MicroWave

The Justice Department’s leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer over the “next several days” to help redact the Epstein files, in the latest Trump administration push toward releasing the hundreds of thousands of photos, internal memos and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A supervising prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida’s US Attorney’s Office emailed the entire district office on Tuesday — two days before Christmas — announcing an “emergency request from the [Deputy Attorney General’s] office the SDFL must assist with,” according to a copy of the email reviewed by CNN. “We need AUSAs to do remote document review and redactions related to the Epstein files,” the email said.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to reallocate federal Homeland Security funding away from states that refuse to cooperate with certain federal immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy’s ruling on Monday solidified a win for the coalition of 12 attorneys general that sued the administration earlier this year after being alerted that their states would receive drastically reduced federal grants due to their “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

In total, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency reduced more than $233 million from Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The money is part of a $1 billion program where allocations are supposed to be based on assessed risks, with states then largely passing most of the money on to police and fire departments.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday fired back against a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over state protections of immigrants from federal arrest at courthouses, hospitals and day cares.

Justice officials filed suit on Monday, claiming new Illinois measures prohibiting detention of immigrants going about daily business at key locations are unconstitutional and “threaten the safety of federal officers,” according to a department statement.

Democrat Pritzker has led the opposition to the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants in Illinois, particularly because of the indiscriminate and sometimes-violent way they’re apprehended. Through a spokesperson, he reiterated that he’s not opposed to taking action on migrants who commit violent crimes and are in the country illegally.

Justice Department releases thousands more files in connection with Epstein and Maxwell investigations

The Department of Justice has published thousands of documents in another batch of files from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, marking the largest release yet, with many references to Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s newly released documents include hundreds of emails and other correspondence from law enforcement and prosecutors investigating Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein in the wake of his death in prison in 2019, which was ruled a suicide.

The files also reveal investigators identified potential co-conspirators whose names have not been publicly revealed, and the Justice Department’s partial and heavily redacted release of materials has not yet advanced the public’s understanding of the scope of Epstein's crimes and connections to an alleged sex trafficking ring accused of exploiting and abusing young girls.

Un-redacted text from released documents began circulating on social media on Monday evening

People examining documents released by the Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein case discovered that some of the file redaction can be undone with Photoshop techniques, or by simply highlighting text to paste into a word processing file.

Un-redacted text from these documents began circulating through social media on Monday evening. An exhibit in a civil case in the Virgin Islands against Darren K Indyke and Richard D Kahn, two executors of Epstein’s estate, contains redacted allegations explaining how Epstein and his associates had facilitated the sexual abuse of children. The exhibit was part of the second amended complaint in the state case against Indyke and Kahn.

NEED TO KNOW

A note addressed to Larry Nassar, signed by "J. Epstein," appears to claim that Donald Trump loved "young, nubile girls"

The note was postmarked three days after Jeffrey Epstein's death and appeared to reference his intention to die by suicide

Epstein apparently wrote, "As you know by now, I have taken the 'short route home,'" in the hand-written note

The White House referred PEOPLE to a statement from the Department of Justice that called claims against Trump unfounded and false

Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he’s been diagnosed with “metastasized, stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”

“Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do,” Sasse, 53, wrote on X.

There have been growing concerns from lawmakers and survivors that the department had fallen short of releasing all of its records as required by law.

The Justice Department on Tuesday released a third batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including some that have references to Donald Trump.

The Justice Department, which is legally required to release the files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, acknowledged the Trump appearances in a post on social media, and said some include "untrue and sensationalist claims."

A year after Joe Biden spared 37 prisoners on federal death row from execution by reducing their sentences to life in prison, the Trump administration is making good on its promise to treat them as harshly as possible anyway.

Ten of the prisoners were transferred to one of the most restrictive maximum-security prisons in the U.S., an infamous facility in Colorado nicknamed "the Alcatraz of the Rockies" where every prisoner is kept in solitary confinement.

Two were taken to states where prosecutors have pledged to seek the death penalty against them again, in state court. Two others face death penalty charges in Florida. And the rest are stuck in limbo, having been told to expect a move to the Colorado prison, named ADX Florence, at any moment. That limbo has driven one of the prisoners to try to kill himself, he told NPR.

Across the US, people have been carrying their passports amid reports of citizens being detained. Five people explain what living this reality is like

Top Democratic officials in Colorado are among those condemning Donald Trump’s denial of two disaster relief requests from Gov. Jared Polis—his latest action in a state that critics say he is retaliating against for its prosecution of a former county clerk who was involved in election denial efforts in 2020.

After the White House denied the requests for Trump to declare major disasters in parts of Colorado that experienced the Lee and Elf fires in August and flooding in October—a move that would unlock Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to help with recovery efforts—Polis joined other Democratic leaders in calling on Trump to reconsider and accusing him of playing “political games.”

The US press have suffered about as many assaults this year as in the previous three years combined

The United States has seen a dramatic increase in violence against journalists since Donald Trump again took office.

Most of the reporters and photographers who were allegedly attacked by law enforcement officials were covering protests over the Trump administration’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit that tracks such incidents.

The US press have suffered about as many assaults this year as in the previous three years combined, the organization states in a new report.