Photos released in Epstein dump

Photos released in Epstein dump not enough evidence to prosecute, Blanche says

“There's a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him, but that doesn't allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody,” said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

By Cheyanne M. Daniels

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday said the latest drop of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes do not contain enough evidence to bring additional charges against any possible co-conspirators, despite the batch containing seemingly revealing communications and photos.

In an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Blanche said the DOJ reviewed the files last summer and concluded there was nothing that allowed the department to prosecute anybody.

“There’s a lot of correspondence, there’s a lot of emails, there’s a lot of photographs — there’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him, but that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody,” Blanche said.

He added that with the pages now released to the public, “the entire world” can look at the documents “and see if we got it wrong.”

The Justice Department released more than three million pages of materials related to the deceased convicted sex offender Friday, including 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The documents revealed Epstein’s communications on a variety of topics with some of the most prominent public figures both in the U.S. and abroad, including Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick.

The files also included allegations made against President Donald Trump, though none have been verified.

But Blanche on Sunday pushed back on questions related to Trump’s connections with Epstein, saying there had been many anonymous allegations made about the president but were “very quickly” deemed non-credible.

“It’s not about President Trump, it’s about a ton of people, multiple, multiple, multiple people that were quote in the Epstein files,” Blanche said. “I don’t appreciate it being directed towards Donald J. Trump because that pushes a narrative that is completely false. There are all kinds of people that are mentioned in the quote Epstein files that we had to look at and run down.”

Democrats have repeatedly accused the administration of stalling its release of the Epstein files for months in an effort to protect Trump, particularly after photographs of Trump were among a trove of documents briefly removed from the DOJ’s website. Administration officials denied the allegations, arguing the delay came from ensuring sensitive information related to victims and survivors were properly redacted.

In an interview immediately following Blanche’s, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Bash that Blanche’s continued defense of Trump “shows he has never once attempted to make the transformation from being Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer to the number two person for the United States Department of Justice.”

Raskin also accused the DOJ of a “full-blown cover up” because of the highly redacted material within the documents.

“We’re just getting these dribs and drabs of information coming out, this stuff that they want us to see,” said Raskin.

Blanche on Friday said members of Congress could make arrangements with the Justice Department to see the unredacted files. Raskin, who sent a letter to Blanche on Saturday requesting a review of the unredacted material, on Sunday said he would “absolutely” do so.

“I hope that the Department of Justice will keep to its word and let us in there,” Raskin said.

Gas protesters

Mayor of Portland, Oregon, demands ICE leave the city after federal agents gas protesters

Witnesses said agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets.

By Associated Press

The mayor of Portland, Oregon, demanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave his city after federal agents launched tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators — including young children — outside an ICE facility during a weekend protest that he and others characterized as peaceful.

Witnesses said agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets as thousands of marchers arrived at the South Waterfront facility on Saturday. Erin Hoover Barnett, a former OregonLive reporter who joined the protest, said she was about 100 yards (91 meters) from the building when “what looked like two guys with rocket launchers” started dousing the crowd with gas.

“To be among parents frantically trying to tend to little children in strollers, people using motorized carts trying to navigate as the rest of us staggered in retreat, unsure of how to get to safety, was terrifying,” Barnett wrote in an email to OregonLive.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the daytime demonstration was peaceful, “where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat and posed no danger” to federal agents.

“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” Wilson wrote in a statement Saturday night. “Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame.”

The Portland Fire Bureau sent paramedics to treat people at the scene, police said. Police officers monitored the crowd but made no arrests on Saturday.

The Portland protest was one of many similar demonstrations nationwide against President Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in cities like Minneapolis, where in recent weeks federal agents killed two residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Federal agents in Eugene, Oregon, deployed tear gas on Friday when protesters tried to get inside the Federal Building near downtown. City police declared a riot and ordered the crowd to disperse.

Trump posted Saturday on social media that it was up to local law enforcement agencies to police protests in their cities. However, Trump said he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to have federal agents be vigilant in guarding U.S. government facilities.

“Please be aware that I have instructed ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property. There will be no spitting in the faces of our Officers, there will be no punching or kicking the headlights of our cars, and there will be no rock or brick throwing at our vehicles, or at our Patriot Warriors,” Trump wrote. “If there is, those people will suffer an equal, or more, consequence.”

Wilson said Portland would be imposing a fee on detention facilities that use chemical agents.

The federal government “must, and will, be held accountable,” the mayor said. “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children.”

Epstein’s island

Trump vows to sue comic Trevor Noah after Epstein island jibe at Grammys

“Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!” rails U.S. president.

By Sebastian Starcevic

Donald Trump said he will launch legal action against comedian Trevor Noah after the comedian joked about the U.S. president visiting convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s island. 

Noah, who hosted the Grammy Awards for the sixth time, triggered Trump’s ire Sunday night with a jibe about the president’s connection to Epstein, which could have been taken to imply he had visited the financier’s infamous island. 

“Song of the year, congratulations Billie Eilish, wow. That is a Grammy that every artist wants, almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” Noah said. “Which makes sense, I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.” 

Trump, in turn, blasted Noah on his social media platform Truth Social as a “poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C.” who had “better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.” 

“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!” Trump wrote. “I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media.” 

The president added he would “be sending my lawyers to sue” Noah “for plenty$ … Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!”

He did not indicate whether he planned to sue CBS Television Network or streamer Paramount+, which aired the awards show. The Grammys will move to ABC in 2027.  

Trump has denied wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein allegations. No evidence has suggested that Trump ever visited Epstein’s island or took part in his trafficking operation.

The president has also maintained that he and Epstein, with whom he socialized during the 1990s and the early 2000s, had a falling out many years ago.

Clinton has also not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has called for all government files related to Epstein to be released. The former president and his wife, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, defied a subpoena to testify in Congress before a panel investigating Epstein.

The Justice Department released a major tranche of investigative materials related to Epstein on Friday. More than three million pages, photographs and videos show how Epstein, who died in 2019, courted a vast web of relationships with world leaders, CEOs and government officials. 

Among them were former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, former Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, tech billionaire Elon Musk, and Slovak politician Miroslav Lajčák, who resigned from a government position after disclosures that he exchanged messages with Epstein.  

Abell 7

Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant. It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation Lepus, The Hare. Posing with scattered Milky Way stars, its generally simple spherical shape about 8 light-years in diameter is revealed in this deep telescopic image. The beautiful and complex shapes seen within the cosmic cloud are visually enhanced by the use of long exposures and narrowband filters that capture emission from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Otherwise Abell 7 would be much too faint to be appreciated by eye. A planetary nebula represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience 5 billion years hence, as the nebula's central, once sun-like star shrugs off its outer layers. Abell 7 itself is estimated to be 20,000 years old. But its central star, seen here as a fading white dwarf, is some 10 billion years old.

Orion Molecular Cloud complex

In the vast Orion Molecular Cloud complex, several bright blue nebulas are particularly apparent. Pictured here in the center are two of the most prominent reflection nebulas - dust clouds lit by the reflecting light of bright embedded stars. The more famous nebula is M78, in the image center, cataloged over 200 years ago. To its upper left is the lesser known NGC 2071. Astronomers continue to study these reflection nebulas to better understand how interior stars form. The overall red glow is from diffuse hydrogen gas that covers much of the Orion complex that spans much of the constellation of Orion. Nearby in the greater complex, which lies about 1,500 light years away, are the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, and Barnard's Loop -- partially seen here as the white band on the upper left.

NGC1333

NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. This telescopic close-up spans over two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago.