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Donald Trump is panicking as his dark past continues to surface. Donald Trump thinks that if he just goes radio silent, if Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, starts posting photos of Donald Trump with their granddaughter on the golf course, or If Donald Trump just starts posting about invading Greenland and now he's going back to talking about invading Canada, maybe we'll all just forget about Donald Trump's cover up of the Epstein files. We are not forgetting. Let's be crystal clear. Now, one of the things that we're learning as well is that the Trump regime is blaming the Epstein files on why their Department of Justice is not prepared in numerous other federal criminal cases, including the Maduro case or including a case involving a major sex trafficking charge of these Florida real estate brothers that are set to or supposed to go to trial soon. And the DOJ in New York, Southern District of New York, is one of the main hubs where the Epstein files are supposed to be being reviewed at. They claim there's 200 lawyers who are now reviewing it. The DOJ goes to the federal judge overseeing the Maduro case and the federal judge overseeing this sex trafficking trial that's about to take place. And the DOJ saying, we're not prepared. All of our lawyers are working on reviewing the Epstein files. So judge, we can't handle these trials at the DOJ. And the federal judge is like, you're the federal prosecutorial office. You're the SDNY. You don't have the resources to be able to handle other cases because everyone's working on the Epstein files and the review. Well, what happened to the thousand FBI agents who were purportedly reviewing the Epstein files back in late February and March? Do we all remember back in February when the DOJ posted, Phase 1 is done. Attorney General Pam Bondi releases first phase of declassified Epstein files. February 27th, 2025. Today, Attorney General Bondi, in conjunction with the FBI, declassified and publicly released files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his sexual exploitation of over 250 underage girls. That was dated February 27 2005 This is what Bondi said then The DOJ is following through on Trump commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Epstein and his co The first phase of files released today sheds light on Epstein's extensive network and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability. Then Kash Patel said, the FBI is entering a new era, one that will be defined by integrity, accountability, and the unwavering pursuit of justice. Hat tip, by the way, to Bloomberg, their great reporter, Jason Leopold. Remember, he did public records requests, FOIA requests, Freedom of Information Act requests, where he identified that there were 1,934 FBI agents and other lawyers who were working on the review from March to May of 2025, maybe even June, a thousand people were working on the Epstein files from that period, March, April, May, June. So what, four or five months? What were they doing? What were those individuals doing then for those months? Remember, they built tens of thousands of overtime hours that the taxpayers had to pay for. So what were they doing now that now they claim the DOJ is unprepared for all of these cases. A few data points I want to bring out. We reported over the weekend, and Midas Touch was the first to get this scoop, that the DOJ is now fighting Thomas Massey and Ro Khanna's efforts to appoint an independent monitor. Remember how Massey and Khanna requested that Judge Engelmeyer, the federal judge in the Ghislaine Maxwell criminal case, appoint an independent monitor or special master in order to ensure there is an independent process for releasing the Epstein files because Massey and Kanna argue that the DOJ cannot be trusted at all? Well, on Friday night, late filing last Friday, the DOJ said Massey and Kanna do not have standing to even make this request, even though they weren't saying they're parties. They're saying their amici. They filed an amicus brief. They're making a recommendation to the court. Okay. And then the DOJ argued that the Epstein Transparency Act provides no private cause of action so that no court at all can enforce the Epstein Transparency Act, that no courts have any right at all. So you're saying that the Epstein Transparency Act does not allow transparency. That's what the Trump regime argued to Judge Engelmeyer on Friday. Massey and Kanna are going to be responding on Tuesday is the deadline for their response. And we'll keep you posted on what they say. But that's the Trump's argument. No court can enforce the Epstein Transparency Act because Congress, this is what the DOJ argues, Congress did not evince any intent to allow an enforcement mechanism. Just think about that's what the DOJ is arguing. So they did that. But now here's what we're learning as well as the Trump regime has gone silent. This is being reported from the New York Times. The day after Nicolas Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president, was arraigned in federal court, the prosecutors handling his case faced a daunting task. Their challenge had nothing to do with narco charges It said that their work had been diverted to apparently the Epstein file document review Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a letter that nearly two thirds of the 200 lawyers in that office, the Southern District of New York, were spending all or most of their work day reviewing the Epstein files. then what were they doing February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November? What were they doing all of those months when they were, were they not working on those months? It goes on to talk about how at least five prosecutors are assigned to the case. And at the arraignment, the judge set the next hearing for March 17th, presumably leaving the lawyer sometime to work on the Epstein documents. but the diversion of resources seems to be affecting other cases. This week, on the eve of a high-profile sex trafficking trial involving two celebrity real estate brokers and their brothers, a defense lawyer complained that the government had not yet finished reviewing seized evidence for materials that had to be turned over to the defendants. They have half of the U.S. Attorney's Office on the Epstein files, the lawyer Tenny Garrigo said. we have a trial starting next week, Your Honor. The judge, Valerie Caproni, suggested that perhaps a few people could be sprung from their Epstein obligations to fulfill the government's responsibilities in this sex trafficking case. That seems reasonable, the judge added, given the fact that these people are on trial and Epstein is dead. So not only is the DOJ covering up a child sex trafficking ring, but in an active sex trafficking allegations case, the DOJ saying they're not prepared to handle the prosecution involving allegations of sex trafficking because they claim they're involved in a document review for a sex trafficking case where they are covering up the Epstein files. Do you see what's going on here? And it goes on to talk about how, you know, apparently there are no no resources that the DOJ says they don't. And this, again, is on top of the fact that there have been 3000 people who have quit working at the Department of Justice in the past year or so, by far more than any by far more than any administration. So I want to remind everybody this as well, though, because I think this is an important thing that goes overlooked. Pull up this fact sheet right here that the DOJ put back up back on December 21st. And to me, this fact sheet is so telling because the DOJ is throwing all of the federal courts under the bus. And the DOJ is like, we would have been able to produce all of these Epstein files if you pesky courts didn't slow us down. It's all your fault, courts, and we would have been able to do everything but for you. Here, pull it open right here. Fact sheet, the Epstein file is released. This is December 21st. Thanks to court seals being lifted as a result of Trump enacting the Epstein Transparency Act, the Department of Justice is releasing thousands of pages of photos and other material related to Jeffrey Epstein. This goes on to say something like, prior to Trump's enactment of the Epstein Transparency Act, various judges declined the Trump Department of Justice's request to unseal Epstein related material. The enactment of the new law gave the judges a legal predicate they found sufficient for granting the Trump administration standing requests before the courts to unseal the files The Department of Justice has hundreds of thousands of pages of material to release, including material that must comply with the court orders. These court orders can slow the Department of Justice's ability to review and redact material, but will not prevent the release of this material. The Department of Justice has more than 200 lawyers working around the clock reviewing each individual file to release. Well, then why aren't you doing what's called rolling dot? First off, do you see how they blame the judges? It's not the judge's fault. It's the Trump regime's fault. Why would it be the judge? The judges under seal orders have nothing to do with this. So if I were a judge in the Southern District of New York, I'd be pissed. The Trump regime is blaming you for their own crimes. I think that's a big deal right there. And then also, if you had 200 lawyers working around the clock, a few million documents to review, that may sound like a lot, but it's actually not a lot. I mean, when I was practicing, I would handle document reviews of 5, 10, 15 million, you know, maybe more pages. I'd work with teams of five to six associates. We'd go through all the documents. It would take 60 days, 75 days, but we'd get it done. 60 to 75 days, that's it. That's all it would take. Every day you work 15-hour days. You can go through individually a few thousand documents a day. Then you would have five people doing it. So just do the math. Maybe you review 10,000, 15,000 documents a day, 100,000 documents a week, two weeks, three weeks. I mean, it adds up, but if I had 200 lawyers working with me on something, on a document review, this would be done in a moment, in a second. And then you can do what's called a rolling production. Every 10,000, upload. Every 10,000, upload. Every 10,000, upload the documents. Easy. It's simple to do that. You don't have to wait until you get a million, then do a document up. Just do a rolling production. Why is that so difficult? Anyway, let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. And that's what's going on. We'll keep you posted. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again. But if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half-off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now. You call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Limited time, 50% off regular price for new customers. 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