United States District Court Northern District of California
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
GAVIN NEWSOM, et al., Plaintiffs, v. DONALD J. TRUMP, et al., Defendants. Case No. 25-cv-04870-CRB
OPINION GRANTING INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
Congress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law. Nearly 140 years later, Defendants—President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense—deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced. There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence. Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.
Nevertheless, at Defendants’ orders and contrary to Congress’s explicit instruction, federal troops executed the laws. The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.
Almost three months after Defendants first deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, 300 National Guard members remain stationed there. Moreover, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal service in other cities across the country—including Oakland and San Francisco, here in the Northern District of California—thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief. Because there is an ongoing risk that Defendants will act unlawfully and thereby injure Plaintiffs, Governor Newsom and the State of California, the Court ENJOINS Defendants from violating the Posse Comitatus Act as detailed below.
Judge Rules Trump's Deployment Of Military To LA Is Illegal; Orders Him To STOP! Glenn Kirschner Sep 2, 2025
After a full trial, a federal judge in California ruled that Trump's grabbing control of the California National Guard and his deployment of the military to the streets of Los Angeles was illegal, and ordered him to stop violating the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits the military from enforcing civilian law.
As Politico reported, "Judge rules Trump can't act as national police chief."
Transcript
So friends, a federal judge in California just ruled that Donald Trump violated federal law when he sent troops into the streets of Los Angeles. Will Trump care? Will he obey the court's order in the form of an injunction to stop violating federal law? Let's talk about that because justice matters. Hey all, Glen Kersner here. So friends, after a full trial on the legality of Donald Trump taking control of the California National Guard and in addition deploying military forces to the streets of LA, a federal judge just ruled that Donald Trump violated the law and ordered him to stop. Let's start with the new reporting. This from Politico headline. Judge rules Trump can't act as national police chief. The president broke the law when he deployed troops to Los Angeles. Judge Charles Brier ruled. And that article begins, "A federal judge has declared President Donald Trump's use of military troops in Los Angeles illegal, barring the Pentagon from using National Guard members and Marines from performing police functions like arrests and crowd control." In a 52-page ruling, US District Judge Charles Brier warned that Trump appears intent on creating a national police force with the president as its chief. Trump build his deployment of troops to Los Angeles starting in early June as a way of bolstering immigration enforcement efforts amid protests in the city against the president's deportation agenda. Though Trump has now withdrawn all but 300 of those troops, he is mulling sending troops to other major cities such as Chicago. He has also deployed the National Guard in Washington DC under a separate legal authority from the one he used in Los Angeles. Judge Brier, a Clinton appointee based in San Francisco, concluded that Trump's LA deployment, an operation overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegsth, violated a longstanding law meant to prevent domestic law enforcement by the military. The Posi Kamatus Act. The judge's decision followed a 4-day trial last month that included testimony from the Pentagon officials overseeing the troop deployment in Los Angeles. The Posi Kamatus Act of 1878 bars the military from enforcing domestic laws without explicit permission from Congress. But Judge Brier said that despite this restriction, the Pentagon systematically used armed soldiers to perform police functions. And now, friends, let's just jump right to the first few paragraphs of Judge Briar's clear, definitive, compelling ruling setting out that Donald Trump, again, violated federal law. In the case of Gavin Newsome at all and others plaintiffs versus Donald Trump at all and others defendants opinion granting injunctive relief. Congress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posi Kamatus Act prohibiting the use of US military to execute domestic law. Nearly 140 years later, defendants President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegsth, and the Department of Defense deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced. There were indeed protests in Los Angeles and some individuals engaged in violence. Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law. Nevertheless, at defendants orders, Trump and Hegsth's orders, and contrary to Congress's explicit instruction, federal troops executed the laws. The evidence at trial established that defendants systematically used armed soldiers whose identity was often obscured by protective armor and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, defendants violated the Posi Kamatus Act. Almost 3 months after defendants first deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, 300 National Guard members remain stationed there. Moreover, President Trump and Secretary Hegsth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal service in other cities across the country, including Oakland and San Francisco here in the Northern District of California. thus creating a national police force with the president as its chief. Because there is an ongoing risk that defendants will act unlawfully and thereby injure plaintiffs Governor Nuome in the state of California. The court enjoins defendants from violating the posi commatatus act as detailed below. So friends, here we are again with a federal court ruling after a trial that Donald Trump violated federal law and with the federal judge ordering that he stop. Will he? Or will Trump continue to send troops into the streets of other American cities? And if he does, there will be no straightfaced argument that he's acting lawfully. You know, at that point, he will clearly be a runaway, lawless president of the United States. You know, friends, it seems to me that a president loses his legitimacy, and no, I'm not pretending that Donald Trump has even an ounce of legitimacy left at this point, but a president should lose his legitimacy when he repeatedly acts lawlessly when he refuses to acknowledge the lawful authority of a co-equal branch of government. When he repeatedly defies court orders, a president loses his status as a legitimate president of the United States because he has abandoned our constitutional construct of government. Now, Judge Brier ruled against Trump, ordered him to stop, but stayed his ruling, paused it for 10 days until September 12th to, of course, give Donald Trump and his administration, his Department of Justice, an opportunity to appeal it, ultimately up to the Supreme Court to see if the six justice radical right-wing majority on the Supreme Court will again accept and embrace and endorse Donald Trump's lawlessness. That is always Trump's hope. But at some point, friends, this is going to come to a head probably sooner rather than later, given the pace of Donald Trump's lawlessness and unconstitutionality. It will come to a head. And when it does, the rule of law should must win and Donald Trump should must lose because justice matters. Friends, as always, please stay safe, please stay tuned, and I look forward to talking with you all again tomorrow.
Trump gets CAUGHT IN THE ACT as Judge UNLEASHES ON HIM by Ben Meiselas MeidasTouch Sep 5, 2025 The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump getting busted engaging in illegal detentions causing a federal judge to unleash fury on him.
Transcript
A federal judge just exploded in the courthouse and ripped the Trump regime a new one. Judge Zia Farakqui looked at the Trump regime lawyers with all of the hell they're unleashing in Washington DC and in streets across the United States with their Gestapo. And as they try to arrest people who are peacefully protesting, the federal judge erupted. And as Scott McFarland writes, the judge said, "We are past the point of a constitutional crisis council." looking at Trump's Department of Justice lawyers. "This is embarrassment and shame for the government, for the United States." The judge looked at the Trump DOJ lawyer and said, "Shame on you. You are a shameful human being. This is a rush to get stats on Twitter or social media. This is not what you do in the real world. In the real world, you pursue actual crimes, not reposts on social media platforms or so Donald Trump can do truth social memes. This is the United States of America, damn it. So, let's just let's talk about what went down.
So, a hearing was held where, the federal government, they had pursued charges against someone by the name of Edward Dana, who they claim broke a light fixture, was drunk, and was shouting a bunch of things. "Oh, Trump's part of the Russian mafia. You're all mafia people." And he was jailed for a week. And then they were trying to potentially pursue charges against the guy who may have been mildly inebriated and exercising his First Amendment rights. And they locked him up. They detained the guy, and they were going to potentially bring major federal charges like they've been doing over and over again. And one of the things you'll note, we've been covering it here on the Meidas Touch Network, is that grand jury after grand jury, the Trump regime, has failed to secure indictments when in a grand jury room, the only lawyers that are there are the DOJ lawyers. They're presenting cases in the grand jury saying, "Get this crap out of here." So the judge says, "We are long past the Rubicon here when it comes to the Constitution." The judge apologized to the individual who was wrongfully detained. And then the judge said, "We're acting like this is all normal. This is not normal. You," referring to the Trump DOJ, "are not serious people. You are playing cops and robbers like children. You are a bunch of children. Do you understand me?" Then the judge continued to talk about it. "What's going on in Washington DC? What's to prevent people here from just getting rounded up off the streets? So apparently you all, the feds, have time to collect stats and have press releases, but what are you doing for people who are unlawfully detained? While you're out there with your marketing campaigns, and with Dr. Phil, and Dr. Oz, people are rotting away in prison while you engage in this fascist cosplay. The judge went on to blast the Justice Department for their sloppy work, for their corrupt work, for their anti-democratic work. And the judge noted how frequently grand juries have been rejecting the Justice Department's attempts to get indictments over and over again. He blasts the Justice Department for saying, "You're working out the kinks. That's what you're trying to do. These are people with names and rights and you're torturing them and you are ruining their lives." The judge ordered the Justice Department to make a filing by 5:00 p.m., explain to me everything you did in this case and how you did it so bad. It's September 4th. The judge said, "As of now, we still have a constitutional democracy. So, as long as we have a constitutional democracy, I am going to serve as a federal judge and do my duty. Do you understand me?" The judge then said, "It's not even that you're losing credibility in this court and before courts across the country. We are way past this point." The judge points out that the cases filed during the Trump police surge in DC, the volumes of motions to dismiss raise grave concerns. People like Mr. Dana, who you're now having to dismiss his case, are suffering the consequences. You've created this mess. You've created a mess. There are way too many misfires here as you are now referring to him as. The feds are operating under a concept of we'll just arrest people and then we'll see what happens."
The defense attorney spoke briefly in court and said the criminal case was ridiculous. She said even a 15-year-old would know that this case was not a criminal threat against the president. The judge then asked out loud what amount of money undoes the harm to those charged in these dismissed cases. He suggests a defense attorney that she seek a remedy against the government for this case. Go and sue him. The judge said, "Sue these people about the military who are now being designated to help the US attorney office in DC handle a wave of cases in this federal crackdown in DC, which isn't a crackdown, let's just call it what it is, an authoritarianism, fascist cosplay ridiculousness." The judge wonders why none are being deployed to help the federal defenders manage an exhausting case load. The judge says about the people whose cases are being dismissed, "These arrests that you're making will be on their record. It'll impact the arc of someone's life forever." The prosecutor tells the judge that the case was initially authorized by a superior and the judge is like, "I don't care. You're blaming it on Janine Pirro." The judge then slammed the US attorney for DC, Janine Pirro, and the head of its criminal division for not showing up in court to explain the decision because the DOJ lawyer was saying, "It wasn't me. It was my higherups. It was Pirro. It was the head of the criminal division." The judge said, "So, I get it. You all have time for press conferences. You all have time for tweets. You all have time for going on Fox, but not for actually dealing with the implications of your mistakes." scratch that of your assault on people's rights. Finally, the judge looked at the defendant whose charges were being dismissed and said, "The government's message to people who look like Mr. Dana is be very afraid." The judge says, "I'm afraid right now." And then the judge said basically, "Get the hell out of here."
That's what's going on in our courtrooms across the country. And you see, for example, right here, ICE beginning to arrest a woman outside their domestic violence hearings starting in Chicago. One woman had the case dismissed by the judge only to be immediately detained by agents. Women are being forced to choose between staying in abusive relationships or potential deportation. The network advocating against domestic violence is encouraging all survivors to file for order of protections online and not schedule in-person hearings. Here, watch this. Witnesses tell us that agents took at least one person into federal custody ahead of their scheduled court appearance. Our Sabrina France has been looking into that case. Sabrina, victim advocates are saying that this has people turning away from their scheduled appearances. Marie, it would appear that's already happening. We were standing in the lobby of this courthouse today and while we were there, folks were asking for people who would otherwise be in court, whether they be defendants or plaintiffs in cases that were heard today. Those people were not there and the reason given, they were too afraid to be there. The courthouse at 555 West Harrison opens at 8:30 each weekday. One woman, whose name we are withholding because of the nature of her case, was set to appear at 9:00 a.m. We're told she didn't make it there. She was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to this court document. Witnesses say they saw this man, who they believed to be a federal officer, assist in her arrest outside the courthouse about 15 minutes before her scheduled time to appear. A victim advocate asked why she was being arrested and told us an agent said, quote, "We're going to speak to her about her immigration status before putting the woman in handcuffs." CBS News Chicago has learned the woman in this case was the accused abuser, arrested by the Chicago Police Department, and charged with two misdemeanor counts of domestic battery. Court records say the charges were dropped today. Sounds like as soon as we got word, my advocates and a bunch of other advocates and legal aid attorneys uh came down and started passing out know your rights information. Tessa Kypers works as a victim advocate at the courthouse. She says she worries this will deter victims of domestic violence from reporting their abusers. Just making people survivors unsafer, right? Um obviously survivors are going to know ICE was here. um they're going to have hesitancy about seeking protections about connecting with their advocate and or protection and criminal charges um that might be a tool for safety for them. The CEO of the network advocating against domestic violence encouraged virtual hearings moving forward, adding in part, quote, "These actions will undermine survivors trust in our legal system to be a resource for them and will discourage survivors from coming forward if they fear immigration will be at their next court hearing and take their loved ones." Now, there has been a call for support here at the courthouse tomorrow morning. volunteers asked to show in front of the courthouse with know your rights material. We expect to see some sort of demonstration here. Then meantime, we have reached out to ICE for a comment on all of this and are still waiting to hear back. We're live in the West Loop, Sabrina Franza, CBS News Chicago. And in this next video I'm going to show you, unknown officers arrest an Ohio woman, hand her over to ICE in a secluded parking lot. Officers reach in through the car window and forcibly drag her out after refusing to show a badge number. They then drive her around town to the back of a bank parking lot. They hand her over to a group of men that she later learned were ICE agents. At least one of the officers detaining her in this video appears to be wearing an ATF badge. Marlin Ortiz Sto is a 24year-old woman who is legally seeking asylum from violent attacks against her in Honduras. She was scheduled to attend a hearing on her case in September. Now she's locked up without bail in Butler County, Ohio. Watch what's going down here. Play this clip. Can I get his badge number? Can I get the rest? Can I please? I'll have everyone's badge number memorized. Please, can I talk to them? In video shared with WCPO, you see a tense back and forth with officers. Flores repeatedly asking officers to identify themselves. After a while of that, this happens. Please identify yourself, sir. You're not identifying yourself. Please. Hey, no. Hey, don't don't don't. Eventually, officers appear to open both the driver and passenger side doors, and they begin to pull the couple out of the car. Hey, you can't touch her, man. Identify yourself. One officer appears to have a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms or ATF vest on. She is extremely scared in this video. She doesn't know what's happening. She's not being told what's happening. Attorney Krishna Maha Davis says after this, Ortiz Sto was arrested by officers and handed over to ICE. They took her back to their vehicle and then drove her to a local US bank parking lot where they handed her over to actual ICE agents. Aa David says Ortiz Sto has an ongoing asylum claim from 2019. Are we aware of why the family wanted asylum? It involves uh that the individual is from Honduras and flee fears returning to that country uh due to violence that happened in the past uh but unfortunately not at liberty to discuss the details of that. He says his client followed all the rules and regularly attended ICE check-ins. Do we know a predicate for why they decided to stop this particular vehicle? She did not know why they were stopped. Now, Ortiz Sto sits inside the Butler County Jail awaiting a bond hearing, hoping her case is heard fairly. WCPO reached out to Fairfield police several ways Wednesday, but we have not heard back. They should keep in mind that this is a young woman who is who is found some success uh and happiness here in the United States. She started her own business. Uh she's f hopefully found love here in the United States with her boyfriend in Cincinnati. Jour, WCP9 News. And finally, I want to show you this. And this is how Christopher Webb puts it. As a parent, as an aunt, as an uncle, as a grandparent, as a human being, if you don't feel for this young woman and see the injustice here, you're dead inside. Deported to Guatemala. This young woman, she's an honor student, a track star. She doesn't speak Spanish. She doesn't even know Guatemala. And this isn't the worst story out there. Not by a long shot. She had no idea where she was going when they deported her. This is what the Trump regime is doing. This is what that federal judge was pissed about. Here, play this clip. What's it like to be living here instead of your house in in uh in Wesley? It's really hard. Um I have the cat. It's It really hurts me like him being um in my house and like maybe he thinks like I just abandoned him. Oh. So, it really hurts me just be be here and like not knowing what's going to happen. Your cousin Yuri when we stood across the street from your house, she said, "Um Nory's bedroom is in the back." She kind of pointed to where it was. Do you think about your room and Yes. all your stuff? I think about my stuff. I think about um my clothes, especially my cat. I really miss him so much. Are you dreaming about home or sleeping? Um yes, I dream about my family, my friends, but it's just it's just really hard. What's it like when you wake up here? It's not my home. She wanted to go to Santa Monica College, which you know, um, and become a fashion designer. Yeah. And then transfer to another college. Just real quick, let me play you a little bit of what she said about not being able to complete her studies there and how important school was to her. Even though I'm far, I'm still going to keep it up and like not give up. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity they gave me to just study from here. So, I'm just really grateful for everything that they're doing. And I'm going to keep it up and not give up. Is the idea just keep going so that if you make it back soon, you can go to college next year. If I make it back, I'm definitely going to go go to college. Make just make my mom proud and make myself proud as well. Make everyone proud. In terms of their asylum claim, you said that they were fleeing um an attempt on the mother's life in Guatemala. Why would that get denied? I mean, I thought that was one of the bars you had to clear. And it it sounds like if that's true, why would they not be allowed to stay here? Such a good question. That that's part of the reason that there are lawsuits in federal court about these immigration courthouse arrests, not just in Los Angeles, but also and most notably probably here in New York at 26 Federal Plaza, where even as people are getting continuations for their cases on her case was dismissed. No, they could have stayed. And and they tell us and you can read about in the article that, you know, maybe there were some issues with the lawyer. Um but it wasn't a slam dunk that they were going to have to be deported. She had gone to these check-ins of Nory's mother time after time and they said to her, "Bring Nory next time." Uh, and they had no idea that this is what was going to happen because the way that these things normally play out, you get a continuation to say, "Come back again and we'll talk about it in 6 months or a year." Why is that? Why? Why? Why are there continuations? Because the immigration adjudication system is badly broken. It's hugely backlogged. um the Trump administration's fix is to is to not have immigration judges at all, but to have military judges, military judges, people of Steven Miller's choosing. There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe
BOMBSHELL: Justice Department Staffer Admits Republican Names Will Be HIDDEN From Epstein Files The Damage Report Sep 5, 2025 The Damage Report
In a secretly recorded video, a staffer in the Department of Justice claimed Republican names in the Epstein files will be redacted. John Iadarola breaks it down on The Damage Report. Leave a comment with your thoughts below!
"A staffer in the Justice Department said in a secretly recorded video that the department would redact any Republican names from its investigative files on the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
The administration has been funneling the Epstein files to Capitol Hill in a supposed show of transparency, but only liberals’ names will remain visible, the staffer said."
Transcript
Pam Bondi just got busted because one of her lackeys was caught on camera saying that, "Oh, they have a plan when it comes to the Epstein files. They're just going to redact all the Republicans and leave the Democrats out." Take a look.
Q. Do you think like the stuff you're with Epstein will actually get released or not at all?
[Joseph Schmitt] If it does, it'll be heavily redacted, and Disney won't be Well, those files do exist. There's files for sure. There's yeah thousands and thousands of files. But again, if they're released in any way, it's going to be very reductive. They'll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files. Leave all the liberal Democratic people in those files, and have a very slanted version of it where it's like looking at what he's doing without really seeing any of their bad behavior.
So a couple of interesting things about that. One, that's not just some rando speculating about what they're going to do. You're you're watching one of those right now. No, this is a different person. This is somebody who's the acting DOJ deputy chief of operational enforcement or whatever. Joseph Schmitt. And the other interesting thing is that that's a James O'Keefe investigation. You know, the people who took down Acorn, and he gets to dress up in I don't like he's a pimp or something. Like the only person that loves cosplaying more than Kristi Noem.
Well, in this case, they got a conservative appearing to admit that the fix is in. They're going to redact all of the conservatives. And there, look, admittedly, they're already a good way there. They've already redacted Trump's name after the thousand times or whatever it appeared in there. And so, yeah, they're just going to, I guess, release the files. There might be some Democrats or Democratically linked donors. They'll just protect all the Republican politicians, the Republican donors, and all that. And that I guess is the plan I suppose. And so we're definitely gonna discuss that.
I want to get Trey in to talk about that. They're gonna like backtrack and be like, "Nah, that dude's he's chucklehead. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He's the DOJ deputy chief." What do you think?
Yeah, I didn't realize that Tom Sigura's brother was that high up in the DOJ personally. But yeah, so I don't know. Like there's a lot going on here. on the one hand like uh like you said he's high up in the DOJ. He's speaking with apparent confidence there and everything but it is the whole thing is sort of stained by the source of it at least a little bit you know but it being O'Keeffe and their history there and then the fact that they're even doing that at all because this is the one and only scandal that's kind of penetrated the you know the barrier of loyalism. I know it's the far right or however you want to put that. So, uh, it's I'm also thinking about just thinking ahead and if that when if and when that does happen, if they do release them and it is uh just redacted, all every conservative name and Trump's name is redacted, but they release the files and then the idea that everybody's just like good with that, everybody being like on the right or whatever, it's like, see, we told you nothing but Democrats, you know, like it isn't obvious what happened might just be the final straw. for me. I might show up bald on here the next day from having finally pulled every last hair out of my head if that actually happens. Because I mean, when they say redacted, they do mean like like just black black lines through names and stuff. Yeah. And that that shouldn't work, you know? But here's the thing. I mean, it totally would. I know. Yeah. Why didn't they just do that three months ago? Because like there there are some conservatives who still do really care about this. A significant chunk of the voters or whatever. Three or four Republican politicians, they're a little bit dicey, but they at least signed on to the discharge petition or whatever. So Massie and Marjorie Green, uh Lauren Boebert and Nancy M. Um and then in terms of right-wing media, there's um there's nothing actually. There was for like a weekend and then Trump called them and they all bowed down. Uh, and so there are some who want to get to the bottom of it, but that's going too far. They they they can see that there's a cover up. They don't like it. They're like, "Hey, um, for years we've been doing the Qunan thing. Can we be like at least minimally consistent on this?" And so they want I would say something. Do they demand the full truth, nothing but the truth? Right. I don't I don't think so. I think that if they were to do what this guy laid out and just release a couple of interesting names, I think for a significant chunk, that would be enough. And so, I don't know why Trump didn't do that. Why is he continuing to attack them for caring about this rather than just give them a bit of red meat? Yeah. No, I I agree 100%. When all this like was first happening, the the video that I made about it for my socials, I said some like at the time I was like I feel like we all know that if Trump could literally just like pull out like a napkin written in crayon misspelled Epstein list at the top and it's like Obama's Clintons, Rosie O'Donnell probably not me and they would all be like thank you for getting to the bottom of this sir. We appreciate that. and then then it would just go, you know, it would be that simple. And obviously that's, you know, just a tiny bit hyperbolic, but not much. But yeah, you're you're right. It would it would would work and it will work if they ever do it. And I don't I don't know why the only I mean, isn't the sort of idea that the theory that some people have had is there's some some form of like mutually assured destruction involved is the only thing that would keep him from doing something like that. meaning that like they're not the only ones that have access to this information or something. You know what I mean? Like you try to do that, you burn us, then we will burn you back type of thing. Yeah. I mean, there are definitely a lot of theories and it's entirely possible that something like that is out there, but like what he's landed on as the strategy and we'll show some of his updated communications, Donald Trump, is just it's the most suspicious possible way to address this. Uh, and we've got a lot to get to. I want to give you just a little bit more from that expose. Here's more schnit. You know, internally there's a lot of even within the administration, there's internal conflict. Oh, okay. FBI really wants it. Second in command at FBI has been like causing problems cuz he's like, "No, these have to be released." Yeah. So, the FBI wants them out. Um, yep. The top two guys, do and Bonnie does it. I don't know what Bonnie wants. Bonnie wants whatever. Sure. They visited that Maxwell person. Yeah. And also involved got transferred to a minimum security prison too recently which is against BP policy because she's she's a convicted sex offender and they're not supposed to be minimum security prisons which is an interesting detail because she's getting a benefit which means they're offering her something to keep it shut. Yeah. And none of this looks very good. So he seems to imply there that there is actually a conflict between Cash Patel and Dan Bonino and Pam Bondi. Uh and so that definitely stood out. And uh now after what Trey said, I definitely cannot get past how much he looks like the love child of Tom Seagura and Jesse the Body Ventura, I think. Um but anyway, uh so yeah, look, so apparently there's that fight. The thing is like that makes her look even worse and it makes theoretically Cash Patel and Dan Bonino I guess look better. Bear in mind Cash Patel I have not heard a word out of his mouth in like two months that he's pushing for more disclosure. Dan Bongino has sort of tried to imply that he wants to get to the truth but bear in mind he didn't like resign in protest or whatever. He's still there months into this cover up and so yeah, maybe on some level he wants it to come out, but he's certainly not making that happen. Um, in any event, you're probably all wondering, how did this guy get taped? So, uh, what they did was O'Keefe did the same dishonest stuff that he always does. Uh, they set, uh, that guy up, Schnit, on a date with some with a woman, the reporter or whatever on the dating app him Hinge. He said, "The comments I made were my own personal comments on what I've learned in the media and not from anything I've done or learned at work. He has no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Miss Maxwell other than what is reported in the news." And that's possible. He doesn't have to be involved in anything, but like like not nothing at his job. Nothing in the DOJ had anything to do with Maxwell in the investig. Why is he leaping to the conclusion that they're going to do all of this redacting if it's not based on literally anything? That just seems weird to me. and the DOJ put out this message from him. So, you can take a look at it. And it appears that they screenshotted a note that he typed in his phone and he just barely got it in before his battery died. So, this is like the weirdest, least official way to do this, Trey. So I look I share with you, you know, O'Keeffe being involved kind of hurts it cuz they're super disreputable, but like I also don't know what the context could be of selective editing, right, that makes it look like anything other than it does right now. So who knows? What do you think? The only caveat I'll get, I don't know why I'm trying to give I don't want to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. It certainly seems very damning, but like his, you know, his excuse for it all or the way he uh explained it like I don't know what that job title means. Obviously, acting deputy chief sounds very high up to me, but I have no idea what his actual job description is or his duties and stuff. And if he's works there but isn't actually involved with any of that crap. the idea that that guy if he's on like a date apparently or he's trying to impress some girl or whatever he's that he would you know act very confidently as though like he's real plugged in and knows everything that's going on is not I mean that's not really a stretch that a guy would do that but it all fits in with what we've all kind of been assuming and thinking anyway and is definitely very believable and at the very least looks really bad. So, um, you know, regardless of the source, cuz yeah, it wasn't James O'Keeffe in a dress and, you know, like like you said, it's doesn't appear to be AI or manipulated or anything. You really, this guy really did say those things. This guy really does have that job. So, you know, that looks bad. Yeah. Look, I will say may maybe I've maybe I've done a bad thing. Maybe I've jumped to conclusions based on my desire to believe the narrative that this guy spread. So, I I know I know a solution, a pretty easy one. put out all the files with no redacting and then clearly that guy will have been wrong. I'll look like a big dumb donkey. Just release the files and it'll clear the DOJ's name. But obviously they're not going to do that. [Music]
PANICKED Trump gets ROCKED by WORST KARMA of HIS LIFE MeidasTouch Sep 5, 2025 Legal AF Podcast
Trump can’t “fire” his way out of the new catastrophic job numbers and other economic data released this week, showing that the Trump Recession has begun. Michael Popok looks at the new Bureau of Labor Statistics job numbers that show that Trump is making 1/10 the number of jobs Biden created each month, and in June, there were actually NEGATIVE job numbers, meaning less than 0 job growth. Looks like the Fed will have to try to bail out Trump’s failed policies with a major rate cut in 2 weeks, as it works to try to pull the economy back from the brink.
Transcript
Well, I don't know what Donald Trump's going to do now. He'll have to fire the entirety of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because their new job numbers are out and they're even worse than last month after Donald Trump fired its commissioner, but couldn't fire 200 economists that are doing the job of trying to figure out how many jobs this administration is making or actually not making. if he hated last month's numbers when they revised down by a couple hundred thousand June uh the prior May June and July he's going to hate these numbers because it shows that for instance in the in the month of August the total amount of jobs that were made total amount of jobs that were made were about 22,000 they were expecting 80,000 so they missed the mark by about 60,000 jobs.
Q. What percentage of 7400000 is 22000? A. 0.297297297297% [.3% chance of getting a job in America right now. Not even 1%.]
And just to put this in perspective for those that are thinking That seems like a big number. Not in an economy of 300 million people. It's not not when you've got 7.2 million people looking for work. A
In July 2025, job openings fell to 7.181 million, while the number of unemployed individuals stood at 7.4 million.
-- Job Seekers Exceed Jobs Since Covid, by Google AI
And as an example, during the Biden administration and its final days in 2024, they were making 170,000 jobs a month. Not 22,000, 170,000. It got so bad that they just revised the numbers again. These are all Trump administration numbers. He owns this economy now, having been in office for over seven months. They revised June down so low it made negative jobs. It was negative 14,000 and then additional on average of just about 22,000 a month for the 3 months prior. So what do we have as a result? We have as a result consumer confidence is down, jobs are in the toilet, and putting pressure on the Federal Reserve as if they don't have enough pressure, putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to make a change. September 18th is going to be the interest rate meeting by the Federal Open Markets Committee. Yes, that still apparently includes Lisa Cook, who Donald Trump has gone after and tried to remove for purported mortgage fraud. Side note: mortgage fraud that is exactly the same thing is being committed by 20% of his cabinet. It's not mortgage fraud at all. It's just owning two properties and listing that they both your primary residents. So in September 18th, they're going to be meeting to cut rates. I don't think they're going to have a choice now but to cut rates to bail out Donald Trump's failed economy. That's all we're watching between the tariffs wrecking our global relationships and causing instability here in America, and the tariff scheme wrecking our economy. Consumer prices up. And it's not just up, you know, almost 4%. You go get fruits and vegetables today, and you go to the market, they're up 30 to 40% because of the tariff war that Donald Trump started, a self-inflicted wound.
So consumer confidence, the new polling shows, it's in the tank. The operative word for this economy, according to the polling, was, "we're struggling." That's American people, voters for Donald Trump included, that are struggling under this economy 7 months in.
In addition, just get ready for the future. We also have new numbers out that show that people are not hiring. Hiring managers are not hiring. The Federal Reserve and its 12 different regional banks create what's called the Beige Book every quarter that evaluates financial performance by state, by district in America. Seven out of the 12 districts in America under the Federal Reserve report that they are hesitant to hire anyone right now because of the instability of the Trump administration and of the leader of the Trump administration, Donald Trump himself. So they're not hiring. Wholesale prices are way up, meaning the prices charged between business, the products that are necessary, and the elements that are necessary to manufacture, those prices are up, which means they'll ultimately get passed on at to the consumer. The tariffs are starting to get fully baked into consumer pricing, which means consumer pricing, another pressure for consumer pricing to go up. With consumer pricing up, confidence by the consumers down, wholesale prices up, and jobs in the toilet, that's the pressure on the Federal Reserve.
They have one blunt force instrument to try to help the American people and the economy now that Donald Trump has dug such a deep hole. That's called interest rates. That's the interest rate charge between banks. That ends up being the bellwether for setting of interest rates for things that impact you and me directly, like credit card debt, loans, mortgages, student loans and the like. Any kind of borrowing is ultimately set off the Federal Reserve interest rate which now is between four and a quarter and four and a half. Add two to 10 points depending upon your credit score and you'll figure out where your interest rate is. When that gets cut, that is cheaper.
People hopefully will borrow more on the consumer side, I guess, go into more debt to help spend our way out of this recession Trump's creating. And the thought is more investment by suppliers and manufacturers. They'll bring in more inventory because they can float more loans, get more credit, ease the credit markets, and by doing so hopefully create more jobs.
Now the downside risk of that is what the Fed has been concerned about which is that hyperinflation happens. Cheaper money also leads to higher prices because people have more money to spend and therefore in the market more competition for capital and goods prices go up. Right now their target rate was to try to get inflation to 2%. We're heading to 4% under Donald Trump. So forget the target rate now. They have to shift focus to the weakening and cratering job market created by Trumpanomics. So I see at least a half a point being cut on September 18th, and probably another half a point if that doesn't work coming in October as new data, new statistics, come in rolling behind it.
Who's Donald Trump gonna fire now? He can't fire the numbers. You know, the suffering of America under Donald Trump's thumb is real. What you pay at the pump, what you pay at the grocery store, what you pay for health insurance, if you can even afford it, and there's 20 million people thrown out of health insurance by Donald Trump. You no longer have federal subsidies for school lunch programs, for health care, for seniors programs. You know, what you pay matters around your kitchen table. And Donald Trump is making it a hell of a lot worse since the Biden administration and Kamala Harris administration.
I mean, I'll end it the way I started it. Look at the numbers. And behind every number, every statistic, is a human being who is suffering under the Trump administration. Plain and simple. When you have negative growth for a year, when you're averaging 14,000 jobs created a month, one-tenth of what Joe Biden created, that's real human suffering behind each one of those numbers. When prices go up and you're now short in the beginning, you start taking things out of your basket, right? Well, can't get this, can't get that, can't get the yogurt. Kids are going to have to skip milk today. I'll have to water the milk down. But how do you cut through when there's no fat? You're already through the bone. Then where do you go? When you're 5% short, 10% short, 30% short for what you need to buy to live. Where do you turn? Not the federal government. And the state government has been defunded by the federal government by Donald Trump.
How do we make a change? What do we do in the short term? In the short term, we got to put pressure on our leaders, the members of Congress and the Senate to stop Donald Trump's failed economic policies. In the long term, midterm election, it's time to it's time to throw the bastards out, get the Democrats back in, start getting economic policies that work for America and work for the American middle class and those even that aren't in are not in the middle class, not an economy that's working for the superw wealthy. and hold Donald Trump accountable through impeachment processes and investigations. That is our next course. And together we will do it here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF.
This is not a partisan issue. The American people – and Epstein’s many victims – deserve transparency
In 1986, my life went from black-and-white to color. It was the year I taped a Duran Duran poster to my rural Pennsylvania high school locker, and then months later hung out with band members backstage at the Paris runway shows. It was the year I went from cleaning bathrooms for $3.35 an hour to making $50k in a day for a Maybelline shoot. Modeling opened a door into a gorgeous, creative, elite world – a dream born of a biological accident.
It is also what led me, decades later, into the very uncomfortable position of speaking out about the horrific legacy of the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom I briefly dated in 1993.
I was introduced to Epstein at a dinner party, which I attended at the request of my then agent, Faith Kates. He was charming and smart, and didn’t condescend as we connected over current events and the state of the world, a rare experience for me in those scenarios.
The brief relationship that emerged was consensual. But some of the events that took place within the confines of that relationship were not.
Last October, I came forward with a story I had kept private (with the exception of sharing with my closest friends) for decades: Epstein once walked me into Donald Trump’s office at Trump Tower, where I was groped by Trump as Epstein stood by and watched. (Trump denies that this ever happened). For years I stayed silent in order to protect my privacy and my family. But with the release of a documentary in which I was featured, I felt I had to tell the truth. To support my account, I was polygraphed by a renowned examiner, my close friends were interviewed to corroborate that I had shared this story over the years, and Trump biographer Michael Wolff confirmed that Epstein disclosed the incident to him.
More recently, I have also shared something Epstein once told me over tea and Zabar’s walnut bread at his mansion: that he had video of me disrobed in a bedroom in his home. He described it as “the most beautiful thing” he had seen. That comment chilled me then, and it haunts me still. When I watched FBI agents raid Epstein’s homes in 2019, I grew nauseous at the thought that such videos could have ended up in the hands of other people.
Let me be clear: I did not consent to being groped by Donald Trump, and I did not consent to being filmed by Jeffrey Epstein. I am speaking out not because of politics, but because the American people – and Epstein’s many victims – deserve transparency.
This is not a partisan issue. Being a victim crosses party lines. That’s why I’ve been encouraged to see Representatives Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, from opposite sides of the aisle, standing besides Epstein’s victims on Capitol Hill, demanding the release of the Epstein files. Hundreds of women have lived in the shadow of this man’s crimes. They deserve truth, not secrecy.
Yet what we’ve seen is a game of political chicken. The Wall Street Journal reported that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, privately told Trump his name appears in Epstein-related files. The justice department’s second-in-command, Todd Blanche – Trump’s former lawyer – met behind closed doors not with victims, but with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein abuse underage girls. And despite public assurances that there is “nothing to see”, Congress recessed early rather than debate the issue. Maxwell, meanwhile, was quietly moved to a more comfortable minimum-security prison in Texas, despite the fact that she repeatedly deflected and minimized facts during her interview.
Two days ago, in a deceptive move supposedly intended to signal transparency, the House oversight committee released more than 33,000 files related to Epstein that it received from the justice department. As Representative Massie pointed out, 97% of those pages are “already in public domain”.
So here I am, like so many women in my position, mustering the courage to disclose and jumping through hoops to prove my truth – while perpetrators and enablers enjoy the benefit of secrecy. It is baffling that leaders from the president on down insist there is nothing to see, yet refuse to release the actual files. It is equally baffling to hear Alan Dershowitz deny that surveillance tapes exist, when testimony and evidence suggest otherwise. Maria Farmer, one of the first women to report Epstein and Maxwell for sexual crimes, told CBS News that Epstein had hidden cameras throughout his home. A recent New York Times report included images of video cameras inside Epstein’s mansion, even above his bed. And Epstein specifically boasted that he had video footage of me.
I know my pain is shared by countless survivors. I think of Virginia Giuffre, who tragically died by suicide this April, and of the retraumatization survivors endure as they watch Ghislaine Maxwell settle into a more comfortable facility while their stories remain buried. That is not justice.
We deserve peace of mind. We deserve healing that comes with accountability. And that will never come so long as our trauma is reduced to partisan warfare. Sexual violence and trafficking have no political party.
It is time to put politics aside, release the Epstein files and help free the women at the center of this tragedy from a nightmare that has lasted for decades.
Stacey Williams is a former model
************************************
Stacey Williams says Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein ‘coordinated’ groping incident. Former model said of incident at Trump Tower in 1993: ‘I was rolled in there like a piece of meat in some kind of twisted game’ by Jessica Glenza The Guardian Fri 25 Oct 2024 09.00 EDT https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... mp-epstein
Stacey Williams in October. Photograph: Marion Curtis/Starpix/Rex/Shutterstock
The former model Stacey Williams said she thought Donald Trump groped her to show off to her then boyfriend, the late financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein, when the couple dropped by to visit him in Trump Tower in New York in 1993.
In her first detailed, on-camera interview since discussing assault allegations with the Guardian, Williams late on Thursday told CNN that she recalled the former president and Epstein smiled at each other as the property mogul was feeling her up, which gave her the impression the entire incident was a “coordinated” game between the two men.
Her account comes just weeks before the presidential election, in which Trump and the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, are essentially tied, according to polls. Trump has denied Williams’s accounts.
“The second he was in front of me, he pulled me into him and his hands were just on me and didn’t come off,” Williams told CNN, echoing her account to the Guardian.
“Then the hands started moving on the side of my breasts, on my hips, back down to my butt, back up, sort of – they were just on me the whole time, and I froze,” she said.
Williams briefly dated Epstein in the 1990s. At the time, she told the Guardian, she and Epstein were walking through Manhattan when he suggested they visit Trump at his Trump Tower complex on Fifth Avenue.
The two were good friends, she said. Trump later distanced himself from Epstein after the financier was convicted of being a sex offender in Florida, several years before he was arrested in New York on federal sex offenses in 2019 and killed himself while in custody awaiting trial.
She added, as she did in her recounting to the Guardian, that she believed now that the incident was planned by Epstein and Trump all along. When they encountered Trump, she alleges he immediately grabbed and groped her, right in front of her boyfriend.
“This context made no sense because the hands were on me and he and Jeffrey just kept talking and looking at each other and smiling,” she said. Later, when the couple left, she said Epstein berated her for allowing Trump to touch her, and that the whole incident left her confused and sick.
“I just had this really sickening feeling that it was coordinated, I was rolled in there like a piece of meat in some kind of weird twisted game,” she told CNN. “I felt a wave of shame,” she said, and took the memory of the incident, “put it in a little box inside of me, turned the key, locked it.”
Williams told the Guardian this week in an exclusive first interview that she got the sense, at the time, that Trump and Epstein were “really, really good friends”. Williams also shared an undated postcard that she said Trump later sent her, with a view of Palm Beach, Florida, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion.
“Your home away from home,” the postcard read. “Love, Donald”.
Trump’s campaign, responding to CNN, said Williams’s allegations were a “fake story [that] was contrived by Kamala Harris’ campaign,” to distract from a second incident, in which Doug Emhoff is accused of slapping a former girlfriend. A campaign spokesperson for Harris, the US vice-president, earlier this month denied the allegation against her husband.
Williams’s account will add to a long list of women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, ranging from the writer E Jean Carroll, who was eventually vindicated by a civil jury that found Trump liable for sexual abuse, to his ex-wife, Ivana Trump, who accused the former president of raping her, in a divorce deposition.
Williams said she gained the courage to come forward about the incident following the release of a recent documentary about the magazine Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issues, called Beyond the Gaze.
“I can’t control when a documentary comes out, I can’t control its premiering two weeks before the election,” Williams told CNN. Although Williams had alluded to the incident in social media comments, she had never told her story in detail until this week.
“It takes a lot of guts, and you have to really prepare yourself for that onslaught, and I’m ready now,” she said. “Just bring it.”
'Sheer embarrassment': Judge declares 'constitutional crisis' as Jeanine Pirro drops case U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ferris Pirro speaks during a press conference announcing the indictment of the Haitian gang leader Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier for conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, at the Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said Thursday the country was "past the point of constitutional crisis" after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office dropped the case against a man accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump.
"Why is the government not out of sheer embarrassment and shame seeking to dismiss with prejudice and expunge the record?" Faruqui asked prosecutors on Thursday after they dropped charges against Edward Dana.
Dana was held in jail for a week after the government alleged he broke a light fixture and threatened to kill Trump while drunk.
ALSO READ: Leaving MAGA: NY mom who fell for anti-vaxxers, QAnon and Trump describes painful escape
"We're past the point of constitutional crisis," Faruqui said, according to CBS correspondent Scott MacFarlane. "We're acting like this is all normal."
The judge accused the Justice Department of "just a rush to get stats on Twitter or Truth Social."
"What's to prevent people from just getting rounded up off the streets?" he wondered. "These are people with names and rights!"
The judge said that "people like Mr. Dana are suffering the consequences" as the DOJ was "losing credibility."
"You created this mess," he told prosecutors, accusing Pirro's office of "too many misfires."
"The government's message to people who look like Mr. Dana is … 'be very afraid!'" Faruqui exclaimed. "I'm afraid right now."
The judge gave prosecutors until 5 p.m. Thursday to file a document explaining how they would prevent the same mistake from happening in the future. Grand juries have declined to provide indictments in at least nine cases brought by Pirro's office since Trump ordered a federal takeover of policing in Washington, D.C.
Scott MacFarlane@MacFarlaneNews
FLASH: Judge erupts at hearing as Justice Dept reveals dismissal of yet another recent DC criminal case
Judge Zia Farriqui: “We’re past the point of Constitutional crisis”
“embarrassment & shame for the govt”
“This is just a rush to get stats on Twitter or truth social”
In his final act in Congress, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who was the Republican leader before stepping down in 2024 — took aim at the growing MAGA wing of the Republican Party, dismissing suggestions about popularity and isolationist politics while defending his record.
“These suggestions about who’s popular and who isn’t irritate the hell out of me, because when you get into the leadership position, you get beat up,” McConnell said in a recent interview with the Lexington Herald‑Leader published Wednesday.
McConnell, 83, warned of risks reminiscent of the 1930s, when the slogan that has defined President Donald Trump's movement rose amid isolationism.
“I think this is the most dangerous period since before World War Two. There’s certain similarities right now to the ’30s,” he said, referencing the notorious Smoot‑Hawley tariffs and isolationist sentiment.
He added: "Those who were totally anxious to stay out of all of what was going on in Europe were called 'America First.' Sound familiar?"
The Kentucky Republican also highlighted his long record of wins, saying: “Seven victories in Kentucky, nine victories in the (Senate Republican) conference.”
McConnell has won every election in Kentucky since defeating Democratic incumbent Walter “Dee” Huddleston in 1984, and earned a record‑breaking 18 years as Senate GOP leader.
During the wide‑ranging interview held at the McConnell‑Chao Archives at the University of Louisville, McConnell also reflected on his legacy.
He mentioned three major achievements for Kentucky: the mid‑2000s tobacco industry buyout, securing $1.6 billion for a toll‑free Brent Spence Bridge, and leading the deconstruction of a chemical weapons storage facility in Richmond.
He explained that his focus over the remaining two years in office would be on defense and foreign policy.
“I’m not doing that anymore [campaigning],” he said. “I thought the best thing for me to do the last two years was to focus on what I thought was the most important thing I might have an impact on, and that’s defense and foreign policy.”
I’m leading the fight in the House to release the Epstein files. Is this why a billionaire who appears in Epstein’s black book [John Paulson] and regularly donates to @SpeakerJohnson and NRCC is paying for ads against me? His superPAC is deceptively named MAGA Kentucky.