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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Monday, January 05, 2026

The Department of Justice was required to formally explain and justify redactions made to the released Epstein files by Jan. 3. The Trump Administration did not comply with this law but they did, without Congressional approval, attack Venezuela and take the country's strongman president into custody.

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NEWS: A source confirms DOJ has NOT provided Congress the legally required explanation for redactions in the Epstein file releases, despite a Jan. 3 statutory deadline under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.[image or embed]

-- MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) Jan 4, 2026 at 7:39 PM

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Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

Yeah?...So?

#1 | Posted by Angrydad at 2026-01-05 08:25 AM | Reply

This DOJ's mission is to protect a serial------------.

#2 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-01-05 08:31 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

How dare they break our sacred laws!

I am sure Congress will protect us from these scofflaws!

I bet Chuck Schumer is preparing a very large chart and another strongly worded letter right now.

#3 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-01-05 08:33 AM | Reply

Donald Trump is a career criminal. Naturally, he was going to violate the Epstein Law, especially since it threatens him.

Donald is mentally ill and vicious.

Anyone arguing against this support his insanity and viciousnes. For reasons that seem good to them, but they dare not reveal in public.

#4 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 08:36 AM | Reply

Impeach Pam Bondi. What was clear before she was confirmed is now blindingly obvious. She is not qualified for the job.

#5 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-01-05 10:00 AM | Reply

It's ok if Pam Blondi violates the law.

She has access to helicopters, assault vehicles and squads of masked goons with guns.

You don't.

#6 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-01-05 10:20 AM | Reply

The shorter List might be that of the Laws this Reich hasn't violated.

The Lawless One

www.google.com

#7 | Posted by Corky at 2026-01-05 10:26 AM | Reply

DOJ hasn't complied? Why should they!? What do you think they are!? Public servants!!?

#8 | Posted by Whatsleft at 2026-01-05 11:12 AM | Reply

That was clear the moment the bombs started dropping on Venzuela.

#9 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-01-05 11:37 AM | Reply

When exactly HAS Trump followed the law? Ever?

#10 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-05 11:44 AM | Reply

Reports are that Herr Stephen Miller will be put in charge of running Venezuela.

www.thedailybeast.com

That should turn out well.... how many ovens will 30 million people require?

#11 | Posted by Corky at 2026-01-05 12:05 PM | Reply | Funny: 1 | Newsworthy 1

Stephen Miller couldn't run a hot dog cart.

#12 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-05 12:06 PM | Reply

#12

No. But I doubt if he'd have any qualms about running a gas chamber.

#13 | Posted by Whatsleft at 2026-01-05 12:15 PM | Reply

This is a prime example of the insight the shot callers in this administration had - our system only works if the players act in good faith.

You only need to control a handful of powerful positions to neuter the entire process and, by default, our entire system of governance.

Attorney General is one of them. If your law enforcement mechanism simply refuses to operate or, worse, goes along with corruption, there isn't a damn thing that can be done about it.

Bondi is doing her job. It's just not the job the rest of us think she should be doing.

#14 | Posted by jpw at 2026-01-05 12:49 PM | Reply

#14

So true.

This is what happens when a criminal President's personal defense attnys become the country's top law enforcement officials... it's about the Loyalty, not about the Law.

#15 | Posted by Corky at 2026-01-05 01:00 PM | Reply

The DOJ must arrest the DOJ for breaking the law ... right? RIGHT?

#16 | Posted by chuffy at 2026-01-05 01:29 PM | Reply

FDT has more felony convictions than he has approval points.

#17 | Posted by chuffy at 2026-01-05 01:30 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

Where are the usual suspects to deflect, insult and otherwise ignore again what is happening in front of our faces?

#18 | Posted by e1g1 at 2026-01-05 01:42 PM | Reply

Maduro would be free if he was in the Epstein Files.

#19 | Posted by lee_the_agent at 2026-01-05 01:47 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

Re 18

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
George Orwell, 1984

#20 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-01-05 01:48 PM | Reply

Let me help some of you TDS sufferers out: there isn't now nor has there ever been anything in the "Epstein Files" to implicate Trump in any wrong doing. However, it's not beyond Democrats to fabricate documents such as Dan Rather's Bush National Guard or Hillary's Steele Dossier (fancy word for file folder cause it sounds more legit).

#21 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-01-05 01:52 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

#21

And you KNOW this how?

Because DJTramp is a Truthteller? ahahahaha!!

#22 | Posted by Corky at 2026-01-05 01:55 PM | Reply

A bipartisan bill that became law after getting approved 427-1 in the GOP controlled House and unanimously by the GOP controlled Senate.
That the contents of the files obviously freak out Trump is his problem.
Hence the coverup.
Whatever is in there really, really concerns him.

#23 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-01-05 01:56 PM | Reply

Maduro would be free if he was in the Epstein Files.

#19 | POSTED BY LEE_THE_AGENT

Absolutely.

#24 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 01:59 PM | Reply

#21 | Posted by visitor_

doesn't matter....it's the cycle of ----------- moving around the axis of dishonesty and

ignorance / denial.

--the minnesota fraud case was losing traction of denial / dishonesty from the lying skunks.....

lucky for them the commie muslim was sworn into office BUT NOW people in NYC are already

seeing the "fruits" of their ignorant vote with a viral comment from mondani's tenant director...

AND with 29 million Venezuelans celebrating in the streets waving US flags...chanting USA USA....

VIVA LA TRUMP and hundreds of thousands of other posting on every aspect of social media how

thankful they are to the US and TRUMP...........

SOMETHING HAS TO COME UP.....true or not...makes no difference ....to take the people's minds

off the adulation and appreciation that TRUMP and the greatest military the world has ever seen...

to take the US public's attention away from the Fraud revelations and the supreme victory

over brutality and oppression of over 30 million people...........by Trump

sooooooooooooooooooooooooo TA DA !!!!............BRING OUT EPSTEIN FILES...because as I just said..

" true or not....makes no difference".....to dishonest people

#25 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-01-05 02:09 PM | Reply

@#21 ... there isn't now nor has there ever been anything in the "Epstein Files" to implicate Trump in any wrong doing. ...

If so, then just release the files with only the victim names redacted.

#26 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-01-05 02:29 PM | Reply

Let me help some of you TDS sufferers out: there isn't now nor has there ever been anything in the "Epstein Files" to implicate Trump in any wrong doing. However, it's not beyond Democrats to fabricate documents such as Dan Rather's Bush National Guard or Hillary's Steele Dossier (fancy word for file folder cause it sounds more legit).

#21 | Posted by visitor_

If there's nothing in them that scares trump why is he working so hard to hide them?

Dems, including clinton, want them ALL released. Why doesn't trump?

#27 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2026-01-05 02:30 PM | Reply

AND with 29 million Venezuelans celebrating in the streets waving US flags...chanting USA USA....

#25 | Posted by shrimptacodan

www.voanews.com

"Baghdad Celebrates Saddam's Fall - 2003-04-09
October 29, 2009 6:36 PM

Iraqis, by the thousands, danced and cheered Wednesday, in the streets of Baghdad celebrating the fall of Saddam Hussein."
How did that turn out? Or have you already forgotten?

Anything to discuss on the actual thread topic about trump breaking the law to keep hiding the epstein files?

#28 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2026-01-05 02:33 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

there isn't now nor has there ever been anything in the "Epstein Files" to implicate Trump in any wrong doing.

Posted by visitor

That horse left the barn on 01/20/2024.

Donald Trump, the career criminal, is guilty of sex crimes.

He's not even trying to make the case that he is not. He's merely hiding the evidence.

#29 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 02:56 PM | Reply

Posted by visitor

What is fascinating is that, from his behavior, Trump has shame at being a sex offender.

My own opinion that he was incapable of shame.

#30 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 03:09 PM | Reply

Knowing Trump's proclivities I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Epstein files implicated him although we'd have to go back at least a coupe of decades. The only reason I don't think the files have any dirt on Trump is 2020-2024. Democrats tried to bankrupt him, jail him, have his name removed from the voting ballots to effectively install Biden for a second term and were surprisingly blas about the assassination attempts. They were in possession of the files for 4 years. Given all of the other actions they took I find it almost impossible to believe that if the files had anything of substance they wouldn't have leaked it to the lapdog press.

#31 | Posted by BellRinger at 2026-01-05 03:26 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

www.newsnationnow.com

They had an open grand jury. ... And even after Maxwell's conviction, the case was on appeal " anyone in law enforcement knows you don't open your case file when it's still under appeal," Brown added.

Victims were still going to the FBI with information during Biden's term, but that changed when President Donald Trump's Department of Justice reviewed the files and closed the case in July, Brown said.

#32 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2026-01-05 03:31 PM | Reply

"surprisingly blas about the assassination attempts"

Because they never happened.

You choose not to understand the world you live in and which you, personally, helped ccreate.

#33 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 03:54 PM | Reply

#31 | POSTED BY BELLRINGER

Donald Trump is a liar, a thief, a murderer, and a rapist.

Is this why you defend him? I can't understand your sympathy any other way.

#34 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 03:56 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

The only reason I don't think the files have any dirt on Trump is 2020-2024. Democrats tried to... They were in possession of the files for 4 years. Given all of the other actions they took I find it almost impossible to believe that if the files had anything of substance they wouldn't have leaked it to the lapdog press.

#31 | Posted by BellRinger

Another lie from you. Democrats weren't in possession of the files. The DoJ was in position of the files and they had an open investigation running until it was suddenly closed by the same DoJ leadership that is currently breaking the law to keep the files hidden. Closure of the investigation was done despite a clear failure to review the evidence.

#35 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-01-05 04:04 PM | Reply

Democrats tried to bankrupt him, jail him, have his name removed from the voting ballots to effectively install Biden for a second term and were surprisingly blas about the assassination attempts. They were in possession of the files for 4 years. Given all of the other actions they took I find it almost impossible to believe that if the files had anything of substance they wouldn't have leaked it to the lapdog press.

#31 | Posted by BellRinger

Still blabbering this absolute bulls*&^ like it means something.

STFU idiot.

#36 | Posted by jpw at 2026-01-05 04:08 PM | Reply

"They were in possession of the files for 4 years."

Democrats were not in possession of the Epstein Files.
The Untied States Department of Justice has possession of the Epstein Files.
It would have been illegal for Democrats to leak those files without Congressional approval.

Why does it makes sense to Republicans that the Democratic President could have broken the law and released the Epstein Files?
Easy.
It's because Republicans believe the Executive Branch is not bound by any law.

#37 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-05 04:09 PM | Reply

Why didn't Biden break the law ? Trump would have!

-MAGA "argument"

#38 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-05 04:17 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 5

We Are A Nation Of Laws.
--Republicans

The President Is Above The Law.
--Also Republicans

#39 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-05 04:31 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

The only reason I don't think the files have any dirt on Trump is 2020-2024. Democrats tried to bankrupt him, jail him, have his name removed from the voting ballots to effectively install Biden for a second term and were surprisingly blas about the assassination attempts. They were in possession of the files for 4 years. Given all of the other actions they took I find it almost impossible to believe that if the files had anything of substance they wouldn't have leaked it to the lapdog press.

#31 | Posted by BellRinger

Hilarious. Dems approach to trump was to assume he would go away and his cult would wake up after witnessing Jan 6. Huge blunder that those delusional moderate dems still don't realize how far gone his cult truly is.

If dems wanted to lock up trump they could have done it on day 1 with the 10 counts of criminal obstruction left over from the russia investigation.

Garland stalled for years to avoid prosecuting trump and only started prosecuting once it was too late to finish any prosecutions before the election. They took the same idiotic approach to the epstein files as they took toward everything else - IGNORE HIM AND HE'LL JUST GO AWAY.

#40 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2026-01-05 04:33 PM | Reply

If Trump was serious about following UN norms he would do what Bill Clinton did to Slobodan Milosevic. Put him in the Hague and let them deal with the guy.

#41 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-05 04:36 PM | Reply

If Trump was serious about following UN norms
#41 | Posted by Alexandrite

Okay, but Trump is serious about destroying UN norms, not preserving them.
Trump is here to undo the Pax Americana World Order that FDR, Churchill and Stalin set in motion at the end of WWII.
Trump is giving the Stalin side a better deal, and the FDR and Churchill side get a worse deal.

#42 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-05 04:48 PM | Reply

True story, snoofy.

#43 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-05 04:49 PM | Reply

TDS sufferers

The only Trump Dick Sucker on this thread is you.

#44 | Posted by lee_the_agent at 2026-01-05 04:49 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

Donald Trump is a liar, a thief, a murderer, and a rapist.
Is this why you defend him? I can't understand your sympathy any other way.

#34 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-05 03:56 PM | Reply | Flag

It's a team sport to bell. Like when the lions fans complain about the referees every time they lose.

It's never the lions playing badly.

#45 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-05 04:50 PM | Reply

"Knowing Trump's proclivities I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Epstein files implicated him although we'd have to go back at least a coupe of decades."

And yet you still voted for the guy who rapes fifteen year old runaways.

#46 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-05 04:57 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

There is no law with this administration.

#47 | Posted by fresno500 at 2026-01-05 05:12 PM | Reply

BELLRINGER

It's time for you to address this context and stop with the idea that if Trump were in the files, Dems would have released them to smear Trump:

(From Laura's post): "They had an open grand jury. ... And even after Maxwell's conviction, the case was on appeal " anyone in law enforcement knows you don't open your case file when it's still under appeal," Brown added.

Victims were still going to the FBI with information during Biden's term, but that changed when President Donald Trump's Department of Justice reviewed the files and closed the case in July, Brown said."

Why are Trump, his DOJ, and the Republican congress running cover for pedophiles, JEFF? It's even worse now: why is Trump's DOJ breaking the law that Trump signed to protect pedophiles? Trump lamented that only the files that implicate Democrats should be released -- to embarrass them. Why would any of the Republicans run cover for pedophiles, especially if they are Democrats?

#48 | Posted by rstybeach11 at 2026-01-05 05:43 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Where are the usual suspects to deflect, insult and otherwise ignore again what is happening in front of our faces?

#18 | POSTED BY E1G1

And just like that, there you go!

#49 | Posted by chuffy at 2026-01-05 06:14 PM | Reply

JeffJ conveniently ignores the fact that most of the stuff in the Epstein files was sealed or unavailable to Biden himself while he commits his logical fallacy.

The Democratic Party didn't demand the release of the files, MAGA did. Now that the truth is coming out, MAGA is upset that their boy was neck deep in it all.

#50 | Posted by chuffy at 2026-01-05 06:19 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

The focus on this will return once Venezuela fades into the background in a couple of weeks.

Trump knows he's guilty as sin for, at the very least, providing Epstein with girls and young women.

#51 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2026-01-05 06:47 PM | Reply

PEDO DONNIE. That's you're ------- God, you MAGAT scum.

#52 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-01-05 09:14 PM | Reply

Re 39&47

There is no Law if the President is above the Law.

Only the whims of a Mad wannabe King.

In United States v. Nixon, decided on July 24, 1974, a unanimous Court declared that although a president's communications are entitled to a great deal of protection, that protection is not "absolute."

Neither the doctrine of separation of powers nor the generalized need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances," wrote Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. Quoting from a trial court decision by Chief Justice John Marshall in an 1807 treason case against Aaron Burr, Burger added that "Marshall cannot be read to mean in any sense that a President is above the law."

But in the Trumpy immunity case, the Court took the opposite view, essentially determining that the criminal laws don't apply to the president at all, as long as official conduct is involved.

Welcome to the beginning of the end.

#53 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-01-06 11:06 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Welcome to the beginning of the end.

#53 | Posted by donnerboy

The end of the fairness doctrine was the beginning of the end.
It led to fox news, which led to Bush, which led to iraq, which led to the end of america's image and credibility, 7 trillion dollar loss, and destabilizing the entire mideast, which led to waves of refugees into europe, which led to the rise of fascism in europe. All stemming from republican idiocy.

#54 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2026-01-06 02:40 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

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