Monday, March 23, 2026

Weekend Box Office

Via THENUMBERS.COM, here's the weekend box office:


1 (new) Project Hail Mary $80,506,007 4,007 $20,091 $80,506,007 3
2 (1) Hoppers $17,801,867 -38% 3,675 $4,844 $120,188,736 17
3 (new) Dhurandhar: The Revenge $10,037,581 987 $10,170 $14,015,861 4
4 (new) Ready or Not 2: Here I Come $9,075,271 3,010 $3,015 $9,075,271 3
5 (2) Reminders of Him $8,001,325 -55% 3,441 $2,325 $33,175,180 10
6 (4) Scream 7 $4,323,795 -49% 2,560 $1,689 $114,558,495 24
7 (5) GOAT $3,428,020 -27% 2,537 $1,351 $97,435,737 38
8 (3) undertone $3,015,003 -68% 2,570 $1,173 $15,213,266 10
9 (new) The Pout-Pout Fish $1,325,363 1,860 $713 $1,325,363 3
10 (8) “Wuthering Heights” $496,983 -70% 601 $827 $83,326,326 38

PROJECT HAIL MARY?  We saw it on Saturday and everyone loved it.  We saw it on IMAX and I think that's the way you have to see this movie.  I don't know that I would've appreciated it as much in a standard showing. 

Big news?  READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME.  No one wanted it.  No one was waiting for it.  Sarah Michelle Gellar?  Didn't realize she was in the first one -- oops, she wasn't.  The first one came out seven years ago.  No one was asking for a second one. 

There's a lot of nothing in the top ten that will be out shortly.  Not a good week for film.  


So let's look at TV.  Joe Capraro (TV LINE) reports:

"All in the Family" made TV history but after nine seasons as Edith Bunker, Jean Stapleton wanted to move on. This wasn't terrific news for CBS entertainment executive Robert Daly, who was hoping for more "All in the Family." So, Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker) and creator Norman Lear started talking about how to continue the story in a spin-off without Stapleton. 
Lear initially pushed to keep Edith around in a diminished capacity; the show would focus on Archie at a bar, and the audience would almost never see or hear his wife. O'Connor didn't like that idea.  

"I said, 'Jesus Norman, that's crippling the show. I think Edith must die,'" O'Connor told the Television Academy in 2010. Lear disagreed strongly and "negotiations broke down that night."

But O'Connor stood his ground. He recalled telling Daly, "I can't do this show with a nonexistent Edith. We'll have to write a show in which she dies ... and then go on with Archie without her."


Edith could easily have gone to California to look after Joey.  There was no need for Edith to die.  And the show suffered greatly without her.  Keeping her around for just two or three episodes a season would have been better.  

PBS's MASTERPIECE is airing a limited mini-series of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.  Part one aired last night and it is great.  Ava and C.I.'s "Media: Going Through The Motions -- deceivers who aren't as smart as they think they are" went up last night and they noted it in a sentence and it made me tune in.


It's good.  I love THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. I read it when REVENGE first started on ABC.  And I've seen various versions of it since.  I always watch because the story is so interesting -- punished wrongly, you return to seek revenge.  


Going out with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Monday, March 23, 2026.  Chump bellows over the weekend at Iran and makes threats which he then retracts an hour ago this morning, his war is destroying the US economy, his buddy Epstein might as well be alive for all the attention his late pedophile buddy continues to garner, and much more.



In the video above, Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) brings us up to date on Chump and Netanyahu's war on Iran.   The war has been a failure, a tragedy and a crime.  Instead of admitting this, Chump attacks the media.  It really has gotten old   Daniel Dale (CNN) notes Chump's baseless attacks on US media:

CNN inquired about Trump’s claim on social media that media outlets worked “in close coordination” with Iran to spread fake videos showing a US aircraft carrier on fire and should be charged with “TREASON.” Asked which outlets disseminated these videos, spokesperson Anna Kelly’s reply began, “President Trump is right – global news outlets quickly amplified the Iranian regime’s false claims about the USS Lincoln.” The three examples Kelly provided as supposed proof, though, were all to foreign news outlets – one Israeli, one Saudi and one Turkish – that quoted Iran’s baseless claims to have struck the Lincoln; these outlets couldn’t possibly have committed “TREASON” against the US, since they don’t owe allegiance to the US, and none of the examples included fake videos.

Declaring that the president is right about things he is very obviously not right about would be a highly unusual communications tactic from any other White House, including Trump’s own first administration.

Each White House communications team tries to put the best possible spin on the falsehoods of the president it is serving. Under Biden, though, aides tended to demand anonymity to address the falsehoods, then claim Biden had merely misspoken, that the inaccuracy in question was unimportant, or that there was broader context worth considering. They wouldn’t make an on-the-record declaration that Biden was correct when he was transparently incorrect.

Trump’s communications aides during his first presidency, meanwhile, tended to simply ignore media inquiries about Trump lies they knew they couldn’t convincingly defend.

So why do his second-term aides habitually put their names on “President Trump is right” quotes when he plainly isn’t right? When we asked the White House for an explanation in early March, Desai replied, “President Trump has been right about everything, and CNN struggles to accept this. Sad!”

Funny. But we have more plausible theories.

Trump’s second-term administration is staffed with loyalists who are willing to risk their reputations with the mainstream media to go out on shaky limbs for him. Trump demands public praise and devotion. The president’s never-back-down, never-admit-error ethos permeates this White House. And since the president has himself publicly declared as recently as January that “Trump is right about everything,” the people around him don’t exactly feel free to concede he was wrong about even the most obscure of subjects.

“They know he expects a robust PR team that does nothing but praise him,” said Stephanie Grisham, who served as Trump’s White House communications director and press secretary in 2019 and 2020 before becoming a sharp critic of him.


President Donald Trump’s chest-thumping ultimatum against Iran is looking like a misfire.

On Saturday evening, the 79-year-old commander-in-chief threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the country did not end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

Tehran’s answer came sooner—but it wasn’t the climbdown Trump had hoped for.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned Sunday that Iran would “irreversibly” destroy critical infrastructure of its neighbors in the Middle East—including energy and oil facilities—should Trump follow through on his threat to hit the country’s electricity grid, Reuters reports.

Qalibaf said such an attack would keep the price of oil elevated for the long haul. 




President Trump said on social media that the United States and Iran have held “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” and that he had instructed the Pentagon to postpone any attacks on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days. It is unclear who was handling the diplomacy between the United States and Iran, which have traded increasingly bellicose threats to escalate the conflict in recent days.

Oh, look at TACO making his big statement and then backing down.  No, there was no "very good and productive conversation" regarding the war on Iran.  Chump just realized he'd stepped out too far and was about to lose face on the world stage so he lies an hour ago that Iran and the US just had "very good and productive conversations."  Oh, Chump, you look like a chump because you are one. 



Three weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the uncomfortable truth is settling over Washington like a storm cloud: air power alone cannot win this war.

Despite destroying over 8,000 targets, sinking most of Iran’s navy, and killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the opening hours of the February 28 strikes, the Islamic Republic continues to fight back with a ferocity that has caught the Trump administration off guard. Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint for one-fifth of the world’s oil — using missiles, armed drones, and reportedly sea mines.

Now, according to multiple reports from CBS News, Reuters, and Axios, the Pentagon has drawn up detailed plans to deploy ground forces into Iran, including a potential amphibious operation to seize Kharg Island, the offshore hub that processes 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports.


Three weeks of disaster with no end in sight, no clear reason given for the war (none that's stuck), and clues that it's not going well, that's the Iran war that Chump joined Netanyahu in starting.  Matt Spetalnick and Nandita Bose (REUTERS) explained on Saturday:


President Donald Trump ends the third week of the Iran war confronting a crisis that seems to be slipping out of his hands: Global energy prices are surging, the United States stands isolated from allies and more troops are preparing to deploy despite his promise the war would be only a "short excursion."

A defensive Trump called other NATO countries "cowards" for refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz and insisted the campaign was unfolding according to plan. But his declaration on Friday that the battle "was Militarily WON" clashed with the reality of a defiant Iran that is choking off Gulf oil and gas supplies while launching missile strikes across the region.

Trump, who took office promising to keep the U.S. out of "stupid" military interventions, now appears to control neither the outcome nor the messaging of a conflict he helped to initiate. The lack of a clear exit strategy carries risks both for his presidential legacy and his party's political prospects as Republicans scramble to defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections.


And the American people watch as this war of choice that was started in the middle of the night and announced by a video Chump posted to his Truth-Social cesspool continues.  Despite Chump declareing it a victory several times already, the war continues.  And he's sending troops in.  He has no clue what he's doing.  He has no idea how to end this war.  He only knows how to destroy -- including destroying the US economy.   Sam Stevenson (NEWSWEEK) reports:


A new national poll shows President Donald Trump’s approval rating collapsing among independent voters, marking his weakest showing with the political middle since returning to office in that particular series.

[. . .]

Independent voters often decide close elections, and their sharp move away from Trump comes as the 2026 midterms approach. 

At the same time, the Iran war and its knock-on effects on gas prices and everyday costs are keeping economic anxiety front and center for voters.


Also noting polling is Aaron Blake (CNN):


A new Reuters-Ipsos poll, for instance, shows 21% of Republicans disapprove of the war. (Americans overall disapprove 59%-37%.)

And a Yahoo News-YouGov poll conducted over the weekend showed not only did 17% of Republicans disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, but so did 24% of people who say they voted for him in 2024.

Chump has destroyed the economy -- again.  People are trying not to panic as they watch the prices of gas and food soar.  Chump launched this illegal war and he is being held accountable for it.  Lee Moran (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:


Economist Henrietta Treyz warned this weekend not to expect prices — which have already been driven up by President Donald Trump’s Iran war — to fall anytime soon.

Even if the Strait of Hormuz, the vital channel off Iran’s coast through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, fully reopened tomorrow, it would still take around 200 days for prices to return to normal, she said on MS NOW.

But that scenario of the Strait reopening so soon is unlikely, the Veda Partners co-founder and director of economic policy told anchor Erielle Reshef.

It means higher prices are here to stay, she said, with soaring crude oil costs rippling across the economy to drive up prices in multiple sectors.

“So, if you’re trying to buy an airline flight, if you’re trying to do anything, the costs of this war are going to trickle down across the entire economy and it’s going to cascade for literally years to come,” she said.

She later warned consumers should brace for “higher interest rates, higher gas prices, higher food prices, jet prices, semiconductor prices. I mean, you name it, it’s across the economy now,” she added.


Now let's turn to Chump's dead friend Jeffrey Epstein.  Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) reports:


In 2007, Ex-Trump official Alexander Acosta, then the top federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida, was pressed by his subordinate to pursue a 60-count indictment she had prepared against Jeffrey Epstein.

Acosta, according to a new report, dismissed the plan.

That subordinate was then-federal sex-crimes prosecutor Marie Villafaña, who Bloomberg reported Friday had “begged” Acosta – who would later go on to become President Donald Trump’s labor secretary during his first term – to “urgently” arrest Epstein, but to no avail.

“I’m having trouble understanding – given how long this case has been pending – what the rush is,” wrote Matthew Menchel, Acosta’s chief criminal prosecutor, in a 2007 email to Villafaña that was released recently by the Justice Department. “This is obviously a very significant case and [Acosta] wants to take his time making sure he is comfortable before proceeding.”


Acosta still can't explain why he negotiated the sweetheart deal he did with Epstein.  In his first term as president, Chump worried more about his Epstein connections and how they might look.  That's why, when Epstein got arrested in 2019 and Secretary of Labor Acosta was suddenly facing questions, Acosta suddenly resigned as Secretary of Labor.  Contrast that with Chump in his second term and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik.  Last fall, Lutnick went on Miranda Devine's podcast and announced that Epstein was a neighbor but that he and his wife broke off all communication with him after visiting his residence and the chills that they had while they were there.


Lutnick was a visionary or something.  To hear him tell the tale.


But there are nursey rhymes with more truth in them than Lutnick's tale.  As WIKIPEDIA notes:


In January 2026, newly released Epstein files showed extensive contact between Lutnick and Epstein over several years. A longtime Epstein aide reached out to Lutnick in November 2012 to arrange a meeting while Lutnick was in Saint Thomas; Lutnick, accompanied by his wife Allison and their four children, agreed to a lunch on December 23 on Epstein's private island. Emails showed Lutnick and his wife coordinating logistics, including where to dock their yacht at Little Saint James. The day after the scheduled meeting, BBC News reported that Lutnick "received an email from a redacted sender that said Epstein wanted to pass a message to him, which said: 'Nice seeing you'—suggesting that at least one visit did happen."[99] The two also had drinks together on another occasion in 2011 according to Epstein's schedule. In November 2015, Epstein received an invitation from Lutnick to a fundraiser at his financial firm for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. In 2017, the two men discussed plans about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes. The next year, Epstein contributed to a philanthropic dinner hosted by Lutnick.[100][101]

When asked about the emails, Lutnick told The New York Times "I spent zero time with him" and hung up. A Commerce Department spokesman said Lutnick had "limited interactions" with Epstein "in the presence of his wife" and has never been accused of wrongdoing.[101] On February 10, 2026, Lutnick testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on his relationship with Epstein. Here, Lutnick admitted that in December 2012, four years after Epstein's conviction, Lutnick and his wife and children visited Little Saint James where they had lunch with Epstein.[102] The hearing led to bipartisan criticism, and calls for Lutnick's resignation.[103]


Of course, Lutnick's not the only one who lied in 2025 about his relationship with Epstein.  Others would include, obviously, Donald Chump.  In 2025, Chump announced he had kicked Epstein out of Margo Lard-Ass but that wasn't true as we've now discovered.  Sarah K. Burris reports on the revelation this week that Chump has lied repeatedly about his relationship with Epstein and how Pam Bondi's Justice Dept tried to cover that up by redacting a document: 


Under the law passed by Congress, the only redactions the Justice Department can make are the names of the survivors of Epstein's abuse. But Wilson has a copy of one document that was redacted by the DOJ and doesn't mention survivors. It mentions Trump.

Wilson said that he was given the document by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who obtained the full copy from another source.

"In it, Trump's attorney at the time, Alan Garten, I believe, is the name, revealed a few small things," Wilson said. "One of which is that Trump never threw Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago."

Trump has said for years that he and Epstein got into a fight over a real estate matter. Then it was reported that Trump was actually mad that Epstein was taking girls from his country club to work for him. It isn't clear which one or if both are true, but Trump maintains that he and Epstein fell out and he banned the trafficker from Mar-a-Lago.

A more recent report cites Trump telling a local Palm Beach County police officer that he was grateful Epstein was finally arrested, saying, "everyone has known he's been doing this." It flagged Trump's continued denials that he never knew about Epstein's crimes.

Wilson said that Epstein was never a member of Mar-a-Lago and that Trump never threw him out.

"That even after that, he went to Epstein's home, flew on his plane," Wilson said. "This is material that the FBI and the Department of Justice have absolutely no reason to redact, and yet it is still redacted in their official version, even the one they will provide for members of Congress."


The lies just fly out of Chump's mouths.  Henry Giardina (QUEERTY) notes:


In the interview notes, Tr*mp appears to confirm that not only was Epstein never a member of Mar-a-Lago, he was never expelled or asked to leave, which runs contrary to Tr*mp’s oft-repeated story about personally kicking out Epstein after he allegedly tried to recruit women from the spa into his own trafficking empire. In the same interview, Garten states that he spoke to the manager of Mar-A-Lago at the time, who confirms that Epstein was never asked to leave the property.

We know that Tr*mp and Epstein did fall out sometime in 2004, but the cause had nothing to do with Epstein’s creepy behavior. That would become Tr*mp’s story in after Epstein’s trial and conviction, but in reality, the two sparred over an oceanfront property bidding war that Tr*mp eventually won.

Again, it’s nothing we don’t know. Tr*mp lies, and he gets away with it consistently. But there’s another bombshell that could, in combination with this uncovered lie and what we know about the activity at Zorro Ranch, end up being impossible for congress to ignore.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of Tr*mp, uncovered something else in the files that speaks to the DOJ’s massive cover-up. Wyden has been trying to read files from a past DEA probe into Epstein’s activity, and according to Wyden, Tr*mp apointee Todd Blanche, the current Deputy Attorney General, keeps mysteriously blocking him from access.

“By withholding this unclassified document from the U.S. Congress, you are covering up for pedophiles and obstructing my investigation into the financing of Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking organization,” Wyden wrote to Blanche in a recent public letter.

As with most of the unredacted bombshells we’ve seen, the reason certain files are still being black barred has nothing to do with protecting Epstein’s victims and everything to do with keeping Tr*mp’s million mentions out of the press.   


  Robert Davis (RAW STORY) reports:

A political analyst was taken aback on Sunday by a report that uncovered new details about the death of disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. 

On Friday, the Miami Herald reported that several bags of shredded documents were found outside of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, where Epstein was being kept. Investigatory documents obtained by the outlet revealed that at least one inmate was involved in disposing of the documents and raised questions about the extent of the prison guards' involvement in the ordeal.

Podcaster and owner of MSW Media, Allison Gill, was taken aback by the report as she discussed it on a new episode of her podcast, "The Breakdown," on Sunday. She called the report a "massive revelation."

"If there weren't already a million really weird coincidences surrounding the death of Jeffrey Epstein, if there weren't a mountain of odd coincidences, this story ... would still raise glaring alarm bells just on its own," Gill said.

Gill noted several facts presented in the report that seemed "pretty convenient." For instance, an inmate named Steven Lopez was interviewed by FBI agents about the document shredding, but was only asked yes-or-no questions. A prison lieutenant was also present during the interview.

"That's pretty intimidating," Gill said.


 Olivia Salamone (RADAR) notes:


Donald Trump's Justice Department is facing renewed scrutiny after a newly surfaced report claimed officials destroyed large volumes of documents in the days following Jeffrey Epstein's death, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The explosive allegation, buried in a batch of records released earlier this year, suggests key materials may have been discarded while federal investigators were still trying to piece together what happened inside the New York jail where the disgraced financier died.

According to the document, seen by The Daily Beast, a Bureau of Prisons review team was sent into the Metropolitan Correctional Center shortly after Epstein was found dead in August 2019.

But instead of simply examining procedures, witnesses described a steady stream of shredded paperwork being hauled out of the facility.

"[Redacted] has never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster at the rear gate of the MCC," the report stated.

The activity reportedly unfolded while multiple agencies, including the FBI and inspector general officials, were present amid the ongoing investigation.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Warren: “Now, more than ever, we need strong, independent military lawyers.”

Warren: “Our enemies might not care about civilian casualties, but the US military always has.”

Video of Exchange (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. — At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised her concerns to the commanders of United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) about the Trump administration’s sidelining of the military’s Judge Advocate General Corps (JAGs), who are responsible for providing independent legal advice to commanders. This sidelining risks increasing the chances of civilian harm as the war against Iran continues.

Under this Trump Administration, JAGs have been systematically sidelined in spite of federal law providing that no one at the Department of Defense (DoD) may interfere with the TJAGs’ ability to “give independent legal advice to commanders." In February 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired The Judge Advocate General of the Army, Navy, and Air Force to avoid “roadblocks” to the President’s orders. On March 12, Hegseth announced a “ruthless” review of JAGs to overhaul the Department’s legal offices.

“JAGs can't give their best advice if they fear losing their job just for raising legal concerns with an operation,” said Senator Warren.

Senator Warren questioned General Gregory M. Guillot, NORTHCOM Commander, on whether he witnessed NORTHCOM sidelining any JAGs. General Guillot assured Senator Warren that the JAG corps is included in all battle rhythm meetings at his command. However, Senator Warren pointed out that across the department the Trump administration has reassigned hundreds of JAGs to work on the president's immigration agenda, as well as concerns about the chilling effects of the Secretary’s review.

“For decades, military lawyers have worked side by side with officers to make sure that strikes are lawful and that they minimize civilian casualties," said Senator Warren. “That doesn't make us weaker. It saves innocent lives and it prevents fueling terrorism.”

Since the start of the Iran War, Secretary Hegseth has shown a complete disregard for the laws of war. On March 3, Secretary Hegseth remarked that Operation Epic Fury would have “no stupid rules of engagement.” On March 4, while describing U.S. military operations in Iran, Secretary Hegseth announced, “death and destruction from the sky all day long.” This rhetoric could endanger civilians, including American citizens, in the region and around the globe. Already, a preliminary investigation from the Department of Defense found the U.S. was likely responsible for the strike on a girls’ elementary school that reportedly killed at least 175 people – mostly children – in Minab, Iran.

Senator Warren pressed Lieutenant General Francis L. Donovan, SOUTHCOM Commander, on whether he would inform the Senate Armed Services Committee if SOUTHCOM is directed to do something that the Lieutenant General or his JAGs believed to be illegal. Lieutenant General Donovan refused to commit to directly informing the Senate Armed Services Committee, insisting on working through his chain of command.

Senator Warren raised her concern over Lieutenant General Donovan's response and emphasized the need for nonpartisan military leaders to commit to following the law.

“We need our nonpartisan military leaders to double down on their commitment to following the law and speaking up when they are asked to break it, and Congress needs to be able to step in and rein in this lawless commander-in-chief and his self-styled Secretary of War,” concluded Senator Warren.

Transcript: Hearings to examine the posture of United States Northern Command and United States Southern Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2027 and the Future Years Defense Program.
Senate Armed Services Committee
March 19, 2026

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are repeatedly dragging the US military across both legal and moral lines. Trump and Hegseth have plunged us into an illegal war with Iran, where a US airstrike appears to have killed 150 schoolchildren. And it's not just in Iran. Under Trump and Hegseth, the military fired on civilians and shipwrecked survivors in the Caribbean. And now, Secretary Hegseth is threatening to give "no quarter" to adversaries. This is not who we are. Our enemies might not care about civilian casualties, but the US military always has. And that is why Secretary Hegseth’s attacks on the guardrails that prevent civilian harm and civilian casualties is so dangerous.

So, take the JAGs. Now, more than ever, we need strong, independent military lawyers, but there are serious concerns that JAGs cannot give honest legal advice right now.

General Guillot, let me ask you, have you seen any evidence of the JAG corps being sidelined, whether at NORTHCOM or elsewhere in the department?

General Gregory M. Guillot: Senator, I have not seen any evidence of the JAGs being sidelined in our command. I'll point out that our JAG is included in all of our battle rhythm meetings, and in fact, our JAG is sitting behind me right now.

Senator Warren: Yeah, and I just want you to know I'm glad to hear that. Glad to hear it's not happening in your command. But we know that this is a problem across the department. Secretary Hegseth fired TJAGs because he thought they were "roadblocks," and he installed his personal lawyer to retrain military lawyers to water down constraints. He reassigned hundreds of JAGs to work on Trump's radical immigration agenda. And last week, the Secretary said he's starting a quote, "ruthless overhaul of the JAG system."

Look, for decades, military lawyers have worked side by side with officers to make sure that strikes are lawful and that they minimize civilian casualties. That doesn't make us weaker. It saves innocent lives and it prevents fueling terrorism. But Secretary Hegseth has blamed JAGs for what he calls, quote, "stupid rules of engagement."

General Donovan, let me ask you, if a JAG or a civilian harm advisor says to distinguish between a military base and an elementary school in an airstrike. Is that a stupid rule of engagement?

Lieutenant General Francis L. Donovan: No, Senator.

Senator Warren: Look, JAGs can't give their best advice if they fear losing their job just for raising legal concerns with an operation. One way we protect the integrity of legal advice in our military is by creating for-cause removal protections for our JAGs. Commanders also need to be able to speak up when they're being asked to break the law.

General Donovan, your predecessor, was reportedly ousted because he raised concerns about the legality of the Caribbean boat strikes. Will you commit to informing this committee if SOUTHCOM is directed to do something that you or your JAG think may be illegal?

Lieutenant General Donovan: Senator, my first obligation if I face what I believe is an unlawful legal order is to obviously seek legal counsel, discuss that with my higher headquarters, and then move forward and not carry out an illegal order.

Senator Warren: Yeah, maybe you didn't hear my question. My question was, will you commit to informing this committee if SOUTHCOM is directed to do something that you or your JAG thinks is illegal?

Lieutenant General Donovan: If I reported that to this committee, Senator, it would be through my chain of command.

Senator Warren: But you would make sure that we got the information?.

Lieutenant General Donovan: I would report to my chain of command.

Senator Warren: And you would not take any responsibility for making sure we got that information? You do realize we have oversight responsibilities here.

Lieutenant General Donovan: Senator, I would work that information through my chain of command.

Senator Warren: All right, that's a very concerning answer here. Look, what's happening right now is very dangerous. We need our nonpartisan military leaders to double down on their commitment to following the law and speaking up when they are asked to break it and Congress needs to be able to step in and rein in this lawless commander-in-chief and his self-styled Secretary of War. Thank you.

###



The following sites updated:




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Friday, March 20, 2026

Nicholas Brendon has passed away

Dan Heching (CNN) reports:

Nicholas Brendon, who played the character of Xander in the hit ’90s TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died. He was 54.

The news was confirmed in a post on Brendon’s verified Instagram on Friday. It said the actor died in his sleep of natural causes.

“Most people know Nicky for his work as an actor and for the characters he brought to life over the years. In recent years Nicky has found his passion in painting and art. Nicky loved to share his enthusiastic talent with his family, friends and fans,” the statement read.


Raechal Shewfelt (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY) adds:

His family confirmed his death in a statement posted to social media Friday: "We are heartbroken to share the passing of our brother and son, Nicholas Brendon. He passed in his sleep of natural causes. Most people know Nicky for his work as an actor and for the characters he brought to life over the years. In recent years Nicky has found his passion in painting and art. Nicky loved to share his enthusiastic talent with his family, friends and fans."
[. . .]
The family appeared to allude to the actor's previous health problems. Brendon had explained in 2023 that he'd suffered a heart attack. He had also been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and had several spinal surgeries related to another condition. Additionally, he struggled with substance abuse and mental health.

I haven't watched BUFFY in years.  I watched the show when it came on THE WB from the first episode.  I had moved into a new apartment, I was out of college with a new job and couldn't afford cable.  I got three channels over the air -- one was PBS, the other was CBS and the third was an independent station that played some of THE WB and some of FOX.  So you'd get 90210 -- and I know one season of that show for that reason -- and you'd get BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER -- it would flip back and forth.  

BUFFY was good until the final season.  Good.  Not great.  Some of it was just nonsense.  The dropping of Riley was nonsense, for example.  Putting Buffy & Spike together was nonsense.  The entire final season was nonsense and garbage.

But at the start, it was a good show.  It was funny and involving.  

Nicholas was part of that.  His take on Xander was memorable and you liked Xander even when he got a little cringe from time to time.

After BUFFY, nothing really seemed to work for Nicholas.  I'm referring to acting roles but it's also true that his life was a nightmare.  He was arrested repeatedly for drugs, for trashing hotel rooms, for strangling a girlfriend, for strangling a second girlfriend, for . . . 

When Charisma Carpenter came out about how Joss Whedon had treated her on the sets of BUFFY and ANGEL, Nicholas issued a half-assed statement about how he loved both of them.

And that's why his career never went anywhere.  

Charisma was abused by Joss Whedon but Nicholas couldn't call him out.

That's the story of Nicholas.  He was very effective playing a teenage boy (when he was in his mid and late 20s) but he couldn't play a man.  He couldn't play because he couldn't become one.  A man calls out the abuse of a co-worker.  Nicholas didn't do when it was going on and he didn't do it years later when Charisma came out.  

His many problems with the law go to that arrested development as well.  He had no reason to be trashing hotels -- did he think he was in a rock band? -- and no reason to be strangling women.  He refused to row up.  

It's a shame that his life was so wrecked and out of control.  

Going out with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Friday, March 20, 2026.  ICE and Homeland Security continue to destroy lives, Kristi and Corey's relationship embracing corruption gets some media attention, Donald Chump's former friend Jeffrey Epstein continues to be an anchor around Donald's neck, Senator Adam Schiff calls out the administration's use of private e-mail accounts to avoid their correspondence being made public, and much more. 


Candy Castillo Collantes was six months pregnant when she stepped inside the giant tent where she would live for the next 47 days.

Her enclosure at the South Texas detention center held dozens of bunk beds, she said, with one tiny slit for a window. Women wailed late into the night for their husbands and children. When Ms. Collantes experienced vaginal bleeding and asked for medical care at the facility, she and her lawyer said, she was offered only water, prenatal vitamins and a temperature check.

“It’s not a center that we know has a doctor,” Ms. Collantes, a 38-year-old Venezuelan who obtained temporary legal status under the Biden administration, said in an interview from the facility in late February. “The people here can’t tell you that everything is fine.”

Ms. Collantes had heard from other detainees about a woman who had gone into labor at their detention center months earlier.

She was terrified that she could be next.

Pregnant women who have been swept up in President Trump’s immigration crackdown have been held in detention centers as late as eight months into their pregnancies without adequate food or medical care, according to a New York Times examination of 10 cases. The Times review found that, in those cases, the Department of Homeland Security violated longstanding agency guidelines for how to treat pregnant women in detention, subjecting them to conditions that medical experts say can jeopardize the health of mothers and their babies.

Pregnant women said they were served food covered in cockroaches and water that tasted like bleach. They described how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shackled their hands and feet, refusing to believe that they were pregnant until a bump appeared. One woman said ICE agents ignored her as she lay on the floor screaming in pain, and took her to the emergency room only after her fellow inmates began banging on the door for help.


This morning, MS NOW posted a report by Rosa Flores about the Dilley detention center in Texas.  






While conducting a war on pregnant women, ICE also makes sure to conduct one on children.  Samantha Michaels (MOTHER JONES) notes:

In November, a 22-year-old woman disembarked from her deportation flight in Honduras, five months pregnant and distraught. Immigration officers in the United States had flown her out of the country without asking her an important question: Did she have any kids? Her 2-year-old daughter was left behind.

“They didn’t ask me anything,” she said in Spanish, according to a new report from the Women’s Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights.

The two nonprofits recently visited Honduras to speak with newly deported parents there. Over five days in November, researchers interviewed 29 people, as well as staffers from a Honduran reception center who had interacted with hundreds of other deportees.

The vast majority of parents said ICE had not asked them if they had kids, contrary to the agency’s own rules. “We’ve been tracking significant levels of family separation, in violation of the policies that the US government has to protect family unity,” says WRC’s Zain Lakhani.

ICE has long had guidelines for detained immigrant parents. Under the Biden administration, the rules required officers to record whether detainees had minor children at home, and to ensure the kids had someone to care for them. This is still true under the Trump administration, even though ICE weakened the guidelines significantly last July. 



The problems with ICE are not on hold.  The problems continue.  Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes: 

A 19-year-old Mexican teenager arrested over a minor traffic infraction died in an ICE facility in south Florida this week.

Royer Perez-Jimenez died on Monday of a “presumed suicide” in his cell at Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida, according to a statement from ICE. His official cause of death remains under investigation. 

[. . .]
Perez-Jimenez is the thirteenth person to die in ICE custody this year, and the thirty-sixth person to die in detention since Donald Trump launched his sweeping immigration crackdown. He is also the youngest to die in custody since Trump resumed office. 



The Trump administration has reshaped a lesser-known corner of the Justice Department to set immigration policy and escalate mass detentions and deportations.

An administrative court known as the Board of Immigration Appeals has published a body of immigration case law that significantly narrows the due process and relief from deportation available for immigrants, an NPR analysis of its decisions shows.

The White House has done that by shrinking the size of the board by nearly half — and stacking the remaining slate of 15 judges with President Trump's appointees.

Last year, their decisions backed Department of Homeland Security lawyers in 97% of publicly posted cases; that's at least 30 percentage points higher than the average from the last 16 years.

The board has made it harder for immigration courts to offer immigrants bond in lieu of detention. It's made it easier to deport migrants to countries other than their own. And a new proposed regulation would make it harder for people to appeal their immigration decisions at all.

The board did this last year while quickly pumping out 70 published decisions, a record number of precedent-setting cases.



Kristi Noem has been fired by Donald Chump and will no longer be Secretary of Homeland Security. Chump's desired replacement for Noem is the equally upsetting Markwayne Mullin.  But it goes beyond one person.  And it goes all the way up to Donald Chump himself who is responsible for all the people who have died in ICE detention and been harmed in ICE detention, and been targeted by ICE while going about their own daily business.  

Chump has okayed racial profiling, he has been fine with US citizens being targeted.  

Chump has attacked everything that we are supposed to be and supposed to believe in and he has destroyed lives in the process.  

To carry this out, he's had to staff his Cabinet with idiots who are unqualified for their jobs and who lap at his feet while betraying the Constitution and launching savage attacks on democracy.


Kristi Noem has been fired.   During her tenure, she brought Corey Lewandowski along with her to Homeland Security.  THE NEW YORK POST reported that Kristi and Corey were having an affair back on September 15, 2023:

Married Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has engaged in a years-long affair with longtime Donald Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, multiple sources told The Post Friday.

Though no images of the two getting frisky are known to exist, the pair have been less than discreet about their relationship, with one source recalling them making out at a hotel bar during the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.

“I remember it was so absurdly blatant and public,” said the person, who recalled Noem and Lewandowski getting “handsy” at the bar of the Hyatt Regency Orlando with between 100 and 200 others around.

“It wasn’t like 2 a.m.,” the source said. “It isn’t like we caught them at some dive bar miles away. It’s a lobby bar where everyone is staying and so there’s a bajillion political operatives and journalists and electeds around. I remember I saw it with my own eyes and a couple other people saw it and the blatantness was absurd.”

The rumors only increased when Kristi was confirmed as Secretary of Homeland -- especially when she moved on to a military base and Corey was seen coming and going all the time -- taking out the trash, you name it.

They never should have been allowed to work together due to this alleged relationship.  The week she was fired, she'd been asked the day before in a House hearing repeatedly about whether or not she was having an affair with Corey and Kristi refused to answer.  









It's become more of an issue since she was fired.  But it is a reflection -- an indictment -- of Donald Chump.

He installed her as Secretary of Homeland Security and didn't object to her bringing her boy toy with her.  He didn't object to their deals that profited them.  The greed in this administration is on full display and possibly Chump's avarice -- on such a grand scale -- distracts from the corruption in those serving under them.

But they all have their own problems, don't they?  Whether it's Kristi and Corey giving their friends contracts or Tom Homan taking a $50,000 bribe -- caught on tape by the FBI.  

Chump allows it.  He waives it through.  

If the Democrats get control in the November mid-terms of even one house of Congress, the ethical and criminal actions of this administration will be put squarely into the spotlight.  It's where Congress should have been focusing for the last year; however, the GOP control of both houses has enabled this administration in its corruption.



More than a year ago, The GEO Group founder George Zoley asked for a meeting with Corey Lewandowski, a close ally of President Donald Trump who had just started a powerful position as a top adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

As a titan of the private prison industry, GEO Group stood to benefit from Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which would require the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to transport, detain, monitor and deport undocumented immigrants. The company’s federal contracts in those areas already totaled more than $1 billion per year.
But Zoley and his advisers were worried that the road to securing new government contracts now ran through Lewandowski. The two had history: Lewandowski and Zoley had butted heads during the transition between Trump’s November 2024 election and his January 2025 inauguration, before Lewandowski officially worked for the government, according to two industry sources and one senior DHS official familiar with the matter.

During the transition, Lewandowski told Zoley that he wanted to be paid in exchange for protecting and growing GEO Group’s DHS contracts, according to a senior DHS official and three people familiar with their discussion. Zoley, concerned about the propriety of the ask, told Lewandowski he would have no part of it, the sources said, describing the confrontation as tense.

Lewandowski took a role as an unpaid “special government employee” at DHS once the new administration was sworn in, where he advised and acted as a “de facto chief of staff” to Noem and, sources said, influenced contract awards. Zoley scrambled to find a way to assuage tensions from the meeting during the transition, two industry sources familiar with the matter said. He secured a follow-up with Lewandowski in late February or early March 2025.
That second meeting did not go much better.

Zoley offered to put Lewandowski on retainer — a recurring consulting fee — with GEO Group, according to two industry sources familiar with the matter.

Lewandowski balked, saying he wanted to be compensated based on the company’s new or renewed contracts with DHS, the two sources said.

“He wanted payments — what some people would call a success fee,” said a person with knowledge of the meeting.

Zoley declined, the two sources said. In the months that followed, the length of two of GEO Group’s federal contracts shrank, and currently several of its facilities that could house migrants sit idle, even as Congress and Trump have poured money into DHS to execute the mass deportation campaign. GEO Group officials believe that is tied to their not agreeing to Lewandowski’s solicitations, said a source familiar with the GEO Group officials’ thinking.


One senior White House official said aides were "aware of the allegations of pay to play," and another said at least four companies had raised concerns. No action has been taken against Lewandowski, in part due to his relationship with the president, according to people familiar with internal discussions.

The allegations come as Lewandowski's role inside DHS has drawn scrutiny. Although the department has said he does not approve contracts, internal records recently reviewed by ProPublica show his signature appearing on major spending decisions, and officials have said he often reviewed agreements above $100,000 before they reached Noem.




Two companies with ties to veteran political operatives received at least $23 million in commissions for their role in the controversial Department of Homeland Security ad campaign that helped lead to Secretary Kristi Noem’s ouster.

One of the firms, Safe America Media, received at least $15.2 million and was formed last February just a few days before it was awarded the limited-bid contract to work on the overall $220 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign, according to an internal DHS memo and three people familiar with the contracts who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the contracts. Safe America Media was run by Republican operatives Mike McElwain and Patrick McCarthy, who have ties to a firm that did extensive media buying on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The second firm, People Who Think, received at least $7.7 million from its 10 percent commission on a portion of the $220 million, according to the memo, which was written by DHS Deputy Under Secretary for Management Paul Stackhouse, and reviewed by POLITICO. People Who Think was co-founded by Jay Connaughton, who did work for Trump’s 2016 campaign and has reportedly worked for other conservative politicians and causes.

The March 3 DHS memo noted there was only a “limited competition” for the awarded contracts because of the “urgent and compelling need” for the ad campaign. It also stated that People Who Think’s 10 percent commission for international advertising and Safe America Media’s 12 percent commission for domestic advertising was below the industry norm of 15 percent.
Besides military recruiting efforts and Covid-19-related campaigns, the DHS ads were the most expensive U.S. government marketing campaign in the last 10 years, Bloomberg reported.
The information about the contracts add new details to the ongoing fallout over DHS’s $220 million ad campaign, which included a video of a cowboy-hat clad Noem riding a horse at Mount Rushmore. It also highlights how political operatives were awarded contracts worth millions of dollars with seemingly little oversight or guardrails — including from President Donald Trump, who White House officials have said did not sign off on the ad campaign.

So the White House knew but, again, with Chump leading the waves of corruption, no one was going to harsh the buzz of the crooks serving underneath the convicted felon.



The Department of Homeland Security has been ordered to preserve all of its records and internal communications as part of a probe into Corey Lewandowski, the de facto chief of staff and alleged lover of Kristi Noem.

Ranking Democrats on three House committees sent a letter Wednesday asking the DHS Inspector General to investigate allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and self-dealing at the department involving Lewandowski.

The former Trump adviser served for more than a year as a special government employee, a role that is supposed to be limited to 130 days per year, but Lewandowski has rarely left Noem’s side since she became secretary.

He amassed a staggering amount of power as her righthand man, including traveling with her to meet with world leaders, participating in high-level policy meetings, advising Noem on personnel decisions, arranging contractor meetings and reviewing contracts, and scheduling the secretary’s meetings with DHS officials and lobbyists.

At the same time, he has continued to pursue his business interests in the private sector and refused to provide financial disclosures.

“Mr. Lewandowski exercised outsized influence over DHS far beyond what an SGE is authorized to do, acting as a shadow chief of staff” for Noem, the ranking Democrats on the committees for Homeland Security, Oversight and Reform, Transportation and Infrastructure wrote in their letter. 

 

The Trump administration is allegedly carrying out a more than $1 billion scam on immigrants, the “largest fraud in the history of the U.S. immigration system,” according to a new analysis.

The Cato Institute study alleges that a combination of Trump administration policies, including freezing visa and status applications for citizens of 92 countries, has resulted in the government collecting more than $1 billion in fees for immigration petitions it never plans to finalize.
“The government took their money, and now it won’t even adjudicate their applications—in many cases, it refuses even to issue denials,” Cato immigration expert David J. Bier writes in the analysis. “The State Department is actually telling consular officers not to notify future applicants that the government has banned them.”

The alleged fraud originates from a group of new restrictions, according to the analysis. They include the Trump administration’s expanded travel ban affecting 40 countries; a freeze and ex post facto review of applications for immigration benefits such as employment authorization and permanent residency; and a recently announced State Department policy pausing visa processing for 75 countries. The Trump administration alleges migrants from these 75 countries draw excessively from the U.S. welfare system.



There are now two defining stories of Trump’s second term, with outcomes the president had not foreseen.

One is the war with Iran that the administration appears to have blundered into without understanding how it was going to get out.

The other is the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, where Trump pledged full transparency on the campaign trail and has spent the past year trying to walk it back.

[. . .]
Trump’s other unresolved matter, that of his one-time pal Jeffrey Epstein, has been received more warmly around the world. Like it or not, the administration’s blunders have re-ignited a scandal that had flickered out until his return to power.

The release of the Epstein files has unleashed new scrutiny of the behavior of once-untouchables like former Prince Andrew and “Prince of Darkness” Lord Peter Mandelson.

The evil of Epstein’s collaborators, like French model agency boss Jean Luc Brunel, has emerged from the files.

Trump’s allies have no problem with America exposing the repellent actions of a wealthy clique that believed itself above the law. They will say “thank you” for that.

Just as long as Trump didn’t go to war with the hope that everyone would forget all about it.


We're not forgetting about it.  Yes, we're turning to news about Donald Chump's buddy, the late Jeffrey Epstein. He promised, if elected, the Epstein files would be released.  In February of last year, Attorney General Pam da Bimbo Bondi invited eager right-wing influencers to meet with her as she handed out binders of 'information' -- turned out that information was all already released -- and declared that sitting on her desk were The Epstein Files and she'd be releasing them shortly. 

Only she didn't.

She did give Chump a heads up in May that he was all in the files.  And then they walked back their promise to release the files and it took an act of Congress -- literally, an act of Congress -- to start the release of files.

Start?

All the files were supposed to have been released by now.  That is the law that Congress passed and that Chump signed.  

But at least thee million pages are said to be still unreleased. 




The top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee is demanding that Kevin Warsh, tapped by President Donald Trump to become the next Federal Reserve chair, explain what if any relationship he had with the late convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.  

In a letter sent to Warsh on Wednesday evening, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sought clarifications after Warsh’s name appeared in documents related to Epstein released by the government earlier this year. Epstein died in prison in 2019.
Noting Warsh’s name appeared in communications by Epstein employees about a holiday party on the Caribbean island of St. Barthélemy in 2010, Warren wrote: “It is unclear whether and to what extent you interacted with Mr. Epstein in association with the invitation referenced in this email exchange.”

“As the Senate considers your nomination to serve as Chair of the Fed, it is essential that Congress and the public fully understand the extent of any interactions or relationship you had with Jeffrey Epstein,” Warren wrote. She noted the communications that included Warsh’s name appeared at a time when Epstein had already been convicted of sex crimes with a minor, and as he faced civil lawsuits over similar issues.

Warren, the ranking minority member of the Senate Banking Committee that will vet Warsh's nomination, requested Warsh respond by March 31 to eight questions detailing possible interactions between him and Epstein and others associated with him.


Democrats are moving to impeach U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and accusing her of refusing to co-operate in a briefing about the Epstein files on Wednesday.

Congressman for California Robert Garcia likened the closed-door briefing to an “outrageous fake hearing” after Bondi said she would not adhere to a subpoena requiring her to testify under oath.
Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went to Capitol Hill to try to quell bipartisan frustration over the Justice Department’s handling of millions of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation after the House Oversight Committee, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, voted to subpoena her earlier this month.

Five Republicans on the committee sided with Democrats to support the subpoena for Bondi to appear for a deposition on April 14.

On Tuesday, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee introduced articles of impeachment against Bondi, outlining several alleged offences, including "defiance of the Oversight Committee’s subpoena to release the full, unredacted Epstein files, defiance of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, abuse of investigatory and prosecutorial authority, defiance of federal court orders, and perjury in congressional testimony," she said in a news release.


The Democrats smell blood. Oversight’s subpoena was bipartisan, approved with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats. And it gives the opposition a firm lever: an April 14 deposition date that serves as a key test of compliance. 

If Bondi dodges, Democrats can try to build toward contempt, and it speaks to some of MAGA’s worst fears about the Epstein files. 

If she shows, Democrats get sworn testimony and a transcript, which is more fodder for their fight against the Trump administration. 

Either way, it’s political downside for the administration, because Epstein is the kind of scandal where nothing new is rarely reassuring. The public assumes there’s always more and it’s being kept, deliberately, from them. 


Yesterday, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released the following:

Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement after Darren Indyke, long-time lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein and co-executor of Epstein’s estate, was deposed by the Oversight Committee. Survivors have shared with the Committee that Darren Indyke and Epstein accountant Richard Kahn may have known about Epstein’s activities and helped facilitate his crimes through their management of his legal and financial affairs.

“Darren Indyke played a central role in facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of women and girls and managing legal strategies that helped Epstein avoid government scrutiny. In his deposition before the Committee, Indyke would not confirm or deny a settlement with Jane Doe 4, who accused Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of abuse when she was a minor. However, he confirmed the existence of hard drives held by Epstein’s private investigators. These hard drives are of great interest to our committee. Survivors and victims of Jeffrey Epstein deserve to know the truth. Oversight Democrats will not stop until there’s full transparency about everyone complicit in Epstein’s crimes,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.

Oversight Democrats are eager to secure the hard drives held by Epstein’s private investigators. The subpoenas for Richard Kahn and Darren Indyke, close associates of Jeffrey Epstein, were issued after successful motions offered by Oversight Democrats and adopted on a bipartisan basis. Richard Kahn’s subpoena can be found here and Darren Indyke’s subpoena can be found here.

 

###

Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee deposed another person on Epstein.  Anna Betts (GUARDIAN) reports:

Darren Indyke, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime lawyer, told US House lawmakers on Thursday that he “had no knowledge whatsoever of Jeffrey Epstein’s wrongdoings” during his employment.

The deposition before the House oversight and reform committee on Thursday morning is behind closed doors, but according to a copy of Indyke’s opening statement provided to the Guardian by his attorney, Indyke told lawmakers that that his primary role “was to provide corporate, transactional and general legal services to Mr Epstein and his companies, and I did so”.

Indyke, who began working for Epstein in the 1990s, is testifying under subpoena as the panel continues its investigation into the late disgraced financier.





And on MS NOW, Ari covered a revelation from BBC NEWS about Epstien.




Let's wind down with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:

In a new oversight letter, Senators point to Trump officials’ use of personal email accounts to blatantly evade transparency laws and conduct sensitive official business related to efforts to unlawfully dismantle federal climate regulations

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), is leading Senate Democrats in demanding answers on records revealing U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officials engaged in repeated potential violations of the Federal Records Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and the Freedom of Information Act by using personal email accounts to communicate and collaborate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on work to support EPA’s rescission of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding.

“These emails illustrate that CWG members were intent from the start on manufacturing a false narrative that sought to inaccurately downplay the harms of climate change. In these emails, members of the working group repeatedly demonstrated their intent to evade transparency laws,” the Senators wrote. 

The letter includes, for example, one of these exchanges: “CWG member Steven Koonin wrote from his Gmail account: “We should be mindful that our email communications that go to DOE addresses are subject to FOIA.” Mr. Koonin even asked fellow CWG member Roy Spencer: “Roy- is there are [sic] gmail address we can use for you, rather than the [University of Alabama Huntsman] address (which may itself be subject to FOIA)?” 

“These emails from personal accounts also indicate coordination with EPA and clearly show that EPA requested the production of the report, purportedly to justify the agency’s rescission of the endangerment finding and associated termination of vehicle emissions rules,” the Senators continued.  

The coordinator of the CWG, Travis Fisher, wrote, “the EPA team asked that the document be DOE-branded,” and “I’ve been told this summary of the science will be published as a technical support document relevant to a new proposed rule on tailpipe emissions standards for motor vehicles.”  

The Senators are also asking whether Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also engaged in similar practices regarding the use of personal emails, and coordination between DOE, EPA, and the White House. 

In addition to Schiff, the letter was signed by Ranking Member of EPW Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). and Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). 

The full text of the letter can be found here and below. 

Dear Secretary Wright and Administrator Zeldin: 

We write to request answers from your agencies concerning the blatant use of personal email accounts by administration officials to evade public scrutiny laws and conduct sensitive official business related to your agencies’ efforts to unlawfully dismantle federal climate regulations. Records uncovered through litigation reveal that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) appointees engaged in repeated potential violations of the Federal Records Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and the Freedom of Information Act through the routine use of private email accounts to collaborate on the drafting of an error-riddled climate report requested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help justify the rescission of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding. These records call into question to what extent DOE and EPA officials may have improperly used personal email accounts and resisted public records requests throughout your agencies’ work to produce the February 12, 2026, rescission of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding. 

During litigation over the legality of DOE’s “Climate Working Group” (CWG)—a group of fossil fuel industry loyalists that was established to provide cover for EPA’s rescission of the endangerment finding—the court ordered DOE to turn over records related to the working group. These records revealed an extensive paper trail of working group members using their personal email accounts to develop the scientifically unsound report entitled, A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate. These emails illustrate that CWG members were intent from the start on manufacturing a false narrative that sought to inaccurately downplay the harms of climate change. 

In these emails, members of the working group repeatedly demonstrated their intent to evade transparency laws. For example, CWG member Steven Koonin wrote from his Gmail account: “We should be mindful that our email communications that go to DOE addresses are subject to FOIA.” Mr. Koonin even asked fellow CWG member Roy Spencer: “Roy- is there are [sic] gmail address we can use for you, rather than the [University of Alabama Huntsman] address (which may itself be subject to FOIA)?” 

These emails from personal accounts also indicate coordination with EPA and clearly show that EPA requested the production of the report, purportedly to justify the agency’s rescission of the endangerment finding and associated termination of vehicle emissions rules. The coordinator of the CWG, Travis Fisher, wrote, “the EPA team asked that the document be DOE-branded,” and “I’ve been told this summary of the science will be published as a technical support document relevant to a new proposed rule on tailpipe emissions standards for motor vehicles.” 

Further, a judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan held that the CWG violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by working in secret to develop the report. It is clear that the administration recognizes that the DOE report is fundamentally tainted, as evidenced by EPA’s insistence in the final rescission of the endangerment finding that the agency “is not relying on” the report “for any aspect of this final action,” despite having cited the CWG group’s work numerous times in the proposed rule. 

However, what is not clear and what deserves public scrutiny is to what extent DOE and EPA officials routinely use their personal email accounts to conduct official business and whether this practice was employed by EPA officials—as it was by DOE officials and CWG members— during work on the climate report or throughout the preparation of EPA’s rescission of the endangerment finding. 

DOE’s failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act also deserves public scrutiny. Several organizations have expressed that DOE has failed to produce any records in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to the Department throughout 2025. The fulfillment of public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act is not optional; it is required under the law. 

Given the numerous apparent legal violations associated with DOE’s climate work and EPA’s rescission of the endangerment finding, we request responses to the following by March 31, 2026: 

  1. Did any current or former EPA employees use personal email accounts to conduct business related to the February 12 rescission of the endangerment finding? If so, please provide all instances of such communications. If you do not currently know the answer to this question, please explain how you will evaluate whether this has occurred and what accountability measures you will employ to prevent any future issues. 
  2. Did any current or former EPA employees use personal email accounts to coordinate with the DOE CWG? How did EPA personnel communicate the agency’s requests (referenced in the DOE CWG released email records) to the CWG?  
  3. Did employees at DOE or EPA communicate with the White House or other agencies through personal emails, Signal chats, or other private messaging platforms regarding the development of either the July 23, 2025, DOE report or the EPA final agency action to rescind the endangerment finding? If so, please provide all instances of such communications. 
  4. To what extent did DOE coordinate with EPA and the White House on this report? Did any coordination with the White House on the rescission of the endangerment finding occur outside of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) review process or with entities in the White House other than OIRA? 
  5. Mr. Fisher wrote, “I am happy to relay any questions you all have to the relevant folks at DOE or other agencies.” What other agencies besides DOE and EPA were involved in this effort? 
  6. During the preparation of either the CWG report or the endangerment finding rescission, did DOE or EPA employees use personal email accounts to communicate with outside stakeholders, such as oil and gas companies, trade associations, think tanks, nonprofits, or other groups? Did DOE or EPA employees hold any official or unofficial meetings with such stakeholders during the preparation of the CWG report or the endangerment finding rescission? 
  7. What steps are you taking to ensure the preservation of relevant records sent via official or unofficial channels pursuant to the Federal Records Act? 
  8. Will you commit to complying with all requests by the National Archives to preserve records or investigate breaches of the Federal Records Act at your agencies? 
  9. Will DOE commit to providing records in response to outstanding Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to the Department during the year 2025? 
  10. Given the CWG’s numerous violations of federal transparency laws, will you commit that both DOE and EPA will no longer work with Travis Fisher, John Christy, Judith Curry, Steven Koonin, Ross McKitrick, and Roy Spencer? 
  11. What actions is DOE taking to ensure accountability for Seth Cohen and Joshua Loucks, two current DOE appointees who used their personal email accounts to communicate with the CWG? 

###


The following sites updated:






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