Category: Wires

The Justice Department released a slice of its massive files on the convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, a much-anticipated disclosure that revealed new details about the government’s investigation into Epstein’s sex crimes and opulent life.

The more than 100,000 pages released included few documents related to President Donald Trump, although mentions of the president were expected among files that Congress had required the government to release by Friday. DOJ said it will continue to release documents in coming weeks, angering critics who have demanded a speedier process and fewer deletions of photos, videos, court records, and more.

The government has continued to release new files since the initial dump Friday afternoon. Overnight, the Justice Department posted records, including grand jury testimony and an interview with Alex Acosta, who as U.S. Attorney in Miami oversaw the lenient plea deal Epstein received in 2008.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department is working “tirelessly” to provide documents while protecting victims’ identities.

“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected,” Blanche told Fox News.

Here are four takeaways from what has been released so far:

Trump is not mentioned in many records

A major question looming over the Epstein case has been whether Trump had any awareness of Epstein’s crimes. The president has said he did not know about criminal behavior, and his spokesperson has said he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago Club for being “a creep.”

Friday’s disclosures don’t mention the president often.

Trump’s name appears in victim interviews where investigators and attorneys bring up his friendship with Epstein, but no victim in the files accuses Trump of wrongdoing. Much of the material released has been previously disclosed, including a 2010 deposition in which Epstein declined to answer a question, citing his Fifth Amendment rights, when asked about socializing with Trump in the presence of underage girls.

Friday’s materials include several photos and other documents that mention Trump. There is a photo of a check signed with his name, which appears similar to a check in a previously released book for Epstein’s birthday. Trump’s The Art of the Comeback is on Epstein’s bookshelf in another picture. A flight log shows Trump traveling with Epstein and his son Eric.

Former President Bill Clinton is depicted in several photos, including one where he is swimming with Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and another woman.

Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Ureña suggested that the White House had engineered the release of the photos to shield Trump.

“They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton,” he said. “Never has, never will be.”

Epstein had many celebrities in his orbit

Over the years, Epstein’s associations with major figures in business, politics, and Hollywood have been a big part of the narrative about him.

Friday’s release includes photos showing Epstein and Maxwell posing with celebrities, including a sunglass-wearing Michael Jackson, who died in 2009.

These records didn’t implicate the celebrities in any wrongdoing. They vividly illustrate Epstein’s social access to high-profile figures. Many of Epstein’s star-studded associations were previously known.

Last week, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a batch of photos from a separate group of documents provided by Epstein’s estate. Those included photos of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, filmmaker Woody Allen, and conservative media figure Stephen K. Bannon.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. In 2019, he was arrested by federal authorities and charged with sex trafficking. He died in federal custody that year, before his case could go to trial. His death was ruled a suicide. Blanche said Friday in a letter to Congress that the Justice Department had compiled the names of 1,200 people who were either victims of Epstein or relatives of victims.

Many documents are redacted or not new

Many documents are entirely covered with black or have rows of information blocked out.

There are also pages and pages of scans of CDs, blank file covers, and other records without much information about what they contain. Many of the redactions clearly cover personal information from victims’ statements, investigative records, and Epstein’s personal documents.

Under the law, the administration is authorized to redact information to protect victims, withhold any images of child abuse, and block the release of documents that are classified or would jeopardize current federal law enforcement efforts.

The redactions have been widely criticized by Democrats and those seeking more disclosures.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a statement that “this set of heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence.”

Reps. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), who led the effort in Congress to demand the document release, demanded full disclosure of the records.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi is withholding specific documents that the law required her to release by today,” Massie said.

There is more to come

Blanche told Fox that he expects “several hundred thousand more” records to be released by the government “in the next couple of weeks.”

The Justice Department has not shared what records are still remaining and when they will be released.

Khanna told NPR that he found the release unsatisfactory and expects the agency to release the draft indictment in Epstein’s first case, more witness interviews, and other records.

“Overall, I’ve been pretty disappointed with the release,” he said.

The Trump administration plans to shift the federal government away from directly recommending most vaccines for children and suggest they receive fewer shots to more closely align with Denmark’s immunization model, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Federal health officials are weighing vaccine guidance that would encourage parents to talk to a doctor to make decisions for most shots, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. This approach would mark a fundamental shift in the U.S. healthcare system, which generally relies on federal health agencies to guide how patients are protected against disease.

It was not immediately clear which shots would no longer be recommended. The plans are still in flux, the people said, but broadly align with President Donald Trump’s directive earlier this month to consider recommending fewer shots, referring to the United States as an “outlier” among developed countries. He said any changes to the country’s vaccine schedule should continue to preserve access to currently available shots.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of the childhood vaccine schedule for years and has called for additional scrutiny, even though he told senators during his confirmation hearings that he supports the schedule.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said of the planned revisions to vaccine recommendations: “Unless you hear it from HHS directly, this is pure speculation.” The potential shift to more closely align with Denmark’s schedule was first reported by CNN.

The current U.S. schedule calls for vaccinations to protect against 18 infectious diseases, including COVID-19, according to a Food and Drug Administration presentation in December, compared with calls for vaccinations to protect against 10 infectious diseases in Denmark. Denmark does not recommend vaccinating children for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and chickenpox, among other common pathogens.

Public health experts say comparisons to Denmark are misleading, noting the countries differ sharply in population, health systems, and disease burden. They argue that what works in Denmark’s small universal healthcare system does not easily translate to the far larger and more diverse U.S. population with uneven access to quality care.

“You don’t just superimpose policies from other countries without context onto the United States,” said Demetre Daskalakis, who oversaw the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s center for respiratory diseases and immunization before he resigned from the agency in August. “This is not gold standard science.”

A Danish health official questioned why the U.S. would follow his country’s lead.

“Personally, I do not think this makes sense scientifically,” Anders Hviid, an official in Denmark’s Statens Serum Institute, which prevents and controls infectious diseases as part of the country’s ministry of health, wrote in an email early Saturday. “Public health is not one size fits all. It’s population specific and dynamic. Denmark and the U.S. are two very different countries.”

Unlike Denmark, the U.S. is planning a more limited approach for recommending vaccines to children known as shared clinical decision-making, which has not been reported. This means people should consult a doctor, pharmacist, or other medical professional before getting a shot, and insurers would still be required to pay for them. It’s not clear how broad the shift would be and when it would happen.

This type of recommendation is usually made when there is real uncertainty about the benefits and risks, said David Higgins, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. By applying it broadly to many vaccines that are now routinely recommended, it creates the false impression that experts are divided on the best way to protect health, he said.

“I have never been more concerned about the future of vaccines and children’s health than I am now,” Higgins said.

In practice, vaccination is often already done in consultation with doctors, who explain the risks and benefits to patients. But critics of the shared clinical decision-making approach say it takes the government out of the business of providing powerful endorsements and can confuse doctors.

A 2016 survey found that most pediatricians and family doctors did not know private insurers are required to cover vaccines recommended under this model.

Under Kennedy, the CDC has already shifted recommendations for some vaccines to this talk-to-a-doctor approach, including for COVID and the hepatitis B vaccine for children. In the case of adults seeking COVID vaccines, the shift has had little practical impact at major pharmacy chains such as CVS where the shots are still routinely administered without prescriptions.

Kennedy, the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine group, has previously decried the “exploding vaccine schedule” and blamed it for the rise of chronic disease, autism, and food allergies in the United States. Medical experts have said more vaccines are available now to combat more diseases, arguing the link has no basis in evidence.

In a Truth Social post this month, Trump wrote that “many parents and scientists have been questioning the efficacy of this ‘schedule,’ as have I!”

The plan to redo the U.S. schedule “kicked into high gear” immediately after Trump’s directive, one person familiar with the plan said. Two experts who were consulted — Martin Kulldorff, recently named a chief science officer at HHS, and Tracy Beth Hoeg, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration — have expressed concern about the number of vaccinations in the U.S. schedule.

Hoeg gave a presentation two weeks ago comparing the U.S. with Denmark during a meeting of the CDC’s federal vaccine advisory committee. One of her slides, titled “Danish Vaccination Schedule Benefits,” said the country makes more time for overall health at doctors’ appointments and decreases the “medicalization of childhood.”

The Denmark schedule does not include seasonal respiratory vaccines, such as RSV, the leading cause of infant hospitalizations in the U.S., or influenza for children. During last year’s flu season, the CDC reported 288 deaths associated with pediatric influenza, the highest number since the 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

Denmark also does not recommend vaccinating against hepatitis B for all infants, as well as hepatitis A and rotavirus for any infants and children.

Higgins, the Colorado pediatrician, said many clinics and pediatricians will simply say they don’t recommend the Denmark schedule, which will worsen parental confusion. School vaccination requirements are set by state laws, and most require some of the vaccines that aren’t on the Denmark schedule, Higgins said.

Denmark has universal prenatal care and strong social services. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, recently wrote that virtually every pregnant woman in Denmark receives consistent medical attention and testing for serious diseases that can be passed to their babies throughout their pregnancy, including hepatitis B.

About 1 in 4 pregnant patients in the U.S. deliver babies without adequate prenatal care, according to a report by the March of Dimes.

“We do not believe in the one-size-fits-all approach nor the approach of choose one random alternate national schedule and adopt it,” said James Campbell, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ infectious-diseases committee.

Del Bigtree, Kennedy’s former communications director during his presidential run and the leader of an anti-vaccine group, said he’d support shifting to a Denmark model for vaccination, adding that the “medical freedom” movement has always touted that country.

“Our belief is there are just too many vaccines,” Bigtree said. “It’s very exciting, but it still won’t solve my major issue that vaccines aren’t mandated.”

The hundreds of snowman figurines on display at a Kansas mall might look alike, but each was important to Kathy Allen Duncan.

Some are skiing, others are caroling in front of houses or lounging in the snow made from cotton. A handful are using the bathroom.

For five decades, Kathy created detailed snowman displays in her home with the roughly 1,000 figurines she collected. But the tradition was in peril when Kathy, 73, died in September of complications from diabetes.

Her husband, R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, looked back at photos of Kathy’s displays before her funeral. He recalled thinking, “We need to build one more, one last one.” He wanted to share it not just with his family, but also with all of Topeka, Kan.

Tuck, 74, rented a vacant store at a local shopping mall where he and other family members created an exhibit showing hundreds of Kathy’s snowmen — which she called “snowpeople” — enjoying the winter. There’s a banner that reads: “KATHY ALLEN DUNCAN’S SNOWPEOPLE VILLAGE.” Another poster shows Kathy’s obituary.

Kathy’s family said their goal was to spread joy — something they said Kathy did daily — to as many people as possible. They exceeded their expectations.

Thousands of people have visited the free exhibit, Tuck told the Washington Post. More than 1 million people have seen photos of it on social media, where one user wrote:

“Guys I’m sobbing a local woman passed away in September and her husband/family rented a whole store at the mall to show off her Christmas decorations nothing is for sale it’s literally just so everyone can see it and it’s so beautiful I love.”

Kathy took decorating seriously as a way to express love for the people she cared for, said Joro Martin, who was raised by Kathy and Tuck after he said he left a troubled household.

“Mom was a safe space for so many people, and what is created there is a safe space to share,” Martin said about the mall exhibit.

Kathy built her first snowman display on a card table in a one-bedroom apartment in December 1974, shortly after she and Tuck got married. There were only a handful of figurines — she had picked up the hobby of collecting them from her grandmother — and she hoped they would bring smiles to visitors.

Kathy collected more snowman figurines over the years from antique booths, craft shows, flea markets, and Hallmark stores.

There’s a wax candle shaped like a snowman — one of Kathy’s oldest figurines — which has faded paint. There’s one with glasses that Kathy joked was the snowman version of Tuck, an attorney, so the figurine always stood outside a law office in her displays.

Some are dressed as firefighters, nurses, police officers, chefs, and musicians. Others wear crimson-and-blue clothes to match the colors of her alma mater, the University of Kansas.

They are built from a wide range of materials, including yarn, plastic, ceramic, cotton, and wood.

Kathy started building the display each year after Thanksgiving and finished around Christmas Eve, when the family ate dinner off snowman-themed tableware. She started the display by covering the table with cotton and sprinkling artificial snow on top, then she placed shelves in the back to resemble mountains.

The displays moved from the roughly 34-by-34-inch card table to a 3-by-6-foot table to two adjoining 3-by-6-foot tables.

Kathy changed the setting each year. She created rural towns with recreational vehicles, cities with clustered buildings, and ice skating rinks with bridges. One year — even though Kathy pointed out that snowmen can’t survive warm weather — she let their youngest son, Ryan Duncan, build a beach.

Outside the holidays, Kathy and Tuck initially rented a storage unit for the figurines. For the past two decades, snowmen filled half of their garage. But that didn’t mean the snowman decorations were absent in the condo: Kathy had a four-foot-tall metal snowman in the atrium that waved year-round.

“I can’t remember a Christmas, a holiday — shoot, I can’t remember a July — without something with snowmans in it,” Ryan said.

About a month after Kathy died, Tuck rented the second-floor space in Topeka’s West Ridge Mall near a Petland and a Spencer’s store. Tuck hired movers to transport 60 plastic boxes of snowman figurines there.

Tuck and his family placed plywood, a foam board, buffalo cotton, and white and blue sparkles atop a 8-by-16-foot table.

At the front of the display, they set up a water tower with a snowman head serving as the tank. There’s a lake made of foil. Houses and trees are scattered throughout. Some small pieces of cotton even represent snowman poop.

The family finished the display and opened the room Nov. 25. Local news WIBW-TV covered the story.

There’s a Christmas tree by the front window that holds about 50 snowman ornaments and eight tables on the edges of the room displaying more figurines and snowman-themed items like calendars and quilts.

“The snow people you see throughout this village and around the room were lovingly collected by Kathy Allen Duncan over the past fifty years,” a poster in the room reads. “In her honor, the Duncan and Allen families have gathered them here with the same care and affection, celebrating the joy they brought to her life.”

The project cost about $15,000, Tuck said, “and it’s worth every penny.” Many people are learning about his wife, who he said fed peanuts and corn to wild squirrels and who, even in her final days, was still asking about the well-being of others.

A family member opens the mall room every morning and closes it at night. While the exhibit evokes memories that make Tuck emotional — like remembering his 5-foot tall wife trying to grab boxes of snowman figurines from the top of the garage — Tuck said talking about Kathy with visitors has been cathartic.

He has an ornament on his Christmas tree that says, “Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us everyday.”

The display will close on Christmas Eve. Afterward, family members — including the couple’s oldest son Spencer, the mayor-elect of Topeka — will take the snowmen back to their homes. Then, the whole family plans to build their own small snowman displays in Kathy’s memory.