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After yesterday's revelation that the Department of Justice, or DOJ, is blocking the release
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of a memo related to a drug enforcement agency investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey
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Epstein and 14 co-conspirators, Attorney General Pam Bondi added more evidence to the
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idea that the DOJ is engaged in covering up the relationship between members of the Trump
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administration, including President Donald J. Trump himself and Epstein.
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On March 4, 2026, five Republicans joined the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee
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to agree to subpoena Bondi to testify before it under oath about how the DOJ handled the
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release of the Epstein files.
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Deputy Chair James Comer, a Republican of Kentucky, issued the subpoena on March 17, requiring
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Bondi to appear before the committee on April 14.
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Kyle Stewart and Kyle Agilfoil of NBC News reported yesterday that a DOJ spokesperson said
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the subpoena was completely unnecessary and said Bondi continues to have calls and meetings
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with members of Congress on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which is why the Department
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offered to brief the committee.
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Yesterday, March 18, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared at that a close
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door hearing before the committee in which they were not under oath.
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Democrats asked repeatedly if Bondi intended to comply with the subpoena she refused to commit.
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In summer Lee, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, asked Comer if he would compel Bondi to comply
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and hold her in contempt if she doesn't, Comer told her she was bitching.
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Ultimately, the Democrats walked out of the briefing.
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Talking to reporters, Representative Maxwell Frost, a Democrat of Florida, who has been
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key to untangling the released Epstein files, said,
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To me, it's very clear that the purpose of this entire fake hearing, this fake deposition,
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is the Attorney General trying to weasel herself out of sitting in front of us under oath,
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under a bipartisan subpoena.
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We asked her multiple times, are you going to come and speak with us under oath?
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She would not say yes.
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Frost pushed back on Republican colleagues who argued that the briefing should be enough.
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We want her under oath because we do not trust her.
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Why don't we trust her?
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Because she's a liar.
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He noted that in the recent hearing before the House Judiciary Committee about the files,
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Bondi's documents revealed the DOJ is keeping track of what documents members of Congress are reading.
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He also noted the DOJ has put up documents related to Trump only when investigators
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called out that they were missing.
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We want her under oath because we don't trust her.
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We want her under oath because she has shown that she is involved in a cover-up.
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So we see this for what it is.
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This is not a briefing.
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A briefing is when we sit down and we're getting information from the person giving the briefing.
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That didn't happen here.
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She sat down, they started the clock like a hearing.
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It is a fake deposition where no one can see what's going on with zero transcription,
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where it's not on C-SPAN or anything, and where no one is under oath,
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and they are allowed to freely lie to members of Congress.
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard,
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Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI Director Cash Patel,
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and Central Intelligence Agency or CIA Director John Ratcliffe were under oath
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when they testified yesterday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats.
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Democratic senators focused on the war with Iran.
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The administration officials refused to say if they had told Trump that the Iranians could
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well block the Strait of Hormuz if the US struck in the country.
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Gabbard tried not to contradict Trump,
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eliminating from her opening statement that the 2025 strikes against Iran's nuclear
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enrichment program had obliterated it,
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and that the country had not started the program up again, for example.
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When asked why she didn't read that portion of her opening statement,
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she said she realized her statement was running long.
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Asked by Senator Angus King, an independent of Maine,
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if reports that Russia is sharing intelligence with Iran are true,
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Gabbard seemed to try to hide that information, saying,
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if there is that sharing going on, that would be an answer that would be appropriate for a closed
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session. King pointed out that this report is in the public press, so it's not a secret.
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Again, he asked her if it is occurring. Again, she answered,
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if it is occurring, that would be an answer appropriate for a closed session.
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what I can tell you is that according to the Department of War,
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any support that Iran may be receiving is not inhibiting their operational effects.
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King responded, okay, that's sort of the first cousin of a yes.
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Asked by Senator John Ossoff, a Democrat of Georgia,
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if the intelligence community assessed that Iran posed an imminent threat,
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Gabbard said the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president.
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In fact, Ossoff pointed out it is precisely the job of the intelligence community to make such
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a determination, and he established that the intelligence community did not assess that
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Iran posed an imminent threat to the US before Trump struck it.
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Ossoff called Gabbard out for evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee
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would contradict a statement from the White House.
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In response to questioning by Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon,
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FBI Director Patel admitted that under Trump, the government has been buying information on Americans
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from private companies, buying location data derived from internet advertising.
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Wyden noted that in 2023, FBI Director Christopher Ray testified that the FBI did not
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buy that information, although it had done so in the past.
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Asked if the FBI was still using that policy, and if he would commit to keeping the FBI from
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buying that data, Patel answered, we do purchase commercially available information that's
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consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act,
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and it is led to some valuable intelligence for us.
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As Robert Mackie of the Guardian explains, if law enforcement officers want to get location
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data directly from cell phone companies, they have to go to a judge for a warrant.
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But government agencies are trying to get around the Fourth Amendment requirement for those
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judicial warrants by buying that information directly from private data brokers.
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Wyden has always strongly opposed surveillance of Americans. He posted,
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Cash Patel refused to deny that the FBI is buying up Americans location data.
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This is a shocking end run around the Fourth Amendment, and exactly why we need to pass real
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privacy reforms now. Concerns about data privacy have been heightened since March 10th,
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when Merrill Cornfield, Elizabeth Daweskin and Lisa Reign reported in the Washington Post on a
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whistleblower complaint filed in January, saying that a former employee of the Department of
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Government Efficiency or Doge claimed he had taken two highly restricted databases of information
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about U.S. citizens from the Social Security Administration, where he had unrestricted access,
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and that he planned to take them to a government contractor.
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Those files included the Social Security numbers, birth dates, place of birth, citizenship,
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race, ethnicity, and parents' names of more than 500 million living and dead Americans.
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According to the whistleblower, the person with the files said he needed help transferring
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the data from a thumb drive to a personal computer in order to sanitize the data before using it
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at his new job. When another colleague refused to help citing concern about breaking the law,
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the person with the information allegedly said he expected that Trump would give him a pardon
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if he needed it. In January, Cornfield reported in the Washington Post that after another whistleblower
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complaint, the administration admitted to a court that the Social Security Administration
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had discovered that a Doge employee had entered into a secret agreement with a political group,
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promising to share Social Security data in order to overturn election results in certain states.
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Cornfield reported that the Social Security Administration also acknowledged that Doge
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employees had used an unofficial third-party service to share data with each other,
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and that the Social Security Administration had been unable to access it.
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University of Virginia privacy law expert Danielle Citron told Cornfield she was flabbergasted.
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If that information is shared willingly and knowingly, and they are sharing it without
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the reason they collected it, it's a violation of the Privacy Act.
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At the time, the top Democrat on the House Social Security subcommittee, John B. Larson of Connecticut,
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and the ways and means committees ranking Democrat Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts said that the Doge
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appointees engaged in this scheme, who were never brought before Congress for approval or even
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publicly identified, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for these
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abhorrent violations of the public trust. A DOJ official told Cornfield then that the department
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was not currently investigating Doge. The Social Security Administration Inspector General
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is investigating the new whistleblower complaint. Yesterday, Noah Robertson, Jeff Stein,
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and Riley Began of the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon, under Secretary of Defense
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Pete Hegseth, has asked the White House to approve a request for more than $200 billion to fund
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the Iran War. Hegseth confirmed the request today, explaining it takes money to kill bad guys.
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Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at
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Soundscape Productions, Debra Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.