| | | |  | | By Ankush Khardori | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Good morning. This is Ankush Khardori. Get in touch.
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The public has learned pretty much nothing new from the government about the Epstein investigation since this controversy kicked off. | Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images | EPSTEIN, AGAIN: The coming weeks may prove to be crucial ones for President Donald Trump and his allies if they hope to bring the controversy surrounding the release of the so-called Epstein files to something approximating a close. It’s been more than six weeks since the release of the brief and unsigned joint Justice Department-FBI memo that kicked things off in earnest by reporting that the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had indeed taken his own life and that there was no “client list” to disclose — despite the various assurances and promises of transparency made over the years by Trump, VP JD Vance, AG Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, among others. Since then, the White House and Republican allies in Congress have engaged in scattered — you might even say flailing — efforts to tamp things down. As of Friday, the House Oversight Committee now has the first tranche of the DOJ’s rolling production of documents in response to a subpoena, so you can safely expect more activity on this front — and lots more chatter — once members return to Washington next week after the end of August recess. As a result, we thought now would be a good time to take a step back and see where things otherwise stand on the government’s Epstein-related investigative forays. To start, let’s level set with the most important question: What could the public usefully learn at this point? You can break that down into two subsidiary questions based on public polling, media coverage and our admittedly subjective assessment of the political-legal zeitgeist. 1. What was done to prepare the DOJ-FBI memo? Or, to be more precise, what did the DOJ and FBI actually do in recent months to review the Epstein investigation, and what did they learn about the broader conspiracies alleged by skeptics? According to polling released last month, more than two-thirds of the country believes that the Trump administration is hiding information about Epstein. 2. What references to Trump are reportedly in the investigative files? Roughly half of the country apparently now believes that Trump was involved in crimes that were committed by Epstein. Thus far, the Trump DOJ has failed to answer these in any meaningful way. The DOJ’s effort to secure the release of grand jury transcripts was a comprehensive flop. There was never much reason to expect to learn anything from them, but as of last week, the administration has now lost in all three of the relevant courts. Two of the judges were particularly sharp in their brushbacks — writing in their opinions that the DOJ had effectively misled the public by suggesting that they would learn anything new from the material, and that the motions were political diversionary tactics.
| | | | A message from Comcast: Comcast is focused on connecting millions of Americans now and into the future. With $80 billion invested to expand broadband infrastructure in the U.S., Comcast is actively supporting the goal of bringing internet connectivity to everyone, including rural communities across the country. Learn more. | | | | The Trump DOJ’s release on Friday of the audio and transcript of the Ghislaine Maxwell interview conducted by Deputy AG Todd Blanche was also effectively meaningless. The decision to interview Maxwell in the first place was — at least as an investigative and prosecutorial matter — a baffling one. For reasons too numerous to recount, no serious prosecutor would take her at her word on anything related to her misconduct, Epstein’s misconduct or, frankly, pretty much anything. Ironically, the department’s release of the Maxwell interview itself ought to put to rest the notion that she is credible in any form. That is because Maxwell told the DOJ that she was unaware of any criminal misconduct and that she never witnessed any misconduct by any men who visited or traveled with Epstein. As a practical matter, that would mean one of two things. The first possibility is that Maxwell was indeed innocent all along — that the first Trump DOJ falsely accused Maxwell when they charged her, that she was wrongfully convicted at trial by a unanimous jury, that most if not all of the overwhelming evidence against Maxwell at the trial was false or fabricated and, in addition, that for some reason she did not testify in her own defense despite watching all of this false evidence come in. The second possibility is that she is a serial liar who committed terrible crimes and whose self-serving interview with Blanche should be dismissed out of hand — whether it helps or hurts Trump or anyone else. (If you need a refresher on what the evidence at trial revealed about the type of person that Maxwell is, we suggest pages 5-14 of the DOJ’s post-trial sentencing submission.) We’re going with Occam’s razor on this one. Meanwhile, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has just begun a series of depositions on the Epstein matter. Former AG Bill Barr appeared last week, and the remainder of the schedule includes former AGs Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, among others. None of these people would seem to have much useful information to offer. In fact, to answer the most pressing Epstein-related questions, the people you would want to speak with would probably include — in no particular order — Trump himself, Bondi, Patel, Blanche, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Alex Acosta, who negotiated the sweetheart 2007 plea deal with Epstein while serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. You might even call these bizarro investigations. They do not appear to be asking the right questions or talking to the right people to address the things that the average American might actually want to know. Will the Trump DOJ’s document production be better? That remains to be seen, but a very healthy dose of skepticism is in order. Among other things, the DOJ gets to pick which documents it produces and when it produces them. Yesterday, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said that the overwhelming majority of the 30,000+ pages produced by DOJ on Friday was material that was already public. If you put it all together, an unfortunate verdict emerges: The public has learned pretty much nothing new from the government about the Epstein investigation since this controversy kicked off. What they have learned, perhaps, is that the Trump White House, the Trump DOJ and House Republicans have provided the appearance of investigative activity and of forward momentum — but that that appearance is, in fact, an illusion. Related reads:
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We extended our network to over 1.25 million new homes and businesses in the last year alone and are on track to do the same this year. Learn more. | | | | SUNDAY BEST … — Vance on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is stringing Trump along, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “No, not at all … I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years … What they have conceded is the recognition that Ukraine will have territorial integrity after the war. They’ve recognized that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. … And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” — Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on Trump’s handling of the war, on “Fox News Sunday”: “The president gave impetus to the process, but nothing has resulted from these meetings. Putin remains obstinate, refusing to consider anything other than the surrender of Ukrainian territory, which I think would be a prelude just to a future attack. The Ukrainians will fight on. There was a lot of discussion. I think there was a lot of camaraderie, which is good. But there [were] no concrete proposals nor peace process put in place.” — Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on the investigations of John Bolton and other perceived political enemies of Trump, including Schiff himself, on “Meet the Press”: “This is clearly retribution. … What the president is trying to do here is very systemic and systematic, and that is anyone who stands up to the president — anyone who criticizes the president, anyone who says anything adverse [to] the president’s interests — gets the full weight of the federal government brought down on them. … There’s no there there [for me], but the common denominator is they will manufacture anything to go after their critics … It’s free reign with a corrupt leadership at the Justice Department.” — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on what Democrats will do in New York and elsewhere to fight the GOP’s unprecedented power grab of mid-cycle partisan gerrymandering, on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “We will continue to respond when necessary across the country. Right now this has happened in Texas — California has responded. Let’s see what comes next.” Dana Bash: “So is there not a plan yet in New York? Is that what I’m hearing?” Jeffries: “There’s a plan to respond as appropriately in New York and in other parts of the country as the circumstances dictate.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “Bill Pulte’s Enemy’s List,” by Adam Levitin for Credit Slips
- “A Letter to America’s Discarded Public Servants,” by William Burns in The Atlantic
- “Would You Trust This Man With Your Elections?” by Richard Hasen in the NYT
- “A Tale of Two Jurists in the Trump Era,” by The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer
- “He Was the Face and Voice of Gaza. Israel Assassinated Him,” by NYT’s Lydia Polgreen
- “Who Is a ‘Journalist’ in Gaza?” by James Kirchick in the WSJ
- “The 1988 Trap: Democrats Are in Danger of Repeating a Painful Lesson,” by The Messina Memo’s Jim Messina
- “My gut instinct on Trump’s D.C. power grab was wrong,” by WaPo’s Shadi Hamid
- “What Is Trump Hiding in His Secret Budget?” by Thomas Kahn in the NYT
- “The Trump Family Cashes In on ‘the Infinite Money Glitch,’” by WSJ’s James Mackintosh
- “A ‘MAHA Box’ Might Be Coming to Your Doorstep,” by The Atlantic’s Nicholas Florko
- “I’m a Red-State Mayor. Diversity Is Not Reverse Bigotry,” by Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt in the NYT
- “Here’s What Happened When I Made My College Students Put Away Their Phones,” by Ezekiel Emanuel in the NYT
| | | | The California Agenda-- Don't miss POLITICO's inaugural California policy summit in Sacramento. Join us virtually to explore policy debates around tech, energy, health care and more. Hear from Sen. Alex Padilla (D), Katie Porter, GOP gubernatorial candidates and more! Register to watch. | | | | | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. UP NEXT: After L.A. and D.C., Chicago could be the next unwilling American city where Trump sends in the troops, WaPo’s Dan Lamothe scooped. Weeks of planning at the Pentagon have given Trump the option to deploy the National Guard — or active-duty troops, though that’s “considered less likely” — along with expanded ICE enforcement in a broad operation against undocumented immigrants, criminals and homeless people. City and state leaders reacted sharply to the reporting, saying such a move by Trump would be unnecessary. This morning, Trump threatened to do the same in Baltimore — or to pull federal funding to rebuild the Key Bridge. The impact: CNN’s Casey Tolan and Holmes Lybrand dug into the data from the first week of the federal takeover in D.C. They found there was a 17 percent drop in violent crime, according to Metropolitan Police Department numbers. (Trump went much further on Truth Social, falsely saying “there is NO CRIME” anymore.) And the number of immigration arrests has spiked tenfold. The problem: NBC’s Rich Schapiro dives into the crisis of carjackings in the D.C. area, which remain elevated above pre-pandemic numbers despite falling significantly in recent years. Many of the young people arrested for the violent crime got released within a day or two. 2. ELBRIDGE COLBY STRIKES AGAIN: Without announcing it, the Defense Department has prevented Ukraine from firing long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems to hit within Russia since the spring, WSJ’s Alex Ward and colleagues scooped. The review process created by Colby gives the U.S. a veto over Ukraine conducting such strikes with the American-made weapons and effectively undoes a Joe Biden green light; the Pentagon has rejected Kyiv’s request at least once. The step back: NYT’s Aaron Krolik investigated why U.S. sanctions against Russian trade haven’t been as effective at slowing its war on Ukraine. “One reason could be that the financial institutions necessary to facilitate that trade are not being found and punished.” 3. TRADING PLACES: DHL and other major shipping providers across Europe announced yesterday that they’d halt many package deliveries to the U.S. immediately or in the next few days, per AP’s Demetris Nellas and Mae Anderson. The reason is the U.S. crackdown on the “de minimis” exemption from tariffs for many low-value shipments, which expired Friday. Many postal services said they needed more clarity on the policy. 4. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia says Trump administration using threatened deportation to Uganda to coerce guilty plea,” by POLITICO’s Ben Johansen and Kyle Cheney: “Attorneys for Abrego said in a Saturday court filing the Justice Department is pressuring him to accept a guilty plea to two felony [human smuggling charges that he denies], promising to deport him to Costa Rica — where he would be free from incarceration — after the completion of any criminal sentence. … But after Abrego resisted that proposal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told his lawyers that they had decided instead to deport him to Uganda.”
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Comcast employees are delivering top WiFi, mobile, and entertainment across the country. Learn more. | | | | 5. FROM 30,000 FEET: “In Trump’s Second Term, Far-Right Agenda Enters the Mainstream,” by NYT’s Alan Feuer: “Whether it is dismantling diversity programs, complaining about anti-white bias in museums or simply promoting an aura of authoritarian nationalism, Mr. Trump has embraced an array of far-right views and talking points … Far-right figures have been particularly thrilled by Mr. Trump’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, praising not only the ubiquitous images of masked federal agents raiding farms and factories, but also the ideology that has fueled those moves: a belief that migration to the United States is all but synonymous with a military invasion.” 6. 2028 WATCH: As the DNC begins its summer meeting tomorrow, POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin reports that another cycle of squabbling over Democrats’ presidential primary calendar may end with New Hampshire (though not Iowa) returning to the front of the line. Some Dems think the likeliest outcome is New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and a Midwestern state — perhaps Michigan — taking the first four slots in 2028. New Hampshire’s return seems especially likely because the DNC gave up its leverage when it didn’t punish the state for going rogue in 2024. 7. BLEEDING CUTS, PART I: “South Africa’s most vulnerable struggle to find HIV medication after US aid cuts,” by Louise Dewast for the AP in Johannesburg: Sex workers and transgender people “described a new world of difficulty in obtaining HIV medication or the preventive medicine for people at risk of HIV. … A major challenge for those who lost access to the U.S.-funded nonprofit clinics is finding help elsewhere, including public hospitals. … The withdrawal from regular health care by sex workers and others means that many are no longer being tested and don’t know what level of the virus they have in body fluids — and whether they can pass it on to others.” 8. BLEEDING CUTS, PART II: “This conservative county lost teachers after administration cut key grant,” by WaPo’s Ben Brasch in Montgomery County, North Carolina: “School district officials said they believe their grant was rescinded because they agreed when they applied in 2023 to adhere to the Biden administration’s expectation that they would recruit a diverse workforce. The 3,500-student school system started the fall semester last week with 10 fewer teachers, according to a district official, and fewer resources to attract new ones. For students, that means larger class sizes with more inexperienced teachers and fewer after-school offerings.” 9. THE 180: A sweeping new piece by NYT’s Dan Barry and Alan Feuer lays out how the Trump administration’s about-face on Jan. 6 — pardoning criminals at the Capitol insurrection and purging the law enforcement officers who prosecuted them — has provided a template for a politicized transformation of the Justice Department. “Now, to remedy what the president has deemed the past weaponization of Justice, it has been deployed as a weapon for his score-settling and political crusades.”
| | | | Want to know how policy pros stay ahead? Policy Intelligence Assistant — only with POLITICO Pro — merges trusted reporting with advanced AI to deliver deeper insights, faster answers, and powerful report builders that drive action. Get 30 days free. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Antony Blinken had to leave a beach in the Hamptons that was closed due to Hurricane Erin. OUT AND ABOUT — Kathy “Coach” Kemper and the Institute for Education hosted a #techplomacy happy hour yesterday afternoon on the Great Lawn at Congressional Country Club. SPOTTED: Aneesh and Rohini Chopra, Martin Thümmel, Luxembourg Ambassador Nicole Bintner-Bakshian, EU Ambassador Jovita Neliupšienė, Kazakhstani Ambassador Yerzhan Ashikbayev and Dinara Ashikbayeva, Shaun Modi, Annabelle Dullin, Shanel Fields, Mark Schulte, Gil Alterovitz, Matthew Versaggi, Charles Borges, Kaeli Yuen, Carmem Domingues, Mikel Maron, Denice Ross, Ricky Abisla, Jim Rymarcsuk, Nadia Fawaz, Jackie Kazil, Nina Maturu, Yasmin Lalani, Nevin Taylor, Burgan Shealy, Amy Wilson, Josh and Ali Rogin, and Juliet Eilperin. TRANSITION — Eric Jones has launched the American Dream Institute, a $30 million organization focused on digital engagement to help Democrats and progressives improve with young voters. He previously worked in venture capital. More from the S.F. Chronicle ENGAGED — Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) proposed to Kaley Taffe on a kayak ride and picnic in northern Wisconsin. Pics BIRTHWEEK (was Thursday): Joe Gebbia HAPPY BIRTHDAY: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt … Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) … Reps. Clay Higgins (R-La.) and John McGuire (R-Va.) … U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee (7-0) … WaPo’s Jacob Bogage … CBS’ Major Garrett … David Gregory … Justin Roth … Todd Harris of Something Else Strategies … David Molina of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics … Ricki Seidman (7-0) … Megan Bel Miller of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office … Betsy Wright Hawkings … Seyward Darby of The Atavist Magazine … Matt McDonald of The Spectator … The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik … Natalie Strom Short of Edelman … Geo Saba … Brooke Barker … Emily Cherniack of New Politics … Michael Moynihan … Dabney Hegg (5-0) … former Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) … Abbie McDonough … former Reps. John Culberson (R-Texas) and Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) … Errol Louis … Harry Rhoads of the Washington Speaker Bureau … Meagan Shepherd of Conservation International … Pam Coulter … HB Strategies’ Lynn Jacquez Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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