Asking the Questions Trump Won’t Answer

Donald Trump really doesn’t want to answer questions about his relationship with sexual abuser and former “closest friend” Jeffrey Epstein. This week, he even dodged a question about Epstein by speeding away in his golf cart while blasting “Memories,” from the musical “Cats.”

But Trump can’t avoid more information coming to light about his administration’s handling of the Epstein files, especially as recent reporting suggests that Trump’s name was in the investigative holdings related to Epstein’s criminal case. We recently learned that FBI personnel “were instructed to ‘flag’” any records in which Trump was mentioned. Additionally, hundreds of FBI employees and federal prosecutors were reportedly pulled off other assignments this spring and asked to work around the clock to conduct multiple rounds of reviews of the files.

In other words, it seems that the administration told a lot of government employees to ignore their real jobs and instead prioritize making sure they caught anything that could potentially embarrass the president. We launched an investigation this week into this alleged abuse of power, seeking the release of DOJ and FBI records related to the agencies’ review of the Epstein files.

We want to know exactly what instructions were given to FBI agents reassigned to comb through the records to protect the president’s reputation. We’ve requested the release of training materials provided to agency staff involved in the review, including directives, internal complaints, and guidance for applying redactions, flagging specific content, and maintaining security levels.

“In a functioning democracy, no one — not even the most powerful — should be shielded from public scrutiny,” our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said. The administration wants us to trust that law enforcement handled the case without bias or special treatment. That’s not good enough.

New Lawsuit Defends Congressional Oversight Powers

Members of Congress have recently been denied entry to federal detention facilities, and last month ICE released new guidance requiring members of Congress to provide 72 hours’ notice prior to any facility visit — a brazen attempt to shield abuse from scrutiny. On Wednesday, a dozen Democratic lawmakers, represented by American Oversight and Democracy Forward, sued the Trump administration over these unlawful restrictions.

The oversight that these legislators seek to conduct is especially important as the Trump administration is adopting increasingly extreme anti-immigrant measures, from plans to deport immigrants to Guantánamo Bay to its use of immigration enforcement to punish perceived opponents and protect allies, and the injection of National Guard troops into detention facilities.
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told members of Congress that he planned to detain immigrants on military bases in Indiana and New Jersey — an escalation of the administration’s efforts to detain thousands in stateside facilities. The plan raises serious concerns about the use of military assets to advance the president’s political goals, as well as about facility conditions and the sheer number of ICE detainments.
Trump’s recently-passed budget bill allocates $45 million to ICE for contracts with detention contractors, tripling federal funding for the mass detention of immigrants. Private prison and detention companies that donated to Trump’s re-election campaign have already profited, and will likely continue to do so.

We’ve been investigating the Trump administration’s potential conflicts of interest due to ties with the private prison industry, having filed several records requests for information about any new or expanded immigration enforcement contracts with groups like GEO Group and CoreCivic. We’re also examining the Trump administration’s revival of a WWII-era law that was used to force Japanese Americans into internment camps as part of its effort to carry out mass deportations.

Trump Lawyer Emil Bove Confirmed to Lifetime Judgeship

The Senate confirmed Emil Bove, President Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer and now a top DOJ official, to a lifetime position on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals — despite recent whistleblower complaints that Bove suggested defying federal court orders to speed deportations as part of a broader effort to mislead judges and circumvent legal constraints. The public still deserves to know more about Bove’s alleged disregard for the rule of law.

In February, we filed a disciplinary complaint against Bove, asking New York authorities to investigate potential professional misconduct in Bove’s oversight and direction of the corrupt dismissal of criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. We renewed that call in June in light of the new whistleblower allegations.
Earlier this month, we sued DOJ for records that could shed light on Bove’s potential misconduct, including his role in defying court orders, politically motivated dismissals of charges, and mass deportations.

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