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Epstein Files Battle Explodes as Redactions Shield Trump and Other Powerful Figures

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Confidential File

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The fight over the Epstein files reached a boiling point today as Congress moves to force their release, but the real story has already unfolded behind closed doors. The documents were scrubbed long before lawmakers ever approached the floor. What should have been a moment of transparency has become a demonstration of how political power shields itself while the public is told to wait.

“Once the House passes the bill to release the Epstein files today, I will move for the Senate to immediately take it up and pass it,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic leader, stated. He added that “Republicans have spent months trying to protect Donald Trump and hide what’s in the files,” and he said the American people want the truth.

According to Bloomberg News, Donald Trump’s name appears throughout the Epstein materials. What has not been widely reported is that an FBI FOIA review team blacked out Trump’s name and the names of other high-profile figures. Three people familiar with the review process said the redactions were completed before the Justice Department and FBI declared that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.

“The only reason the House is voting today is because the Trump administration is refusing to comply with a subpoena,” Rep. Kelly Morrison of Minnesota, a Democrat, stated. She said the president and his administration “are legally required to release the files to Congress,” and she added that leaders have “been complicit in covering up the horrific abuses of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.” She ended by saying, “Today we will say no more.”

Inside the FBI, the work stretched across two facilities in Winchester, Virginia. Director Kash Patel ordered agents from the New York and Washington field offices to join FOIA employees and review every Epstein-related document. Nearly one thousand staff worked through the night to process grand jury testimony, prosecutors’ materials, and decades of investigative files.

Not everyone agreed with how the review unfolded. Michael Seidel, section chief of the Record and Information Dissemination Section, objected to the directives. Patel blamed him for delays in getting records to Special Counsel Pam Bondi. Seidel was told he could retire or be fired. He chose to retire.

“President Trump has the power to release the files today,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, a Democrat, stated. He said millions of survivors of sexual abuse are watching to see whether leaders in the United States will confront powerful abusers. He added that survivors believe answers “can be found in the bank records of abusers,” and he warned financial institutions that “if they are hiding records, then we will be coming after them.”

According to Bloomberg News, the FOIA team used privacy exemptions to justify blacking out Trump’s name and others. Because Trump was a private citizen when the Epstein investigation began in 2006, his name was withheld under rules meant to shield private individuals from embarrassment.

“We have a little more work ahead of us, but my hope is Leader Thune will do the right thing,” Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a Democrat, stated, referring to Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, the top Republican in the chamber.

Fractures are appearing even inside Trump’s own party. “Trump called me a traitor for supporting Epstein survivors,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a Republican, stated. She accused the president of tearing apart his own movement by refusing to release the files.

The survivors themselves delivered the sharpest message. “We are launching a political movement to expose the systems that protected predators for far too long,” survivor Lisa Phillips stated. Wendy, another survivor, said she and others never asked to be pushed into political warfare and added, “Standing on the right side of history is not a comfortable place to be.” Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, cried as he said Epstein trafficked his sister to a network of rich and powerful people. He said his sister made a “monumental impact” by speaking out.

The names inside the Epstein files belong to some of the most powerful figures in the world. Their presence does not prove criminal conduct. It reveals proximity. And proximity is exactly what many have tried to deny for years.

“Americans are tired of waiting and are demanding to see the truth,” Schumer stated.

Audit Reveals Maryland Botched Dozens of Death-in-Custody Rulings

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Flag of State of Maryland of USA on map on dark background. Vector illustration (Photo by Zloyel)

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

A blistering state audit has found that Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) misclassified dozens of deaths in police custody—many of which independent experts unanimously deemed homicides. The review, ordered after former OCME Chief Dr. David Fowler testified in defense of George Floyd’s killer, revealed that during Fowler’s 17-year tenure, the office frequently downplayed police involvement and used discredited medical theories to avoid ruling deaths as homicides. Of 87 in-custody deaths reviewed from 2003 to 2019, independent forensic pathologists found that 48 should have been classified as homicides. The OCME, under Fowler, had labeled only 12 that way. In 36 of those cases, the office labeled deaths as accidents, natural causes, or undetermined—even when all three outside reviewers agreed they were homicides. “This audit confirms what many feared—that Maryland’s death investigations during that time were compromised by systemic bias and flawed procedures,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown. “These findings demand urgent accountability.”

The report comes after a national backlash over Fowler’s testimony in the 2021 trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Fowler claimed that Floyd’s death was “undetermined,” not a homicide. The jury rejected that conclusion, convicting Chauvin of murder. In the aftermath, over 450 medical professionals signed a letter calling for a full investigation into Fowler’s record. “This moment demands truth. The findings in this audit make clear that too many families were denied that truth,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement accompanying the report. The audit found that the OCME often relied on the widely discredited theory of “excited delirium” to explain in-custody deaths—using the term in nearly half the cases reviewed. The phrase has been denounced by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and numerous human rights groups, who warn that it’s disproportionately applied to Black victims and used to shield law enforcement from scrutiny. In cases where “excited delirium” was listed as the cause, OCME almost always labeled the manner of death as “undetermined.” Independent reviewers found that over half of those deaths were homicides.

The audit also raised concerns about systemic racial bias. Black people comprised over 70% of the decedents in the reviewed cases. OCME was significantly less likely to rule those deaths as homicides compared to similar cases involving white decedents. Experts said the office repeatedly failed to acknowledge restraint—particularly prone positioning and police pressure on the neck and back—as a contributing factor. In many cases, OCME’s findings violated the “but-for” standard, which requires classifying a death as a homicide if it would not have happened but for another person’s actions, regardless of intent. “This is not just about medical errors—it’s about denying families justice and hiding the role of police in preventable deaths,” said Dr. Alfredo Walker, co-chair of the audit’s design team. The report calls for an end to the use of “excited delirium,” reforms to classification standards, better documentation and transparency, and the inclusion of mental health professionals in crisis responses. “We can’t change what happened,” Gov. Moore stated, “but we can make sure it never happens again.”

Trump Moves to Expose MLK Files — Critics Warn of Smear Campaign

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By Lauren Burke

On January 23, three days into his second term, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14176, called the Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Since then, only the records of November 22, 1963, the assassination of John F. Kennedy has been made public. There had been year-long debates about whether the records should be released. The Kennedy records were deemed underwhelming by many who examined them, some of whom were joined to a six decades-long conspiracy theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone murderer of President Kennedy. But the long-classified documents on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., may spark a different set of issues. The civil rights icon’s personal life is likely to be reviewed when the documents are released. The files, compiled between the late 1950s and Dr. King’s assassination in 1968, are believed to include extensive surveillance records, wiretaps, and psychological profiles created during the height of the FBI and CIA’s covert monitoring of domestic activists as part of their COINTELPRO domestic surveillance program. Even though the January 2025 executive order in part reads that “the federal government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,” some believe that all the release of documents will do damage to the public reputation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even though Trump announced that transparency was the reason for the executive order, the King Family assured on January 24, the day after the executive order was signed, that the real goal was character assassination.

“The assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years. We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release,” the family said in an Instagram post on Jan. 24, the day after Trump’s order. They know the right wing wants to smear Dr. King, and one way to do it is by putting these smears in public under the guise of transparency. If there are assassination records, release those. But smears are not assassination records,” a message on Instagram read. Reports suggest the file may include allegations of infidelity, associations with individuals once suspected of Communist ties, and efforts by intelligence agencies to destabilize King’s influence through covert means. Scholars warn that without context, such revelations could be easily misinterpreted or manipulated. Virgie Hoban, a historian at Georgetown University, explained in 2021 that, “the intelligence community of the 1960s was deeply invested in discrediting King. These files may say more about Hoover’s FBI than about King himself.” Teressa Raiford, a civil rights activist, has pointed out that the FBI, “understood that the civil rights movement was winning people’s hearts and minds through the circulation of photographs and videos of nonviolent, peaceful protests,” and that the reason that King’s image is so vital to the overall movement means that safeguarding it is vital.

Calls for Transparency for Trump meeting on the Mega- El Salvador prison

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President Donald Trump

By April Ryan

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, says he is “not releasing terrorists back to this country,” speaking of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia deported to an El Salvador prison. Trump officials accuse Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang. Bukele also offered he could not return Garcia if the United States didn’t want him. Garcia is from El Salvador, according to White House officials. During that Oval Office press conference, President Trump is also considering deporting American citizens, saying, “a homegrown criminal…I am talking about a violent criminal, evil people.” Bukele answered a reporter’s question after President Trump was pressed about bringing Garcia back to the United States following the United States Supreme Court ruling that Trump officials must facilitate the release of Garcia. Garcia was said to have been wrongfully deported to the El Salvador prison. “In your face” are the words Black leaders like New York Congressman Greg Meeks are uttering about today’s Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump and the president of El Salvador.

Meeks, the Ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is requesting “transparency” with a “transcript” of the closed-door meeting between the pair amid the controversy over García’s deportation to an El Salvador mega-prison. Over the weekend, the White House told a judge García is “alive” and “secure.” Under the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration is allowed to deport people. However, the question is who and why the administration will remove from the United States to the El Salvador prison. There is a “demand that we [congress] have a transparent readout of what was discussed,” requests Meeks. Democrats feel President Trump can’t be trusted as he “lies.” Meeks explains, “because clearly the Supreme Court, as well of the lower court, has ordered him [President Trump] to have and release the individual who was illegally taken to El Salvador.” Meeks believes Trump should be “demanding” that Garcia “be returned to the United States.” Meeks also says, “We have no idea” what deal will be made between the presidents.

This is the first meeting between Trump and a Latin American leader during the second Trump administration. Former Philadelphia Mayor and Columbia University Professor Michael Nutter believes not only is this meeting “in your face” but that “Donald Trump wants fear in this country.” Nutter believes in being tough on crime; however, he questions these extreme tactics. Nutter feels Trump is perpetually campaigning as “it’s all about the strong man show and that he ran on the backs of migrants and immigrants, that works from a PR standpoint well with his base…. this will be government by a campaign.” As many are studying the law, the precedent, and the morality of these deportations to El Salvador, the former Philadelphia mayor says, “This is not good versus evil. This is documented versus undocumented. This is [a] personal grievance.”

Black History Under Fire: Trump’s Executive Order Puts Smithsonian’s Future at Risk

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National Museum of African American History and Culture Building in Washington DC, USA. A popular visitors and tourists destination in the capital city.

Black History Under Fire: Trump’s Executive Order Puts Smithsonian’s Future at Risk

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

The memo from Lonnie G. Bunch III, the first African American to lead the Smithsonian Institution, was as much a message of reassurance as a call to vigilance. Following President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order targeting what he labeled “anti-American ideology” in cultural institutions, Bunch acknowledged the growing uncertainty and laid out a path forward. “We remain steadfast in our mission to bring history, science, education, research, and the arts to all Americans,” he wrote to staff. “We will continue to showcase world-class exhibits, collections, and objects, rooted in expertise and accuracy.”

Trump’s order casts a long shadow over the Smithsonian, which, while not a federal agency, is a trust instrumentality of the U.S. government and operates under the guidance of a Board of Regents, including the Chief Justice, Vice President, and members of Congress. The order directs Vice President J.D. Vance, an ex-officio regent, to work with the board on content oversight—an unprecedented move that has left many within the institution and across the Black community alarmed. The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), opened in 2016 under Bunch’s leadership, was directly criticized in the executive order. Its mission to unearth and share America’s untold Black history once praised as groundbreaking, is now being reframed by Trump as an example of what he sees as divisive, anti-patriotic content.

Bunch’s memo doubled down on the Smithsonian’s long-standing commitment to truth, transparency, and historical scholarship. “As an Institution, our commitment to scholarship and research is unwavering and will always serve as the guiding light for our content,” he stated. “For more than 175 years, the Smithsonian has been an educational institution devoted to continuous learning with the public in mind and driven by our most important mission – the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” Bunch added. “We remain committed to telling the multi-faceted stories of this country’s extraordinary heritage.” That commitment is under direct threat, Black scholars argue.

Writing for The Medium, education expert Dr. Jerry W. Washington called the order part of “the fight over American memory,” a political war that has increasingly targeted race-based historical narratives. “Over months of discussing cultural memory wars, the removal of DEI content, and the nuances of racial dialogue, I’ve seen this gap widen,” Washington wrote. “It highlights a fundamental divergence not just in policy preference, but in how we interpret history, power, and truth itself.” Washington and others see the executive order as an extension of Trump’s 2020 directive banning diversity training in federal agencies—an action that set the stage for a conservative backlash against critical race theory (CRT) and racial equity initiatives. “CRT became a catch-all term—a manufactured villain used to silence any acknowledgment of systemic racism, white privilege, or the real struggles of marginalized communities,” Washington noted. “It was never about theory. It was about control.”

That control has since expanded. Dozens of states have enacted vague educational gag orders aimed at stifling classroom conversations about race and history. DEI programs have been dismantled across colleges and public institutions. Now, with the Smithsonian—the keeper of the nation’s collective memory—under the microscope, Black historians and curators fear a broader erasure. “The campaign effectively poisoned the well,” Washington wrote. “Making any substantive discussion of systemic racism politically toxic.” For many Black Americans, the concern is deeper than academics. It’s personal. The Smithsonian’s inclusive storytelling—exemplified by the NMAAHC—has provided generations with a long-denied mirror to see themselves in the American narrative. To have that narrative constrained or rewritten at the behest of political power is to have identity and truth under siege.

“As we have done throughout our history,” Bunch wrote, “the Smithsonian will work with the Board of Regents, including the Chief Justice, Vice President, and our congressional and citizen Regents.” But he made clear that the Institution’s compass remains unchanged: “The board understands and appreciates the Institution’s mission, as well as the importance of scholarship, expertise, and service to the American public.” Still, the fight over who gets to define America’s story is far from over. “The consequences are real,” Washington warned. “This is about more than exhibits. It’s about erasing the truths that make America whole.”

OP-ED: Addressing the Issues Around Public Safety and Policing

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Congressman James E. Clyburn

By Congressman James E. Clyburn

Following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020 at the hands of law enforcement—two in a long line of avoidable tragedies—Democrats reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring that law enforcement truly protect the communities they serve. House Democrats passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to prevent police misconduct by improving law enforcement practices and enhancing accountability. Regrettably, the bill stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition. Since taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden has restricted the transfer of military equipment to police departments and directed federal law enforcement agencies to end the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants.

Now a renewed call for action has emerged as the country mourns the violent death of Tyre Nichols, yet another unarmed Black citizen murdered by police. It has become undeniable that the culture of policing must improve. To reform this violent culture, we must enact public safety reforms that address the lack of accountability and transparency in policing while increasing the standards for those who wear the badge.

Our communities deserve meaningful change in how they are policed, and increased accountability will further that goal. It is unconscionable that a police officer can be fired from their local department for misconduct only to find employment in another department without consequence. Lawyers, doctors, public school teachers, and nearly all other professionals face accountability. Police officers have a sacred responsibility to protect the public—they should certainly not be immune from it.

Increased accountability goes hand in hand with increased transparency. Police department data, information, and policies should be made available to the communities they serve. There are more than 18,000 local police departments in the United States. However, there is no national requirement for collecting and sharing use-of-force data. Nor is there a nationwide database or registry that tracks problematic officers, preventing those who have been fired from moving on to another jurisdiction without accountability. The lack of transparency erodes public trust and allows dangerous actors to patrol our streets.

Increasing the professional standards for those who serve involves setting national practices and instituting mandatory trainings to ensure officers have the communication and de-escalation skills they need to better connect with their communities and prevent the deadly escalation of force. Training officers in these areas would improve police conduct and help officers better serve their communities.

In his January 7, 2023, State of the Union Address, President Biden urged us to “rise to this moment. We can’t turn away. Let’s do what we know in our hearts we need to do. Let’s come together to finish the job on police reform.” It is time for us to enact the reforms necessary to save lives. I call on our colleagues across the aisle to join in this critical effort.

To those who have lost loved ones to police violence, know this: just because you’re not in the headlines doesn’t mean you’re absent from our hearts and minds. South Carolina remembers Walter Scott, who was shot in the back and killed by a North Charleston police officer the morning of April 4, 2015. His brother, Anthony Scott, was my guest for this year’s State of the Union Address. Together, we heard President Biden’s call for action, and I can assure you that I will do all within my power to answer that call.

2nd Chronicles 15:7 urges, “be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.” The road to achieving police reform may be long, but we must not tire. Instead, we must press on in honor of those we have lost and to prevent more Black men and women from falling victim to the same fate.

How To Take Fear Out Of The Workplace During Covid-19

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By Rich Armstrong and Steve Baker
Fear. Uncertainty. A growing sense of panic every time the president delivers a national address about the far-reaching effects of the coronavirus.
Chatter around the workplace these days is filled with questions like: Will I get sick? Will I have a job tomorrow? Can I afford to pay my rent?
What can you do when you’re facing fear in the workplace? The good news is that you can turn to four key principles: transparency, financial discipline, trust and respect for people, and a forward-focused approach. If you want to take fear out of the workplace, consider the following steps:
 Embrace transparency. “Open-book management” is the idea that everyone inside your organization will be taught to understand the numbers that drive its success. Many growing business owners can be reluctant to share the truth about the financials inside their business. But they don’t realize the kind of risks they take on by doing so. They take on the burden of keeping the business alive — solo. In many cases, CEOs and owners are forced to shut the doors of the business to the shock of their associates, who are then left to wonder if they could have done something to contribute to a different outcome.
That’s why it’s amazing what happens when you have the courage to share the news — good and bad — with your people. Treat them like adults. Get their attention directed toward what they can do to help — versus panicking. Plus, the more eyes you have on a problem, the more ideas you’ll have to solve it. It’s an automatic check-and-balance on the security of your business.
Discuss your cash position. It’s been frustrating over the past few years as we’ve watched startup companies under the guidance of universities, incubators, and even investors embrace the idea that the only way they could grow was to take on debt. Some of you may find yourselves in an over-leveraged position, but that can also be an opportunity to engage your workforce and tell them the truth about the situation. If you do find yourself in trouble, ask your associates for ideas about how they can contribute to cutting costs — and increasing cash flow to the point where you can actually cover your debt obligations. You’ll be amazed at what can happen when you teach your people the rules of the game.
Protect jobs. Attracting talent and retaining it can be tough. We don’t have a future without people. In the not-too-distant past, executives sometimes became idols when downsizing jobs became the new mantra, laying off people at a time they needed those jobs the most. Something similar could happen today. Difficult times can convince companies to resort to layoffs to survive. But it is wise to think differently. Whoever has the most talented workforce will dominate their markets as soon as 2021. The time to get your organization ready for the next upturn is today — not when it’s already arrived. By then, it may be too late.
Get ready for the upturn. As bad and as uncertain as things look today, here’s a secret: it’s actually harder to get a company ready to take advantage of an upturn than it is to prepare for a downturn. Downturns can actually be opportunities to fix things inside your business that you can’t afford to invest the time and resources in when the economy is booming. While it might seem counter-intuitive, the current down market comes as a kind of short-term relief.
It’s giving us a chance to catch up — to make investments in our people and facilities — and to prepare ourselves to capitalize on the economic uptick that we expect to hit in late-2020, early-2021. By then, our workforce should be more stable and productive — and ready to take full advantage of the available opportunities. They have every incentive to do so, because, as owners of the business, they have a true stake in the outcome.
We know how painful things are today. But there’s no reason you can’t also dare to be successful. And learning how to build a culture based on transparency, financial discipline, trust and respect for people, and a forward-focused outlook, is a great place to start removing the fear that’s pervading your workplace.
Rich Armstrong (www.greatgame.com) is the president of The Great Game of Business Inc., and co-author, with Steve Baker, of GET IN THE GAME: How To Create Rapid Financial Results And Lasting Cultural Change. This book is the how-to application of Jack Stack’s 1992 bestseller, The Great Game of Business. Armstrong and Baker co-authored the update of Stack’s book in The Great Game of Business – 20th Anniversary Edition. Armstrong has nearly 30 years of experience in improving business performance and employee engagement through the practice of open-book management and employee ownership.
Steve Baker (www.greatgame.com) is the vice president of The Great Game of Business Inc., and is a top-rated, sought-after speaker and coach on the subjects of open-book management, strategy, and execution, leadership, and employee engagement. Baker is a career marketing and branding professional and an award-winning artist.