It’s the Corruption

By Ted Glick

July 23, 2026

Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.

Source: Sten-Åke Stenberg - Anti Trump demonstration. Flickr

“We who think about politics all the time rarely have a good handle on what’s going on in the lives and minds of those who do not. That’s what makes focus groups so fascinating. I usually see voters holding on to conventional thinking and subconsciously absorbed conservative talking points, and I have to figure out how to communicate with them in ways that open their minds to the possibility of bigger change. This year, I walked in hoping to find a little more awareness of the system-wide nature of our economic dysfunction, and not only were voters already there, they had continued on to the wholesale corruption of government. As a lifelong campaign finance reform advocate, I had resigned myself to the idea that voters weren’t ready to “go there” when it came to money in politics, but much to my absolute delight, they have arrived!”
          –Antonia Scatton, from “Voters are Leaving Politicos Behind,” Antonia Scatton | Substack, July 22, 2026

Until yesterday I had never heard of Antonia Scatton, who describes herself in this way at her Substack: “Antonia works with George and Lisa Greene of the Connections Lab on a mission to get the Democratic Party’s messaging back on the right track. They worked with DNC Chair Ken Martin when he was President of the Association of State Democratic Committees, to bring in-person messaging and framing workshops to state and local leadership, staff, candidates and others in key target states, along with video training and other supporting materials.”

I suppose if I had been a long-time activist in the Democratic Party, something I definitely am not, I would have heard of her long before now, but in this case, for sure, it’s undoubtedly “better late than never.” This brand-new column, published yesterday, is one that, imho, should be checked out and reflected on by all of us who are actively working to defeat the Trumpfascists at the polls on November 3.

Scatton may be someone “up there” in the higher levels of the Democratic Party, which honestly gives me some pause given my much more independent and progressive politics and personal history, but, hey, she clearly is an important part of the broadly-based movement for democracy and justice which has emerged since Trump was elected.

Here’s another important paragraph from her latest article:

“American voters’ feelings are evolving so fast that politicians and their advisors can’t keep up with them. They started at “prices are too high,” briefly alighted on “our economic system is broken” and leapt right ahead to “because our government is working for the mega-rich and not for us.” Candidates have been told that voters are mad about the cost of living and hate data centers. If they’re not talking about WHY, they risk getting caught pandering to public opinion (following) rather than articulating what voters are feeling but have not yet put into words (leading).”

And one more:

“When the voters in my focus groups talked about “corruption,” they defined it more broadly. They also meant that our economic system works for wealthy elites, not the American people, because our government is under the influence of, if not the control of, wealthy elites. Those who have accumulated extreme wealth have used it to “rig” the economy to their advantage. And my focus group voters were not alone. According to the same poll, while 97% of voters understand “corruption” in the usual sense of “officials using their position for personal gain,” 94% also defined it more broadly as ‘prioritizing the interests of billionaires and big corporations over those of the public.’”

Obviously, this information should inform how all Democratic candidates, as well as Independents on more local levels, campaign in the next 100 days leading up to November 3^rd, but some will not. Some have benefited personally from that rigged economy. Others, not so corrupted, are concerned about being attacked as socialists or communists by the Trumpists. But many, hopefully a growing number, will learn from what Scatton’s focus groups are exposing and then apply it on the ground where they are campaigning.

Then, after the House and the Senate are controlled by Democrats and a small number of Independents, we as a country can finally get down to the business of moving for real towards a truly democratic and justice-based society. It’s time!

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Ted Glick

Ted Glick has devoted his life to the progressive social change movement. After a year of student activism as a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa, he left college in 1969 to work full time against the Vietnam War. As a Selective Service draft resister, he spent 11 months in prison. In 1973, he co-founded the National Committee to Impeach Nixon and worked as a national coordinator on grassroots street actions around the country, keeping the heat on Nixon until his August 1974 resignation. Since late 2003, Ted has played a national leadership role in the effort to stabilize our climate and for a renewable energy revolution. He was a co-founder in 2004 of the Climate Crisis Coalition and in 2005 coordinated the USA Join the World effort leading up to December actions during the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal. In May 2006, he began working with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and was CCAN National Campaign Coordinator until his retirement in October 2015. He is a co-founder (2014) and one of the leaders of the group Beyond Extreme Energy. He is President of the group 350NJ/Rockland, on the steering committee of the DivestNJ Coalition and on the leadership group of the Climate Reality Check network.

Revolutions 250 Years Ago and Today

By Ted Glick

June 22, 2026

Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.

Image by Andrew Ratto, Creative Commons Zero

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy— a thin veil to cover up crimes.”
–speech by Frederick Douglas, July 5, 1852, Rochester, NY

“[The 1775-1787 US revolution] led to the expansion of European American settlement across the continent in the decades afterwards, a process which nearly wiped out the Indigenous peoples who have lived here for many thousands of years. Estimates are that 90% or more were killed either by disease or violent military action to force the survivors onto reservations so that the Europeans could take the land and the resources underneath it.

“Like so much else about this country, this 250^th anniversary of the beginnings of what became the United States is a decidedly mixed bag.

“On balance, though, I see value to connecting the political uprising against the Trumpfascists with the uprising by revolutionary European Americans 250 years ago. Not by coincidence, the success of this revolution was followed by the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the Bolivar-led South American Revolution and eventually, in the USA, the Civil War that led to the end of the legal enslavement of African people. It led to the success of the women’s suffrage movement over 100 years ago, the rise of industrial unionism, the Black Freedom movement in the 60’s which forced an end to Jim Crow segregation, anti-colonial revolutions throughout the world, the rise of Indigenous resistance and societal leadership, the LGBTQ+ movement, an environmental protection movement and more.”
–Revolution?, a March 22, 2025 Future Hope column

Is it right to connect what happened 250-plus years ago with what is happening right now, in 2026, as a broad cross-section of US society resists the Trumpfascist efforts to impose repressive dictatorial rule? Yes, there are many similarities. Indeed, the US pro-democracy forces, if successful, will have much more immediate impacts worldwide.

The world is seeing that we in the USA are alive and well and rapidly becoming a mass movement that has the potential to bring about major, internationally-welcomed, desperately-needed changes in the USA at this turning point moment for human societies and all life forms on earth.

Some who are participating in this movement do not see themselves as “revolutionaries.” More accurate for them would be something like, “patriots” or “democracy lovers.” And some are involved primarily because of the personal and family impacts of Trump regime policies which have made their lives materially more difficult.

But IMHO, the word “revolutionary” best describes what this pro-democracy movement is developing into, in part because it has been building for many years–it is not a “flash in the pan”–and in part because the Trumpists are so destructive in their efforts to turn the clock back to the 1950’s or even further that many millions of us have risen up in a whole variety of ways.

The changes needed are clearly systemic, not some reforms here and there that have little effect on who runs the country today: the “billionaire class”, the “Epstein class,” the “corporate elite,” the “ruling class,” etc.

It’s very simple, actually. What this revolutionary movement is about is the creation of a US government and society truly “of the people, by the people and for the people.” In such a society we would be about racial and gender justice and equal rights; for the right to organize and unionize on the job; against militarism and for a justice-based peace; for detoxification and protection of our natural environment and a rapid shift from dirty and dangerous fossil fuels and nukes to clean, renewable energy sources; for immigrant rights, reproductive rights and an end to mass incarceration; for a Green New Deal; for quality medical care for all no matter what their age; for a true living wage for work done; for tuition-free public higher education and student debt cancellation; for substantive taxes on the billionaires and multi-multi-millionaires and major cuts in the US military budget with conversion of war industry production to peaceful purposes; and more.

Love, that’s the word. We need a government and society which makes love for the earth and its peoples central. That is what this 250^th anniversary of the USA has to be about for those of us in the pro-democracy movement. Not should be about, but has to be about. This is our time!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of two books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021 and both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.comEmail

Ted Glick

Ted Glick has devoted his life to the progressive social change movement. After a year of student activism as a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa, he left college in 1969 to work full time against the Vietnam War. As a Selective Service draft resister, he spent 11 months in prison. In 1973, he co-founded the National Committee to Impeach Nixon and worked as a national coordinator on grassroots street actions around the country, keeping the heat on Nixon until his August 1974 resignation. Since late 2003, Ted has played a national leadership role in the effort to stabilize our climate and for a renewable energy revolution. He was a co-founder in 2004 of the Climate Crisis Coalition and in 2005 coordinated the USA Join the World effort leading up to December actions during the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal. In May 2006, he began working with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and was CCAN National Campaign Coordinator until his retirement in October 2015. He is a co-founder (2014) and one of the leaders of the group Beyond Extreme Energy. He is President of the group 350NJ/Rockland, on the steering committee of the DivestNJ Coalition and on the leadership group of the Climate Reality Check network.

Congress Is Preparing To Surrender American Sovereignty on the Eve of America’s 250th Anniversary

Take Action to Defeat a Dangerous Expansion of the National Security State, Military Power Over Civilian Government, Foreign Policy Entrenchment, and the Erosion of Constitutional Self Government

by Dennis Kucinich and Elizabeth Kucinich | Jun 25, 2026

Reprinted with permission from The Kucinich Report.

The United States Congress, on the very eve of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, is preparing to formally diminish American independence and sovereignty through a proposed merger and long-term integration of executive functions throughout the government, coordinated by the Department of Defense.

Treacherous provisions in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mandate that the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commerce Department, and the heads of other relevant Federal departments and agencies cooperate with their Israeli counterparts for the purpose of consolidating U.S. and Israeli military activities in order to align efforts and avoid duplication.

The greatest threat to American sovereignty rarely arrives wearing the uniform of a foreign army. It often arrives through the complacency, expediency, or poor judgment of elected officials who fail to recognize the long-term consequences of the powers they surrender.

Whether motivated by political convenience, misplaced loyalty, or simple inattention, such actions can erode constitutional self-government just as surely as deliberate acts of betrayal.

No foreign nation, regardless of whether it is Israel, Britain, Canada, France, or Japan, should be integrated into permanent executive, military, technological, intelligence, and research structures in a manner that diminishes American sovereignty and democratic accountability.

The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently identified Israel as a counterintelligence threat.

Under ordinary circumstances, such a finding would prompt heightened scrutiny, caution, and congressional oversight. Instead, Congress has continued advancing provisions in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would deepen military, technological, and strategic integration between the United States and Israel.

The legislation specifies Israel-U.S. coordination with America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Missile Defense Agency, including the Golden Dome initiative, the United States Space Command, directed energy programs, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other critical technologies that will shape the future distribution of power.

Of all the areas mentioned, artificial intelligence and biotechnology may have the greatest long term implications. These technologies will shape privacy, surveillance, predictive policing, digital identity systems, biosecurity, human enhancement technologies, and information control.

The Founders could never have imagined artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, or biotechnology directed by algorithms. Yet they understood a timeless truth: power must remain accountable to the people. The danger of our age is not merely that authority may concentrate in governments, corporations, or military institutions. It is that decisions of profound consequence may increasingly be delegated to technological systems that operate beyond the understanding and oversight of those whom the Constitution entrusts with governing.

The highly structured Israel-U.S. merger is included in the $1.5 trillion NDAA, in Section 219, formerly Section 224, in the House version and Section 1217 in the Senate version. It puts in place policies which will bind future Administrations.

Democracy depends on elected officials being able to alter policy. Permanent structures can make that increasingly difficult. Democracies function because citizens can change policy through elections. When military, intelligence, and technological institutions become permanently integrated across governments and bureaucracies, decision making can drift beyond the reach of voters.

The issue is not cooperation with perceived allies. The issue is whether future Americans retain the practical ability to change course through democratic means. The democratic question, regardless of the technology involved, is simple: Who governs these technologies, and for what purpose?

Will decisions remain accountable to elected representatives and the American people, or will authority increasingly reside within security agencies, military institutions, and specialized technical bureaucracies beyond meaningful democratic oversight?

The U.S.-Israel military-executive merger provisions in the NDAA advance military influence across civilian government and create precisely the conditions the Constitution was designed to prevent.

Our Declaration of Independence condemned King George III for having rendered the military independent of and superior to the Civil power and for having combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws.

The concern is not just military and executive integration with any foreign nation. It is the gradual expansion of military institutions into civilian domains including technology, biotechnology, commerce, communications, and artificial intelligence and the effect on our Republic and our freedom.

As national security priorities become embedded throughout government, civilian decision making becomes subordinate to military logic. Policies that should be determined through democratic debate become the province of security institutions, technical experts, and permanent bureaucracies.

The Founders repeatedly warned against permanent ‘s because they understood the motivations of leaders of other countries may be inconsistent with American ideals or interests. The Founders structured the government of the United States so that future Administrations would not be locked into foreign alliances which became vexatious.

If cooperation evolves into integration, future administrations will have less freedom to pursue independent diplomatic, military, technological, and economic policies. Decisions made in the name of efficiency today may limit the choices available to Americans tomorrow.

Congress is constitutionally responsible for oversight of the executive branch.

A key question is whether the military and executive merger provisions in the 2027 NDAA create new arrangements that are sufficiently transparent and reviewable by Congress. If significant military, intelligence, technological, or strategic decisions become embedded within joint frameworks, legislators may find themselves attempting to oversee systems that have acquired their own institutional momentum.

Ironclad collaborative provisions uniting Israel and the United States in the 2027 NDAA are being advanced on the basis of current political relationships and short-term strategic considerations rather than a careful assessment of their long -term institutional consequences. Congress has devoted remarkably little attention to how such an arrangement could affect American sovereignty, constitutional accountability, civilian control of the government of the United States, and the ability of future generations to alter policy through democratic means.

The question before Congress is not whether Israel is a friend today. The question is whether the permanent integration of military, technological, intelligence, research, and governmental functions with any foreign nation serves the long-term interests of the United States.

The Declaration of Independence and our constitutional system has been entrusted to our care. Aliances between nations may change. Governments change. Political leaders come and go, friendships change. Yet the structures established by law can endure for generations.

The Constitution was designed to preserve the sovereignty of the American Republic through democratic accountability, separation of powers, and civilian control of government. Any arrangement that permanently embeds foreign influence within executive, military, intelligence, technological, or research institutions will not stand once it receives the highest degree of constitutional scrutiny.

Congress has already struggled to reclaim its constitutionally based war powers. The military establishment has steadily accumulated influence across multiple domains of public policy. These provisions move further in that direction by embedding foreign military and security priorities. throughout the machinery of government.

Members of Congress swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath is a sacred trust and does not abide treachery. Any measure that diminishes American sovereignty, weakens constitutional self-government, or places the powers of this Republic in alignment with a foreign authority violates both the spirit of that oath and the duty owed to every American citizen.

As America approaches the 250th anniversary of our Independence, Congress is poised to bind future generations through strategic commitments made to a foreign power today. These provisions reflect a profound failure of constitutional judgment. They elevate short term political and military considerations above the enduring duty to preserve the sovereignty, independence, and freedom of action of the United States.

The Founders warned repeatedly against arrangements that would entangle future generations in obligations they neither chose nor approved. Yet Congress now stands on the threshold of embracing precisely such an arrangement, limiting the freedom of future American leaders to chart an independent course in diplomacy, technology, security, and national defense.

Whether driven by political expediency, misplaced loyalties, institutional inertia, or a failure to grasp the long-term consequences of their actions, the result is the same: a diminished capacity for self-government and a dangerous departure from the constitutional principles that have safeguarded American independence for two and a half centuries.

On the eve of America 250th year, every citizen must decide whether independence is merely a memory to celebrate or a responsibility to defend.

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TAKE ACTION

The merger is timed to be voted on the week of June 29, just before the Fourth of July.

Let us truly celebrate our independence by staying independent. Please help spread the word and forward this article.

Find your member of Congress:

House               Senate

It is urgent that you call your congressional representative today at 202-224-3121 and tell them to Strip Section 219 (House) or Section 1217 (Senate) from the 2027 NDAA.

Congressmen Tom Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) will offer an amendment in the House to remove Section 219. Please tell your U.S. Representative: Support the Massie-Khanna Amendment to the NDAA.

Optional telephone script for the House of Representatives:

My name is ______ and I am a constituent. I am calling to urge Representative ______ to support the Massie-Khanna Amendment and to remove Section 219 from the NDAA. Congress should defend American sovereignty, uphold the Constitution, and reject any measure that integrates the executive and military functions of the United States with those of a foreign government. Please pass my message to the Representative. Thank you.

Dennis J. Kucinich served sixteen years in the United States Congress and twice ran for President of the United States on a platform of peace, truth, and constitutional integrity. He led the opposition to the Iraq War and introduced Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for misleading the nation into war.

 

The POUM in the Spanish Civil War Sunday, January 25, 2026, 1:00 pm Eastern Standard Time “THE POUM, REPUBLIC, REVOLUTION AND COUNTERREVOLUTION” Speaker: Book author Andy Durgan The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 was a pivotal moment in the 20th century history of revolutionary hope, failure and betrayal. It is also the story of fascism’s rise and ultimately the beginning of World War II. Andy Durgan, author of a newly translated book on the Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), will outline the development of this distinctive revolutionary movement and the role it played in the Spanish revolution. Durgan has previously authored The Spanish Civil War (2007), Comunismo, revolución y movimiento obrero en Cataluña 1920-1936. Los orígenes del POUM (2016) and Voluntarios por la revolución. La milicia internacional del POUM en la Guerra Civil española (2022). He was historical advisor on Ken Loach’s 1995 award-winning film, Land and Freedom. Following Durgan’s presentation there will be time for discussion. Sponsored by the U.S. socialist organizations International Marxist Humanist Organization, Solidarity, Socialist Horizon, Tempest & Workers Voice. Zoom registration

Copyright (C) 2026 International Marxist Humanist Organization. All rights reserved. You are receiving this message because you opt-ed in on our web site, added your name to an IMHO contact list, or provided your email to an International Marxist-Humanist Organization organizer. Our mailing address is: International Marxist Humanist Organization PO Box 60391 Suite 900 Chicago, IL 60660 USA

Opinion: The sleaze goes on – And on, and on


By Paul Wallis
EDITOR AT LARGE

DIGITAL JOURNAL

December 18, 2025


This undated and unlocated handout image released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on December 18, 2025 shows late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (R) speaking to US professor and political activist Noam Chomsky - Copyright House Oversight Democrats/AFP

This is an incredibly distasteful subject. Therefore, it’s unavoidable. The release of so many photos from the House Committee subpoena is starting to look more like a name-dropping exercise than a pursuit of justice. There are so many people, so many big names. There are 95,000 photos.

There’s a semblance of decency. Photos of the women involved have been redacted. The overall tone of the releases, however, is unambiguous.

“Here are all these rich guys, add your own sleaze,” is the message. It’s not hard to do. Politicians, businesspeople, actors, meandering Middle Easterners, a sprinkle of scientists, text messages, a pic of someone’s passport, and mercilessly more.

None of these very important people apparently had anything else to do than attend Epstein’s gatherings. How Epstein infiltrated this high echelon isn’t even a topic. The guy was effectively a nobody for a long time before becoming everybody’s pal. His first entry into “society” was working for Bear Stearns in the 1970s. Well, you have to have some connections, don’t you?

it seems. Some of these guys couldn’t possibly have higher profiles. They’ve been major names for decades. And here they all are.

The release of the pics even has its own related legislation, the Epstein Files Transparency Act. In hyper-dysfunctional America, obvious sleaze, like everything else, has to be political.

What’s truly mysterious about this, and god knows there’s an almost total lack of mystery, is how normal everyone seems to find it. Of course, so many VIPs hang around with a child sex offender. That’s normal.

Of course, they all mingle like wealthy battery chickens on some particularly unimpressive island or “elite gatherings” that look like any suburban car park in fancy dress. Quite normal.

As people, these guys aren’t much, if anything at all. There’s proof of that. American author Michael Wolff wrote a book called Too Famous as the Epstein revelations were hitting the fan. I’ve written about this book before in context with the files because so many people in it have been named in connection with Epstein, but there’s a further point to be made.

The overwhelming sense of mediocrity is almost unbearable as these characters talk. It’s old-guy-barroom talk at best, and a lot of it is much less interesting. These are people you wouldn’t even consider talking to twice, or about. They have the vocabularies of the fifth beer and some greasy food. They’re rich nobodies. In the book, Epstein is sure he’ll get off the charges.

The expanded headline version of Too Famous is this unsightly, incredibly unimpressive cluster of cretins. Names keep popping up. You’ll know at least a few of them, whether you want to or not.

This is a Who’s Who of American leadership, irritatingly pitiful as it is. These are the guys who’ve been running America as it implodes for the last 30 years.

It’s like some geriatric Sesame Street for sleazebags. Too famous, too stupid, too mediocre.

'Now violating federal law!' Dems declare war on Trump admin over unreleased Epstein files

Alexander Willis
December 19, 2025
RAW STORY

A screen about the Jeffrey Epstein files is displayed at Times Square in New York City, U.S., July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee are declaring all-out war on the Trump administration over its apparent failure to release files on Jeffrey Epstein, which it was mandated by law to do by the end of Friday.

“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar international sex-trafficking ring,” reads a joint statement from Oversight ranking members Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), released Friday on social media.

“For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.”

Last month, Congress sent to Trump’s desk the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill that required the DOJ to release all of its files on Epstein within 30 days, with the 30th day landing on Friday. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, however, revealed Friday morning that his agency would not be complying with the new law, and instead, would likely withhold hundreds of thousands of files for at least several weeks.

In response, leading Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are now readying to launch a legal battle against Trump and his administration, and using “all legal options.”

“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law,” the joint statement reads. “The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.”

'Start contempt proceeding': Internet erupts over Trump admin stalling Epstein files drop

Nicole Charky-Chami
December 19, 2025 

RAW STORY

A giant photo of President Donald Trump and late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is displayed on the National Mall by activist groups Glasgow Actions Team and Everyone Hates Elon, ahead of the expected release of the Epstein files, in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 15, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis


The internet erupted on Friday after House Oversight Democrats warned of legal action against the Trump administration over trying to cover up the Jeffrey Epstein files.

In a joint statement from Oversight ranking members Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the lawmakers said that President Donald Trump's administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi more specifically were violating federal law after attempting to conceal facts and evidence about the deceased child abuser Jeffrey Epstein. The files were slated to be released Friday, which the Department of Justice was legally mandated to do.

Social media users had immediate reactions to the news:

"Legal note: Immediate go to court to start contempt proceeding," Abraham Stein, advocate for seniors, wrote on X.

"WHY ARE THEY OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE?? @realDonaldTrump @PamBondi @FBIDirectorKash," TJ Adams-Falconer, former President Barack Obama aide and U.S. House of Representative candidate for California's new District 38, wrote on X.

"Don’t move the goal post. Hold them accountable today," user Danny Hulse wrote on X.

"Trump clearly guilty, why would he go to such lengths to avoid releasing the Epstein Files if they were so damming to the Dems?" User Luca Migo wrote on Bluesky.

"Well, we suspected this would happen. I remember watching the survivors speaking at the White House. The lawyers mentioned that if the survivors agree, they would release the files. Why can’t that happen?" Noreen Folan Essenberg wrote on Bluesky.

"IMHO, the ranking members should have been examining options well before now..." user Mickey Hodges wrote on Bluesky.