Senate Democrats are gearing up for court challenges and investigations following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) dump of hundreds of thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.

They argue that Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ didn’t follow the law, which Congress passed nearly unanimously out of both chambers last month.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who forced a successful vote in the Senate on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, argued that the ‘heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence.’

‘Simply releasing a mountain of blacked-out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law,’ Schumer said in a statement. ‘For example, all 119 pages of one document were completely blacked out. We need answers as to why.’

‘Senate Democrats are working to assess the documents that have been released to determine what actions must be taken to hold the Trump administration accountable,’ he continued. ‘We will pursue every option to make sure the truth comes out.’

The law required that the DOJ release all unclassified records related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death.

There were narrow exceptions to what the government could opt against releasing, including materials that reveal victims’ identities or medical files, child sex abuse materials, information that could jeopardize active investigations, images of graphic death or injury, or classified national security information.

Schumer and congressional Democrats, along with some congressional Republicans, were already peeved that the DOJ wasn’t going to dump every document in its possession by Friday’s deadline.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that day that the agency would be taking a phased approach and said he expected ‘that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,’ as the DOJ worked to comb through every document to ensure ‘every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.’

But it was the inclusion of several heavily redacted documents without explanation as to why they were blacked out that raised lawmakers’ eyebrows.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who also is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that Friday’s release ‘could have been a win for survivors, accountability, and transparency to the public. It wasn’t.’

He accused the Trump administration of breaking the law with how it handled the document dump and vowed that the Judiciary Committee would investigate.

‘Senate Judiciary Democrats will investigate this violation of law and make sure the American people know about it,’ Durbin said in a statement. ‘The survivors deserve better. It’s clear Donald Trump and his Republican enablers are working for the rich and powerful elites — and not you.’

A bipartisan Obamacare fix remains out of reach in the Senate, for now, and lawmakers can’t agree on who is at fault. 

While many agree that the forthcoming healthcare cliff will cause financial pain, the partisan divide quickly devolved into pointing the finger across the aisle at who owns the looming healthcare premium spikes that Americans who use the healthcare exchange will face. 

Part of the finger-pointing has yielded another surprising agreement: Lawmakers don’t see the fast-approaching expiration of the Biden-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies as Congress failing to act in time.

‘Obviously, it’s not a failure of Congress to act,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s a failure of Republicans to act. Democrats are united and wanting to expand subsidies. Republicans want premium increases to go up.’

Senate Republicans and Democrats both tried, and failed, to advance their own partisan plans to replace or extend the subsidies earlier this month. And since then, no action has been taken to deal with the fast-approaching issue, guaranteeing that the subsidies will lapse at the end of the year.

A report published last month by Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit healthcare think tank, found that Americans who use the credits will see an average increase of 114% in their premium costs.

The increase can vary depending on how high above the poverty level a person is. The original premium subsidies set a cap at 400% above the poverty level, while the enhanced subsidies, which were passed during the COVID-19 pandemic, torched the cap.

For example, a person 60 years or older making 401% of the poverty level, or about $62,000 per year, would on average see their premium prices double. That number can skyrocket depending on the state. Wyoming clocks in at the highest spike at 421%.

In Murphy’s home state of Connecticut, premiums under the same parameters would hike in price by 316%.

‘When these do lapse, people are going to die,’ Murphy said. ‘I mean, I was talking to a couple a few months ago who have two parents, both with chronic, potentially life-threatening illnesses, and they will only be able to afford insurance for one of them. So they’re talking about which parent is going to survive to raise their three kids. The stakes are life and death.’

Both sides hold opposing views on the solution. Senate Republicans argue that the credits effectively subsidize insurance companies, not patients, by funneling money directly to them, and that the program is rife with fraud.

Senate Democrats want to extend the subsidies as they are, and are willing to negotiate fixes down the line. But for the GOP, they want to see some immediate reforms, like income caps, anti-fraud measures and more stringent anti-abortion language tied to the subsidies.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who produced his own healthcare plan that would convert subsidies into health savings accounts (HSAs), argued that congressional Democrats ‘set this up to expire.’

But he doesn’t share the view that the subsidies’ expected expiration is a life-or-death situation.

‘I’m not taxing somebody who makes 20 bucks an hour to pay for healthcare for somebody who makes half a million dollars a year, that’s what they did,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘All they did was mask the increase in healthcare costs. That’s all they did with it.’

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., similarly scoffed at the notion, and told Fox News Digital, ‘The Democrat plan to extend COVID-era Obamacare subsidies might help less than half a percent of the American population.’

‘The Republican plan brings down healthcare costs for 100% of Americans,’ he said. ‘More competition, expands health savings accounts. That needs to be the focus.’

Democrats are also not hiding their disdain for the partisan divide between their approaches to healthcare.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told Fox News Digital that the idea that this ‘is a congressional failure and not a Republican policy is preposterous.’

‘They’ve hated the Affordable Care Act since its inception and tried to repeal it at every possible opportunity,’ he said, referring to Obamacare. ‘The president hates ACA, speaker hates ACA, majority leader hates ACA, rank-and-file hate ACA. And so this is not some failure of bipartisanship.’

While the partisan rancor runs deep on the matter of Obamacare, there are Republicans and Democrats working together to build a new plan. Still, it wouldn’t deal with the rapidly approaching Dec. 31 deadline to extend the subsidies.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., predicted that the Senate would have a long road to travel before a bipartisan plan came together in the new year, but he didn’t rule it out.

‘It’s the Christmas season. It would take a Christmas miracle to execute on actually getting something done there,’ he said. ‘But, you know, I think there’s a potential path, but it’ll be heavy lift.’

Preparations for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan are underway, according to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. The announcement comes after representatives from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey participated in high-level U.S.-led talks in Miami.

‘In our discussions regarding phase two, we emphasized enabling a governing body in Gaza under a unified Gazan authority to protect civilians and maintain public order,’ Witkoff wrote on X. ‘We also discussed regional integration measures, including trade facilitation, infrastructure development, and cooperation on energy, water, and other shared resources, as essential to Gaza’s recovery, regional stability, and long-term prosperity.

‘We reviewed next steps in the phased implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza, underscoring the importance of sequencing, coordination, and effective monitoring in partnership with local Gazan institutions and international partners.’

In addition to looking forward to the next phase, the group reflected on the implementation of the first part of the ceasefire, which Witkoff said ‘yielded progress.’

During the first phase, humanitarian aid went into the Gaza Strip, hostilities were reduced and there was a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces. Additionally, all living hostages and most deceased hostages were released. The last remaining hostage is Ran Gvili, an Israeli police officer killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

The U.S.-led talks on the second phase of the plan were proceeded by a similar meeting in Cairo, which reportedly included Turkey and Egypt’s intelligence chiefs, as well as Qatar’s prime minister.

‘During the meeting, [they] also agreed to continue strengthening coordination and cooperation with the Civil Military Coordination Center to eliminate all obstacles to ensure the continuity of the ceasefire and to prevent further violations,’ a Turkish source told Reuters, adding that they also discussed countering alleged Israeli ceasefire violations.

The second phase of the deal involves the deployment of an international stabilization force and the development of an international body to govern Gaza. It also includes the disarmament of Hamas. Additionally, Israel will move further from the so-called ‘yellow line’ ahead of the international force taking over, according to The Times of Israel.

A woman whose concerns about Jeffrey Epstein were brushed off by the FBI three decades ago was vindicated Friday after the Department of Justice finally made her complaint public.

Maria Farmer’s complaint was buried in the thousands of files related to Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking cases that the DOJ published as part of its obligations under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The document was dated Sept. 3, 1996, more than 10 years before Epstein first faced prosecution for sex crimes involving girls. In it, Farmer accused Epstein of stealing and selling photos of her young sisters. Farmer worked as an artist for Epstein and has long been outspoken about what she said was his abusive behavior.

Farmer has said the photos of her sisters cited in the 1996 complaint included nudity, and the complaint is labeled as a possible ‘child pornography’ case.

Names on the complaint were redacted, but The New York Times confirmed with Farmer that she was the one who filed it. Farmer told the outlet she felt ‘vindicated.’ 

‘I’ve waited 30 years. … I can’t believe it. They can’t call me a liar anymore,’ she said.

The complaint noted that Farmer was a professional artist whose work included the images of her then 12- and 16-year-old sisters.

‘Epstein stole the photos and negatives and is believed to have sold the pictures to potential buyers,’ the complaint stated. ‘Epstein at one time requested [redacted] to take pictures of young girls at swimming pools. Epstein is now threatening [redacted] that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down.’

Farmer and her sister Annie brought separate lawsuits in 2019 alleging Epstein and Maxwell sexually assaulted them, but the suits were dropped as part of a settlement involving accepting compensation from Epstein’s estate.

Farmer also sued the DOJ in July, alleging the Clinton administration FBI ‘chose to do absolutely nothing’ with her complaint in 1996, and that in the years since, Epstein was able to victimize more women. Farmer said she also complained again to the FBI in 2006 during the Bush administration.

Farmer’s complaint was among the tens of thousands of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell that the DOJ released on Friday, the transparency bill’s deadline. Other accusers, such as Marina Lacerda, have spoken out about their dissatisfaction with the file release, observing that it was incomplete and contained heavy redactions. The department has said more files are coming within the next two weeks.

President Trump is rightfully angry that some of his top choices for U.S. attorneys in Democrat-controlled states are being blocked by Democrats and their leftist allies in the judicial branch. But the recent attacks from some supporters of the president against Sen. Chuck Grassley, Trump’s most effective ally in the Senate, are misplaced.

To start, remember who Grassley is. He’s a dignified statesman but also a shrewd legislator, fearless investigator and Senate workhorse. He doesn’t chase the limelight but quietly puts one win after the other on the scoreboard for Trump and his MAGA agenda.

This isn’t bluster. Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices, and two were carried squarely on the shoulders of Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stopped former President Barack Obama from filling a Supreme Court seat with Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s anti-Trump lawfare-supporting AG, enabling Trump to install Justice Neil Gorsuch instead. And when Democrats tried to ruin Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s life and derail his nomination, it was Grassley’s steady hand that guided Kavanaugh through the partisan spectacle, shut down the lies and got him confirmed.

Grassley’s done more than anybody in Congress to expose partisan lawfare against Trump. It’s thanks to Grassley that we know of the existence of Arctic Frost, Jack Smith and the Biden FBI’s demented campaign to put Trump behind bars and make any Republican that so much as breathed a subject of a criminal investigation. 

Whistleblowers at the FBI knew they could only trust one man to bring these damning details to light: Chuck Grassley. Now we know the Biden Justice Department and complicit judges spied on Republican members of both the House and the Senate and sought records for hundreds of other MAGA patriots, many of whom are a part of Trump’s administration today, like Dan Scavino, Peter Navarro and Harmeet Dhillon, who Grassley led to confirmation as Judiciary Committee chairman.

In fact, Grassley is literally breaking his own records when it comes to Senate confirmations. He’s processing and confirming judges at a rate faster than in Trump’s first administration, when Grassley was also Judiciary chairman. He navigated the vicious onslaught to confirm Judge Emil Bove, flipping the 3rd Circuit to majority Republican appointees. He bulldozed opposition and confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and other Justice Department leaders. 

He’s also processing U.S. attorneys through his committee faster than Democrats did during the Biden administration. And he’s doing it all while leading the charge against judicial activism and unconstitutional universal injunctions. And the billions of dollars the administration received in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill to secure our border and lock up dangerous criminals? Those border security provisions were written by none other than — you guessed it — Chuck Grassley.

We’re on pace to see the same number of attorney confirmations by year’s end as in Biden’s first year. But a few of his top choices — friends of mine and fellow warriors like Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan— have been stopped by Democrats using a century-old ‘blue slip’ rule.

Sideline commentators and keyboard warriors seem to think Grassley could just bang his chairman’s gavel and make the blue slip go away. But is Grassley, the man who’s done so much for Trump, really sandbagging these nominees? The answer, for those who care to actually do their homework, is no.

The blue slip should go, but Grassley can’t just make it happen alone. He needs votes to advance nominees, and he doesn’t have them without blue slips. Months ago, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., stated unequivocally on the Senate floor he wouldn’t confirm nominees without one. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., echoed this. That ends the conversation. Without the vote of either of these two members of the Judiciary Committee, nominees fail, regardless of Grassley’s actions.

And Tillis and Kennedy are hardly alone. Senators, both Republican and Democrat, won’t soon give up this power. All 100 senators prioritize having a say in who gets to be a judge or prosecutor in their state over letting the president decide who serves in other states. That’s why Democrat Dick Durbin couldn’t get rid of the blue slip when he chaired the Judiciary Committee during the Biden administration, even though progressive activists and their media allies begged him to do it.

Senators also won’t get rid of the blue slip because they know it benefits them when they’re in the minority. Republicans used the blue slip to block Biden from appointing nearly 30 district judges, and, so far, Trump has nominated 15 bold constitutionalist judges to fill the seats that Republicans held open.

I don’t like blue slips, but I live in the real world. I can count votes, and I know blue slips aren’t going away. As the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chief counsel for nominations, working for Grassley in Trump’s first term, I helped end blue slips for circuit judges because their jurisdictions cover multiple states and therefore their fates obviously shouldn’t be determined by a single state’s senators. That was a major achievement, but the limit of what was possible for now.

Democrats will stop at nothing to evade accountability, and Trump shouldn’t let them. His administration should use every tactic to overcome obstruction and pursue lawfare perpetrators. He’s right to want the blue slip’s end. But the Senate simply won’t deliver it this Congress as the votes don’t exist, and the president’s public outrage unfortunately hasn’t moved the needle yet.

As I’ve said before, to abolish the blue slip, the administration must build support by securing commitments from at least 50 Republican senators, including every Senate Judiciary Republican, to vote for nominees without blue slips. Grassley wants Trump’s nominees to succeed and knows the votes currently aren’t there for nominees who don’t have blue slips. Trump should trust his most effective Senate ally’s judgment. Grassley is a workhorse, not a showhorse. And Grassley has delivered more for Trump than any other senator.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Saturday the agency is ramping up its use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to counter domestic and international threats.

In a post on X, Patel said the FBI has been advancing its technology, calling AI a ‘key component’ of its strategy to respond to threats and stay ‘ahead of the game.’

‘FBI has been working on key technology advances to keep us ahead of the game and respond to an always changing threat environment both domestically and on the world stage,’ Patel wrote. ‘Artificial intelligence is a key component of this.

‘We’ve been working on an AI project to assist our investigators and analysts in the national security space — staying ahead of bad actors and adversaries who seek to do us harm.’

Patel added that FBI leadership has established a ‘technology working group’ led by outgoing Deputy Director Dan Bongino to ensure the agency’s tools ‘evolve with the mission.’

‘These are investments that will pay dividends for America’s national security for decades to come,’ Patel said.

A spokesperson for the FBI told Fox News Digital it had nothing further to add beyond Patel’s X post.

The FBI uses AI for tools such as vehicle recognition, voice-language identification, speech-to-text analysis and video analytics, according to the agency’s website.

Earlier this week, Bongino announced he would leave the bureau in January after speculation rose about his departure.

‘I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January,’ Bongino wrote in an X post Wednesday. ‘I want to thank President [Donald] Trump, AG [Pam] Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose. Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you. God bless America, and all those who defend Her.’

The Justice Department posted thousands of pages related to Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking cases on a public website Friday and said additional documents were forthcoming.

The trove of documents was released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law passed last month that imposed a 30-day deadline on the DOJ to publish all unclassified material related to the cases.

The files came from the DOJ, the FBI, the Southern District of New York and other entities, and they were expected to include public and nonpublic information about Epstein, a registered sex offender who faced charges of trafficking underage women before dying in prison in 2019 in what authorities said was a suicide.

The bill also required the DOJ to release flight logs, the DOJ’s internal communications about the cases, information on Epstein’s death and any material about people, government entities or companies with ties to Epstein’s ‘trafficking or financial networks.’

The documents included redactions and reasons for blocking out the information. The transparency bill gave the DOJ wide latitude to withhold information that could identify victims, child pornography and material that could jeopardize open investigations or litigation. The government could also leave out information ‘in the interest of national defense or foreign policy,’ the bill said.

Because President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on Nov. 19, the statutory deadline for release is Dec. 19.

The DOJ is already facing scrutiny for missing the cutoff date after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday’s documents were incomplete during an interview with Fox News.

Blanche said he expected the government to upload ‘several hundred thousand more’ pages in the coming couple of weeks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that Democrats are ‘working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts’ to address the anticipated late files.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.

The Treasury Department announced new sanctions Friday that target seven family members and associates tied to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which the Trump administration continues to put in its crosshairs.

The action, carried out by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), seeks to address corruption and deceptive practices involving the Venezuelan state.

‘Today, Treasury sanctioned individuals who are propping up Nicolás Maduro’s rogue narco-state. We will not allow Venezuela to continue flooding our nation with deadly drugs,’ Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. 

‘Maduro and his criminal accomplices threaten our hemisphere’s peace and stability. The Trump Administration will continue targeting the networks that prop up his illegitimate dictatorship.’

This builds on sanctions issued earlier this month, with the Treasury now targeting family networks, not just individuals. The Treasury release names the familial networks of Carlos Erik Malpica Flores (Malpica Flores) and Ramon Carretero Napolitano (Ramon Carretero).

The named and sanctioned individuals in the Treasury release include Eloisa Flores de Malpica, Malpica Flores’ mother and the sister of Cilia Flores; Carlos Evelio Malpica Torrealba, his father; Iriamni Malpica Flores, his sister; Damaris del Carmen Hurtado Perez, his wife; and Erica Patricia Malpica Hurtado, his adult daughter.

According to the Treasury Department, sanctions are not meant to punish indefinitely, and OFAC provides a formal process for petitioning removal.

The Trump administration has cut more than 600 rules and regulations in the past year, while only introducing five new ones in an effort to advance Trump’s deregulation priorities, Fox News Digital has learned.

Trump did not hesitate to take action to cut red tape as soon as he took office — after former President Joe Biden’s administration introduced hundreds of new rules every year during his term in the White House. As a result, Trump signed an executive order in January instructing federal agencies to eradicate 10 regulations for every new one implemented. 

As a result, agencies submitted more than 1,300 proposals to OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in 2025 — resulting in a total of 646 deregulatory actions this fiscal year, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Altogether, the deregulatory actions have amounted to $211.8 billion in net cost savings in fiscal year 2025, translating to more than $600 per American, according to OMB.

‘The Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda is the most ambitious in American history,’ OMB Director Russ Vought said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘We have blown far past the target 10 to 1 deregulatory ratio in President Trump’s Executive Order, saving hundreds of billions for the American people.’

‘In less than one year we have already achieved more savings than in all four years of the prior Trump Administration, and we’re just getting started,’ Vought said. 

Deregulatory actions that the Trump administration has taken this year include eliminating the requirement to remove shoes during Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) airport screenings — saving every passenger roughly two minutes going through TSA. Additionally, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the Department of the Treasury eliminated a rule for U.S. companies and individuals to report to the government personal informationrelated to business ownership. 

The bulk of deregulatory actions taken occurred at the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration added between roughly 400 and nearly 800 rules each year — which were often coupled with additional regulations, according to a senior administration official. 

Total regulatory costs imposed under the Biden administration snowballed and accumulated to $1.8 trillion during his term in the White House, according to the American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute. 

Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has come under scrutiny from Democrats and some Republicans for its deregulatory push. 

Democrats opposed a proposal from Trump’s Labor Department to slash more than 60 workplace regulations that encompassed a host of issues, including minimum wage requirements to harmful substance exposure guidelines. 

‘Donald Trump is betraying America’s workers by forcing people to choose between a paycheck and their safety,’ Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement in July. ‘Slashing basic protections like standards to ensure roofs don’t collapse, minimum wage for home health care workers, and proper lighting in a construction site won’t make workers safer or small businesses stronger — it will just make greedy corporations richer.’