← Letters from an American 
Letters from an American
War in Iran Rages As Epstein Coverup and Voter Suppression Continue
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Foreign. Buried in the cascade of news this week, Sadie German and Caitlin Ostroff of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that 47,635 files are missing from the Epstein files, documents that the Justice Department has made public. A spokesperson for the Justice Department told the reporters that the files were offline for further review and should be ready for reproduction by the end of the week. The news that even the documents that have been released have extensive gaps suggests the department is covering up for individuals involved in Epstein's crimes, including President Donald J. Trump, whose name appears frequently in the files. We know at least one of the missing files contains allegations that Trump sexually assaulted a 13 year old girl. Today, in a bipartisan vote, the House Oversight Committee agreed to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about the release of the Epstein files. By law, the Justice Department was required to release the Epstein files in full by December 19, 2025, with redactions only to protect Epstein victims. So far, it appears about half the files have been released and many are heavily redacted. The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bondi against the wishes of committee chair James Comer, a Republican of Kentucky. Bondi will have to testify under oath. The Trump administration has been able to articulate neither a clear reason for what Trump calls a war against Iran or nor a goal to be accomplished by that war that is costing a billion dollars a day. On February 19, less than 10 days before Trump started bombing Iran, Trump told his Board of Peace that we've done the biggest thing of all. We have peace in the Middle east right now. Today, Trump told reporters that if he hadn't struck Iran, it would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks, a conclusion US Intelligence agencies reject. Trump told reporters today that we're doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, rating it 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. But Americans stranded in Middle Eastern countries are desperate to get out and the government has not been able to help them. When asked today why not, Trump answered, well, because it all happened very quickly. We thought, and I thought maybe more so than most. I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel, they were getting ready to attack others. You're seeing that right now and a lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary. They were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries. So I think I was right about that. We attacked first and if we didn't, it could have Been, you know, look, we're really decimating them. They're being decimated. And if we didn't, if we didn't. And by the way, we have massive amounts of ammunition. We have the high end. A lot of it was given away stupidly by Biden, very stupidly for free. And I'm all for Ukraine, but they gave away a lot. As you know, when I give away ammunition, everybody pays for it. The European Union is paying for it, then they can do what they want with it. But they are giving it, let's say, say to Ukraine and it's okay, but we gave away a lot of high end, but we have plenty. But we have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we're using in this war. And we have really an unlimited supply. So we have a lot of the very high end stored in different countries throughout the world with this. We're literally storing it there, which is actually something that I insisted on in my first term. I rebuilt the military in my first term. The military is great. A lot of not unbelievable amount of ammunition or munitions, as they say, were given away to, you know, the Wall Street Journal incorrectly covered the story when they said it was given away to the Middle east, not to the Middle east, was given away to Ukraine. Very little was given to the Middle East. Middle east would buy a lot. And some of the nations, because they're rich, they have a lot. But it was given away to Ukraine and it just should have been done. Look, it's a war that never should have happened. If I were president, that war would never have happened. But, but we have a tremendous amount of munitions, ammunition at the upper, upper level, middle and upper level, all of which is really powerful stuff. Notably, Trump had no answer for why there was no plan to evacuate Americans. Instead, he made it clear he is worried about experts assessment that the US Is low on high end munitions and interceptors. According to Ellen Mitchell of the Hill, the US Is low on those weapons not because it has helped to supply Ukraine, but because it blew through 25% of its stockpile over just a few days of operations against Iran in June 2025. And before that operation, the US military used $200 million worth of munitions in three weeks of attacks on the Houthis in Yemen, a bombing campaign that did little to change the Houthis behavior. Despite the administration's apparent lack of either planning or goals in its attack on Iran, Senate Republic refused to reign in Trump's attack on Iran with a war powers resolution to bring the war to a stop. While some said they were nervous about the apparent lack of a plan for the conflict, others said it was imperative to demonstrate support for the troops by supporting the war regardless of how we got into it. Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine who is facing a difficult election in the fall, said passing this resolution now would send the wrong message to Iran and to our troops. At this juncture, providing unequivocal support to our service members is critically important, as is ongoing consultation by the administration with Congress, but the American people are not on board. The war was unpopular with Americans before Trump started bombing Iran, and support for it has dropped since it began. According to G. Elliot Morris, at Strength in numbers, only 34% of Americans support the attack on Iran. Primary elections that took place across the country yesterday continued the trend of the past year. Democratic enthusiasm is off the charts in Texas, where Democratic primary voters picked James Talarico over Representative Jasmine Crockett. Democrats turned out in huge numbers, swamping the Republican vote. And Democrats continued the trend of the past year, flipping an Arkansas state House seat from Republican to Democratic. David near of the down Ballot notes that in more than 90 special elections since Trump took office, Democrats have beaten the results of the 2024 presidential election by an average of 3013 points. But the Texas election also revealed Republicans attempts to suppress Democratic voting. Jen Rice of Democracy Docket explains that Texas voters used to be able to vote at any polling place in their county, but in Dallas and Williamson counties, the Republican Party chairs abandoned that system, making it harder for people to vote. Williamson County Republican Party Chair Michelle Evans told KUT News in Austin that she could explain why they had made the change, but at the end of the day, it's because we can, it's legal, it's something we're entitled to do, and it's something that our party would like us to do. The Texas Secretary of State's office didn't provide voters in those counties with accurate information of where they should vote, creating chaos. Democratic Party Chair Carl Coleman in Dallas county and the Texas Civil Rights Project in Williamson county filed emergency petitions to give people more time to vote. A district court judge in Dallas ordered Democratic primary polls to stay open two additional hours, saying that there has been mass confusion as to where voters were entitled to cast their ballots on Election Day. And voter confusion was so severe that the Dallas County Election Department website crashed. A Williamson county judge ordered two polling places to stay open until 10pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who is himself running for the same Senate seat. Talarico is challenged the order and the Republican dominated Texas Supreme Court blocked the lower court's orders. It allowed people who were not in line by 7pm the original time for the polls to close to cast ballots. But those ballots were separated from the rest and it is not clear they will be counted. Emily Ebbey French of Common Cause Texas told Jen Rice, we can't let a small group of conspiracy theorists set the rules for Texas voters anymore. Two individuals controlled the way millions of Texas voters were able to cast a ballot yesterday. The opinions of those two Republican Party chairs about countywide voting with were based in conspiracy theory, not based in fact. And those conspiracy theories caused widespread panic, confusion and disenfranchisement.
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Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, MA. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss, Facebook.