All posts tagged "pam bondi"

Suspect in 2021 planting of DC pipe bombs named by FBI

Federal authorities on Thursday named the Virginia man arrested on allegations of planting pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2021.

Brian Cole Jr., of Woodbridge, was identified as the suspect, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi. He was taken into custody in Woodbridge early Thursday.

The bombs were placed outside the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, just hours before the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

"America should feel safer today," Bondi said, describing how authorities have reexamined the evidence in the five years since the attack.

"This investigation is ongoing," Bondi said. "As we speak, search warrants are being executed, and there could be more charges to come."

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino criticized the Biden administration and said that the FBI had focused on it.

"You're not going to walk into our capital city down to explosive devices and walk off in the sunset," Bongino said. "Not going to happen — we were going to track this person to the end of the earth. There was no way he was getting away."

We must wake from this fawning nightmare even if Trump cannot

Perhaps you’ve seen the scene in Pyongyang when North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un convenes his cabinet of sycophants.

The generals and ministers rise as one, their faces frozen in practiced reverence, eyes locked on their Supreme Leader. No one dares look away. No one fidgets.

The ritualized praise flows like liturgy — each man competing to prove his loyalty, his devotion, his willingness to suspend all independent thought in service of the Dear Leader’s infallibility. Blink at the wrong moment, and you risk death.

We seem to be getting there.

Trump convened another one of his grotesque Cabinet-on-camera meetings Tuesday — produced by the master of Detached-From-Reality TV — and this one was quite a bit like the last one on Aug. 26. Except that jarred a fair amount of sensibilities in the chattering class. Now we seem to be used to it.

No need to dwell on the media angle. That ship has sailed.

But in case you missed it, behold the sweet sounds of sycophancy with which members of the Cabinet of the United States government abandoned their souls, in service of the leader of the band.

Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator:
“If you were to ask me what I’m grateful for, whether it’s a Thanksgiving, it’s a Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, any time of year the fact that this president, after four years serving in office, he could have just left it in the rear-view mirror and went on to really enjoy retirement. But he is willing to take a bullet for all of you tuning in at home because he believes in this flag, our freedom, our liberties and to save the greatest country in the history of the world. So, I’m grateful this holiday season for you, Mr. President, you’re willing to take a bullet for all of us and by all of us it’s the American public.”

Actually, no one asked you, Lee. But plenty of folks would rather take a bullet than listen to more of that.

Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security:
“You’ve saved hundreds of millions of lives with the cocaine you’ve blown up in the Caribbean.”

Now, there was plenty of other sycophancy from Noem, who served the 2.2 billion residents of South Dakota as their governor. But I’m sorry, creature, did you say Trump saved “hundreds of millions of lives” blowing up cocaine in the Caribbean? I thought you did.

Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce:
"A year ago today I was working on transition with President Trump, right, to build the greatest cabinet ever for the greatest president ever. And I, as I sit here today, I can’t be more proud of how you did it, sir. You’ve created the greatest cabinet. It is a joy to be at this table.”

I’m sorry, sir. That's debatable at best.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Secretary of Labor:
“You made the American people realize the American dream is real for the American workforce. And it’s been under your leadership, Mr. President, that over 2 million jobs that have been created since you started have been native born workers. And that is the difference between this presidency, this administration as opposed to the Biden administration where mostly foreign born or federal government jobs.”

Chavez-DeRemer is the one dreaming. The claims about Trump rely upon taking raw data out of context without seasonal adjustments. The Biden stuff is a full-out lie: Native-born workers gained about 7.5 million jobs versus 6.5 million for foreign-born — during his four years. That is what once was called a “fact.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi:
”It’s unbelievable, on the ground in DC and Memphis…we have a 100 percent increase in the arrest of violent criminals, thanks to your leadership.”

That would be impressive were it not for the fact that no publicly available dataset even exists for tracking “violent criminal arrests” in D.C. or Memphis that could serve as a baseline for what Bondi is inventing here. Give them credit for chutzpah: This one’s just made up out of thin air.

Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior:
Mr. President, you’ve assembled an incredibly talented group here. If you took a look at this group compared to any Fortune 500 leadership team, any group of startup folks, I mean, this is an amazing group and the breadth of what’s being accomplished and the timing couldn’t be better because, with your leadership and vision, you’ve set us up for this age of abundance as we head into next year, the 250th anniversary of this country….the White House has never looked better, all because of your vision and leadership. So, again, thank you, sir. You’ve given an incredible Christmas gift to Americans by setting us up for an incredible 250th anniversary.

Doug, thanks for not finishing that part about the Fortune 500 companies.

Scott Turner, HUD Secretary:
“When you were giving your report, which was fantastic, and I listened to the report of all my colleagues here and those that will come, it reminds me when I played in the NFL, we had this thing called game film, you know all about film, and we had a saying that said the film don’t lie. The film tells the real story. And I hope that the American people when they watch the film that’s going on now in this time in our history, that they will see that America is greater today than it ever has been. And so, I thank you for that. And thank you for giving us good stories that we can tell for the American people.”

Thanks, Scott, for the newest slogan of the Trump Administration: “Film don’t lie. We do.” And for proving that covering NFL wide receivers — which you did so well — doesn’t mean you won’t fumble enforcement of the nation’s fair housing laws. Which you have.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins:
These jobs are hard, but the joy every day in getting to fight for America and save the country is the privilege of all of our lifetimes, I believe. So, thank you for that. At the US Department of Agriculture, the people’s department — Abraham Lincoln launched this department in 1862. But under your leadership we have finally again put farmers and ranchers and rural America first.

Finally, an Abe Lincoln reference. But apparently, Ms. Rollins statement was cut off. The full sentence should have read, “Under your leadership we have finally again put farmers and ranchers and rural America first in bankruptcy court, in climate-fueled disaster zones, and in the crosshairs of every trade war you lost.” Just editing.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent:
“We’re going to see real wage increases. I think next year is going to be a fantastic year, taxes, deregulation, energy certainty. That’s why everyone, with your leadership, is coming to America.”

Everyone? Really? Not if they read this transcript from the cabinet meeting.

The fawning references to “your leadership” from Bondi, Rollins and Bessent were just three of 19 served up Tuesday to Trump. Noem and SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler led the way with four apiece, followed by three from Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

No mentions of Jeffrey Epstein.

Oh well, who’s counting? Trump, perhaps, but not Tuesday. It seems that the lead story coming out of the cabinet meeting was that Sleepy Don kept dozing off.

But it’s the rest of us who need to wake up to the soul-selling around the president.

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Pam Bondi hit with urgent sit-down demand over Epstein files

Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called on Attorney General Pam Bondi for an urgent sit-down over unreleased information related to Jeffrey Epstein's files.

A letter sent to the attorney general on Wednesday told Bondi she had until Friday to give "new information" that the administration cited as the reason for a new investigation on the late financier and convicted sex offender, and "could hinder the full release of the files," The Daily Beast reported.

Democrats Ro Khanna, Ben Ray Lujan and Jeff Merkley joined with Republicans Thomas Massie and Lisa Murkowski to demand she respond to her previous statements and give a status update from Nov. 19, after she said "new" and "additional" information had surfaced to prompt a latest look into Epstein and the people connected to him, NBC News reported.

“In the interest of transparency and clarity on the steps required to faithfully implement the Epstein Files Transparency Act, we request a briefing either in a classified or unclassified setting, to discuss the full contents of this new information in your possession at your convenience, but not later than Friday, December 5th, 2025,” according to the letter.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” about Epstein by Dec. 19.

“In light of the short 30 day deadline to release the Epstein Files, we are particularly focused on understanding the contents of any new evidence, information or procedural hurdles that could interfere with the Department’s ability to meet this statutory deadline,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that FBI Director Kash Patel had instructed about 1,000 special agents to oversee redactions to the documents. Critics suspect the documents could have embarrassing information about President Donald Trump's ties to the convicted pedophile and reveal more information about their relationship.

The reason for these Trump failures would be funny — if it weren't so alarming

Kak·i·sto·cra·cy- (kakə̇ˈstäkrəsē): a government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state

A kakistocracy is a system of government where the most unfit, incompetent, and unscrupulous individuals are in power. Such a system does not reflect rational decision-making. Instead, Trump’s kakistocracy is emerging as the consequence of systemic failures (by Donald Trump’s design), corruption (ditto), and societal dynamics (manipulated, but not wholly created, by Trump).

Malevolence may also be a factor. Outside his naked lust for power, profit, and retribution, Trump has shown little interest in governing. After DOGE trashed most federal services, the only departments left fully operational are Trump’s well-funded instruments of power and control: ICE/DHS, FBI, DOJ, DOD, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the US military.

But as Trump seeks to grossly expand his reach through these entities, it is gratifying to watch his hand get slapped back, largely due to his and his administration’s incompetence, by federal courts insisting on the rule of law.

Sheer incompetence led to the dismissal of Trump’s pet prosecutions

On Monday, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie threw out Trump’s cases of political retribution against James Comey and Letitia James, after a parade of incompetence.

The cases were dismissed without prejudice when Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was acting without authority when she obtained the Comey and James indictments. This slap came not for Halligan’s career-ending errors, like failing to present the complete indictment to the complete grand jury, misstating the law to jurors, or for doing Trump’s illegal partisan bidding, but because her appointment as the interim U.S. Attorney was unlawful under both federal law and the US Constitution.

The arcana of judicial appointment procedure may seem boring, even inconsequential, but what Trump tried to do with Halligan demonstrates that it is anything but. Judicial appointments are governed by the article II of the Constitution, and 28 U.S.C. § 546. Under these authorities, a president gets to appoint interim U.S. attorneys for a 120-day appointment. When that 120-day period runs out, the authority to fill the position then shifts to the federal judiciary, not the president acting through his Attorney General.

That shift is enormously consequential. It was designed to block rogue actors from appointing one interim US attorney after another, running through a roster of unethical lawyers willing to break the law by pursuing cases based on politics rather than law.

That is exactly what happened with Halligan.

Trump tried to install a revolving door of lawless sycophants

Judge Currie held that the initial 120-day appointment clock began in January with Trump’s appointment of Erik Siebert, the previous interim U.S. Attorney. Seibert’s 120-day interim period expired on May 21 but the district court judges, following federal law, reappointed him to serve until the vacancy was filled. Trump then nominated him for the full-term position, so he continued to serve.

However, in September, Siebert refused Trump’s request that he pursue criminal charges against Trump’s political enemies, Comey and James. Trump loyalists claimed James falsified property records to receive better loan terms, and that Comey made a false statement to Congress, despite the lack of evidence. Seibert spent five months investigating but ultimately determined there was not enough evidence to proceed with either case. (When Fair Housing officials agreed in internal memos that James committed no crime, they were dismissed.)

Because Seibert refused to pursue unethical and unsupported indictments, Trump wanted to fire him, but Seibert beat him to the punch and resigned. At that point, AG Pam Bondi backdoor-installed Halligan as Seibert’s replacement, but that decision was up to the courts, not Trump. Because Halligan was not legally appointed to serve as interim US attorney, the court ruled that she had no authority to pursue the Comey and James indictments and threw them out.

Trump’s legal clowns keep dropping balls they shouldn’t be juggling

When Seibert said no, he wouldn’t risk his law license to pursue Trump’s wet dream prosecutions unsupported by law, he wrote a “declination memo,” a standard memo outlining the reasons why. That memo featured prominently in a related hearing that revealed yet another lawless DOJ move.

DOJ counsel refused to answer another judge's simple “yes or no” question about whether Seibert wrote such a memo. When Judge Michael Nachmanoff got irritated by the DOJ lawyer’s cagey responses, he pressed until the lawyer finally admitted the reason for his reticence: Because Todd Blanche, Trump’s Deputy Attorney General, instructed him not to admit the declination memo existed.

Federal trial attorneys know that lying by omission to a federal judge, or a lack of candor in response to any judge’s inquiry, if proved, is grounds for disbarment. I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that many of Trump’s DOJ lawyers will find alternative careers when Trump leaves office.

In the meantime, these dismissals are gratifying because they prove that evil intent can be thwarted — trumped, if you will, by vast incompetence.

As a 30-year litigator, I know it is unseemly — unprofessional, even — to enjoy seeing a strident lawyer with more confidence than competence get her comeuppance for acting unethically.

But in this space, I’m a political writer suddenly laughing at the realization that authoritarianism can’t prevail here because it requires competence. It’s funny as hell and the schadenfreude is delicious.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

15 reasons the GOP's Epstein nightmare is nowhere near over

The House passed a bill this week that would force the Department of Justice to release what’s now known as the Epstein files. The measure passed overwhelmingly, by a vote of 427-1. Even before it arrived at the Senate, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for its passage by unanimous consent. He succeeded. The bill went2 to the president for his signature.

Donald Trump caved, but I agree with those who say this is not over.

Here are 15 thoughts.

After all the fighting to prevent passage, we should ask why Trump is now going to authorize the release of documents in which his own name appeared so frequently that the attorney general determined that it was better not to release them at all.
Mark Epstein suggested an answer. He’s Jeffrey Epstein’s brother. Yesterday, he told Chris Cuomo that Trump changed his mind over the weekend, and encouraged the Republicans to vote in the affirmative, because “they’re sanitizing the files.”
Mark Epstein: “I’ve been recently told the reason they’re going to be releasing these things, and the reason for the flip is that they’re sanitizing these files. There’s a facility in Winchester, Virginia, where they’re scrubbing the files to take Republican names out of it. That’s what I was told by a pretty good source.”
Mark Epstein denied the claim that the widely circulated email in which he asked his brother to ask Steven Bannon if Vladimir Putin had photos of “Trump blowing Bubba” is evidence of kompromat. However, “Jeffrey definitely had dirt on Trump,” he told Cuomo. “You could see in the emails. Trump could deny it all he wants, but it’s pretty clear everything Trump says is a lie.”
Trump put intense pressure on House Republicans who are prominent voices within the MAGA movement. The House speaker humiliated himself many times over by refusing to swear in a congresswoman who was the last vote needed to pass the discharge petition. Over 1,000 FBI agents pored over as many as 100,000 documents in the Epstein case to redact each instance of Trump’s name. It was after that process that AG Pam Bondi decided against releasing them, triggering Trump’s current dilemma. If only the names of Trump’s enemies appear in the files once they’re released, no one is going to believe it.
The bill requires, per Bill Kristol, “that the Justice Department make public within thirty days all the unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in its possession related to any of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity, plea agreements, and investigatory proceedings. It specifies that ‘no record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.’”
Moreover: “The authors of the legislation tried to make sure any exceptions were narrowly drawn. The attorney general can only withhold or redact information from personal or medical files — the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy — or information that would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, ‘provided such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary.’ The law requires that all redactions must be accompanied by a written justification in the Federal Register.”
But, as CNN’s Jake Tapper said after House passage: “The legislation as it stands clearly says, ‘The attorney general may withhold or redact personally identifiable, information of victims or victims, personal and medical files,’ and any material that depicts injury, physical abuse, death or child sexual abuse, or jeopardize an active investigation or national security.”
In these loopholes are the makings of a familiar play, wrote MS Now’s Ryan Teague Beckwith. Trump will pretend to be exonerated. That’s what he did with documents showing his collusion with Russia before the 2016 election, and that’s what he’s going to do with the Epstein files. Teague Beckwith: “If the report doesn’t prove the worst thing imaginable, then it proves Trump is totally innocent … We won’t know what is in the Epstein files until they’re released. But no matter what they show, we can expect Trump will say that they exonerate him.”
There is one big difference, though. Back then, when the Republicans wanted Trump to get reelected in 2020, they had incentive to play along with his makebelieve. Things are very different now. Though Trump is selling the idea of running for an illegal third term, ambitious Republicans aren’t buying it. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and others are competing for advantage in anticipation of the time when Trump is gone. So the GOP push for releasing the Epstein files can be seen as a fight over future party leadership. If enough Republicans believe his time is over, that might expose Trump to the outcomes of Democratic aggression: impeachment, removal, and perhaps prosecution. ABC News’ Jonathan Karl was right to say Trump seemed rattled. But he isn’t rattled by defeat. He fears what could happen if his party stands by and watches.
Taylor Greene and Massie speak for the party’s conspiracy wing. Supporters of that faction wanted to see members of a Jewish pedo-cabal, which is what Epstein represented, brought to justice: arrested, tried and executed in what was called “The Storm.” They were not interested in whether Trump was incriminated. They didn’t believe he was until he triggered a crisis of faith in him. He may yet be redeemed, but that won’t depend on pretending to be exonerated. Trump’s redemption will depend on how much ambitious Republicans fluent in the coded language of antisemitism are willing to play along.
Some liberals appear to be looking to the Epstein files the same way they used to look to the Mueller report. In doing so, I think they’re missing the big picture. Almost certainly, the Epstein files are not about something specific, like “Trump blowing Bubba.” They are about a capital-T truth. The Republicans know it, especially those who are attuned to the QAnon conspiracy theory. For them, the truth is that the Democrats are part of an evil, Jewish conspiracy against “real Americans.” All that’s needed to achieve “justice” is “proof.” Today, House Oversight Chairman James Comer said he will provide it. "If there's no Epstein list – and we want to find out if there were people that were violating the law and who they were – we'll have to construct our own."
The Democrats must counter with their own capital-T truth, one that’s fundamentally different from the Republicans’ in that it’s grounded in reality. Specifically, in the testimony of every single one of the survivors of Epstein’s child-sex trafficking syndicate and the elite men who sustained it. Broadly, in the daily experiences of everyone living with the legal and moral consequences of an elite cohort whose corruption is so deep and whose impunity is so vast that we’re literally paying for it.
“I was going to places like Johnstown, Pa., and I was going to places like Warren, Ohio. When I was there, the issue would come up about ‘the Epstein class’ — that’s what they called it. They said, well, are you on the side of the forgotten Americans or on the side of the Epstein class?” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told the Times.
The California congressman expounded on that Tuesday, saying the Epstein vote should be seen as part of the Democratic Party’s efforts to “build an enduring coalition around a vision of new economic patriotism that can unite the left and right. The elements of that are to rail against an elite governing class that has created a system that’s not working for ordinary Americans. And then to offer a concrete vision of how we’re going to prioritize the economic independence and success of those forgotten Americans, as opposed to … the Epstein class that has accumulated power and doesn’t play by the rules and has impunity at the expense of ordinary Americans.”

If nothing else comes of this week's vote, I hope it’s an awareness among liberals that conspiracists who fear an evil cabal doing evil things are mistaken only in terms of the identities of those who constitute that cabal. Otherwise, they are right. There is a real conspiracy against them – against all of us. And it's evil.

‘Stunning curveball’: Reporter gobsmacked as FBI turns tables on Republican attack plans

The FBI turned the tables on a California realtor and Republican congressional candidate who was planning to drop an attack on a Democratic lawmaker but instead was grilled about her communication with Federal Housing Agency Director Bill Pulte and DOJ official Ed Martin, according to reports.

Christine Bish thought she was heading to Greenbelt, Maryland, to testify to a grand jury about Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and mortgage fraud allegations — but instead had an unexpected meeting, MS NOW anchor Ana Cabrera said Friday. The grand jury was hearing allegations that Pulte and Martin illegally shared sensitive information in the administration's mortgage fraud probes of Democratic figures and Trump enemies.

"...There is another stunning curveball at the DOJ. Two Trump allies who have spearheaded investigations into Trump's political adversaries, Bill Pulte and Ed Martin, are now themselves under investigation for their handling of those cases, according to two people familiar with the probe," Cabrera reported.

MS NOW justice and intel reporter Ken Dilanian, part of the team that broke the story, described the shock over the move and other potential allegations that have surfaced, especially the questions over Martin's involvement.

"[Martin is] basically spearheading many of the DOJ's inquiries into Donald Trump's political opponents. He's a darling of Donald Trump. Now, his own Justice Department is investigating him," Dilanian said.

Dilanian talked to Bish on Thursday after her surprise chat.

"She was summoned to the grand jury, subpoenaed, and she showed up yesterday in Greenbelt, Maryland," Dilanian reported. "Instead of testifying before the grand jury, she had an interview with a prosecutor, an FBI agent and others, and she told me that she thought she would be telling them about her take on Adam Schiff's mortgage. But instead, they were grilling her about her communications with Pulte, with Martin, and with two other men who she said spoke to her about these allegations, who don't actually work for the government. And so this is a huge deal. It's amazing to all of us who cover the Justice Department that Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, have allowed this investigation to germinate from the Maryland grand jury."

The investigation is ongoing.

"It'll be interesting to see whether it persists now that it's become public. And Donald Trump surely is aware of it," Dilanian said.

Bondi and Blanche are also aware of the updates to this investigation, and that "nothing of this level at the Justice Department happens without the senior people at least being briefed on it. This is a huge deal. They know that. They knew that if it got out, it would be a massive, massive story. I mean, where else have we seen anything like this? One legal scholar, commenting on our reporting yesterday called this an extraordinary sign of life for the rule of law. We'll have to see whether that remains the case."

Bondi's 'dramatic U-turn' proves DOJ now fully owned by Trump: analyst

MS NOW producer Steve Benen argues Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reason for re-opening a case she personally closed could not be more obvious, or embarrassing.

“Maybe the attorney general wasn’t comfortable saying ‘I do whatever Trump tells me to do, regardless of merit’ during an on-camera press conference,” Benen said.

In July, Bondi’s very own Justice Department released a joint statement with the FBI declaring that after “an exhaustive review” of “investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” investigators had concluded the case closed. Based on all of the available information, Benen said the two departments agreed there was nothing to justify further inquiries into any of Epstein’s alleged connections or co-conspirators.

But last week, Benen said Bondi made “a dramatic U-turn,” reopening the case and tapping a federal prosecutor to continue the investigation that she had declared dead four months ago.

When asked by a reporter why she was rekindling the cold investigation Bondi replied, “Information. There’s information that’s new information, additional information.”

“As for what ‘information’ she was referring to, neither Bondi nor Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would say,” Benen said.

“It’s certainly possible that the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s ‘exhaustive review’ missed important detail, which emerged four months later, but there’s a more logical explanation,” Benen said, and he cited President Donald Trump personally directing the Justice Department and the FBI to launch a new investigation into the case of the convicted sex offender and target it at Democrats.

“I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Four hours later, Bondi did as she was told, discarding her own declarations from the summer,” said Benen.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Bondi wrote in a post on X that included a screenshot of Trump’s request.

“The new line is that the series of events is merely coincidental. Sure, the president who has effectively taken control of the Justice Department barked a foolish order. And sure, his loyalist AG acted four hours later. But what really happened, according to Bondi, is that officials just happened to learn of new ‘information’ she wasn’t at liberty to share at the same time as Trump published a silly tweet telling the DOJ what to do,” Benen said.

Read the full MS NOW report at this link.

'Never occurred before': Ex-Trump lawyer says Bondi may be disbarred over huge DOJ mistake

An ex-Trump attorney said that U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi could be disbarred over potential misconduct in the case against James Comey, former FBI director.

The case was against Comey was never shown to or voted on by a full grand jury before it was presented in open court — which could lead to Bondi and Lindsay Halligan, interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — to be disbarred, Ty Cobb, former White House attorney during President Donald Trump's first administration, told MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing on Wednesday.

Comey's defense team argued that development should prevent further prosecution in the case, saying "there is no indictment," and Judge Michael Nachmanoff gave the Department of Justice until 5 p.m. to respond to the revelations.

"Because typically, if an indictment is dismissed, the government has six months to represent, notwithstanding the expiration of the statute of limitations," Cobb said. "This is an indictment, though, that doesn't really have to be dismissed. It doesn't really exist. It was never properly returned. So I think this is I think what we heard today, shocking never, never occurred before in American jurisprudence. I think it was will be dispositive. But on the other hand, there's so many dispositive issues here, including her illegal appointment."

Cobb called the move surprising and pointed to Halligan's "illegal appointment."

"It's shocking you couldn't find a high school stock boy at Home Depot who could have handled this more ineptly than Lindsey Halligan did," Cobb said. You know, taking an indictment that the grand jury never saw, having the foreman sign it and then presenting it to a judge? That's the height of ineptitude and misconduct."

Cobb also noted Bondi had backed up Halligan's documents in court, which could lead to Bondi herself being disbarred.

Jansing also asked Cobb about the Epstein files and what could happen next as the legislation heads to his desk.

" Trump has no intention of releasing any documents. He and Bondi will scheme and prevent the release, in my view. I don't think we'll see any meaningful or consequential documents come out after this based on Trump's order to prosecute Democrats, not Republicans.

Bondi could use a legal loophole to try and argue the information is still tied to litigation. Trump, he argued, has no interest in releasing the files and only made his move when Republicans said they would push for the files to be released.

"It's not sincere or genuine. He could have released the documents himself without the legislation," Cobb said.

But Trump wants to "be on the winning side," and that's why he reversed his stance.

"Contrary to Bondi's lies this morning, there is no new information. The government has all this information," Cobb said.

Bondi has been on record saying no more new cases could be brought against anyone now.

"Whatever's happening now is just a fraud," he added.

'Jammed by their own incompetence': DOJ may not be able to scrub Trump from Epstein files

President Donald Trump appears likely to sign the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act into law this week, which would compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all remaining evidence pertaining to deceased child predator Jeffrey Epstein that has yet to be made public.

However, Epstein's brother, Mark, recently said that a "pretty good source" told him the DOJ is "sanitizing" the Epstein files ahead of their likely release in order to downplay implications for Republicans. But one veteran journalist is arguing that even if Attorney General Pam Bondi attempts to release doctored documents, the effort could still backfire and make the administration's Epstein problem even worse.

"I get the concerns that AG Bondi and FBI Director Patel may try to scrub all Trump references and images in the Epstein files before they are released," former CNN, Fox News and NBC journalist David Shuster wrote Tuesday on his official X account. "Well, there are nearly 1,000 FBI/DOJ staff who looked at the files in March with no compartmentalizing, limits, or controls."

As Shuster pointed out, Bondi ordered DOJ staff to comb through approximately 100,000 pages of documents pertaining to Epstein's two federal investigations in 2006 and 2019 earlier this year. The New York Times reported that between February and April, DOJ staff pored through the evidence four times.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (who was Trump's former personal lawyer) explicitly told attorneys to flag any mention of Trump in the files. Shuster argued that one of the may DOJ staffers would likely report any noticeable changes to lawmakers and undermine any attempt by the administration to shield high-profile figures from accountability.

"Bondi and Patel will be jammed by their own incompetence," Shuster wrote. "Because if the AG and FBI director try to scrub Trump references now, there will be more than a few FBI/DOJ whistleblowers who will notice the removals and alert Congress. Check mate."

The Epstein Files Transparency Act passed the House overwhelmingly on Tuesday by a vote of 427-1, with Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) being the only "no" vote. Capitol Hill journalist Jamie Dupree reported that the House is expected to walk the legislation to the Senate on Wednesday, where it is expected to pass.

'Legal tripwires': Ex-GOP insider flags charges Pam Bondi could face over Epstein matter

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top insiders could face several criminal charges in connection with their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter, according to a former GOP strategist.

Ex-GOP strategist Rick Wilson, who recently said he might depose Trump in a lawsuit and force the president to explain his ties to the deceased child sex abuser Epstein, wrote a piece on Friday in which he notes that Bondi and Trump official Todd Blanche "have spent months insisting that there’s nothing more to see, no client list, no reason to keep digging."

"Now we have Epstein himself saying Trump 'knew about the girls,' spent hours with a victim, and was 'dirty.' You don’t have to be a lawyer or prosecutor (and I am most certainly neither) to see the legal tripwires they’re dancing around," he said before outlining several examples.

Number one, according to Wilson, is obstruction of justice.

"If it’s shown that DOJ brass deliberately withheld, destroyed, or mischaracterized responsive Epstein records to protect Trump or other allies – particularly in response to Congressional demands, subpoenas, or court orders, that’s squarely in obstruction territory. I know, right now it seems like they get away with everything, but the reality is that they have to be lucky every time… we only have to be lucky once," he wrote, before outlining a charge for conspiracy to defraud the United States.

"A coordinated pattern of misleading Congress and the public about what the files contain…you know, like using 'no client list' language while sitting on emails like the ones released yesterday could fit the classic 'conspiracy to interfere with lawful government functions' theory," Wilson wrote.

Another potential charge, he said, is contempt of Congress.

"As the House moves from discharge petitions to binding legislation and subpoenas, any continued slow-walking or stonewalling exposes Bondi and Blanche (neither of whom, it must be recalled, is Trump’s personal attorney) to contempt findings and, under a future Justice Department, to a potential criminal referral," he wrote. He added that there are other potential consequences, as well.

"Even short of criminal charges, bar regulators take a dim view of lawyers who play cute with evidence, mislead tribunals, or weaponize redactions to hide politically inconvenient truths. The more the public record fills with letters from Raskin, Garcia, Durbin, and others documenting DOJ’s shifting explanations, the worse it looks for the lawyers signing off on those decisions," he wrote. "To be precise: no court has found Bondi or Blanche criminally liable, and the corrupt DOJ’s OLC and Trump-stooge Inspector General aren’t going to do a damn thing."

He further added, "They are already being accused, in writing, by senior members of Congress of participating in a cover-up of Epstein co-conspirators and evidence. Yesterday’s emails make those accusations more potent, not less."

Read the full piece here.