More developments overnight in the wake of The Wall Street Journal‘s explosive report on a salacious 50th birthday letter former game show host Donald Trump sent to child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein:
President Trump announced Thursday night that he was authorizing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and Ms. Bondi said she would make that request in federal court on Friday.
There’s also this. Clumsy timing, huh?
On Wednesday night, The Washington Post reported that the White House fired Maurene Comey, a seasoned prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. Comey has worked on many high-profile cases, most recently helping secure a conviction for Sean Combs. But more crucially, she prosecuted Maxwell — and Epstein. Or would have, if he hadn’t died in jail. More than anyone else on the planet, Comey probably knows what’s in the unreleased Epstein documents. If there were any interest from Republicans or the White House in learning more, they would be talking to her, not showing her the door.
Trump is, as the cool kids say, big mad:
Ahead of the weekend, Trump took to Truth Social, asking, “If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had Garland and Comey in charge, use it?”
And his claim that he “never wrote a picture in my life” was quickly debunked:
Trump has sketched a number of drawings over the years, including a drawing of the Manhattan skyline dated 2004 – just one year after he is accused of drawing the naked woman for Epstein.
The 2004 Manhattan drawing was reportedly sketched by Trump for a charity art sale before being put up for auction again in 2019.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted a photo of the drawing on social media, Thursday, along with the caption, “I never wrote a picture in my life.”
“I never wrote a picture in my life.” pic.twitter.com/sxYydO4LcJ
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 18, 2025
It’s not going over well on the American Right:
Demands for the US President’s resignation are mounting as fresh revelations about his ties to the deceased and disgraced Wall Street mogul surface from materials supposedly gathered in a leather-bound collection by Ghislaine Maxwell.
One of the reality-based world’s most astute observers of all things Washington pointed out that tech bro and vice president JD Vance is making all the wrong moves:
On MSNBC’s The Last Word, [Lawrence] O’Donnell accused Vance of completely fumbling his response to the WSJ report [and] said that if Vance’s intention was to help the president, he “could destroy Trump” instead.
…
“Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it,” Vance wrote on X. “Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?”
In a follow-up post, he asked, “Doesn’t it violate some rule of journalistic ethics to publish a letter like this without showing it to the victim of this hit piece?”
O’Donnell responded by wondering out loud what exactly Vance’s motivation would be for demanding something that could ultimately be the end of his boss’s political career. He said:
The answer is no. It does not violate journalistic ethics, and the worst thing that can happen to Donald Trump is for the Wall Street Journal or anyone else to release publicly a copy of that letter. The worst thing that could happen to Donald Trump is exactly what his vice president, JD Vance, is demanding tonight. JD Vance, the person who would move up to the presidency, if this issue becomes so difficult that it drives Donald Trump out of the presidency through impeachment or resignation. We have seen this happen to a president before, and Donald Trump has never been weaker.
The right wing is making claims that are exploding in their faces:
Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist and a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, attempted to discredit a disturbing new allegation linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein by focusing on one word: “enigma.” … [T]hat claim unraveled within hours. A fact-checking account called This You? resurfaced footage from a 2015 Trump rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where Trump said clearly: “Carson’s an enigma to me.”
For now, let’s conclude with comments by virulent racist influencer and former Trump dinner guest Nick Fuentes:
Nick Fuentes to Trump: "Fúck you. You suck. You're fat, you're a joke, you're stupid, you're not funny… This entire thing has been a scam. We're gonna look back at MAGA movement as the biggest scam in history. The liberals were right… we will see Trump as a scam artist." pic.twitter.com/yEEYZmzM8r
— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) July 17, 2025
DEVELOPING HARD…