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Trump Official Shrugs Off Epstein Victims’ Fury Over Redaction Fail
New Republic • Feb 3, 2026

Trump Official Shrugs Off Epstein Victims’ Fury Over Redaction Fail

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche couldn’t care less about exposing the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. Don’t believe us? Listen for yourself. During an interview on Fox News Monday, Blanche was asked to answer for the thousands of redaction errors in the Department of Justice’s latest release of more than three million pages of Epstein-related documents, which allegedly exposed the names of at least 100 survivors.“These were reportedly women who were minors at the time, or haven’t come out publicly yet,” said Fox News’s Laura Ingraham. “How did those names slip through?”“Yeah look, you’re right. I mean there—mistakes were made by, you have really hardworking lawyers that worked for the past 60 days,” Blanche stammered. “Think about this, though, you have pieces of paper that stack from the ground to two Eiffel Towers.“We knew that there would be mistakes, we put that—I said that to the American people on Friday. Everything we did was to protect victims,” Blanche continued. “And what we’re talking about, by the way, is 0.002 percent—”“But it matters to them, right?” Ingraham chided. “It should matter to them, it matters to me too. Absolutely,” Blanche said. Ingraham: Names of dozens of victims were left unredacted. These were woman that were minors at the time that have not come out publicly yet.Blanche: Mistakes were made pic.twitter.com/fhIUvGFHlu— Acyn (@Acyn) February 3, 2026The many excuses furnishing Blanche’s depraved attempt to downplay DOJ “mistakes” just don’t make sense. The Trump administration had far longer than just 60 days to review the documents, as the DOJ supposedly began the process of declassifying documents related to the investigation over a year ago. The Epstein Files Transparency Act was also passed more than 60 days ago, and the DOJ then missed the deadline to release the documents, claiming that it needed more time to make redactions. As for his claim that everything the DOJ did was to “protect victims,” it’s clear that the DOJ cared a lot more about protecting someone else. Nearly 40 nude photos of women, possibly underage, were mistakenly released uncensored, while an innocuous photo of President Donald Trump somehow was redacted.

You Won’t Believe the Righteous Language This Judge Used Against DHS
New Republic • Feb 3, 2026

You Won’t Believe the Righteous Language This Judge Used Against DHS

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to upend temporary protected status for more than 350,000 Haitians.In an unsparing 83-page decision issued late Monday, Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., formally denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to terminate the TPS program entirely. Reyes didn’t miss the opportunity to completely pick apart DHS and its leader, Secretary Kristi Noem, for doggedly pursuing a newfangled, anti-immigrant agenda even when it runs afoul of U.S. law. Reyes noted that Noem does not have the authority to unravel TPS, which was created by Congress through the Immigration Act of 1990. The judge further determined that Noem’s arguments for ending the program were not only flawed but also fundamentally unacceptable since they failed to address the economic component of the program.“She ignores altogether the billions Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy,” Reyes wrote.From the very first words of the ruling, Reyes frames Noem as the polar opposite of America’s first leader, George Washington, pitting one of her vitriolic tweets against a letter in which Washington insisted that the U.S. must receive “the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions.”“Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight,” Reyes wrote. “She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable.“She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured,” the judge continued. “This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them.”Ultimately, Reyes concluded, Noem does not have the law or facts on her side and, as a result, has done little more than “pound the table”—which, in this case, is the social media platform X.“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants,” Reyes stated. “Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”

French Authorities Summon Elon Musk to Court in X Child Porn Probe
New Republic • Feb 3, 2026

French Authorities Summon Elon Musk to Court in X Child Porn Probe

Elon Musk’s lewd image generator on his X platform has gotten him into trouble in France.Prosecutors in Paris have asked Musk, along with former X CEO Linda Yaccarino, to appear for questioning over the spread of deepfake pornography and antisemitic content on the social media platform. The summons came after the prosecutor’s cybercrime division, along with Europol and the cybercrime units of the French police, searched X’s offices in the city Tuesday.X is under investigation for criminal offenses such as complicity in the possession and distribution of “child pornography images,” violating personal rights with its generation of “sexual deepfakes,” the denial of “crimes against humanity,” and allegedly extracting data fraudulently from an automated processing system, the prosecutor’s office said.“The voluntary interviews with the managers should enable them to explain their position on the facts and, where applicable, the compliance measures envisaged,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Yaccarino and Musk have been summoned to appear in Paris court the week of April 20.While authorities in Paris have limited, if any, powers to compel Musk to appear in court, the move is a significant step against one of the world’s leading social media platforms. Musk has faced heavy criticism over X’s image-generation tool, which has allowed users to undress people using AI, even minors. X has also gained the reputation of being a haven for antisemitic content ever since Musk took over the platform. Could this be the first time Musk and X face accountability?

Trump’s U.S. Attorney Sparks MAGA Backlash After Threat to Gun Owners
New Republic • Feb 3, 2026

Trump’s U.S. Attorney Sparks MAGA Backlash After Threat to Gun Owners

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s anti–Second Amendment declaration has left the Trump administration’s own base outraged.“You bring a gun into the District [of Columbia], you mark my words: You’re going to jail. I don’t care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else,” Pirro said on Monday, flying in the face of years of gun rights activism from Republicans and organizations like the NRA. “You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail and hope you get your gun back. And that makes all the difference.”Pirro: "You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you're going to jail. I don't care if you have a license in another district and I don't care if you're a law abiding law owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this District, count on going to jail and hope you… pic.twitter.com/tiZ6PwtA1i— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 2, 2026Pirro’s statement caused a flurry of backlash from the right, as registered gun owners in America are over two times as likely to vote for Republicans.“I bring a gun into the district every week, @USAttyPirro. I have a license in Florida and DC to carry. And I will continue to carry to protect myself and others,” GOP Representative Greg Steube wrote on X. “Come and Take it!”“Jeanine Pirro threatening to arrest people for carrying in DC, even if they are law-abiding and licensed, shows how broken and out of touch these gun laws are. Unacceptable and intolerable comments by a sitting US attorney,” the National Association for Gun Rights wrote on X. “This is why we need Real Constitutional Carry nationwide. Bureaucrats act like the 2A does not exist and brag about jailing people for exercising their rights.”The blowback continued. “Concealed Carry Permit holders are statistically some of the most law abiding citizens in society—even more law abiding than police,” Gun Owners of America commented. “We ARE NOT the problem.” Pirro’s comments are particularly confusing due to her recent support for less restrictive gun laws in the district. Just last summer, the Trump administration attempted to loosen concealed carry laws. And in December, the DOJ sued the D.C. government on the grounds that its gun restrictions violated the very Second Amendment Pirro is now attacking. “The GOP Leadership is doing everything it can to keep second amendment voters from showing up in November,” said conservative commentator Erick Erickson.

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