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None of the men mentioned in the report have been charged with crimes in connection to #Epstein.
The report was included in hundreds of pages of previously sealed court records that #JPMorgan released on Thursday at the instruction of a federal judge, Jed S. Rakoff. He ordered the documents unsealed in response to requests from The New York Times & The Wall Street Journal.
#JPMorgan said in its report that it was flagging about 4,700 transactions, totaling more than $1 billion, because they were potentially related to reports of human trafficking involving #Epstein. It also mentioned Epstein’s wire transfers to #Russian #banks & sensitivities around “his relationships with two U.S. presidents.” Epstein at times was close with President #Trump & President #BillClinton.
Weeks after #Epstein died in federal custody in 2019…, #JPMorganChase filed a report alerting the #US govt to tens of millions of suspicious transactions involving him & prominent #WallStreet & #business figures.
The report that #JPMorgan filed identified transactions with #LeonBlack, the co-founder of private equity firm #ApolloGlobalManagement; #GlennDubin, a hedge fund manager; [#Trump’s & Epstein’s atty] lawyer #AlanDershowitz; & trusts controlled by #LesWexner, the retail tycoon.
#JPMorgan Alerted #US to #Epstein Transfers Involving #WallStreet Figures
After #JeffreyEpstein’s 2019 death, the bank reported more than $1 billion in potentially suspicious transactions.
#law #EpsteinFiles
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/business/jpmorgan-jeffrey-epstein.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xk8.lerV.8PpdTiwEUDlp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
The memo does not specify what kind of litigation the volunteers would be asked to do, but it says that, ideally, attorneys would have “significant experience” in #immigration & administrative law in addition to general prosecution & litigation experience.
…This week’s memo says the #DOJ asked for 20 lawyers to help support its offices in #Memphis, where the #NationalGuard has been deployed by #Trump; 12 for West #Texas — specifically for the cities of #ElPaso, #DelRio, & #Midland — & 3 lawyers & 2 paralegals for #LasCruces, #NewMexico.
The memo appears to be the latest effort to send #military & civilian #attorneys working for the #Pentagon to the #DOJ, this time to staff offices along the #US southern border or where federal #immigration enforcement ops are taking place.
Last month, the #Pentagon also approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the DOJ to serve as temporary immigration judges in a separate effort. The #Trump admin increasingly has tapped the military to bolster its immigration crackdown….
“I am directing you to collectively identify 48 attorneys & 4 paralegals from within your Military Department who may be suitable for detail” to the #DOJ to act as special assistant #USattorneys, #Hegseth wrote in a memo dated Monday that was sent to all 4 services & the chai of the #JointChiefs of Staff.
#Hegseth orders the #military to detail
dozens of #attorneys to the #DOJ, AP learns
#Defense Secretary #PeteHegseth has ordered the military to provide dozens of lawyers to the Justice Department for temporary assignments in Memphis & near the #US - #Mexico border that could run through next fall, according to a memo released this week & reviewed by The AP.
#law #immigration #MartialLaw #MilitaryState #Trump
https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-military-attorneys-immigration-justice-department-cb352bdb6c1d9d6d68f79642d69c6363
Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”
The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.
She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean & in the Pacific violate international #HumanRights #law.”
…Shamdasani noted the US explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug & counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spox for Türk’s office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular #UN briefing: “These attacks & their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks & take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
The #UN #HumanRights chief said Friday that #US #military strikes against boats in the #Caribbean Sea & eastern #Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from #SouthAmerica are “unacceptable” & must stop.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk called for an #investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization.
#criminal #law #murder #Trump
https://apnews.com/article/un-us-military-strikes-south-america-ed0ce092af5ad2c64b34ed51f8ab59cc
The #filibuster is a long-standing tactic in the #Senate to delay or block votes on legislation by keeping the debate running. It requires 60 votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster, giving Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority that led to the start of the Oct. 1 shutdown when the new fiscal year began.
#Trump’s call to terminate the filibuster could alter the ways the Senate & congressional dealmaking operate….
#Trump says #Senate should scrap the #filibuster to end the government #shutdown
Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, so that the Republican majority can bypass Democrats & reopen the federal government.
“THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump posted late Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social.
#law
https://apnews.com/article/government-shutdown-effects-trump-update-democrats-95b986b83b9802fe7a8374572fcd86f0
Finally, a brief by three Cato Institute researchers refutes the extralegal doomsaying the admin uses, perhaps to compensate for the weakness of its legal arguments. But synthetic catastrophizing is unlikely to sway the justices.
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers #SCOTUS #Trump #tariffs
A bipartisan group of legal scholars & fmr govt officials argues that #Congress never intended the #IEEPA as a “backdoor” for turning the taxing power into “an executive instrument” that allows presidents to restructure the #economy. In the IEEPA, Congress avoided standardless, open-ended delegation of power by using 7 different verbs, but not “tax” or its synonyms, in empowering the president to do things.
https://libertyjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Stamped-Motion-and-Brief.pdf
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers #SCOTUS #Trump #tariffs
A brief from a broad spectrum of economists argues: Even if the #IEEPA permits imposing tariffs (it’s never been so used), #tariffs would not “deal with” (IEEPA lang) #trade deficits. Besides, over the past 50yrs, in any given year, most countries have run trade deficits, as the #US did for all but 3 yrs between 1800 & 1870, while it was industrializing. Furthermore, the effects of higher tariffs on trade balance are generally “small & insignificant.”
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-1287/380468/20251024103703664_24-1287%2025-250%20ac%20Economists.pdf
#law #SCOTUS #Trump
The IEEPA was written to provide presidents with “a temporary boost in power” (Brennan), while preventing the use of seismic emergency powers, allegedly implied by Congress, to address chronic conditions. Otherwise, as a justice wrote in 1952, “emergency powers would tend to kindle emergencies.” Besides, as a percentage of GDP, the overall U.S. trade imbalance is significantly less than 20 years ago (Brennan).
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers #SCOTUS #Trump #tariffs
Brennan, too, says, in effect, that if Congress can address a condition, it is not an emergency. Emergencies are sudden, acute, unforeseen, extraordinary, dangerous and require instant action. The president sabotages his case by saying today’s “emergency” is a “persistent” condition — 50 years of trade deficits. They have coincided with soaring U.S. prosperity.
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers #SCOTUS #Trump #tariffs
(Neither does the National Emergencies Act of 1976, which also is invoked by his defenders.)
Goldwater cites numerous instances of judicial review of claims of emergencies. Judicial review of an executive’s assertion that an emergency exists is comparable to review of a legislature’s assertion that a particular piece of legislation is constitutional.
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers #SCOTUS #Trump #tariffs
This momentous case must either undermine or buttress the #Constitution’s architecture: the #SeparationOfPowers. Six amicus briefs explain why.
The conservative Goldwater Institute & the liberal Brennan Center separately argue that the statute #Trump says gives him unreviewable power to impose taxes (which #tariffs are) of whatever amount, & for as long as, he chooses (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977), does no such thing.
#PresidentialPower & #SCOTUS’ own stature ride on this case
Decorum might dissolve during oral arguments on Wednesday in the Supreme Court. The justices might guffaw when #Trump admin lawyers say: The president’s #tariffs should be exempt from judicial review because they respond to an “emergency,” emergencies, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder, & presidents alone are our designated beholders.
#law #Constitution #SeparationOfPowers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/31/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-congress-constitution/
Arstechnica: Meta denies torrenting porn to train AI, says downloads were for “personal use”
Meta says lawsuit claiming it pirated porn to train AI makes no sense.
Oct 29, 2025 2:35 PM
Citing AP investigation, senators demand answers on use of full-body #restraints during #deportations
A “near-total secrecy” surrounding deportation flights & the use of #FullBodyRestraints onboard is raising “serious #HumanRights concerns,” a group of 11 Democratic U.S. senators wrote in a letter Thursday to top immigration officials.
#Trump #law #immigration #WRAP #HumanRights
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-deportations-wrap-senators-letter-55acd1dc304ce16c9f560d271819e78e?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-10-30-Deportation+flights
Later, the desperate desire of AG #MerrickGarland & President Joe #Biden to avoid any appearance of #partisanship led the #DOJ to put off looking into #evidence of a *potential* #crime & gave #Trump an advantage that few appreciated at the time. Garland’s delays softened the ground & would eventually help Trump remake the #Justice Department into his own cudgel.
#law #democracy #Constitution #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment #GiftArticle
It’s true #Trump started it all when, in his first presidency, he tried to bend this venerable #law enforcement agency for his own #personal & #political #gain. Trump frequently failed in that effort, but, as learned after 2 years of reporting, all the while he was quietly succeeding in destabilizing the institution’s foundations — & weakening its resolve with his brand of bare-knuckle attacks. That imperiled the rule of law that has long assured all Americans impartial & fair #justice.
#Trump isn’t solely responsible for this. Through hundreds of interviews that Leonnig & longtime WaPo colleague Aaron Davis & conducted, we learned first hand how a mixture of fear & stubborn bravery, gutter politics & noble intentions ultimately paved the way for the unraveling of the #DOJ we are now witnessing. This decline started Trump’s first term but gained momentum in the #Biden presidency.
#law #democracy #Constitution #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment #GiftArticle #Navarro #Justice
All It Took for #Trump to Dismantle the #Justice Dept.
by Carol Leonnig
The #DOJ under Trump is still standing. But inside, he & his lieutenants have taken a wrecking ball to this core pillar of our nation’s #governing system.
#law #democracy #Constitution #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/opinion/trump-biden-justice-department.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xU8.3jB1.uQ7in8LYbgxw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
And yet the #US hasn’t stripped #Trump of the title of #POTUS
#KingCharles III strips #PrinceAndrew of titles & evicts him from royal residence, palace says
#law #criminal #rape #SexualAbuse #pedophilia #pedo #rapist #JeffreyEpstein #Epstein #EpsteinFiles
https://apnews.com/article/king-charles-prince-andrew-strips-royal-titles-7fad76a46a211ae24b605cbd24e80748?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-10-30-Breaking+News
Democrat #JBPritzker said such raids had “endangered the lives of innocent community members & #traumatized #children”.
Pritzker’s letter, which was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times & Politico, came as a federal appeals court blocked an order which would have required a senior border patrol official to give daily briefings to a judge about #immigration sweeps in #Chicago.
#law #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #Illinois #Trump #children #Halloween
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/29/gov-pritzker-letter-kristi-noem-ice-enforcement-pause-chicago-halloween
A man with a heart vs a heartless man
#JBPritzker, gov of #Illinois, has urged the #Trump admin to suspend its #immigration crackdown in his state from Friday to Sunday, to allow #children to “spend #Halloween weekend without #fear”.
In a letter addressed to #DHS Secy, #KristiNoem [dog killer], & the heads of #ICE & #CBP, Pritzker said federal agents were “ignoring their duty to protect the public & uphold the #constitution”…
#law #TheCrueltyIsThePoint
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/30/illinois-ice-halloween-jb-pritzker
“Right now, #Congress has put funding in an emergency fund for an emergency, & it’s hard for me to understand how this isn’t an #emergency,” US District Court Judge Indira Talwani told #DOJ lawyers during a hearing.
Talwani…did not rule from the bench, though she said she hopes to file a decision by the end of the day on whether to force the admin to use billions of dollars in #funding.
#Trump #law #judiciary #SNAP #FoodStamps #hunger #poor #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #EconomicDiscrimination
Boston judge challenges #Trump admin’s assertion it cannot use emergency funds to continue #SNAP benefits
A federal judge was openly skeptical on Thursday of the Trump admin’s arguments that amid a government #shutdown it cannot use emergency funds to at least partially fulfill SNAP food benefits for the coming month.
#law #judiciary #FoodStamps #hunger #poor #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/30/metro/snap-funding-lawsuit-boston/
Passage of the measure is a symbolic victory for critics of Trump’s #trade policies, but it will have little practical effect as Speaker #MikeJohnson (R-LA) is unlikely to bring it up for a vote in the #House & #Trump is certain to veto anything that curtails his #power.
[Though notably the tariffs were ruled illegal by the Court of International Trade → https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522457/tariffs-trump-trade-supreme-court]
#Senate passes resolution to end #Trump’s global #tariffs; 4 #Republicans side with #Democrats
4 Republican senators voted with Democrats on Thursday to approve a bipartisan resolution to repeal Trump’s global tariffs, including steeper rates on long-time #allies such as the #EU, #Japan & #SouthKorea.
Sen #RandPaul (KY), #GOP sponsor of the resolution, & Sens #MitchMcConnell (R-KY), #SusanCollins (R-ME) & #LisaMurkowski (R-AK) voted for it.
#law #economy #AbuseOfPower
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5581377-trump-tariffs-senate-republicans/
The stakes of the case, which will soon resume in a Virginia courtroom, extend to tens of thousands of #asylum seekers from #Afghanistan whom Trump’s admin may seek to purge. If AG #PamBondi or an #immigration appellate board dominated by #Trump appointees ultimately sides with #DHS, legal experts say the case could set a precedent with sweeping consequences for #Afghans the #US rescued & promised to support.
#law #honor #LegalEthics #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism
Both institutions, however, have fundamentally transformed since H left them, WaPo has found. The nonprofit’s #US headquarters closed years before the country collapsed, & its former office in #Afghanistan is now under strict #Taliban supervision. The university, meanwhile, no longer provides in-person classes, & its campus was seized by the regime, which installed its own school.
#Trump #law #immigration #LegalEthics #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism
The man, whom WaPo is identifying as “H” because of concern for his safety, has sought #asylum because he so publicly supported the #UnitedStates’ cause in #Afghanistan. Before fleeing, he worked for a US-based nonprofit & attended an American university in Kabul.
To undermine his claim, government attorneys argued that the #Taliban have allowed those institutions to continue to operate—clear signs, they claimed, that his past would not endanger him if he was deported.
#Trump admin makes *misleading* case in high-stakes #asylum hearing
#HomelandSecurity asked a judge to #deport a man to #Afghanistan, where he expects the #Taliban to kill him. What happens next could affect thousands.
To make its case, the #DHS did not accuse him of any crime or disloyalty or act of terrorism. Instead, attorneys argued that Afghanistan — a country #US forces rescued him from in 2021 — is safe for his return.
The arguments set the stage for what is likely to be a tense, high-stakes hearing on Thursday in Massachusetts, where >2 dozen states have asked a judge to force the #Trump admin to reprogram the budget & provision full aid for #FoodStamps before Nov 1.
In its filings, the Trump admin acknowledged that an interruption to food stamps would create a “difficult situation for millions of Americans,” but it insisted the court did not have the ability to prevent it.
But lawyers for the #DOJ signaled that the admin could not, or would not, use those funds, leaving 42 million #FoodStamp recipients at risk of cuts to their benefits beginning on Nov 1.
The #Trump admin repeatedly argued that there were legal obstacles to transferring existing funds to #SNAP, technical hurdles in remitting payments quickly & other budgetary constraints to consider at the #Agriculture Dept [#USDA], where the money would originate.
Bullshit
#Trump Admin Tells #Court It Has Money It Can’t Spend to Prevent #FoodStamp Cuts
#States have sued the #FederalGovernment to force the release of #aid during the #shutdown, with a key hearing set for Thursday.
#law #SNAP #SocialCleansing #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/us/politics/food-stamps-shutdown.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
#Trump admin limits number of #refugees to 7,500 & they’re mostly #white #SouthAfricans
The Trump admin is restricting the number of refugees it admits into the country to 7,500 & they will mostly be #WhiteSouthAfricans, a dramatic drop after the #US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war & persecution from around the world.
The admin published the news Thurs on the Federal Registry.
#law #immigration #WhiteSupremacy
https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2025-19752/refugee-admissions-for-fiscal-year-2026-presidential-determination-presidential-determination-no
[In the campaign video, #Trump accused] #homeless people of turning great cities into “unsanitary nightmares,” he pledged “to use every tool, lever & authority to get the homeless off our streets.” He said the admin would “open up large parcels of inexpensive land” where “dangerously deranged” people “can be relocated & their problems identified.”
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTu6JRtJTI
#Utah already has a severe shortage of #psychiatric beds, she noted. The #legislature is unlikely to fund hundreds of new beds, & even if it did, there is no work force to staff them.
Without enormous new spending, she said, the center could function less as a treatment facility than “a prison or a warehouse.”
The emerging portrait of the center, scheduled to open in 2027, brings to life a vow that #Trump made 2 years ago in an extraordinary campaign video.
Critics of the new plan say that confining people to a site on the city’s outskirts threatens #CivilLiberties & warn that the promised services may not materialize. The efforts coincide with deep cuts to #Medicaid, which could thwart the project’s financing.
“I’m super anxious about it,” said Jen Plumb, a physician & Democratic state senator who calls the promise of high-quality #medical care “pie in the sky.”
#Trump #law #unhoused #Utah #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #plutocracy #USpol
While the #Utah effort began before Trump’s return to office, it mirrors his pledge to move the #homeless from urban cores to “tent cities” with *services*. And it accelerated after #Trump issued an EO in July, calling for strict camping bans & expanded power to #involuntarily treat homeless people.
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
“An accountability center is #involuntary, OK — you’re not coming in & out,” Randy Shumway, chairman of the state #Homeless Services Board, said in an interview. #Utah will end a harmful “culture of permissiveness,” he said, & guide homeless people “towards human thriving.”
[sure, Jan.]
#Trump #law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol