Week 28
By
Moar Jeffrey Epstein, and more incriminating talk from Donald Trump. He seems to say, in his usual word salad, that he broke off with Epstein because Epstein was poaching his spa employees. I will leave it to the commenters to speculate on how Epstein might have thought that Mar-a-Lago would be a useful hunting grounds.
Trump’s people have spent a lot of time with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s recruiter, this week, and she’s been transferred to an easier prison, even though people who know about such things said that she wasn’t eligible for it. The earlier Trumpian claim was that she could clear his good name, but it doesn’t look like the transcripts of her conversations with Trump’s lawyer will be released any time soon. Let’s not pretend that this has anything to do with his DOJ job. I see other interpretations, but it’s hard for me to see this as anything other than blackmail on her part.
The FBI is reported to have redacted Trump’s name from all Epstein-related documents? How does that work? Have they altered the originals?
Brown University caved to Trump’s demands, and his next university target seems to be UCLA. During the week, Russell Vought said that he was withholding NIH funds despite court orders, but then they were released. The Senate approved full funding for NIH and CDC despite administration requests.
The continued focus by the administration on DEI issues suggests that 1) they think this is a strength of their opponents and 2) they are really insecure about them. The suggestions by erstwhile Democrats that some of these issues, particularly trans people be thrown under the bus, thus are particularly weak. Trams people are something like 1% of the population. Only weirdos are looking into bathroom stalls. Issues in sports can be worked out on an individual basis, as other eligibility issues are. We need to take back inclusivity as a value, although we would be wise to drop the DEI acronym unless we want to do a full push to reclaim it. There are plenty of other words, though.
Grandpa TACO TACOed again, this time for a week. There must be some people around him who recognize the danger of his tariffs and manage to distract him. A week also gives Junior another bite at the shorting the economy apple.A couple of courts heard cases against the tariffs. Apparently the World Trade Court ruled earlier that the tariffs are illegal?
Follow the court-watchers for the details of the lawsuits. Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.
As usual, keep it to things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals. What is actually happening is bad enough.
Caring for yourself and loved ones is resistance too. Post your pets. We are adapting to Oregon as my stuff arrives in increments. With any luck, the piano comes this week.
180 more weeks to go. What are you doing?
Let’s condense the previous weeks: Week 10, Week 20, Week 21, Week 22, Week 23, Week 24 , Week 25, Week 26, Week 27
You should be able to get to earlier posts by the 10’s posts.