Washington Times Weekly: The never-ending story of the Epstein files

Hi, I’m George Gerbo, and welcome to Washington Times Weekly, where we get a chance to sit down with our reporters and talk about their coverage of the latest news and events. 

And joining me once again is National Politics Reporter Seth McLaughlin. 

[GERBO] Let’s get started with the Department of Justice, which says it’s concluded its review of files and documents related to late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche says the department has released more than three million files, but some of Epstein’s victims, as well as Democrats, say that there’s more to be released. And also we’re discovering through reports that the DOJ didn’t necessarily do its best effort in reviewing these files in regards to redactions. Some of the victim’s names have been left available and to be viewed in these files, whereas the redactions have been sparse or hit or miss in terms of dealing with the names. And also according to reports, there have been fully nude photos or partially clothed photos of girls and women that have been included in these files that were not touched or redacted. So it appears that there’s still going to be work to do on the Justice Department end of this, Seth, even though they say, “hey, we’ve released all these files, they’re available to look at online.” But there’s still some work to do now as people are going through these files and identifying what is in them. 

[MCLAUGHLIN] Yeah, over the weekend, Deputy General Todd Blanche said that basically it was over after they had put out the 3 million files. But this is sort of like the never-ending story. There’s always a new wrinkle to it. In the immediate aftermath, you had the alleged victims coming forward with complaints that some of their names were in some of the files, whereas some of the people who were the alleged shady actors, their names were actually redacted. So there’s been sort of that back and forth there. 

And then on top of that, there’s the political element of it where you have members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats — because you have Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has kind of co-led the charge to force the release of the documents — coming forward to say, you know, we expect there to be more disclosures. And we think there’s basically more to this. And I think Massie said something along the lines on the House floor the other day that this will come to an end when people start getting prosecuted. So, I think this story was supposed to be dead years ago. And it came roaring back to life thanks to MAGA world beliefs that there were some real shady things going on. And now it’s back, front and center, and doesn’t seem to be cooling off anytime soon. If not anything else, we’ll see that it’s going to be a campaign issue this fall. 

[GERBO] Another campaign issue this fall, the battle over immigration and how it’s being enforced nationwide. It continues to play out in courts across the country as well, some dueling rulings recently. In Texas, a judge ruled that the detaining of a five-year-old after his father was arrested failed key tests of due process. Flip that in Minnesota, which has been the focus of so much of recent issues and events, especially after two Americans were killed by immigration officers. A federal court there declined to order the government to end its enforcement surge. But the administration is saying it’s beginning a drawdown of 700 troops initially that will be pulled out of Minnesota and perhaps ending, in some form, the additional enforcement action there. But it seems, Seth, that these court rulings are going to kind of be in light of you’ve got ICE and DHS saying the local authorities aren’t cooperating. You’ve got the local authorities saying they’re violating civil rights and due process in different cases, that these things are going to basically have to be elevated to at least a federal court level. If not at some point, we might see it get to the Supreme Court in how and what the government’s limits are to these powers enforcing immigration in different states and localities across the country. 

[MCLAUGHLIN] President Trump’s campaign promise was to carry out the largest deportation effort in the history of the country. And in doing so, he’s testing the bounds of what can be done. And so there’s that push and pull between federal powers and state powers. And you’re also dealing with an immigration system that people on the left and right will say has been a mess for years. And so you have story after story after story that potentially have legal repercussions one way or another. And then you have stories, and one of them is this five-year-old Liam, who captures the nation’s attention because he’s a cute little kid at the end of day. And he’s caught up in a mess that was created by elected leaders year after year after year, and in this renewed enforcement environment, he’s kind of caught in the middle. His father’s case is going to play out in the courts. And the deputy attorney general has said they will file an appeal in that case. But we’re going to see these sort of legal landmines going off left and right. 

Watch the video for the full conversation 

Click here for more from Seth McLaughlin

Read more:

• Justice Department declares Epstein review complete, as Democrats dispute compliance with law
  
  
• Texas special-election stunner energizes Democrats, triggers GOP ‘wake-up call’
  
  
• Deputy AG Blanche promises appeal to judge’s order to free 5-year-old and father from ICE custody 

See more from Washington Times Weekly