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US Monthly Headline News
By JACK DURA

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained by immigration officers in Minnesota and held at an ICE facility in Texas, have been released following a judge’s order. They have returned to Minnesota, according to Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro.

The boy and his dad, Adrian Conejo Arias, who is originally from Ecuador, were detained in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

Katherine Schneider, a spokesperson for the Democratic congressman, confirmed the two had arrived home. She said Castro picked them up from Dilley on Saturday night and escorted them home on Sunday to Minnesota.

In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not target or arrest Liam Conejo Ramos, and that his mother refused to take him after his father’s apprehension. His father told officers he wanted Liam to be with him, she said.
The New York Times found more than 5,300 files with references to Mr. Trump and related terms. They include salacious and unverified claims, as well as documents that had already been made public.
By Steve EderMichael C. Bender and David Enrich

The Justice Department looked into sexual misconduct allegations against President Trump in connection with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein but did not find credible information to merit further investigation, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said on Sunday.

Mr. Blanche’s comments, which he made on CNN’s “State of the Union,” came less than 48 hours after the Trump administration released about three million pages of documents collected by the Justice Department as part of its yearslong investigation into Mr. Epstein, who died in 2019.

The controversy over Mr. Epstein has dogged Mr. Trump for the past year. After Mr. Trump’s allies vowed on the 2024 campaign trail to release the Epstein files, his administration rapidly backtracked. Mr. Trump’s resistance to releasing the government’s files fueled speculation that they contained damaging information about him or his allies.

The files are peppered with references to Mr. Trump, who had been a close friend of Mr. Epstein’s until the early 2000s. While Mr. Trump has repeatedly downplayed the relationship, the two men bonded over their pursuit of young women. Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection to Mr. Epstein.
Witnesses said agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets.
By Associated Press

The mayor of Portland, Oregon, demanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave his city after federal agents launched tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators — including young children — outside an ICE facility during a weekend protest that he and others characterized as peaceful.

Witnesses said agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets as thousands of marchers arrived at the South Waterfront facility on Saturday. Erin Hoover Barnett, a former OregonLive reporter who joined the protest, said she was about 100 yards (91 meters) from the building when “what looked like two guys with rocket launchers” started dousing the crowd with gas.

“To be among parents frantically trying to tend to little children in strollers, people using motorized carts trying to navigate as the rest of us staggered in retreat, unsure of how to get to safety, was terrifying,” Barnett wrote in an email to OregonLive.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the daytime demonstration was peaceful, “where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat and posed no danger” to federal agents.

“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” Wilson wrote in a statement Saturday night. “Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame.”
Emails suggest Sarah Ferguson and former Prince Andrew contacted disgraced financier during his house arrest
Caroline Davies and Geraldine McKelvie

The more than 3m Jeffrey Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice include emails from accounts labelled “The Duke” and “The Invisible Man” as well as from “Sarah”, and references to “Fergie”, suggesting they are from the former Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

They appear to reveal the two were in contact with Epstein immediately after the end of his house arrest in August 2010, and Mountbatten-Windsor’s visit to the US that December.

Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution, for which he served 13 months in a jail work-release programme. He was later released under house arrest for a year.

Key revelations include:
Competitive primaries in a few key states have helped Republicans maintain a cash advantage, according to new filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
By Erin Doherty and Jessica Piper

One bright spot for Democrats as they face a tough path to taking back the Senate this year: Their candidates are raising a lot of money.

Democrats outraised their GOP counterparts across several of this year’s marquee Senate races heading into 2026, according to new filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Saturday.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, the only Democrat running for reelection in a state Donald Trump won, enters the year with a massive fundraising advantage over any of his GOP rivals in battleground Georgia. Democrats in North Carolina and Ohio also started the year with a major financial edge over their GOP rivals.

But heated Democratic primaries have helped Republicans maintain a cash advantage in a few key states, including Michigan, Maine and Iowa.

Strong fundraising will be critical to Democrats’ efforts to hold all their seats — including several that are open following battleground senators’ retirements — while also flipping four Republican ones.

In a handful of primaries, including the Democratic contests in Michigan and Texas and the Republican lineup in Georgia, fourth-quarter fundraising numbers largely did not show any one candidate majorly distinguishing themselves from the rest.

Here’s a rundown of what the fundraising looked like in key Senate races.
When Donald Trump most recently ran for president, he made scores of promises to the American people — but he’s only kept one.
BuzzFeed

In 2024, political pundits and operatives saw affordability as the key issue of the presidential campaign. Trump certainly played it up: On the campaign trail, he pledged that he would bring down inflation and make groceries cheaper again, and when he won, observers credited that strategy for his victory.

One year into his second term, his approval numbers are in the tank, and inflation persists.

But that’s because the president’s real campaign promise wasn’t about the economy. Instead, it was all about racism.

He spouted dehumanizing lies about immigrants, dabbled in eugenics and pledged to conduct mass deportations. “When I win on November 5, the migrant invasion ends, and the restoration of our country begins,” Trump said at a rally in October 2024.

When he got back to the White House, he immediately began delivering on both the explicit promises and the tacit implications.

In the last year, Trump has deported immigrants without so much as a trial, defunded government programs dedicated to diversity and inclusion, and deployed thousands of federal agents to blue cities to wreak havoc on people of color and their allies.

“This is the government weaponizing the social and political views of the president,” William Roberts, the senior vice president for rights and justice at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that promotes liberal policies, told HuffPost.

“It’s not just ‘Donald Trump is a racist,’” Roberts said. “It’s Trump’s government engaging in policy-making to harm certain people.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies executed a search warrant on Saturday morning. Investigators say they discovered refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids.
Story by Robert Davis

A political analyst sounded the alarm on Sunday after reports that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard attended an FBI raid of a Georgia elections office last week.

Last Thursday, President Donald Trump's FBI raided the Fulton County voting offices in search of evidence that Trump won the 2020 general election. Trump has repeatedly claimed he won Georgia in 2020, despite several federal judges throwing out his team's lawsuits contesting the results. Trump also called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and demanded that he find more than 11,000 votes for Trump to win.
Story by Adeola Adeosun

A United States citizen was detained at gunpoint by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents in St. Peter, Minnesota, on Thursday after she recorded federal immigration enforcement operations from her vehicle. The woman, who asked MPR News not to be identified for safety reasons, was tracking and filming agents’ movements when three vehicles began pursuing her.

Video shared with MPR News shows agents boxing in her SUV before three officers exit with drawn weapons, screaming, “Get out of the car!” repeatedly. When the woman refused and asked observers on speaker phone to call 911, agents opened her unlocked door, dragged her from the vehicle, and forced her to the ground, leaving her with cuts, scrapes and bruises.

A DHS spokesperson told Newsweek on Saturday that officers were conducting a targeted operation to arrest “a serial criminal illegal alien” when “an agitator began stalking and obstructing law enforcement.” The spokesperson said the woman drove recklessly, ran stop signs, nearly collided with multiple vehicles, and drove at officers “in an attempt to ram their vehicle,” adding that “obstructing law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime.”

St. Peter Police Chief Matt Grochow reportedly intervened to prevent the woman from being transported to the federal detention facility near Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, according to MPR News. However, the city of St. Peter issued a statement Saturday denying the chief intervened, saying he merely “ensured the resident was safely transported home” after federal authorities dropped her off at the police department.

Newsweek reached out to the St. Peter Police Department via email on Saturday for comment.

Why It Matters
The incident marks what’s believed to be the first time a local Minnesota police department has become involved in federal immigration enforcement since the surge of ICE and CBP agents to the state began two months ago.

The video comes amid heightened tensions over federal agents’ tactics following recent fatal shootings of civilians during immigration and border control operations, including Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this month.

The conflicting narratives—with DHS describing the woman as driving recklessly while her video shows her calmly refusing commands—highlight broader tensions between federal enforcement and community oversight as immigration operations intensify across the country.
Story by Tushar Auddy

In the wake of the latest saga concerning the Epstein files, President Donald Trump has come into the crosshairs of Nick Fuentes, a far-right influencer. He called out Trump and his administration for gatekeeping information, despite 3.5 million pages worth of information being shared at the end of January 2026.

On Feb. 1, 2026, Fuentes publicly lambasted Trump and his Department of Justice (DOJ) for delaying the release of the Epstein files. He tweeted on X, urging American citizens to “never forget” how they have delayed the release of the files for a year, claiming that they “DO NOT EXIST.”

Fuentes said that the DOJ had been lying and decided to release these files only after the president was forced to sign the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The act compelled them to release the files within 30 days, but they failed to do so. However, the DOJ has now released the final wave of files, fulfilling its legal obligation to make all available files public.
Story by Anthony Blair

Thousands of cryptic messages tying Jeffrey Epstein to Vladimir Putin have been discovered in the latest release of files related to the late pedophile financier — raising a new theory about whom he was really working for.

Emails showing unnamed sources discussing meetings between Epstein and the Russian president are prompting questions about whether the disgraced Wall Street figure may have trafficked girls from Russia in a state-backed effort to run the world’s “largest honeytrap” to ensnare the rich and the powerful.

Putin is named almost 1,000 times in the latest tranche of documents released Friday, while there are almost 10,000 references to Moscow.

People close to the Russian tyrant say he maintained his links to Epstein even after the financier’s 2008 conviction for engaging a child in prostitution.

Other newly released documents pointed to Epstein’s alleged strong influence in Russia, with the perv sending one in November 2010 asking an unnamed recipient if they needed a Russian visa.

In another email, dated Sept. 11, 2011, an anonymous messenger discusses plans for an “appointment with Putin” on Epstein’s next trip to Russia.

“Spoke with Igor. He said last time you were in Palm Beach, you told him you had an appointment with Putin on Sept 16 and that he could go ahead and book his ticket to Russia to arrive a few days before you,” the newly released email reads.

In May 2013, Epstein wrote that he wanted to help Putin and Russia “reinvent the financial system,” in an email to Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjorn Jagland.

That same month, in an email to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Epstein claimed Putin had tried to set up a meeting with him, which he had turned down.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

In 2022, President Donald Trump sued the Pulitzer Prize Board members, but that is now coming back to haunt him.

Law&Crime reported Monday that the board members' legal counsel is subpoenaing the full, unredacted copy of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report to verify claims Trump made were "defamatory."

Trump has filed several demands for depositions from board members in Okeechobee County, Florida, but the defendantsformally sought the report as well as "all documents and communications exchanged between" Trump and Mueller's team.

The request "includes but is not limited to […] any negotiation" with Mueller about Trump's records or his "answers to written questions," the 2016 hack of the DNC by Russians, and the WikiLeaks dump that followed, information on the Trump Tower Moscow project, Trump Jr.'s 2016 Trump Tower meeting, and more, quoted Law&Crime.

According to Trump, the Pulitzer board is responsible for reports by the New York Times and the Washington Post, which won awards for their 2017 coverage of the Russia scandal that the president still disputes. Trump continues to demand that the paper's prizes be rescinded, even nine years later.
Story by Maria Villarroel

Tesla avoided almost all of its federal income tax last year, receiving over $1.1 billion in tax breaks, the company's annual financial report revealed.

According to a recently released report, Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, reported $5.7 billion in U.S. income in 2025, a steep improvement from its $2.98 billion in 2024. Interestingly, the company reported $0 in federal income tax.

That means that last year, the company saved almost half a billion dollars in taxes through accelerated depreciation, an accounting method that reduces current taxable income and aligns with faster asset depreciation.

Meanwhile, the electric vehicle company also saved on tax breaks for executive stock options, reducing its tax bill by $172 million. Similarly, R&D tax credits helped them save $352 million. The company also used net operating losses from previous years to offset current year income; however, it remains unclear how much that strategy helped them save.

But the lack of paid taxes didn't come last year alone. In fact, over the past three years, Musk's company has reported $48 million in federal taxes on $12.58 billion in U.S. income.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Body camera video of the FBI raid on the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center reveals rampant confusion around a search warrant.

The video that was posted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution begins with an officer asking local officials if anyone saw a search warrant and the responses were "no."

The exclusive report from the AJC cites county attorney Soo Jo telling officials who raised questions about the warrant that the situation was "screwed up" and "we'll fight all that later."

“Right now, we are complying. Let them do their thing,” Jo said.

The raid, which unfolded on January 28, sought voting information about the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump lost.

"County officials have said they were not given advance notice and that the warrant remains sealed," reported AJC. Yet when officials began demanding a warrant, one was produced.

"The FBI has confirmed the search but has not publicly detailed the scope of the investigation. As more details emerge, questions remain about what triggered the raid and what it could mean moving forward," AJC said.

The video shows the officer whipping out a pad and pen to write down the names of "everybody who was out here."
Story by Alexander Willis

While the Trump administration has promised high salaries and generous bonuses for federal immigration agent recruits, a wave of apparent new agents have taken to social media to complain about getting stiffed on everything from bonuses to health insurance, the International Business Times UK reported.

“Been here for about 2 months, still waiting for my health insurance… is anyone having that issue as well?” reads a post on the social media platform Reddit on an unofficial forum for deportation officers, reviewed by the Business Times.

“Mannnnn Monday is 4 weeks since I started and I haven’t been paid yet,” reads another post reviewed by the Business Times.

To help facilitate its mass deportations, the Trump administration has rushed to add 10,000 new immigration agents during its first year, promising generous benefits, pay and hiring bonuses for new recruits. The administration was successful in its hiring blitz, taking on more than 12,000 agents in a year and receiving more than 220,000 applications.
Story by Anna Commander

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro, an appointee of President Donald Trump, threatened to arrest law-abiding gun owners, as violent crime in the nation’s capital has decreased.

Newsweek reached out to the National Rifle Association (NRA) via email on Monday night for comment.

Why It Matters
Pirro’s stance highlights a divide over how far to push gun restrictions in the nation’s capital, where local law requires registration of firearms and limits certain semiautomatic rifles, even as the Trump administration has simultaneously challenged D.C.’s gun regulations.

Pirro’s statement also comes after the fatal shooting of 37-year-olds Alex Pretti and Renee Good by immigration agents last month. Videos of the incident show Pretti had a gun—which he was legally allowed to carry and an officer removed from the scene of the clash—according to the Associated Press (AP).

What To Know
“You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back.” Pirro said on Fox News Monday in part, adding, “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.”

D.C. law requires firearm owners to register their weapons with local police and bars residents from registering certain semiautomatic rifles, effectively preventing civilian ownership of those models in the district, Axios reports.
JD Vance is facing criticism after attacking the family of a 5‑year‑old boy who was detained by ICE.
During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing several weeks ago in December, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated under oath that she has not deported any veterans. Congressman Seth Magaziner (D-RI) promptly exposed her lies by inviting a deported combat veteran to the hearing via Zoom. Sae Joon Park is a U.S. Army veteran who was recently deported to South Korea.
Story by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now

We speak with Mother Jones voting rights correspondent Ari Berman about the shocking FBI raid on an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia. Federal agents were seeking records related to the 2020 presidential election, which President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won despite his loss to Joe Biden that year. During his efforts to overturn the election results, Trump pressured local officials to “find” him an additional 11,780 votes. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was on the scene Friday despite having no domestic law enforcement authority. The raid comes amid an ongoing federal probe into the 2020 election.

“The fact that they seized 700 boxes of ballots was incredibly disturbing and sets a chilling precedent for how Trump might try to interfere in the 2026 election,” says Berman, who ties the raid in Georgia to the administration’s pressure on Minnesota to hand over voter rolls. “This is now a multifront, concerted effort to try to interfere in the midterm elections.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

We end today’s show with the FBI raid of an election office in Georgia’s Fulton County last week seeking computers and ballots related to the 2020 election. The raid came as President Trump continues to falsely claim his defeat in the 2020 election was a result of widespread voting fraud.

For more, we go to Ari Berman, voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine, his most recent piece headlined “From Minnesota to Georgia, Trump’s Plans to Interfere in the Midterms Are Becoming More Dangerous.”
Story by J.D. Wolf

Bulk sales of the new documentary Melania: Twenty Days to History are being promoted through emails from the National Faith Advisory Board (NFAB), a faith coalition led by Paula White-Cain, who also served as a senior advisor in the White House Faith Office. The film had a $7 million opening weekend.

The message encourages supporters to purchase group tickets and private theater buyouts, directing them to a custom sales portal which offers private screenings for groups of more than 30 people. Recipients are encouraged to watch the movie to "support our first lady," because "supporting this film is about standing up for grace over the noise, dignity over distortion, and for the truth.”
Story by Alex Griffing

President Donald Trump sparked a wave of anger and criticism on Monday when he told Dan Bongino that “Republicans oughta nationalize” voting and the federal government should take over running elections in “at least 15 places.”

“These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally,” Trump said, repeating a baseless claim he regularly makes about illegal immigration and voting.

“And it’s amazing the Republicans aren’t tougher on it. The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places.’” Trump was primarily talking about Minnesota, and he claimed he “won the state three times, but got no credit for it.” The last GOP presidential candidate to win Minnesota was Richard Nixon in 1972.
Story by Olivia Salamone

Newly released FBI documents allege that Jeffrey Epstein played matchmaker for Donald and Melania Trump.

The explosive claim directly contradicts the couple's long-told origin story.

Matchmaker
According to the 11-page, heavily redacted record, a former Epstein assistant — who worked for him from 2005 to 2006 — told federal authorities that Epstein "introduced MELANIA TRUMP to DONALD TRUMP," in files seen by The Daily Beast.

The woman gave her statement under immunity in July 2019, just days after Epstein was arrested on child s-- trafficking charges.

The woman's statement, part of a "proffer agreement," was made to both FBI agents and federal prosecutors. The record details her year-long employment under Epstein and her experiences as a sexual abuse victim, including a disturbing incident in Paris where Epstein allegedly "took a "vibrating thing" and "rubbed it on her."
Story by Evan Williams

Sacramento, California - California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a brutal social media post, which referenced reports of massive fraud in South Dakota.

"Just catching up on all the fraud in Kristi Noem's South Dakota," Newsom's press office wrote alongside a screenshot of a news article.

"Did we all miss the fraud in Kristi Noem's South Dakota?" he wrote alongside an article about two state employees indicted on fraud charges.

"Significant fraud in Kristi Noem's South Dakota," he captioned another.

The latter post referenced a particular case in South Dakota that saw Rapid City businessman Kent Duane Anderson indicted on wire fraud and money laundering as part of a $71 million scheme.
Story by David Badash

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is under fire over her anti-gun remarks, becoming the latest Trump administration official caught in a firearms backlash. Her threat to jail anyone who brings a gun into Washington, D.C., has set off a revolt across the political spectrum, spearheaded by right-wing gun groups and GOP lawmakers.

“You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail,” Pirro said on Fox News Monday afternoon. “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. You bring a gun into this District, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back, and that makes all the difference.”

The New York Times reported that Pirro’s remarks “could deepen a growing rift between gun owners and the Trump administration.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) slammed Pirro, warning her, “Come and Take It.”

“I bring a gun into the district every week,” he wrote to Pirro. “I have a license in Florida and DC to carry. And I will continue to carry to protect myself and others.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) declared, “This is not how this works,” and urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to “have a quick conversation” with Pirro for a “course correction here.”
Story by Zack Whittaker

The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly demanding tech companies turn over user information about critics of the Trump administration, according to reports.

In several cases over recent months, Homeland Security has relied on the use of administrative subpoenas to seek identifiable information about individuals who run anonymous Instagram accounts, which share posts about ICE immigration raids in their local neighborhoods. These subpoenas have also been used to demand information about people who have criticized Trump officials or protested government policies.

Unlike judicial subpoenas, which are authorized by a judge after seeing enough evidence of a crime to authorize a search or seizure of someone’s things, administrative subpoenas are issued by federal agencies, allowing investigators to seek a wealth of information about individuals from tech and phone companies without a judge’s oversight.

While administrative subpoenas cannot be used to obtain the contents of a person’s emails, online searches, or location data, they can demand information specifically about the user, such as at what time a user logs in, from where, using which devices, and revealing the email addresses and other identifiable information about who opened an online account. But because administrative subpoenas are not backed by a judge’s authority or a court’s order, it’s largely up to a company whether or not to give over any data to the requesting government agency.
Story by Analysis by Aaron Blake, CNN

The Trump administration last week launched an extraordinary new gambit in President Donald Trump’s yearslong effort to sow doubts about the 2020 election: a controversial search of an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.

But even as it’s undertaken this historic step, it’s struggled mightily to get its story straight.

Gabbard
The director of national intelligence’s role is the most surprising — and confusing.

A DNI’s job is generally to oversee the agencies in the US intelligence community and to coordinate their efforts. It is not a law enforcement role.

But there was Gabbard on Wednesday near Atlanta, pictured on the scene after FBI agents executed a search warrant. There’s a photo of her standing in a truck loaded with boxes.

And ever since then, the administration has given conflicting accounts about how involved she is.

Asked by CNN on Thursday what Gabbard was doing at an election center in Georgia, Trump said, “She’s working very hard on trying to keep the election safe.”
Story by Adam Lynch

The New Republic reports a federal agent likely used his cellphone to nab a “trophy” photo of Chicago resident and U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez after Border Patrol agents shot her five times in Chicago.

Martinez, who said the memory haunts her to this day, testified before Congress Tuesday about how she was shot while monitoring agent’s activities from her car in Chicago and warning her neighbors.

The New Republic reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially claimed that when the officers exited their vehicle, Martinez tried to run them over, "forcing the officers to fire defensively." President Donald Trump’s DOJ charged her with felony assault of a federal officer — despite her being the one ending up in the hospital.

But it was as she was leaving the hospital that agents renewed her horror at the Trump administration. After three hours of treatment, doctors discharged Martinez into the custody of the FBI, who she says treated her like a hunting prize.
Story by Himani Ediriweera

The final Epstein files just dropped – naming billionaires, Hollywood elites, and powerful political figures. And among the disturbing records is one chilling message from Epstein to the film producer who gave Tom Cruise his big break: “She is a little freaked by the age but go slow.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has released its final batch of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents – a staggering 3.5 million pages that pulls back the curtain on years of previously undisclosed interactions between Epstein and dozens of public figures, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Melania Trump.

Brett Ratner and Epstein’s Townhouse
Hollywood director Brett Ratner appears in a series of photographs taken at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, seated alongside Epstein, Jean-Luc Brunel, and several redacted women, who – in one image – appear to be sitting on their laps. Brunel, a former modeling agent, died in custody in 2022 while facing sex trafficking charges.

Ratner, whose credits include Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand, directed the newly released Melania documentary. He previously told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that he “didn’t know Epstein and had never met him.” However, the photos suggest at least one in-person meeting at Epstein’s home.

Elon Musk and the ‘Lolita Express’
References to Elon Musk appear frequently in the latest documents. Multiple email exchanges show Epstein attempting to coordinate travel with Musk, including a proposed holiday visit to Epstein’s private island between 2013 and 2014.

Additional messages mention meetings at SpaceX headquarters and casual social invitations.
Story by Joshua Rhett Miller

Gun rights proponents quickly blasted threats by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to jail anyone who enters the nation’s capital with a firearm, insisting she’s publicly targeting “law-abiding” Americans.

Pirro, the chief federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, rankled conservative members of Congress and gun rights advocates during an appearance on Fox News Monday as she vowed to arrest gun owners in Washington even if they were licensed in other jurisdictions.

“You bring a gun into the district — you mark my words, you’re going to jail,” Pirro said. “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. You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail and hope you get the gun back. And that makes all the difference.”

Pirro, 74, later clarified her comments early Tuesday, declaring herself to be a supporter of the Second Amendment.

“Washington, D.C. law requires handguns be licensed in the District with the Metropolitan Police Department to be carried into our community,” Pirro wrote on X. “We are focused on individuals who are unlawfully carrying guns and will continue building on that momentum to keep our communities safe.”

Pirro, a longtime ally of President Trump and former Fox News host, also posted a video Tuesday, urging fellow gun owners to “put your safety back on” as she responded to the criticism.
Story by Ryan Murphy, Sarah Raza and Steve Karnowski

Immigration officers with guns drawn arrested activists who were trailing their vehicles on Tuesday in Minneapolis, a sign that tensions have not eased since the departure last week of a high-profile commander.

At least one person who had an anti-ICE message on their clothing was handcuffed while face down on the ground. An Associated Press photographer witnessed the arrests.

Federal agents in the Twin Cities lately have been conducting more targeted immigration arrests at homes and neighborhoods, rather than staging in parking lots. The convoys have been harder to find and less aggressive. Alerts in activist group chats have been more about sightings than immigration-related detainments.

Several cars followed officers through south Minneapolis after there were reports of them knocking at homes. Officers stopped their vehicles and ordered activists out of a car at gunpoint. Agents told reporters at the scene to stay back and threatened to use pepper spray.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A federal judge last month put limits on how officers treat motorists who are following them but not obstructing their operations. Safely following agents “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” the judge said. An appeals court, however, set the order aside.
Story by Ewan Palmer

A Department of Justice review found that one of Donald Trump’s favored attorneys improperly mishandled grand jury materials related to investigations into the president’s political foes, according to a report.

Ed Martin, who has been working inside the Trump Justice Department for nine months after failing to secure Senate confirmation as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., allegedly shared materials connected to a disputed mortgage fraud case involving Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff.

Martin initially denied sharing secret grand jury materials with an unauthorized person, but his alleged misconduct was uncovered through emails surfaced during a probe led by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office, CNN reported.

An unnamed source told the network that an additional allegation against Martin was also identified during the review, giving Blanche further grounds to push him out of the department.

Over the past several months, Martin worked at the Justice Department advancing Trump’s agenda, including serving as a pardon attorney and as head of the Weaponization Working Group. The group was set up by Trump’s attorney general to review officials who were involved in investigations against him.
Opinion by Thom Hartmann

The British newspaper Daily Mail is out with a deeply researched investigative report, the result of a long collaboration between columnists Glen Owen and Dan Hodges, along with Mark Hookham (Assistant Editor Investigations), and Daisy Graham-Brown (Investigative Reporter).

It’s shocking in its detail and its implication that Vladimir Putin has basically owned Donald Trump for years, even before Trump ran for president in 2016.

They note of last week’s partial (about 50 percent) Epstein document release:

“The files include 1,056 documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 9,629 referring to Moscow. [Jeffrey] Epstein even seems to have secured audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.”

Essentially, they’re arguing that Epstein was running an operation on behalf of the KGB/Putin that lured wealthy and powerful men to Epstein’s New York and Palm Beach mansions and his island where they were surreptitiously filmed having sex with underage girls.

That material was then presumably passed along to Putin, who used it for leverage when he needed it:

“Intelligence sources believe Epstein was running ‘the world’s largest honeytrap operation’ on behalf of the KGB when he procured women for his network of associates.”

In return for giving Putin videos of wealthy, famous men in criminally compromising positions, Putin reportedly arranged for massive amounts of corrupt Russian money to be handed to Epstein to launder in the US.

Such money typically comes from illicit drug and oil deals, outright theft, sanctions evasions, and Russian organized crime oligarchs (including Putin and his associates) and is frequently laundered in this country using real estate. It’s the Mafia’s favorite, too.
Carl Gibson

President Donald Trump has called on the federal government to "nationalize the voting" across the United States, baselessly claiming that major cities in swing states are conducting fraudulent elections. But one expert who Trump once hired to find proof of voter fraud says it's almost nonexistent.

In a Wednesday interview on CNN, data specialist Ken Block said Trump's rationale to have the federal government assume control of elections didn't hold water. He also said the Trump administration's recent raid of an election facility in Fulton County, Georgia harkened back to his prior work with the Trump 2020 campaign.

"The Trump campaign in 2020 hired me to look for evidence of voter fraud. And they asked me to review about 20 different claims of voter fraud that came into the campaign from everywhere around the world," Block said. "Apparently, every one of the 20 claims they asked me to evaluate, I was able to show that they were false. And we did find small amounts of voter fraud, but never did we find enough voter fraud to have been able to change the outcome of any of the swing state elections in 2020."
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Republican billionaire donor Ken Griffin is disgusted by watching Donald Trump's administration make billions for the president while trying to put their thumb on corporate America.

Speaking during a conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal, Griffin said that Trump's behavior "calls into question, is the public interest being served?”

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, said that Trump's policy decisions have been “very, very enriching” for his friends working in the administration. While other administration officials are making money from the president's decisions, Griffin singled out his eldest adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric. The two men have been using their crypto-friendly father to score lucrative business deals while also promising that there is a "huge wall" between them and the presidency.

In his first year, Trump used the power of the federal government to target corporations that it said embraced diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. His tariff policies have also created problems for specific sectors of corporate America. Trump then had the U.S. Department of Commerce take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel in late 2025. He also purchased a 5 percent stake in Lithium Americas for the government.
Story by Falyn Stempler

The New Orleans Police Department denied accusations that it "knowingly violated the law" by "ignoring ICE detainers and protecting illegal aliens" after one of its recruits was detained by ICE last week.

Larry Temah, a 46-year-old New Orleans police recruit from Cameroon, was arrested by federal immigration authorities on Jan. 28, according to NOLA News. Trump officials accused him of being in the country illegally after his permanent visa was denied in 2022 after legally entering the country on a visitor visa in 2015, the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement Tuesday. Feb. 3.

Federal officials also allege he failed to appear three times for immigration court hearings, which led an immigration judge to call for his removal in absentia. Temah is also accused of lacking a valid work authorization and illegally possessing a firearm.
Story by Lesley Abravanel

Vile text messages from federal agents involved in the shooting of an American citizen were read out loud during a congressional hearing Tuesday, February 3, at which victims of President Donald Trump’s deadly immigration enforcement agents spoke out.

One agent bragged about shooting a woman in Chicago, texting after firing “five rounds” into her body and boasting, “s*** happens.”

The shocking messages were read at a congressional hearing, in which the brothers of murdered Minneapolis mother Renee Good also recounted the death of their sister by an ICE officer last month.

‘I fired five rounds and she had seven holes’
Federal agents shot U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez five times in the Chicago suburb of Brighton Park on October 4, 2025, and tried to blame her for the shooting.

Agents claimed Martinez chased them and rammed her car into one of their vehicles, but as Border Patrol’s story changed, their case against her fell apart.

As Martinez testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about the use of force by Department of Human Services officers, Congressional Oversight Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) read out a series of text messages sent by the Border Patrol agent who shot her.

One text featured a link to an article about the shooting, in which he wrote: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”
Story by Andrew Stanton

President Donald Trump is facing a wave of backlash over his remarks that Republicans should “nationalize” elections.

When reached by Newsweek, a White House spokesperson pointed to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that Trump was referring to the SAVE Act.

“The president believes in the United States competition,” she said. “However, he believes there has obviously been a lot of fraud and irregularities that have taken place in American elections, and voter ID is a highly popular and commonsense policy that the president wants to pursue.”

Why It Matters
Trump said in an interview with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino that he would like Republicans to “take over” and “nationalize” voting amid unfounded concerns about electoral fraud. Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed widespread fraud in the 2020 election in which he lost to Joe Biden, but there has been no evidence of widespread fraud.

His comments come ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Polls give Democrats an advantage to retake control of the House and show them with a path to regain control the Senate, despite a challenging map. Historically, the party of the White House loses seats in the midterms. Legal experts have said the president does not have authority to nationalize elections.
The Trump ally was one of few GOP voices to support the president’s push to nationalize voting.
By Jacob Wendler

MAGA commentator Steve Bannon voiced support for Donald Trump’s push to nationalize elections, calling on the president to deploy ICE officials and military troops to polling sites.

Trump said in a Monday podcast interview that “the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” despite the fact that the Constitution grants states explicit jurisdiction over election administration. His call sparked outrage from Democrats and largely fell on deaf ears in the GOP — but Bannon, a conservative firebrand who has been a prominent voice in election conspiracy theories, was forceful in his support for the idea.

The former White House strategist called for the Trump administration to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to polling sites to prevent noncitizens from voting, citing a debunked conspiracy theory about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again,” Bannon said Tuesday on his podcast. “And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

The conservative influencer reiterated his response a day later, calling for Trump to go even further and send U.S. Army troops to voting locations. Federal law prohibits the president from deploying military troops “at any place where a general or special election is held,” and it is a crime in several states to carry a firearm at or near a polling place.
Sandra Miller

New polling reveals that most Americans doubt President Donald Trump’s commitment to free and fair elections, with just 43% believing he supports democratic processes and 56% saying he does not. CNN analyst Harry Enten noted independents are even more skeptical, with only a third trusting Trump on election integrity. The findings come after Trump suggested Republicans should nationalize elections in 15 states and amid his ongoing legal battles over the 2020 election, reinforcing widespread voter mistrust in his dedication to democracy.
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