Jacquie Battle
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jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Jacquie Battle
@jacquiebattle.bsky.social
360 followers 470 following 1.1K posts
Intention is to be better informed when leaving than upon arrival. If not that, then amusedly distracted.

Pretty good at raising black swallowtail butterflies.
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jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Worthwhile read. Congressmen Raskin & [Hank] Johnson, & Senator Whitehouse, are sponsoring legislation to address the legal loopholes that make "it all but impossible to sue federal agents for constitutional violations & shields them with immunity should that barrier ever be breached."

Author bio:
Mike Fox is a legal fellow in the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. His areas of interest include overcriminalization, police accountability, and coercive plea bargaining. Before joining Cato, he served as a Colorado Public Defender and worked for the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Operations & Border Management. Fox received his BS in political science from Northeastern University and a law degree from Suffolk University Law School.
November 24, 2025 at 9:07 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
This is disturbing… Folks arrested, charged, & put on house arrest based on an overheard conversation, no other evidence.

"According to a release from the Virginia Beach PD, John W. Bennett & Mark Bennett, both of Virginia Beach, each face one charge of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding."
According to the complaint, an off-duty Norfolk police officer, identified as B. Thorpe, overheard a conversation between the brothers while they were having lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant Nov. 15. Thorpe claimed the brothers discussed ICE “kidnapping individuals” and that the brothers said “they needed to do something about it.” The complaint also alleges the brothers discussed hunting and weapons that could shoot through tactical vests. According to Thorpe, seated several booths away, Mark Bennett also allegedly spoke of a trip to Las Vegas. Thorpe claimed Mark Bennett said he was going there to meet with “likeminded individuals.” Happy O’Brien, an attorney for Mark Bennett, refuted that characterization, saying his client never used those words and had planned a trip to Las Vegas to attend a Formula One event with his son. According to the brothers’ attorneys, the statement made by Thorpe is the only evidence against the brothers. Virginia Beach Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Lang offered no additional evidence during the hearings. He said federal agents are still analyzing the brothers’ phones and personal electronics. “I’m not trying to be flippant,” O’Brien told the court. “But it’s frightening that we’re here based on a hearsay statement in a restaurant a few booths away.” He characterized the lunch conversation between the brothers as Seinfeldian, and said the government’s case was based on a few lines taken out of context of an hour-long conversation “about nothing.” John Bennett’s attorney, Kristin Paulding, reiterated that the evidence against the brothers was “cherry-picked.” “You’ll see from the evidence there is no criminal conspiracy, no intent to hurt anyone,” Paulding said on the courthouse steps. “There is no evidence that they’d want to hurt anyone.” The brothers were each granted a $25,000 bond and will be placed on house arrest.
November 23, 2025 at 11:28 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
G Elliott Morris will be live streaming with The Downballot folks Tuesday night.
On deck this week: It’s election time! In place of the usual Tuesday premium post, I’m joining a live election-night conversation hosted by my friends at The Downballot. You can tune in at 7:00 PM ET via the Substack app or at the Strength In Numbers website. I think I’ll have enough time to develop county-level benchmarks for the races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia by then, which will help determine which candidates are leading early in the night. That’s what I did for our last election stream, and people seemed to find it valuable.
November 2, 2025 at 10:53 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
"History teaches us how terrorist attacks are exploited. Our advantage is that we know this history, and so react sensibly. Do not give the present regime the benefit of the doubt after it allows a terrorist attack to take place on American soil. Be skeptical about its account of who is to blame. …"
As I will try to show, the present government invites a terror attack. Most of the people directing the relevant agencies are incompetent; the next few layers down have been purged in culture wars; much the remaining personnel have resigned, been fired, or are demoralized; resources have been diverted away from terror prevention; Americans has been distracted by fiction and chaos; and potential attackers have been encouraged. And so we have to think — now — about what would follow such an attack. Musk, Trump, Vance, and the rest would try to exploit the moment to undo remaining American freedoms. Let me cite Lesson 18 of On Tyranny. 18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.
November 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Screenshot NYPDnews post on X/Twitter: The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time and all traffic closures have been lifted.  We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests. 3:27 PM · 18 Oct 25 · 9.3M Views 11.5K Reposts 1,040 Quotes 111K Likes 3,026 Bookmarks
October 20, 2025 at 6:43 AM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Very good piece by Dan Holtmeyer @danholtmeyer.bsky.social

"…a broader project that’s been building since day 1 of Trump's second term: not just to undo the work of Donald Trump’s predecessors, which he has certainly tried, but to rewind the clock on an entire century of legal—and moral—progress."
Alt text includes the last line of the last paragraph, which was cut off in the screenshot. What do we do in the face of a pro-massacre, pro-segregation, pro-eugenics government? I have a few suggestions. First, we can hold onto our essential moral beliefs regardless of federal reversions: The progress of the last century was correct and good, and the job isn’t finished. The same old brawls continue, and we must stay in the fight. Second, we can judge our representatives and other public figures by their response or lack thereof: Are they complicit in this monstrousness? Are they trying to tell us to focus on something else or to find common ground with it? Or are they calling it out as it deserves? Finally, we can learn an important lesson from how this all happened. When you decide that America must be 100% right and good at all times, that everything it has done must have been justifiable, then you will find yourself celebrating inhumanity. I choose instead to see the injustices as well as their targets: the communities that have pushed my home, slowly, to be better.
October 17, 2025 at 5:56 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Dave Troy re "Antifa": "The Trump administration is literally trying to manifest an enemy out of thin air in order to criminalize its opponents. […]

"Journalists should do their part by not backstopping the administration's absurd claims…"

x.com/davetroy/sta...
Screenshot of top part of Dave Troy post on X/Twitter: I first heard about “Antifa” in 2017. And I heard it didn’t exist; it was merely a descriptor. If you were opposed to fascism, you might describe yourself as “anti-fa” or antifascist. And I know a lot of such people. Living in Baltimore, I have come across communists, greens, labor groups, and various activist groups with far left ties and historic KGB connections. Other groups have China connections. They were always obvious to me and I knew which individuals were involved in specific groups. I never knew of anyone involved in “antifa,” never saw a meeting of such a group, never saw a poster promoting it. Screenshot of middle part of Dave Troy post on X/Twitter: The Trump administration is literally trying to manifest an enemy out of thin air in order to criminalize its opponents. This is obviously incredibly dangerous, a red flag for rising authoritarianism, and a gestapo tactic for justifying the use of force by the state. Screenshot of bottom part of Dave Troy post on X/Twitter: Journalists should do their part by not backstopping the administration’s absurd claims. If they are going to assert that “antifa” is an organized group, force them to name names and identify money flows. If they claim to be tracking foreign influence, what they will find is funds from Russia and China in particular backstopping the administration’s OWN criminal acts. Rub their dirty faces in that fact. Do not comply, do not play along. Last edited 9:08 AM · 10 Oct 25
October 10, 2025 at 3:25 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Screenshot of deleted post. Linked video is suspect.
Screenshot of deleted post. Linked video is suspect.
October 5, 2025 at 11:29 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Thanks.

And Trisha McLaughlin of DHS says this is not a video of Marimar Martinez's DHS encounter. McLaughlin is not a trustworthy source, either, but I'm going to delete the video anyway. This whole story is weird enough, without adding in the video aspect.
Screenshot of Trisha McLaughlin's quote post of Kim "Katie" USA's post on Twitter. @TriciaOhio quote posted: This footage is NOT from the attack in Chicago involving the 10 car caravan blockading our law enforcement, not involving “La Maggie.” This is from ANOTHER vehicular assault later that day in Chicago where an individual rammed an @ICEGov vehicle. This violence is rampant, as much as JB Pritzker wants to white wash the facts on the ground. @KimKatieUSA posted: BREAKING: This is the video where Marimar Martinez, aka La Maggie, rammed a white DHS vehicle who had their emergency lights on. Another DHS black SUV then attempts to ram Marimar's SUV from behind. One DHS agent is on the passenger side firing shots. Democrats are insane. Video
October 5, 2025 at 11:16 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
"The New York Times could not independently verify details of the encounter" either.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/u...
On Saturday night, D.H.S. officials identified the suspect as Marimar Martinez. They said she had been discharged from the hospital and that she was in F.B.I. custody. D.H.S. added that a driver of another vehicle, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, had also been involved in the ramming and that he had been apprehended by law enforcement. It was unclear on Saturday whether he or Ms. Martinez had been charged and whether they had any representation. “These attacks on our brave law enforcement officers must end,” Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of Homeland Security, said in the statement. Mr. Ruiz’s mother, Elizabeth Ruiz, said her son told her on the phone in the morning that he had been rammed by federal agents and that they were shooting. Upon hearing that, she said, she raced to the scene. She said an agent grabbed her son and said he was under arrest. When she asked why, she said she received no answer.
October 5, 2025 at 6:25 AM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Agree. Kinda' seems like the feds are trying to craft a narrative that makes a ridiculously bad encounter sound reasonable.

The Chicago Sun-Times has yet another version of events.

chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the Brighton Park shooting erupted after patrolling agents were “rammed by 10 cars” and “boxed in.” Agents then fired “defensive shots” when they discovered the woman “was armed with a semi-automatic weapon” while driving one of the cars, McLaughlin said. The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ have not independently verified the feds’ account. The exact time and location of the shooting weren’t immediately known. McLaughlin said “no law enforcement officers were seriously injured,” and the wounded woman “drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.” But Larry Merritt, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman, said she was found near South 35th Street and California Avenue and taken in fair condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.
October 5, 2025 at 3:11 AM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Can only guess "Interpersonal" might not be one of Howard Gardner's strong suits. It might have been one of Epstein's, though.

Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences:
Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences identifies at least eight distinct types of intelligence, rather than a single general ability: Spatial: visualizing the world in 3D Naturalist: understanding living things and reading nature Musical: discerning sounds, their pitch, tone, rhythm, and timbre Bodily-kinesthetic: coordinating your mind with your body Logical-mathematical: qualifying things, making hypotheses, and proving them Interpersonal: sensing people's feelings and motives Intra-personal: understanding yourself, what you feel, and what you want Linguistic: finding the right words to express what you mean
September 27, 2025 at 7:56 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
To finish out Howard Gardner's story from this article:

www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
According to Epstein’s inbox, Gardner followed up by recommending novels including Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King. “As for the other, more personal question that you posed, that requires a longer conversation-whenever you'd like.” That “offsprings” question may have been “about the possibility of having children,” Gardner told Bloomberg News. “Beyond common sense I did not have any advice on that score.” Asked why he and so many academics flocked to Epstein, Gardner said he was charming, knowledgeable and “had a sixth sense for what others—including faculty members and senior administrators—would appreciate.” Gardner added that he wished he “had asked more questions, but I don’t even know what questions I would or should have asked.” He added: “I never had the slightest knowledge or even intimation of the darker sides.”
September 27, 2025 at 7:56 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
The irony...
In October 2007, Epstein received an email from Howard Gardner, a leading developmental psychologist at Harvard who helped start an initiative on living ethically called the Good Project, which “strives to equip individuals to reflect upon the ethical dilemmas that arise in everyday life.” Gardner said he’d be getting back to him on two requests: “a reading list and advice about offsprings.” Epstein was less than a year away from reporting to jail. “Meanwhile,” Gardner added, “take a deep breath, take one day at a time, and you'll get through the coming period fine.”
September 27, 2025 at 6:53 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Ugh.

New Jersey 2025 Poll: Race for Governor in Dead Heat between Sherrill and Ciattarelli

"...women break for Sherrill by ten pts, 46% to 36%, while men break for Ciattarelli by 12 pts, 51% to 39%.

"Both…Trump &…Murphy are underwater among NJ voters."

emersoncollegepolling.com/new-jersey-2...
If the November 2025 election for Governor were held tomorrow, who would you vote for? Overall: Mikie Sherrill (D) 43% Someone else 3% Undecided 11% Jack Ciattarella (R) 43% 18-29 year olds: Mikie Sherrill (D) 56% Someone else 11% Undecided 15% Jack Ciattarella (R) 18% 30-39 year olds: Mikie Sherrill (D) 60% Someone else 1% Undecided 11% Jack Ciattarella (R) 28% 40-49 year olds: Mikie Sherrill (D) 47% Someone else 3% Undecided 11% Jack Ciattarella (R) 40% 50-59 year olds: Mikie Sherrill (D) 32% Someone else 2% Undecided 13% Jack Ciattarella (R) 52% 60-69 year olds: Mikie Sherrill (D) 37% Someone else 3% Undecided 8% Jack Ciattarella (R) 52% 70 or more: Mikie Sherrill (D) 39% Someone else 1% Undecided 8% Jack Ciattarella (R) 51% Total: Mikie Sherrill (D) 43.3% Someone else 3.0% Undecided 10.8% Jack Ciattarella (R) 42.9% Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey of 935 New Jersey voters, conducted Sept 22-23, 2025. Margin of error +/- 3.1 percentage points.
September 26, 2025 at 3:30 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
47's frame of reference for all things re immigration and asylum seems to be the 1980 Mariel boatlift.
Donald J. Trump on Truth Social: "We want Venezuela to immediately accept all of the prisoners, and people from mental institutions, which includes the Worst in the World Insane Asylums, that Venezuelan 'Leadership' has forced into the United States of America. Thousands of people have been badly hurt, and even killed, by these 'Monsters.' GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY, RIGHT NOW, OR THE PRICE YOU PAY WILL BE INCALCULABLE!" 09/20/25, 12:56 PM
September 21, 2025 at 2:38 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Excellent article by Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social The whole piece is worth the read.

"In context, Kimmel’s statements were quite benign.

"But that didn’t stop FCC boss Brendan Carr...from going on yet another MAGA podcast and claiming that Disney could “lose its license” over this. ..."
Carr then suggests that the FCC can use the “public interest” obligation of public spectrum (TV and radio broadcasters, but not internet or cable TV) to threaten to pull licenses for airing Kimmel’s segment. This is beyond nonsense. As FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) noted in a statement: The FCC has no authority to control what a late night TV host can say, and the First Amendment protects Americans’ right to speculate on current events even if those speculations later turn out to be incorrect. Subjecting broadcasters to regulatory liability when anyone on their network gets something wrong would turn the FCC into an arbiter of truth and cast an intolerable chill over the airwaves. Carr’s threat was pretty explicit: I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. That’s a pretty direct threat to intermediaries to punish Kimmel for obviously First Amendment protected speech. Just last year, in a 9-0 ruling in NRA v. Vullo, the Supreme Court called out how this kind of thing is a clear violation of the First Amendment. A government official can share her views freely and criticize particular beliefs, and she can do so forcefully in the hopes of persuading others to follow her lead. In doing so, she can rely on the merits and force of her ideas, the strength of her convictions, and her ability to inspire others. What she cannot do, however, is use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression…. And, more explicitly: The Court explained that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from relying on the “threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion . . . to achieve the suppression” of disfavored speech. While Carr initially appeared to threaten Disney/ABC’s “licenses,” he knows full well that (other than a small number of owned and operated affiliates) ABC doesn’t actually have most of the licenses. Instead, it’s the local affiliates that do. But Carr directly targeted them with a threat: There’s action we can take on licensed broadcasters. And, frankly, it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast or Disney and say, listen, we are going to preempt, we’re not going to run Kimmel any more until you straighten this out because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion. This is a not so subtle threat to affiliates to drop Kimmel or face fines or have their licenses pulled. And, not surprisingly, this threat worked. Hours later, Nexstar, the largest owner of local TV stations in the US which has been sucking up to Trump to try to buy out even more TV stations, announced that it would not run Kimmel’s show on their stations, and shortly after that Disney announced that it was pulling Kimmel’s show “indefinitely.”
September 18, 2025 at 4:48 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
"Trump has had it in for Jimmy Kimmel, a prominent critic, for a very long time. After CBS axed fellow late-night Trump critic Stephen Colbert earlier this year, the president repeatedly said that Kimmel was “next.”..."
September 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Morten Moreland cartoon published in The Times depicting an orange-faced Trump sitting on the edge of his bed watching the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on television, but with a picture of himself taped to the TV screen next to the images of Xi, Kim and Putin in the grandstand.
September 3, 2025 at 8:22 AM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Good piece by Ellie Rushing.

"Musier appealed his [life sentence without parole] conviction for years without success. In 2023, he filed a petition in federal court contending that his constitutional rights were violated when prosecutors withheld evidence at his trial."
As Jonte Slater sat in a jail cell, charged with murder, he plotted to free himself — and frame another man for the crime. Days after his 2008 arrest, Slater told relatives to track down a witness to the shooting and pay her to say that Tyree Musier — not he — fired the bullets that killed Nathaniel Crawford on a West Philadelphia street. “They can get a check if they come down there and say it ain’t me,” Slater told the mother of his child in a recorded phone call from jail. “A thousand dollars apiece, for whoever the witnesses is,” he told her in a separate call. “Each one of them.” The plan worked. A review of the case shows the imperfect layers that can lead to a criminal conviction. It revealed critical evidence that was buried in the bottom of a file box and never turned over to defense lawyers. It showed a case underpinned by a key witness who recanted her testimony at trial — leaving attorneys and jurors alike to wonder at what point she was lying: then or now? And it underscored a “no snitch” culture that led Musier to maintain his innocence but remain silent about the identity of the real killer, even while facing the possibility of life in prison. “I feel like he thought that he could trust the system,” Musier’s sister Tania said of her younger brother. Now, she said, he realizes that was a mistake.
August 21, 2025 at 6:25 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Important reporting by Aram Roston and Jim Urquhart.

"With Donald Trump’s return to power, a neo-Nazi group buoyed by his rhetoric is expanding its reach and changing the face of white extremism in America. Its leaders: a Texas couple, both born to Ku Klux Klan leaders."
Several trends have converged since Trump’s re-election, Reuters found. Trump’s rhetoric has galvanized a new wave of far-right activists, fueling growth in white supremacist ranks. Trump’s pardons of January 6 rioters and a shift in federal law enforcement’s focus toward immigration have also led many on the far right to believe that federal investigations into white nationalists are no longer a priority. [Trump] awakened a lot of people to the issues we’ve been raising for years. He’s the best thing that’s happened to us. Henry Stout, a leader of the white nationalist group Aryan Freedom Network And the boundaries of the far right itself are shifting. Ideas once confined to fringe groups like the Proud Boys – who helped lead the January 6 siege – are now more visible in Republican politics, from election denialism to rhetoric portraying immigrants as “invaders.” Trump’s public support and pardons for far-right figures helped normalize those views, the researchers said. As the Make America Great Again movement has come to define the party’s identity, the line separating the far right from mainstream conservatism has grown increasingly difficult to draw, they added. What was once extreme now blends more easily into the broader far-right, not because those extreme groups have changed, but because the terrain around them has, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and extremism. “A Proud Boy doesn’t even seem that scary anymore because of the normalization process,” she said. That shift has coincided with a surge in white nationalist activity. White extremists are committing a growing proportion of U.S. political violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, a nonprofit research outfit that tracks global conflicts. In 2020, such groups were linked to 13% of all U.S. extremist-related demonstrations and acts of political violence, or 57 of the events ACLED tracked. By 2024, they accounted for nearly 80%, or 154 events.
August 8, 2025 at 9:17 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
A worthwhile endeavor by virologist Angela Rasmussen. Vinay Prasad is as good a choice as any to lead-off the *Never Forget* series.
Note from Angie: I have no respect, as a scientist and an American patriot, for my colleagues who are willing to throw aside all professional and ethical standards to collaborate or be complicit with the undoing of American democracy. This is the first in a series of Never Forget posts intended to enshrine their deeds in the public memory and ensure that nobody ever forgets what they contributed to and participated in.
July 31, 2025 at 6:48 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
Interesting *compare & contrast* by John Ganz.

"Perot’s political endeavors fed on political cynicism, but also deepened it: The message of “nothing works” resonated. In that sense, there may be some similarities between then and now. ..."
Image text, plus the last few lines of the paragraph cut off in the screenshot. The voters who flocked to Perot also differ greatly from Musk’s supporters. Perot’s people had been the managerial middle of the Cold War: engineers, office administrators and plant supervisors. Now they were being pushed into precarity, their worlds eroded by outsourcing and mergers and the sudden reduction of the defense and aerospace industries. Although Perot pitched himself as an alternative to the mainstream parties, Perot’s base was rooted in the civic cultures of the Sun Belt suburbs and upper-Midwestern small towns — places where Rotary Clubs still met and where people watched 60 Minutes religiously. He did activate young, downwardly mobile voters who felt left out of the system, but many of his most dedicated volunteers had long histories of civic engagement. His political language was populist and he thrived in new media, but he was still bound by the old rituals of bipartisan America, things like the pledge of allegiance, town halls and debates moderated by broadcast anchors. These were people who had made it in the old system but no longer believed it was working. Their politics was defined not by class position exactly, but by a sense of loss: of competence, seriousness and national unity. They had believed in the postwar order, and when it cracked, they reached for someone who promised to restore it. Musk has a much more fragmented nation and political terrain to navigate, in large part thanks to the social media revolution that he has hijacked. He doesn’t speak for a class so much as he performs for fragmented audiences: a lumpenbroletariat of downwardly mobile professionals, bitter Redditors, anime porn addicts, finance bros, crypto hustlers, divorced dads stuck in YouTube rabbit holes. His appeal cuts across the cultural wreckage of the white middle class — not through its shared values, but through shared disillusionment. They don’t have a real memory of a lost Golden Age, just AI-generated kitsch images that make Perot’s Rockwellian America look like high art. This is not a constituency so much as a fickle public that wants to be entertained and distracted. They do not have the attention span to become the dedicated volunteers that got Perot on the ballot in 50 states. They rise in enthusiasm only to quickly return to indolence. And he has a major competitor for their attention: Trump, who can channel the same anti-system energy, but is genuinely funny and spontaneous in a way that Musk simply isn’t.
July 23, 2025 at 10:56 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
"A thorough review of the matter would actually be a helpful thing, less by way of rebutting conspiracy theories than by way of telling a story [that] really does raise questions about how Epstein avoided accountability for so long and how those who cavorted with him have avoided it to this day."
Having said that, let me say that there are, by my count anyway, four discrete areas in which the public might benefit from greater disclosure on the Epstein case. And there are at least two lawful and appropriate ways to effectuate this disclosure: First, to the extent that there is undisclosed information about the circumstances of Epstein’s death, a death in custody should always be fully and completely investigated, and the fruits of that investigation should be made public. I have zero reason to believe, to be clear, that Epstein died by any hand other than his own, but we should err on the side of maximum disclosure of this sort of thing. The Justice Department inspector general issued a report on this subject back in 2023. If members of Congress have further questions on the subject, a congressional investigation is a perfectly appropriate means of addressing them and making public any material still under wraps. Second, if there is evidence of Epstein providing trafficked or minor women for sex to any person, I have no trouble with this evidence becoming public. It should not simply be released by the Justice Department, for all the reasons described above. It is, however, perfectly appropriate for Congress—which has shown itself adept at conducting major investigations of late for the purposes of telling stories to the public of matters of national import—to look into the matter and seek the department’s cooperation in doing so. How much it would get is unclear, but congressional committees have done admirable work over the last few years on Russian interference in the 2016 election, on the “perfect” phone call, and on the Jan. 6 insurrection. A look back at the Epstein saga that sought to name names of those who exploited young women would be tawdry, but it wouldn’t be inappropriate. Third, there are certain individuals whose relationship with Epstein demands a degree of explanation. Democrats want clarity on Epstein’s relationship with President Trump. Many Republicans want a probe into his ties to former President Bill Clinton. A congressional probe could be specifically charged with examining Epstein’s relationship with presidents—or major political figures—of both parties. Finally, fourth, there is a legitimate set of questions remaining about the conduct of the investigation of Epstein, both the original investigation in Florida and the subsequent one after it was revived during the first Trump administration. Some of this subject was covered by an Office of Professional Responsibility report from 2020. But not all of it was. In particular, the question of why the investigation never progressed beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell—particularly in combination with Epstein’s death and the sweetheart deal he received in his earlier prosecution—has helped drive the belief that the man had some sort of protection from on high. A thorough review of the matter would actually be a helpful thing, less by way of rebutting conspiracy theories than by way of telling a story really does raise questions about how Epstein avoided accountability for so long and how those who cavorted with him have avoided it to this day. The jurisdictional lines here are complicated, but some combination of an inspector general investigation (covering the investigative side), an OPR investigation (covering the prosecutorial side), and a congressional investigation covering the wide arch policy questions and history could be constructive here. What the world doesn’t need is a document dump. So no, don’t release the Epstein files. Let’s study the Epstein saga rigorously instead.
July 22, 2025 at 8:14 PM
jacquiebattle.bsky.social
A link to the Facebook post is in the alt text.
In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. "This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story," he said. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women," he said. "It's not my language. It's not my words." He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. "I'm gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else," he said. A Drawing By Donald Trump Of New York's Skyline Just Sold For $29,184 The sketch, which Trump drew for a charity campaign in 2005, was auctioned on Thursday An article by Claudia Koerner, BuzzFeed News Reporter, posted on Facebook July 27, 2017 at 10:59 pm https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiakoerner/a-drawing-by-donald-trump-of-new-yorks-skyline-just-sold#4ldqpho
July 18, 2025 at 1:51 AM