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Hey, everybody, I'm Alison Gill. Welcome to the Breakdown. I have an exclusive for you today. No mainstream media outlet is reporting on this, but if you watch the Breakdown here on the Midas Touch Network every week, you know that I had some exclusive reporting this past summer when sources in the FBI and the Department of Justice told me that there were training videos explaining how to find and redact Trump's name from the Epstein files. Now, I held onto that story for about 10 minutes so that I could file a Freedom of Information act request to get those Epstein training videos. Now, they didn't agree at first that I was even a legitimate media outlet for the purposes of disseminating information to the public. So we appealed that and we won that. And they conceded, which is nice. But corporate media still didn't report on that. They then Jason Leopold got those 76 pages of FBI emails pursuant to his own FOIA request. And we went over that here in the Breakdown. And wouldn't you know it, those emails prove that there are Epstein training videos placed on unclassified SharePoint drives with no restrictions placed upon people who could access them within the Information Management Division, the IMD at the FBI. Now, a couple of days ago, the government filed their response opposing my motion for expedited processing of my Freedom of Information act request to get those videos. And you are not going to believe their argument against expedited processing. And I'm sure you haven't heard this anywhere else unless you read my substack, but I'm going to tell you about it today along with all the other ways that Trump's Department of Justice has embarrassed itself this past week. So this is exclusive. You're only going to see it here and on my substack at Mueller She Wrote Dot com. We have all of that and more on today's episode of the Breakdown. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Breakdown here on the Midas Touch Network. First of all, thanks to Midas Touch for giving me this platform. As you may remember, multiple anonymous sources who participated in reviewing the Epstein files at the FBI and DOJ confided in me this past summer that in addition to being locked in the building, not allowed to leave, forced to review hundreds of thousands of pages of Epstein files and videos and photos so that they could log and redact certain information, including Trump's name, that there existed on an unclassified SharePoint site, PowerPoint Decks, with training videos embedded in them, instructing them on how to find and log and mark Trump's name and other information for redaction training videos. Mostly because the IMD generally doesn't redact for publication. It's usually a place called RIDS within the FBI, which is much smaller division. So in order to get more people to do this, they paid a million dollars of overtime in five days and blocked the entire Information Management division in the building. Wouldn't let them leave. And that's where we get the number of at least 1,000 people reviewing the Epstein files. And because IMD wasn't really trained or certified on how to redact things for publication, they had to create these training videos. And apparently some of them specifically told you how to use the Excel spreadsheet to log Trump's name, the page number, the document, and all of that information. Now, at the time, the existence of the training videos was not known to the public. So, like I said, I held onto that for a few minutes so I could file a Freedom of Information act request, which then turned into a lawsuit filed by me, MSW Media, because I wanted to get those videos from the FBI. And recently, Jason Leopold received dozens of pages of internal FBI emails that confirmed the existence of these Epstein training videos that my sources told me about. My case was assigned to Judge Beryl Howe in the D.C. district. And back in September, she granted my unopposed motion for expedited briefing on summary judgment. So we filed our motion for partial summary judgment and we asked for expedited processing of my FOIA request. Because if there's widespread public interest or. And a question about government integrity, you are able to ask the court to order the government to hand over the stuff. Quickly put it on the top of the pile. Well, this past Tuesday, the government filed its response to my motion and they oppose expedited processing. Their argument? They claim that there's no widespread or exceptional public interest in the Epstein matter. That is their actual argument. They claim that I failed in my burden to show that there's media interest in these training videos. I'm not kidding. They wrote. In support of its request for expedited processing, MSW cites two standards. First, it cites a portion of the compelling needs standard, which requires that MSW establish on the record before the agency that it is a person primarily engaged in disseminating information with an urgency to inform the public concerning actual or alleged federal government activity. Alternatively, MSW must establish on the record before the agency that the request it seeks. It seeks records for a matter of. Of widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exist possible questions about the government's integrity that affect public confidence. MSW has failed to establish eligibility for EXPEDITION under either Standard. The court should accordingly deny its motion for summary judgment. Okay, let's start with the first part. That I am a person primarily engaged in disseminating information. Now, at first, they argued that I'm not a real media outlet, maybe because they don't particularly like what I have to report. But after some back and forth and an appeal, we actually had to appeal that decision. They did concede that I'm a member of the media here in a September 5th filing. Dear Kel McClanahan. That's my lawyer. You appealed on behalf of your client, MSW Media, Inc. From the fee category determination made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on your client's Freedom of Information act request. The FBI has informed this office that it has changed your client's fee category to representative of the news media. I did it. I'm a real boy. And the Department of Justice conceded that in their response. Look, defendant accepts for purposes of this motion, that MSW is a person primarily engaged in disseminating information. Thanks, guys. But just for the purpose of this next, they say, first and foremost, the record before the agency does not support MSW's request as involving a matter of current exigency to the American public. And, quote, starting with the widespread and exceptional media interest requirement, MSW has failed to establish a record of sufficient media coverage. Hmm. And they keep repeating it, I guess, in hopes that it becomes true. Quote, for urgency to inform the public, MSW was required to provide evidence in the record that there's substantial interest either on the part of the American public or the media, in this particular aspect of the plaintiff's allegations. It did not do so. And for the exceptional media interest standard, MSW declined to provide the kind of evidence necessary to establish such media interest. They're actually arguing that there's not any public or media interest in these materials. In the Epstein materials, For the foregoing reasons, the Court should deny MSW's partial motion for summary judgment. So I'll be filing a response. My lawyer will, and we'll see what Judge Beryl Howe has to say about it. And as you know, Pamela Jo has until December 19 to release the files because the law that was signed on November 19 said you have 30 days, and they are nowhere near ready. The Democrats actually want an audit because they don't have faith she'll release the files in their entirety. No, of course she won't, but that will trigger a lawsuit. So I just wanted to update you on my. My FOIA lawsuit, everybody. Just in case you're wondering, there's not a lot of widespread public interest or media interest in the Epstein files. Now in other news about the Epstein matter in which the public has no interest whatsoever, House Oversight Dems released another trove of Epstein files, this time photographs that they received from the Epstein estate, not the doj, which I'm sure were subpoenaed because nobody cares about the Epstein files. Now here's a photo of Steve Bannon meeting with Epstein and what the hell is going on in that framed photo on the desk. Now here's one with Epstein. And I kept my underwear on. Now give me a pierogi. Alan Dershowitz, here's another one with Bannon, here's one with Woody Allen and of course, Donald Trump. Not that we don't have tons of these already. And these photos appear among 19 pictures first released by the committee. That's a small portion of the 95,000 photos it said it received in the latest batch from the Epstein estate. And then on Friday evening, House Democrats said they'll release another batch of 70 more images. And it seems like Garcia and Massey are saying to reporters that there are actually extremely disturbing photographs that they have that involve minor children being molested by adults. But they don't name names. Now, I'm not expecting them to name the victim's names, but if you're not going to release a photo because it's child assault, child sexual assault material, you should describe it and you should tell us who's in it. That's what I think. I'm kind of tired of the oh yeah, there's a terrible photo of an adult, well known man molesting a child. We just want to let you know, but we're not going to tell you who it is. I don't understand that at all. Now NBC reports the latest release, which also contained redactions from the oversight Committee, comes as the 30 day deadline approaches next week for the Justice Department to turn over to Congress the massive amount of files the federal government has on Epstein. On November 19, Trump signed legislation passed by the House and the Senate that requires the DOJ to release the records. And I think it's important to note that none of these files coming out from the Epstein estate and none of the files that judges have ordered to be released as far as grand jury material goes, should impact the Department of Justice's ability to release all the files they have, including the files they stole from Biden era investigators when they had an open and ongoing investigation in the Southern District of New York and Trump came in and shut it down and fired the prosecutors and and stole the files. Those are also included in what they have to release on December 19th. And as I said, meanwhile, a federal judge in New York on Wednesday granted the DOJ's request to unseal grand jury records in Epstein's 2019 sex trafficking case. A different judge on Tuesday ordered the release of grand jury records related to Maxwell. And a federal judge in Florida last week also ordered the release of grand jury investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. So, all right, three weeks ago here on the breakdown, I said that things are all about to come crashing down for this administration. Watch. It is all about to come crashing down just like all right now. And why? Because the regime is manufactured political hyperbole built on a foundation of lies and omissions and fabricated evidence. And because we the people keep pushing back. Well, everybody, this week we're starting to see a little bit of what I was talking about. First, Judge Sinis, a federal judge in Maryland, ordered the immediate release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This is massive news. As it turns out, there was never a removal order on the books. And you can't hold someone in detention unless you're in the process of deporting them and they have a removal order. You can't deport them without a removal order. So Mr. Abrego walked out of ICE custody Thursday evening and set foot on US soil a free man, something ICE Barbie Kristi Noem swore would never happen. But that Same night at 7:01pm, an immigration judge. And remember, immigration judges work for Trump, not the judicial branch. This is a handpicked immigration judge. They're firing all of the immigration judges that aren't just deporting anyone. They aren't doing what the executive branch says. They're firing them all, replacing them with handpicked immigration judges. They're even recruiting people calling for deportation judges as opposed to immigration judges. But the Trump administration went to the immigration judge, who then issued a retroactive removal order correcting what they referred to as a scrivener's error, which is just beyond corrupt for multiple reasons, the least of which is that immigration judge didn't have jurisdiction to do that because that immigration judge denied Mr. Abrego's motion to reopen his case for asylum. And Abrego appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, bia. And once you do that, the jurisdiction belongs to the bia, not the immigration judge. Same with our regular judicial courts. Once you appeal something from a district judge, the jurisdiction then belongs to the appellate court, not the district court. But even more corrupt, a scrivener's error is for things like fixing typos, not retroactively adding a deportation order where one never existed. And there's clearly collusion here between this handpicked immigration judge and the Trump administration to get this done. And Mr. Abrego, because of his strict conditions of release, had to check in with ICE the following morning at 8am so his lawyers worried about him being rearrested because of this BS scrivener's error. Retroactive deportation order. They filed a motion for a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from rearresting him. They pointed out the jurisdiction problem and then added, quote, even if the immigration judge had jurisdiction, his order is not a final order of removal. The order expressly reserves appeal rights for both parties with an appeal deadline of January 12, 2026. So this is an appealable thing. It would be if this judge had jurisdiction at all. And if you take away the appeals process, you take away due process. Now, third, the government's attempt to manufacture a removal order sua sponte through an ex parte proceeding, that means by themselves, in a backdoor meeting without notice to Mr. Abrego and without any opportunity to be heard, violates the INA and due process. They go on to say the government had six years to identify and correct any alleged, quote, scriveners error. And the petitioner has repeatedly pointed out the lack of a removal order throughout these proceedings. Now, Judge Sinis granted this temporary restraining order. Mr. Abrego checked in with ICE at 8am the next morning and left a free man without incident. And I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the bravery of Mr. Abrego. He could have pled guilty and left for Costa Rica as a protected refugee, but he decided to stand up for what's right. He didn't commit those crimes. He wasn't going to plead guilty. And I hope this is a lesson to our lawmakers, our elected lawmakers, that they might may find the fortitude to stand up to this administration with as much courage as this young man has shown. But that is not the only embarrassing thing that happened to the administration this week. The broken, sad, flaccid Department of Justice decided to try and indict Letitia James again. Again, this is the second attempt at a re indictment, the fourth attempt at an indictment at all. And this is my Christmas wish come true. Just as I hoped they would. They went back a second time and a third time, and they failed again and again. Like I said, this is the fourth time Donald Trump has tried to indict the New York attorney general and failed. First when Eric Seibert refused to take the case to the grand jury, then when Lindsey Halligan fraudulent fraudulently tried to obtain an indictment as a private citizen. And then last week the Department of Justice went back to a grand jury and failed. And then they decided to go back again and failed again. At what point did they give up? I mean, I guess we'll know by the end of this week, but what a bunch of sad, corrupt, pathetic idiots. And if they do go back a fourth or fifth or sixth time and end up getting an indictment, Letitia James will have a real good case for vindictive and selective prosecution. And she'll have a very good reason to demand the grand jury tapes to see if there was malfeasance. What did you say differently the seventh time? I'm curious and I'll ask some experts about this, whether these repeated failed attempts help others in vindictive and selective prosecution motions like if Adam Schiff is indicted or Eric Swalwell for mortgage fraud. Lisa Cook I'm curious as to whether it helps other people also this week, as if the dead horse that is the Jim Comey case were not dead enough, a judge just ordered all of the evidence at the core of prosecutors case against Jim Comey to be returned to Daniel Richmond. Because you guessed it, the government violated his Fourth Amendment rights by failing to get a warrant to rifle through his seized materials again to try to prosecute Jim Comey. In a 46 page opinion, Judge Kohler Cotelli writes, quote, when the government violates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures by sweeping up a broad swath of a person's electronic files, retaining those files long after the relevant investigation has ended and later sifting through those files without a warrant to obtain evidence against someone else, what remedy is available to the victim of the government's unlawful intrusion? Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 provides one such remedy. A court may order the government to return the files to their rightful owner. This case calls for that remedy. And not only did she order Trump to return all of the seized materials, but if they ever want to access them again in the future, they actually have to get a search warrant. I think Anna Bauer from Lawfare put it best, she said. Dan Richmond is a professor at Columbia Law School and a leading authority on criminal procedure. Not exactly an ideal target for Fourth Amendment violations. I'd love to see what his Crimpro exam looks like this year. Oh, here's, here's something else. No one else is talking about besides independent media. Lamonica McIver's case is about to hit the fan for the Department of Justice. And it's all thanks to, you guessed it, incompetence and malfeasance. The Department of Justice is always trying to cover up the truth and it always comes back to bite them in the ass. Now, you'll recall New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was arrested and charged for quote, unquote, assaulting an ICE officer. And anyone with eyes that has seen the video knows that she did not assault the ICE officer. As a matter of fact, federal agents who texted the video to each other back in May admitted to each other that the video didn't show she assaulted them. But further, the Department of Justice kept those text messages to themselves until they were forced to turn them over November 26th. In fact, Marcy Wheeler posted@EmptyWheel.net, quote DOJ was never going to turn over these discussions conducted on signal until Judge Semper ordered this supplemental briefing. They were sitting on evidence that shows that before DHS first started calling MacGyver's actions an assault on May 10, Maciver had to ask to have these tweets taken down, but the timeline is in her motion to do so. They had shared video noting that their own actions look bad. Now, you don't have to be a lawyer to understand the implications of withholding exculpatory evidence Brady material. And even if they don't get in trouble for that, it's certainly a case killer along with the just the actual video of what happened. All you gotta do is see it with your own eyes. Let's move on to Judge Boasberg's series of extraordinary contempt this week. He had ordered the sworn testimony of whistleblower Arez Raveni and Drew Ensign, both of whom witnessed Emile Bovet instruct Department of justice lawyers to tell the court to fuck off about turning the planes around bound for Seacote Prison in El Salvador this past March. The government did everything it could to stop that testimony and protect Emil Bovey because sworn testimony from these two would confirm Bovey lied in his confirmation hearing for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals when he said he never instructed any law lawyers to ignore court orders. Now, Boasberg said those three scant declarations we talked about last week, submitted by Kristi Noem, Joseph Mazzara and Todd Blanche, that they were woefully short on information. So Judge Boasberg scheduled Raveni and Ensign to testify this coming week and the government tried to stop it. With a motion to reconsider. But Bozberg denied their bid and testimony was back on, provided there wasn't any interference from a higher court, but there was interference from the higher court. The same three judge panel, by the way, that vacated Boasberg's contempt determination granted an emergency motion by Trump to temporarily stay the testimony while they consider the motion in full. So as it stands right now, the Reuvenian Ensign testimony is on hold. But keep in mind, it was the full en banc panel above these three, two Trump judges and a Biden judge that revived the contempt proceedings in the first place. So I imagine there will be an appeal. Now, as always, I like to end the breakdown on an up note. Democrats won more elections this week. First Miami elected its first ever woman as mayor and the first Democrat since 1997. Trump was planning on building his presidential library in Miami, and new Mayor Eileen Higgins doesn't seem too keen on that idea to give up public land. Now. Cuban Republicans have dominated politics in Miami for a generation, but Trump's aggressive mass deportation is killing his numbers. According to a new poll from the Associated Press this week, he is 22 points underwater on immigration. It's so bad that on Friday night Fox News reported that the Department of Homeland Security is going to pivot to only arresting immigrants with serious offenses. First of all, that's an admission that they haven't been doing that, that they've been targeting non criminals. And second of all, I don't believe them for one second. Unless this explains the recent rift between Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. Maybe Trump thinks Stephen Miller's aggressive mass deportation agenda is making him look bad. Next up, Democrats flipped a House seat in Georgia that Trump won by double digits. Eric Gisler, I hope I'm pronouncing that properly. He's a Democrat who owns a local olive oil store. Defeated Republican Mac Dutch guest in the 121st House District in the northeastern part of the state. The extra bad news for Republicans, this was a gerrymandered district. Republicans packed and cracked Athens, Georgia, and it backfired, which I bet has Texas worried since the Supreme Court approved their racially gerrymandered map. But let's go back to that Associated Press poll because it also revealed that Trump now has a mere 31% approval rating on the economy, with 2/3, 2/3 of Americans disapproving. That's minus 36 points. And of course, Trump has been given talking points on affordability, but he's too demented to stay on script. So he rolls back into his Affordability as a Democratic hoax. Invisible accordion routine nonsense. And it's going to hurt them in the midterms. And I hope it angers Republicans who have to get elected again enough to cause them to resign or revolt, like they did in Indiana. The Indiana Senate this week voted no on Trump's redistricting map, and not because they didn't want a new map. Many said they would have, but they were pissed because of the threats. Trump tried to shake them down and they weren't having it. And this feels like a tipping point to me. I mean, in the face of bomb threats and swatting, Indiana Republicans stood their ground and defied Trump. And I think we may see more of the party break away as they search desperately for an identity, which is what I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to do. We know she announced her resignation and that she's trying to pivot to America first over maga. She's trying to usurp the MAGA base, the cult, the hardcore base, saying that Trump and MAGA are no longer America first because of what's happening in Venezuela, what's happening in Ukraine. So come to the America first side, which is another phrase used by the KKK and the Nazi Party. But Ms. Now reported this week that Marjorie Taylor Greene is plotting a Hail Mary on her way out the door. Before she resigns, she's going to try to vacate Mike Johnson's speakership. She will need nine Republicans to trigger that vote according to new House rules, and she's trying to whip that vote. She's going around talking to everybody one by one. Now, this is a very big. This is a long shot for all intents and purposes, and it's probably not going to work. But it brings me joy that she's trying to. It brings me joy that she's. There's so much infighting in this party that's not going to help them in the midterms. It will split the vote, and I'm excited about it. I don't think anything is going to help them in the midterms at this point other than their plots to cheat. Also, please keep in mind, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a horrible person. She deserves no quarter. The tent is not that big. Anyway, I'm so glad you're all here. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Alison Gill for Daily News with Swearing. Check out the Daily Beans podcast first thing in the morning, Monday through Friday, and I'll see you here next week on the Breakdown. Love this video. Support independent media and unlock exclusive content ad free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together.
