Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announces release of documents Wednesday she said shows that ex-President Obama and his national security team created a intelligence community assessment of Russian meddling into the 2016 election "that they knew was false."
Trump Named – As President Trump diverts to his retribution case against former President Obama over the “Russia, Russia, Russia” probe of 2017, The Wall Street Journal reports that Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi told Trump last May in a White House meeting that his name appears several times in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
DISCLAIMER: Trump’s name appearing in the files of the convicted sex offender is no sign of any wrongdoing by Trump – nor by any of the other “high profile” figures referenced.
Officials told the WSJ that Bondi’s White House meeting was part of a briefing that covered a number of subjects and that Trump’s appearance in the files was not the meeting’s focus. Justice Department officials said they did not plan to release any more Epstein documents because the material contained child pornography and victims’ personal information.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Trump said last week that Bondi had not told him his name appeared in the Epstein files.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded to the WSJ scoop thusly: “This is another fake news story, just like the previous story in The Wall Street Journal.” (Scroll down for details on that story in the July 17-18 “…meanwhile…” regarding Trump’s “lewd” 50th birthday message to Epstein, with the trackbar on the far right.)
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WEDNESDAY 7/23/25
No, Look at Russia, Russia, Russia Instead – As Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent the House home a day early for the summer break to avoid a showdown on the so-called Epstein files, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) has introduced a motion to compel Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime companion/associate Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee (per The Guardian).
“We got to send a message to these dirt bags,” Burchett wrote on X-Twitter, apparently referring to Maxwell and the late Epstein, who may or may not have left behind a “client list” of the influential and elite who were clients of his child sex trafficking.
This comes as Trump personal lawyer-turned-Deputy Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche announced he will initiate talks with Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus to meet with his imprisoned client. Markus is a personal friend of Blanche’s, according to The Hill.
It is unclear what might compel Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in Florida (no, not Alligator Alcatraz) to speak before the committee. She did not testify in her own trial held about a year after Epstein committed suicide while in a federal prison, and it’s too late for a plea deal.
Maxwell’s only way out would be a commutation or presidential pardon, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.
The diversion … Anyway, there are more important cases to consider, Trump told a press conference Tuesday.
As The New York Times reports:
“The witch hunt you should be talking about is they caught President Obama,” Trump said, referring to a report last week by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard regarding the president’s longtime nemesis.
“Obama was trying to lead a coup. And it was with Hilary Clinton,” Trump said during a White House visit with Philippines President Fernando Marcos Jr.
Trump said he let Hilary Clinton “off the hook, and I’m very glad I did, but it’s time to start after what they did to me.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people. Obama’s been caught directly.
“It would be President Obama. He started it, and Biden was there with him, and [former FBI director James] Comey was there, and [former Director of National Intelligence James R.] Clapper [Jr.], the whole group was there. He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of.”
Obama reacts … Former President Barack Obama issued a rare comment in response to Gabbard’s report, via spokesperson Patricia Rodenbush (again, per the NYT): “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate votes.”
The Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact rates Trump’s statement that Obama was “trying to lead a coup” Pants on Fire false.
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Mind the Caps – President Trump announced a trade deal with Japan in which we’ll trade goods with a 15% reciprocal tariff, a big break from the 25% the White House had threatened in its tariff letter to the country, Axios reports. The deal is good news for Japan’s auto industry, with shares of industry leaders Toyota and Honda up significantly Wednesday.
Trump announced the deal thusly on Truth Social (upper case the author’s): “Japan with open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and Certain other Agricultural Products and other things.”
The deal includes a whopping $550-billion Japanese investment in the US, “which will receive 90% of the profits” somehow, Trump claimed, offering no further details.
Meanwhile … General Motors said on Tuesday that tariffs cost the automaker $1.1 billion in the second quarter.
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House Takes Summer Vacay
TUESDAY 7/22/25
Speaker Blocks Epstein Probe – After the Justice Department diverted attention from Jeffrey Epstein toward the release of all federal records related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and President Trump demanded the privately owned Washington Commanders NFL team change its name back to “Redskins,” and just as the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena longtime Epstein companion Ghislaine Maxwell, Speaker/Trump acolyte Mike Johnson shut down the House for the summer to scuttle a vote in the full chamber, Newsweek reports. Democrats also led an effort in the committee to subpoena Epstein’s grand jury files. Johnson said he shut down the House early to prevent “political” games over the Epstein investigation.
The House was scheduled to begin its summer break on Friday, July 24th, but will skip its Thursday vote adjourning until after Labor Day, Tuesday, September 2. (The Senate is scheduled to be in session until Friday, August 1.)
Maxwell was convicted in 2021, two years after Epstein’s suicide in a federal prison, of child sex trafficking charges. The Justice Department also had signaled interest in interviewing Maxwell, according to Newsweek. --Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa