from catching the president’s ire—considering Trump had just recently filed a lawsuit against his old ally Rupert Murdoch, who’d helped to transform Fox News into a Trump propaganda machine. 

Stewart concluded by urging institutions to “sack the fuck up” or “go fuck yourself.”