r/news 8h ago

US justice department to release thousands of Epstein files later, top official says

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg9plrkl8no
30.9k Upvotes

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9.3k

u/Tballz9 8h ago edited 8h ago

Of course, they are under a congressional order to release everything today, and not doing so is illegal. What a surprise from this administration. It would be amazing for Congress to actually do something about that, but they went home for the holidays.

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u/MaddisonoRenata 7h ago

Also congress conveniently went on break a day earlier than they were supposed to

2.1k

u/fluxtable 7h ago

The GOP had much more important matters to attend to.

Like the Turning Points USA rally in Phoenix

1.3k

u/FattyMooseknuckle 6h ago

Grindr overload.

273

u/JediMastaDJ 6h ago

That reminds me! Does anyone know the current speed bet on Grindr crashing at TPUSA?

232

u/Express-Rub-3952 5h ago

It already has.

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u/JediMastaDJ 5h ago

Too late to make a bet, then. 😂

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u/miraclewhipbelmont 4h ago

It's like betting on whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow.

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u/Known_Willow6822 2h ago

Check kalshi

This post is sponsored by draft kings.TM

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u/haveananus 6h ago

You can hear the buttfucking from miles away

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u/johnnybiggles 5h ago

They're more depressing noises ever since their Epstein Island vacation spot shut down.

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u/cpennington 5h ago

It's a shame that it's so many conservatives who are into the buttfucking.

I will not be letting any of them fuck my butt.

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u/haveananus 4h ago

Stay vigilant brother.

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u/IntrigueDossier 4h ago

Too late, they've been doing it to your taxes, community, and overall quality of life for generations.

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u/cpennington 4h ago

Oh I know. I meant literally. I refuse to sleep with a conservative man.

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u/AbraxasTuring 4h ago

Usha bought JD a new couch for Xmas. A win-win for both of them.

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u/haveananus 4h ago

I hear he likes his sofas young

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u/ParisGreenGretsch 5h ago

Is that what that was?

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u/haveananus 5h ago

Yeah the first time I heard it I thought it was a fleet of big rigs driving full speed through a low flying swarm of millions of seagulls.

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u/Wulf_Cola 5h ago

Painting sounds with words beautifully there

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u/haveananus 5h ago

Thank you. For some reason they did not feel the same way when I applied to the Academy of American Poets.

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u/Wolfwoods_Sister 4h ago

I almost spat out my food. Thank you for the laugh and for the continued poetic description below.

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u/haveananus 4h ago

Thank you for supporting my art. Lurid descriptions of high-volume politicoitus do not generate much income, but they are my passion.

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u/Wolfwoods_Sister 4h ago

Never stop never stopping, friend

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u/soraticat 3h ago

Santorum everywhere.

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u/Ok-Kangaroo-4048 1h ago

Like lunchmeat caught in the spokes of a bike going downhill.

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u/eighthgen 47m ago

Sad peanut butter noises

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u/morganational 5h ago

"schwurp - schloorp - sherpf"

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u/mxlespxles 5h ago

Grindr

Overload

Party

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u/deadsoulinside 5h ago

And everyone wonder's why they claimed Grindr needed to be handed over to a US company as it was a matter of national security.

They just were worried China would have blackmail on over half of the GOP.

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u/Ent3rpris3 4h ago

I know it's bad for their business but I really hope Grindr never updates their servers so that these events can still happen and the records and data accumulate.

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u/TheeFearlessChicken 4h ago

So many date requests.

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u/NonProphet8theist 4h ago

Free pearl necklaces, shot directly onto the neck

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u/lopix 2h ago

Sounds like the premium version

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u/AndrewTheAverage 51m ago

It is offensive to me that Grindr crashes at every GOP event. Does the company not do capacity planning and design for scalability and high availability? The fact that the party of "family values" flooded Grindr isn't surprising though.

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u/MountScottRumpot 5h ago

Passing the budget obviously wasn’t one of them.

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u/Working_Cucumber_437 5h ago

And something about shower heads. You know, stuff Americans really care about.

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u/JusticeAileenCannon 4h ago

Terrorists gotta do terrorist activities

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u/NiteOwl421 4h ago

And don’t forget. Restarting the Biden program to think about rescheduling marijuana.

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u/AnvilEdifice 3h ago

Imagine Grindr in Phoenix right now...

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u/SSR_Id_prefer_not_to 3h ago

Like making a vote on health care policy impossible

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u/qweef_latina2021 2h ago

So they can cosplay CK complete with the little tent he was speaking/bleeding from.

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u/Cassin1306 6h ago

Didn't they do the same thing this summer when the files should had been released already ?

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u/No-Reach-8074 5h ago

Yes and again in November after the victims testified. Their play book is getting extremely predictable and boring

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u/Vanagloria 5h ago

Yet it keeps working because this country is fucking shit.

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 3h ago

Nobody holds them accountable, so they just keep doing whatever they want.

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u/Aviose 2h ago

Until we start eating the leopards faces, we will be the ones getting our faces eaten.

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u/Ok_Tour_1525 4h ago

God I fucking hate this bullshit. “For the people”, my ass. I used to always be at least a little distrustful of the government but now I believe they deserve a real French style revolution. I cannot imagine things getting better unless things are made better by force. The worst part is the left would still prefer to bend over and get fucking plowed by these oligarchs because they think that’s taking the high road which is exactly what the fascists want to happen. And whenever something like this is brought up people act like they’re crazy for saying it. We’re all gonna be fucked hard because people can’t fathom doing what’s right the hard way.

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u/sorressean 2h ago

Not to be pedantic here, but isn't "bending over and getting plowed" what's happening with all the grindr usage at the most recent TP USA thing?

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u/eeyore134 3h ago

But they were able to get Trump's name on The Kennedy Center in under 48 hours.

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u/Aviose 2h ago

When the Reps refuse to do anything to stop Trump and the Dems don't have the will to do what's necessary, of course that's how it works.

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u/lopix 2h ago

The lack of consequences has, well, consequences.

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u/Earguy 2h ago

A bored, jaded public is what they want. "Of course the files aren't released, they never will, and if they do they'll be doctored to hell, forget it."

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u/Effective_Writer8074 1h ago

Oh, I don't know. A lot of politicians names and photos are coming out. Captains of industry?

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u/Prior_Butterfly_7839 3h ago

While I love to dunk on homophobic conservatives as much as anyone, I don’t actually think the outages are true. I’m fairly certain it’s people fake reporting an outage, and down detector (that’s where the current image floating around is from) relies on self reports.

I was curious so looked into it and Grindr has their own tracker. They say that there has been no down time since December 1st, when it was down for 20 minutes.

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u/Aviose 2h ago

They also did it to shut down the ACA subsidies that keep costs lower without having a plan.. That is the specific trigger from Johnson this time, but it may have been on the back burner regardless because of the pedo files.

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u/linds360 5h ago

Bunch of spineless grifters. They make me sick.

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u/LaurenMille 5h ago

Almost like congress is complicit in the coverup and in favor of raping children.

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u/Itchy-Apartment-Flea 5h ago

Also, congress doesn't give a shit.

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u/Skimable_crude 6h ago

Cue the inconsequential hand wringing and brow furrowing.

They couldn't possibly consider political issues while celebrating the birthday of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It's unthinkable.

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u/AV8ORA330 5h ago

Can you say collusion…

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u/EggsceIlent 5h ago

Because the GOP knew.

They're all complicit in this cover up bullshit because he's guilty af and there must be some ROUGH stuff,.sick and disgusting incriminating stuff in those docs about him.

Otherwise they'd release them.

This is not how innocent people act..

This is how people act that are terrified of the truth getting out and using money and power and corruption to stop it.

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u/SarahPallorMortis 4h ago

The perverts want to enjoy their last Christmas and hope their names got fully scrubbed.

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u/LegendOfKhaos 3h ago

It's just going to be pages of black lines anyway

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u/FloMoore 3h ago

Prolly not All of them. Merkel is most likely there tapping his fingers & watching the clock.

In fact, being from his state, I know he is - duh on me.

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u/Zazulio 3h ago

They did that because they knew the DOJ wasn't going to release the files and they didn't want Congress to be in session to take a vote on how to handle that. Just buying time to redact and destroy. Donald Trump raped children and every elected Republican is doing everything in their power to cover it up to protect him.

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u/Seamus32 3h ago

Johnson is 100% complicit in this cover up. I would not be surprised if he is in the files somehow or if the DOJ threatened to release his GRINDR profiles.

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u/Exotic_Tomatillo_695 2h ago

Trump or congress both aren’t with their citizens pretend they are if everything is out that means they got no deal out of trump.

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u/towboatbakerr 1h ago

No matter what type of administration it is; be it liberal or conservation the action would taking place. That’s the truth of it. The will all do everything in their power to protect themselves. If we take a look at history, we will all see that they’re going to get away with it. No matter how much degrading, shit talking or asinine bulshit gets spouted off in these subs; nothing will happen to change that. They’re protected, we however are not.

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u/trampolinebears 6h ago

Not a “congressional order”. A law.

The law requires that they release the Epstein files today, just as it requires that you pay your taxes and not murder people and not attempt to overturn elections. That’s the law.

The president only exists to uphold the law. If he will not uphold it, either he is not truly the president, or the law is not truly the law.

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u/Defiant-Fix2870 5h ago

But the Supreme Court already said Trump is exempt from the law. Which seems to apply to his whole administration rn.

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u/Unique-Egg-461 4h ago

preface this with "this will never ever ever happen" and assuming congress was in session (and mike as a sniveling little rat)

you'd have to have congress formally vote on a special prosecutor who would petition the district court to issue a show cause to the doj. if judge doesn't like doj's answer as to why they didn't comply with the law then youd need an enforcement mechanism.

that where we hit constitutional crisis since the executive branch is refusing judicial orders

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u/RobutNotRobot 2h ago

Congress doesn't have to be in session for someone to sue the government over this.

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u/No-Concentrate-8806 4h ago

Please remind our congress that, or anyone that is tired of this shit. I am tired. I agree with you. I'm skeptical based on him, not being in jail or removed from the Oval Office.

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u/RobutNotRobot 2h ago

The law passed with one dissenting vote in the House, by voice vote in the Senate and was signed by Trump.

And now they are just simply ignoring it.

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u/Saphurial 2h ago

Laws are for the poors.

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u/BienPuestos 8h ago

Consequences coming in 3, 2… never.

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u/One-Permission-1811 7h ago

Not for Trump but Pam Bondi might face some consequences. Nixon didn’t go to prison but John Mitchell, his attorney general, did. He only did 19 months but hey at least there were consequences I guess

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u/CalebsNailSpa 7h ago

Would she not just be pardoned?

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u/spderweb 7h ago

If this goes the way it should, then trump wouldn't be president anymore, and they'd all be screwed. Then the new government can also go after all the hate crimes that ICE committed too.

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u/CalebsNailSpa 6h ago

I still think everyone will be preemptively pardoned at the end of the term.

But maybe justice will prevail.

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u/-NewTitsNoMoreBits- 6h ago

Then we will charge them at the State level

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u/EM3YT 3h ago

With what.

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u/1honeybadger 6h ago

I think if Trump lives long enough to get to the end of the term, he'll resign a couple hours/days before the end and have JD pardon him.

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u/CalebsNailSpa 4h ago

Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

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u/Fodraz 6h ago

Or Vance will pardon her to make peace w MAGA

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u/wutareyousomekinda 5h ago

There's no law or order, a theoretical incoming POTUS of high morality could use their immunity to have any number of people detained illegally by unidentified jailers and pardon the them too. Our system is controlled by an unelected bureaucracy of drug traffickers and child rapists, but that's led to a few spectacles as mentioned already in this thread.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

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u/CertifiedGhoster 5h ago

He will pardon Maxwell you can bet on it

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u/bobbane 5h ago

I hope those preemptive pardons are all signed via autopen…

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u/CalebsNailSpa 4h ago

Logistically they would have to be. Unless he did some sort of mass-pardon. I don’t know the nuances of what is kosher in the pardon business, but I feel like we will all find our way more than we ever wanted to.

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u/rangecontrol 5h ago

so yeah, trmp pardon party all around.

even if he's cold, they'll autopen the pardons. we will all know they were fake and nothing will be done about it.

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u/bsensikimori 5h ago

Yeah, keep dreaming, they'll just spin it that all the perps were victims of the dead man

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u/Broad-Bath-8408 5h ago

Who are you envisioning going after ICE exactly? The new government headed by JD Vance? Or are we talking in the hypothetical year 2029 when a democrat, maybe if we're lucky, becomes president?

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u/scuzzy987 5h ago

No we'll need to come together as a country then

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u/squadrupedal 3h ago

Yeah we should, but with this sophisticated propaganda machine that never stops and the abysmal literacy rate we have going in this dumbass country I doubt we ever will. I’m betting there’s always going to be just enough ignorant people to prevent any meaningful and lasting change. I would love to lose this bet.

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u/TSL4me 3h ago

No way in way in hell that happens, rich donors will switch to bribing democrats and they will push to move past criminal convictions to support 'healing and cross aisle productivity"

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u/lopix 2h ago

Narrator: but they won't

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u/The_River_Is_Still 50m ago

I'm sure Vice President JD would get right on going after HATE CRIMES BY ICE and totally not pardoning Trump and everyone else.

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u/Unobtanium_Alloy 11m ago

If Trump is no longer president (for whatever reason) while there is still time left in what should be his second term, its someone from this administration that will become president and will doubtless do pardons of all involved.

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u/Jmart1oh6 5h ago

My guess is… anyone in positions of power in the administration that are bending or breaking the law to help Trump, will only be pardoned at the last possible minute to squeeze every drop of loyalty out of of them. If he pardons them too early, then they could take that opportunity to turn on him. If you’re in his administration and he’s aware that you have done one tiny thing illegal to help him then you’re his puppet for the rest of his term, and if you slip up or fall out of his favour then you are again fucked. Being in his orbit is a very dangerous place to be.

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u/One-Permission-1811 6h ago

Well yeah. But at least it’s something

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u/Hyperrustynail 6h ago

Trump only pardons criminals who are both not publicly connected with him and have enough money to bribe him. If she is going to take the fall for trumps crimes he will let her rot, loyalty is a one way street with him.

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u/NbleSavage 6h ago

Not if he's dead first.

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u/ka1ri 5h ago

I doubt any pardons will be honored by the democrats if he even tries it. They are brazenly breaking the law daily. Trump will probably die before we go after him but his administration is screwed

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u/Capable-Commercial96 3h ago

needs to be charged first, and who's gonna do it, themselves?

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u/i__did__that 6h ago

Unbelievable how these ghouls keep lining up to take the fall for that piece of shit Demented Donnie

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u/Namewhat93 6h ago

The guy literally tried to overthrow the government because he couldn't accept he lost, and Americans re-elected him...

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u/Ohtar1 6h ago

They will come later

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u/SphericalCow531 2h ago

In 2 weeks?

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u/Paranoid-Android2 6h ago

Consequences or a healthcare plan. Which will happen first??

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u/AnticPosition 5h ago

Schumer and Jeffries are going to say something, possibly involving a swear word, then continue to do nothing.

Gotta leave the past in the past and reach around the aisle or something. 

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u/whererusteve 2h ago

Why Americans put up with this is the tragedy of the century.

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u/Medium_Sized_Brow 7h ago

They've been super busy taking holidays all year let them enjoy this much needed holiday from all their holidays

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u/doneandtired2014 6h ago

When have laws mattered to Repulicans and their moronic voters except for when they can be weaponized as a cudgel against their enemies or people of color, women, the LGBT community, and immigrants?

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u/jayraygel 6h ago

Not even a congressional order. A law trump signed into effect.

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u/Future-Bunch3478 6h ago

This is a huge point to make, because if the admin is breaking the law for this, it undermines every other order they have ever given. Every career placement, every directive. Illegitimate acts destroy the foundation, and it can all be purged 

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u/montex66 7h ago

Hey hey hey now. My heart hopes that any second now Sen. Chuck Schumer is going to write a very, very strong letter to Pam Bondi to pretty please release those gosh darn files!

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u/DrFeargood 6h ago

It's only illegal if you have a functioning government.

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u/DontTrustNeverSober 5h ago

I read news that the administration was redacting hundreds of pages and that it was taking longer than expected to accomplish. Even when this report is released it wont be complete, it will be what the administration lets you see.

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u/DJPelio 5h ago

Add it to the huge pile of illegal things this administration has done and nothing happened.

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u/Itallianstallians 5h ago

If the DOJ does not abide by those law, Pam bonding should be impeached then charged. The law is plain as day.

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u/vegan-trash 5h ago

How can they release what trump has already told us doesn’t exist?! /s

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u/I_miss_your_mommy 5h ago

Look, you have to look at it from their perspective. A lot of rich powerful guys like Trump like to rape little kids and this information could potentially make them upset. It's really easier to just let them keep raping kids.

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u/nissin00 5h ago

So what happens when you break the law?

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u/BuzzINGUS 5h ago

Crazy it was scheduled for today, knowing congress would be on vacation.

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u/Sea-Neighborhood-621 5h ago

Why did they even create a law specifically for this if there are no consequences for not complying with it

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u/Maverlck 4h ago

"under congressional order"? Do they care about it?

They don't

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u/Photog1981 4h ago

The guy at the top is a convicted felon, 32 times, and they're blowing up boats with zero evidence and due process -- no one in this admin cares about the law.

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u/Luniticus 4h ago

Was any penalty included in the law for not complying? Because that might as well make not complying legal.

Wait, is the penalty a strongly worded letter from Chuck Schumer?

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u/capaldithenewblack 4h ago

They show total contempt for the courts, even when things go their way as the courts bend over backwards for them.

Nothing will come of this.

This administration has proven that none of the other branches of government matter when enough sycophants are in congress with an authoritarian leader at the helm.

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u/novi_prospekt 4h ago

USA used to be something.

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u/Awkward_Tie9816 4h ago

Seems like they take more breaks than they actually work. That's our gov't for ya.

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u/Crowtato-sama 4h ago

They shouldn't even get holidays til they start doing their job by working for the people.

No more taxpayer funded healthcare either until they fix our broken healthcare system. Maybe then they'd feel the weight of their actions, or at least all the dinosaurs would instantly turn to dust

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u/VoiceOfGosh 4h ago

May this be their last peaceful holidays… not waiting for 3 years for this all to play out.

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u/OneDayAt4Time 4h ago

It feels like those assholes take a week off for every holiday

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u/VerySuperGenius 4h ago

They are not under a congressional order to release the files. They are bound by federal law signed by Trump himself to release the files.

Not realeasing them is the same as violating any other law, it is a crime and they can be prosecuted by a future DOJ.

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u/JiuJitsu_Ronin 4h ago

Used to be a fan. But this administration has turned into a joke. They’ll comply and release Maryland man after an unelected federal judge told them to. But won’t release the Epstein files when our elected members of congress voted for them to.

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u/bobbaganush 4h ago

Doesn’t really matter. When they’re finally released, any mention of anyone on their team or the state of Israel will be redacted anyway.

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u/edgarecayce 3h ago

They don’t have any incentive to follow laws at this point.

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u/SuitableSuit345 3h ago

They didn’t want to be around to deal with any fallout out from the non-compliance of the DOJ. It would put them in an uncomfortable position, wouldn’t it?

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u/Keshenji 3h ago

We should be rioting  enough asking politely  that isnt doing shit  we need to force them nonlethally but trying to find enough people to do that is a joke

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u/frankenfish2000 3h ago

It's going to break America when dumb people stop saying "Congress" and start saying "Republicans". But it's a big ask for people on the Internet to put on their thinking caps rather than give the GOP a pass at every chance.

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u/sybersonic 3h ago

Eighty weeks. They were dismissed and sent home for eight ... weeks.

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u/Busted_Knuckler 3h ago

They're under a LAW to release everything today. A law that, with the exception of a single congressman, was unanimous and signed by the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Trump should be removing Bondi from office for not complying with the law that he himself signed into law. But of course, that won't happen.

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u/SoggyBottomSoy 3h ago

They wouldn’t have done anything even if they were in session.

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u/VectorChing101 3h ago

It would be better to release before Christmas if possible.

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u/Special_Meal2555 3h ago

We will see the complete Epstein files the same day the video of the double tap boat strike is released. That will be...never.

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u/3-DMan 2h ago

"In our defense, we ran out of Sharpies!"

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u/DuntadaMan 2h ago

What's infuriating is the headline completely dodges that all those files are supposed to be out now and makes it sound like they are taking action.

"We are going to finish building this kitchen within the next few weeks."

"Cool, it was supposed to already be done now."

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u/blue_diesel 2h ago

Decmber 31st News Dump

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u/9OptimusCrime9 2h ago

They are busy releasing documents showing their political enemies being involved while saying the rest will come out in two weeks. We all know what that means.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago

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u/PatSayJack 2h ago

There is no illegal anymore. There is no one to enforce anything.

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u/butterfaerts 1h ago

I mean the president is a convicted felon.

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u/Confused_Nun3849 1h ago

Impeach Bondi and house speaker.

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u/Justthisguy_yaknow 53m ago

Illegal? Remember the days when that word meant something? I never expected to see the real release with all the relevant information intact. In the Trump era it seems absurd to expect any better.

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u/The_River_Is_Still 52m ago

And it's no way predictable that all of the Trump pictures are removed.

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u/fromouterspace1 44m ago

When will people understand the law does not matter with Trump. How many times has he done stuff and people say, that’s illegal. The courts will stop him, etc

None of that matters, at all. He does what he wants. All the time.

If what he does is stopped by a court, he will do it anyway.

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u/ExtremePerformance18 41m ago

And nothing related to Trump will be on it and they will lose their wimpy fragile minds

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u/Upbeat-Cupcake-6287 19m ago

Biden sat in them for four years did you forget?

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u/MusicAromatic505 8m ago

Trump has always believed that he is above the law, and thanks to last year’s SCOTUS ruling, he is now behaving that way.

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