THE ATLANTIC – Politics | Politics & Government

Jeffrey Epstein’s victims began the day believing they might finally get something they’d been requesting for years: a direct conversation with the nation’s top law-enforcement official before the Justice Department made public a full trove of long-buried documents and photos. The release of the Epstein files, as the department’s hundreds of thousands of investigative materials have come to be known, might finally provide clarity on what the government knew about Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme and when it knew it. The victims sat by their phones waiting anxiously—but also, they told me, with a bit of hope.Just over 24 hours earlier, on the eve of the deadline for the files’ release, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had placed a call to a group that supports survivors of Epstein’s abuse, according to multiple people briefed on the outreach. On the call, the officials previewed what would and wouldn’t… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

There is a certain eerie familiarity to the Trump administration’s slow roll to war with Venezuela. There is the ominous military buildup, the shifting rationales, and even a shaky claim of “weapons of mass destruction,” thanks to the administration’s recent reclassification of fentanyl, to help justify its attacks.The conflict with Venezuela will probably play out differently than the Iraq War did—perhaps better, perhaps worse. But the moral basis upon which it is being waged is most certainly worse.The administration initially justified its campaign, which has already involved 28 known U.S. attacks against boats that officials have claimed were carrying illegal drugs, as a defensive war to stop the flow of drugs. “This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X last month.Given Venezuela’s slight role in the supply chain of… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Susie Wiles styles herself as a White House chief of staff who avoids being in the headlines. When cameras come into the Oval Office, she tends to sit just out of frame. She rarely gives interviews. Unlike her predecessors, she seldom tries to curb President Donald Trump’s impulses. She has been lauded in Trump world for instilling a sense of discipline in a chaotic realm, and for providing steady leadership during both Trump’s historic political comeback and the steamrolling start to his second term.Well then! That’s sure over now.Wiles committed the cardinal sin for a White House staffer—particularly a staffer for this White House—by becoming the news herself with the publication today of a two-part Vanity Fair story in which she offered stunningly forthright assessments of the president and much of his senior staff. Her blunt candor (she said that Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality” and that Elon Musk is… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

The actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, the producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death in their home on Sunday. Yesterday, their son Nick, who has spoken about his bouts of drug addiction and homelessness, was arrested on suspicion of murder. With that news, a terrible event became doubly tragic. Reiner was beloved by almost everyone who knew him. On social media, friends described him as generous, kind, funny, and a caring soul. The One Tree Hill actress Sophia Bush called him an “almost indescribably wonderful man.” But none of that mattered to Donald Trump, who tore into the murdered Hollywood star. On Truth Social, President Trump described Reiner as “a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star.” He added, without a shred of evidence, that Reiner’s death was “reportedly due to the anger he caused… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

In a normal presidency, the interviews that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles gave to Vanity Fair would trigger her resignation, maybe even the president’s impeachment. She admitted that President Donald Trump employs prosecutorial power for “score settling,” called Budget Director Russell Vought “a right-wing absolute zealot,” described Vice President J. D. Vance as “a conspiracy theorist for a decade,” and attributed Elon Musk’s erratic style in gutting federal agencies to his “avowed ketamine” use.Yet no one on the right is calling for anyone to resign, or even for a congressional investigation into these allegations. That is not because Wiles—who is credited with largely masterminding Trump’s victorious presidential campaign—lacks credibility, nor is it because she has denied these comments (she has accused the magazine of taking her words out of context, which is what people say when they know they were recorded). It is simply because these quotes, while… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.