Dear Everybody:

The big news today isn’t about Natalie Harp–although her story is still out there and getting worse by the minute–but about Jane Doe 4–and Epstein–and Trump:

There are several separate new developments regarding the Epstein files.

1) A US district judge has just ruled that the late Virginia Guiffre 2015 civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell can be unsealed. The judge has ordered the public release of the files from Virginia’s defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell. (Note: These files are separate from the DOJ’s Epstein files and so may actually be released this century.)

2) Some of the handwritten pages the DOJ has repeatedly refused to hand over have appeared on the internet. The background: Katie Phang sued the DOJ for the release of specific Epstein file documents, and the DOJ has fought back kicking and screaming every step of the way, especially as regards the handwritten notes accompanying Jane Doe 4’s interview (or 302) with the FBI. They claimed that the handwritten notes didn’t say anything different from the 302s (reduplicative) and that handwritten notes were too hard to redact.

–The judge didn’t buy it and six days ago gave Todd Blanche 6 days ago to cough up 37 pages of the handwritten notes. The clock runs out Saturday, and last night 22 of those 37 pages showed up online.

–Journalist Ellie Leonard, who’s been on the case since the beginning, immediately checked them against the notes of a Congress person who had seen the unredacted pages in that SCIF the DOJ set up and verified them as authentic by their contents and by the missing serial numbers from Jane Doe’s files. Ellie then found 18 more pages tied to the same serial number.

–The leaked pages were completely unredacted–names, places, schools, criminal histories, everything. Ellie Leonard waited for legal clearance and then redacted the documents herself (which the DOJ said was too hard to do) and published them.

–Dean Blundell: “Here’s what is not an allegation. It is documented fact that when the DOJ released Epstein files in January, they gave us exactly one of Jane Doe’s four interviews: the one that didn’t mention Trump. It took NPR reporters finding gaps in the file numbering to force out the other three in March. The handwritten notes stayed buried…and now half the notes are public and both DOJ excuses are dead on arrival. If the pages are just copies of what we already have, why were they sealed? If handwriting can’t be redacted, how did Ellie do it in a day? The answer to both questions is the same answer, and everyone knows what it is.”

–The notes mention Trump by name in a specific sexual attack on Jane Doe 4.

–The pages were all up online, but now questions are arising about the authenticity of the pages, and she has pulled them down until they can be verified, just in case this is a disinformation campaign like the one the Republicans used to take down Dan Rather. Katie Phang: “I haven’t posted on these documents yet as there are concerns and questions about their authenticity. I’m trying to see if they can be vetted by source(s) that can verify them.”

–Dean Blundell; “But here’s the thing. The story was never ‘leaked pages prove a crime.’ Allegations are allegations. The story is that the government of the United States told a federal judge these documents were boring, redundant paperwork, too tedious to bother releasing, and then fought like hell to keep them sealed anyway. Now that anyone with an internet connection can read half of them, that fight looks like exactly what it always looked like. The cover-up is the confession.”

3) MuellerSheWrote submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the Epstein redaction training materials (in which agents were told what to redact and how.)

–The DOJ at first refused to admit that there even was such a thing, finally admitted they have the videos, but now say they need THREE MORE MONTHS, not to release them, but to write a declaration of what’s in them because everyone is suing them. (Once again dragging their feet in every possible way, which makes you think that what the training materials say is, ‘Remove every reference to Trump.’”) (Note: Three months is after the election.)

–The one thing that’s clear in all this is that 1) it’s becoming clearer by the day that this whole thing is a cover-up designed to keep us from getting our hands on the proof that Trump raped children, and 2) the cover-up is gradually falling apart, with attempts to get information coming from all sides, including New Mexico, which I didn’t even mention here.

Meanwhile, the Natalie Harp thing continues to make news:

–Melania is back at the White House for the first time in months. Melania: “I’ve heard you missed me.”

–Rage: “I guess pushing Melania into public view means that they are officially concerned about the media harping on Natalie.”

–Jamelle Bouie: “Harp is the most important and powerful person in Trump’s White House.”

–Ex-Trump deputy secretary: “She’s feeding him AI slop in addition to lavishing him with praise and feeding him positive tweets and news articles to boost his ego, and I think that’s why he keeps her so close…he likes the way she makes him feel.”

–The Geogre: “What I don’t understand, seriously, is, WE’VE KNOWN ABOUT THIS SINCE 2021! The ‘human copier’ has been his tail since then. She was responsible during the interDonaldium, for his going absolutely Nazi. She is a skinhead with hair. WHY THE HELL HAS IT TAKEN THIS LONG? It’s absurd.”

–Heather Cox Richardson says they wanted to “gin up a controversy that could rally the base–one that, for once, didn’t make Trump look bad. The pile-on pulled oxygen from his stock trading, his faltering war in Iran, and a national debt that just crossed $40 trillion dollars.”

–But a lot of people disagreed. Steve G: “We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Harp doesn’t make us forget Iran, prices, etc.”

–J Joy: “Right on. This isn’t a distraction, it’s added ammunition for us. The right fears we’ll see she’s a sitter for a POTUS long past checkout time.”

–Haruko Harakara: “I don’t see how this doesn’t make Trump look bad.”

–Ron Filipkowski: “I would just like to thank Republicans, MAGA influencers, right-wing media, and podcasters for blowing up the Natalie situation a hundred times bigger than it ever would have been without your coordinated fake hissy fit.”

And every hour brings new revelations about Ms Harp:

–Harp worked in the White House right next to Trump, with access to virtually everything he saw, with no security clearance at all. She fought getting one tooth and nail, and Trump finally intervened and saw to it that she got it.

–She’s paid $150,000 a year. (Note: Sailors on the USS Lincoln are paid $50,000, and they are not getting enough to eat. Or tampons. Families have been forced to send care packages, but they have not gotten through.)

–Yesterday a cameraman saw her in her white SUV and began filming her. She yelled, “Fuck you!” as she sped away.

–One White House advisor said Trump likes having her around because she “doesn’t second-guess, doesn’t question.” Another says they have “a father-daughter relationship.” (Which, considering how he always talked about wanting to date Ivanka, doesn’t really help.)

–Trump calls her “sweetie.”

–She told several people she and Trump were in a “spiritual marriage.”

–Harp was the driving force behind the demolition of the East Wing, which was Melania’s base of operations.

–Aaron Rupar: “Given the letters revealed in a 2024 New York Times article, it certainly seems tht their relationship is romantic even if it isn’t sexual, at least from her end. The kind of ecstatic devotion Harp describes is beyond the normal employer-employee relationship, or even the closest friendship.”

–Angry Staffer; “All of these Natalie Harp stories are leaking for one reason. Someone in the West Wing is sick of Harp’s shit. Probably just a coincidence that it’s all happening as Leavitt is leaving. Hmmmm…”

–Paul Waldman; “Now it’s getting good: the Trump aides who have had it in for Harp are going to reporters to dish the dirt.”

–According to ABC, Trump has been asked to distance himself from Ms. Harp. (If she really is the Glenn Close-type obsessive stalker that many people think she is, that could really blow the top off this whole thing.)

–The staff has been making subtle moves to limit her access to Trump, but have been unsuccessful. “She is just persistent and not realizing what they were trying to do.”

In E. Jean Carroll news:

–E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan: “The jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court.”

–E. Jean Carroll: “I have the best attorneys since Hammurabi.”

–Adam Parkhomenko: “The President of the United States had to pay $6 million dollars to a woman he sexually abused and defamed, and reporters have not asked one single question about it. HOW THE FUCK DOES THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE TO PAY MILLIONS FOR HIS SEX CRIMES AND NOT GET ASKED ABOUT IT?!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL YOU GUTLESS WUSSES WHO USED TO BRAG ABOUT HAVING TRUMP’S CELL PHONE NUMBER? Why DON’T YOU PSYCHOS FUCKING CARE THAT THE PRESIDENT IS A RAPIST?”

–Jamie Bonkiewiez: “E. Jean Carroll has done more to hold Trump accountable than the entire US Congress.”

In Tate Brothers news:

–The Tate Brothers are still in jail, awaiting extradition, but their lawyer is arguing they should be released because 1) they are too famous to jump bail, and 2) they know people in high places (they mean Trump and his sons Don, Jr. and Barron.)

–Their lawyer is threatening to show up in the Oval Office (with a threat to spill the dirt the Tates have on the Trumps?) if Trump doesn’t help them avoid extradition.

–The lawyer is also claiming that thousands of demonstrators are appearing outside the jail and the court to protest this horrible travesty of justice. In fact, there was one, count ’em, one, fan outside the courthouse during the hearing and 30 or so fans doing pushups outside the jail to prove…I’m not sure what. The fans call the Tates their “alpha gods.”

–Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been curiously silent on the subject of the Tates, trying to pretend they don’t know them–I might have met them once, were they the coffee boys?

In AI news:

–Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called data center developers “Predators,” “bullies,” and “secretive.” He just signed a state executive order tightening restrictions on data centers, requiring that they get local approval and provide their own power.

–In a memo from the Republican National Committee, the Republicans begged AI companies to spend more money to elect Republicans who will greenlight more data centers. (I don’t think they were supposed to say that out loud.)

–Trump: “If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big data center, I would absolutely want it.”

–Thor Benson: “Great messaging, sir. Everyone agrees with you.”

–ashleighknits: “Is this literally the only thing almost everyone in this country agrees on? He is the stupidest person on the planet.”

–Bill Kristol: “Politicians are waking up to a simple fact: Voters hate AI and are gearing up to punish elected officials who seem to like it. Mostly, their ire has landed on data centers–the factory-sized banks of chips that are its most visible incarnation.”

–Sotto Voce: “Even among voters on the right, there is a clear sense that the billionaires who want those data centers are vacuuming up all the public’s money.”

In FCC news:

–For over a year Disney and ABC tried to appease the Trump administration–it suspended Jimmy Kimmel, it kept silent as Carr attacked the View, it handed over internal records–but now they’ve apparently had it with Carr and the FCC.

–On Tuesday, after Carr had called for early renewal of all ABC’s stations (and the threat of not renewing them if ABC didn’t do exactly what they were told), ABC, Disney, and 8 ABC-owned stations sued the FCC, Carr, and his fellow commissioners for grossly violating the First Amendment.

–Bill Kristol: “ABC’s entire complaint is a chilling catalogue of governmental efforts to restrict speech at the behest of the President…he does not believe in freedom of speech. He believes only in obeisance and obedience.”

–Liz Dye: “FCC goon Brendan Carr discovers too late that the point of an intimidation campaign is to push just hard enough to keep your target in line, but not so far that he’s forced to enter the arena and fight. Particularly when your target is the House of Mouse.”

–Their suit reads, in part, “Defendants have violated, and continue to violate, Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by launching pretextual regulatory investigations and threatening the Stations’ valuable broadcast licenses through early license renewal proceedings–all to punish Plaintiffs for content and viewpoints the Administration dislikes.”

–FCC Commissioner Democrat Anna Gomez: “I have long called on companies to push back against this kind of government intimidation, and I’m glad Disney has shown courage and stepped up. I am hopeful that this will mark the beginning of the end of this administration’s disregard for the Constitution and the law, and that the coming months will bring the costly legal defeat this agency has been asking for since it started down this path.”

–(Note: Has Disney belatedly found its courage, or is it reading the tea leaves and seeing that this administration is badly weakened, so now’s the time to pounce?)

–The Bi of Hormuz: “This seems like an incredibly easy case given that the administration has pretty plainly said over and over what it’s doing, in a range of public venues. What’s frustrating here is that it’s going to cost American taxpayers money, and not Trump or Carr or anyone else involved.”

–Danielle Scherer: “The mouse that roared.”

In other news:

–The DOJ asked the court to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmer Abrego Garcia, even though all their cases have fallen through. They are determined to get revenge on him because he exposed their torture centers and made them look bad.

–The DOJ is backing Elon Musk in his battle against the Minnesota porn deepfake ban. (Minnesota has banned Musk’s AI app which makes it possible to take any photo of a woman–or child–and remove their clothes and put them in a sexually provocative pose.)

–In more bad news from RFK’s Department of Health, Outshine frozen fruit bars have been recalled over GLASS contamination.

In good news:

–The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s injunction against the Trump administration’s enforcement policy toward ICE apprehending people in houses of worship.

–An experimental cancer vaccine kept melanoma from coming back in late-stage trials. It’s the first successful late-stage mRNA study validating decades of custom-treatment research.

–Cory Mills, one of Trump’s biggest supporters, lost his primary.

–The pro-Moms for Liberty who had taken over a school board in Florida were all voted off the board.

Best comment of the day, from Jon Ossoff, who isn’t giving an inch: “These White House staffers are adults, public officials paid by the taxpayer, with immense power in positions of public trust. And whether it’s Natalie Harp printing out Donald Trump’s daily dose of delusion and flattery, or Peter Navarro steering taxpayer-funded loans to Trump family investments, or Pete Hegseth deluding the president daily into deepening this quagmire in the Middle East, no one cares about their feelings. The sailors on the Lincoln are fighting this war, a war based on lies, while he plays with his new ballroom, flies around on a jet given to him by a foreign prince, and retreats into this circle of sycophantic aides who tell him every day what he wants to hear, not what he needs to hear.”

A personal note: John Stith will be covering for me again this weekend. Thanks, John!

Keep calm and carry on,

Connie Willis