National News

The Department of Justice has posted thousands of court recordsand other documents from the Epstein files online in a searchable and downloadable format in response to a mandate from Congress demanding the files’ public release.
“In view of the Congressional deadline, all reasonable efforts have been made to review and redact personal information pertaining to victims, other private individuals, and protect sensitive materials from disclosure,” the Justice Department website reads.
The released documents contained court records from 51 court proceedings against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The Justice Department said it included its own redactions in addition to information already redacted from the document.
“The redaction of victim names and other identifying information has been added by the Department prior to this production, as indicated by markings that read ‘DOJ Redaction,'” the DOJ’s website reads.
Though a significant cache, it still represents only a fraction of the total files and part of what the department was required to deliver.
After months of back-and-forth with the administration, Congress passed a law with near unanimous support mandating the files’ full public release by Friday.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., one of the bill’s sponsors, warned that anyone causing the department not to comply with the law could be subject to prosecution – whether that’s Attorney General Pam Bondi or someone else.
“Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice, we will prosecute individuals regardless of whether they’re the attorney general or a career or political appointee,” Khanna said in a video posted to X ahead of the release.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News that the reason for the delay is redacting information that could disclose victims’ identity.
“The most important thing … is that we protect victims,” Blanche said. “We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.”
The Epstein Files Transparency Act does allow for redactions or the withholding of records that contain identifiable information on victims, images of child sexual abuse or the “death, physical abuse, or injury of any person.” Officials can also withhold any information that would jeopardize an ongoing federal investigation or national security.
However, the law requires a report from the department by Jan. 3 summarizing the files’ release, including which documents were withheld or redacted and why, as well as the legal basis for doing so. The report must also include “a list of all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the released materials” and names cannot be protected on “the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”
Blanche said he expects “several hundred thousand more” documents will be released in the coming weeks. Khanna told CBS News that the department must provide a “clear timeline for the full release” on Friday, after Blanche said not all documents would be released that day.
Epstein died in jail by suicide awaiting trial in 2019. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The Trump administration said it plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is based in Colorado.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced the decision this week.
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” Vought said in a post on social media. “A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
Founded in 1960, NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. It is a federally-funded research and development center headquartered in Boulder.
Colorado lawmakers are expressing concern with the decision. Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, called the center “a global leader in earth system science.”
“Science is being attacked,” Polis said. “Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science. NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families.”
The foundation provided approximately $123 million in core funding to NCAR in fiscal year 2025. That was roughly half of its total budget.
Currently NCAR employs about 830 staff.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the Trump administration does not have the authority to dismantle the center.
“We will not be swayed by his efforts to threaten, intimidate, or punish our state,” Weiser said. “We are already in court defending Colorado and will continue to do so, including, as appropriate, in the face of these latest actions.”
Others have applauded the move as one of the Trump administration’s latest budget cuts.
“OMB Director Russ Vought announces the National Center for Atmospheric Research will be dismantled. Good,” said Larry Schweikart, a historian and former professor. “Didn’t happen under Reagan.”
This is just the latest hit to Colorado’s federal workforce.
In September, President Donald Trump announced plans to move the U.S. Space Command Headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Ala. Colorado is suing over that decision.

A Phoenix jury Thursday sentenced serial killer Cleophus Cooksey Jr. to death for committing six murders over a three-week period in 2017.
Cooksey, 43, was convicted in September of first-degree murder for eight killings in the Phoenix area. The Maricopa County Superior Court jury decided the death penalty would be the punishment in six of the killings, but couldn’t reach a unanimous decision concerning the murders of Cooksey’s mother, Rene Cooksey, and stepfather, Edward Nunn.
Cooksey was found guilty of shooting and killing Parker Smith and Andrew Remillard while they sat in a car. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said that started a killing spree that culminated in the murders of Cooksey’s mother and stepfather. In addition to Smith, Remillard, Renee Cooksey and Nunn, Cleophus Cooksey was convicted of killing Salim Richards, Latorrie Beckford, Kristopher Cameron and Maria Villanueva.
The murders took place in 2017 between Nov. 27 and Dec. 17 in Phoenix and its suburb, Glendale, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office spokesperson Erin Pellett told The Center Square Friday.
“Anyone who questions why we need the death penalty needs to look no further than this case,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement. “It takes a special kind of evil to prey upon the vulnerable and needlessly take the lives of eight innocent people. Death is the only just punishment for him, and we will do everything in our power to see it carried through.”
Under Arizona law, Cooksey’s murder convictions are under automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court, Pellett told The Center Square.
No date is currently set for the case to be heard in the court, Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for the Arizona attorney general’s office, told The Center Square Friday.
According to Mitchell’s office, Cooksey was connected to the murders through evidence tying the crime scenes together. The evidence included DNA, firearms and casings. Cooksey was also found to possess items belonging to the murder victims, the office said, pointing to Cooksey wearing a gold necklace stolen from Richards when he was arrested. The office added that Villanueva’s car keys were found in Cooksey’s apartment.
In addition to the murders, Cooksey was found guilty of other felonies: two counts of kidnapping, three counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted sexual assault. Cooksey was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for the non-capital charges.

Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly leaders say they will begin impeachment proceedings if Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan does not resign from her post immediately following a felony obstruction conviction Thursday evening.
Dugan was found guilty of obstructing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were attempting to arrest a defendant in her court outside of the courtroom.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, sent a statement Friday noting that the last Wisconsin judge was impeached in 1853 but that the Assembly would begin impeachment proceedings if Dugan doesn’t resign.
Dugan’s legal team indicated Thursday that she would appeal the jury’s decision.
“Under a 1976 Attorney General Opinion, Democrat Bronson La Follette stated that when a State Senator was convicted of a felony, a vacancy was created, and the Senator ‘was effectually divested of any right or title to the office. His status with reference to the office was fixed at the time of his conviction,’ the leaders wrote. “Such is the case here, and Judge Dugan must recognize that the law requires her resignation.
“Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind. Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end.”
The jury found Dugan not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of concealing related to defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was later arrested on the street outside the courthouse and has since been deported.
The obstruction charge could lead to up to five years in prison.
The Assembly leaders cited the Wisconsin constitution, which says “‘[n]o person convicted of a felony, in any court within the United States, no person convicted in federal court of a crime designated, at the time of commission, under federal law as a misdemeanor involving a violation of public trust and no person convicted, in a court of a state, of a crime designated, at the time of commission, under the law of the state as a misdemeanor involving a violation of public trust shall be eligible to any office of trust, profit or honor in this state unless pardoned of the conviction.”
“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in the matter,” her legal team said after the verdict was read. “We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning.”

The U.S. Department of Justice will not release the entirety of the federal government’s files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein by the end of day Friday, failing to fully comply with a mandate from Congress.
DOJ will release several hundred thousand documents, however, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Fox News interview. He estimated that “several hundred thousand more” will be released “over the next couple of weeks.”
The delay, Blanche explained, is due to the significant number of redactions that the department must complete in order to protect the identifications of witnesses and victims in the files.
By failing to fully comply with a congressional edict, lawmakers would have grounds to impeach or hold U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress.
Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Nov. 18, which President Donald Trump signed into law the next day.
The bill, sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., requires that the U.S. Attorney General “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice” that relate to Epstein and his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Any Justice Department official who does not comply with this law will be subject to prosecution for obstruction of justice,” Khanna vowed.
Epstein died in jail awaiting trial in 2019 and Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton, billionaire businessman Bill Gates, and dozens of other high-profile figures have received intense public scrutiny for their connections with Epstein and Maxwell.

The Trump administration paused the immigration lottery visa program that approved more than 129,000 immigrants to obtain visas in fiscal year 2026.
In a social media post late Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said President Donald Trump directed her to pause the diversity lottery immigrant visa program. She said the suspected gunman of the Brown University shooting entered the country through the lottery program.
Rhode Island officials said the suspected gunman of the Brown University shooting was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound 50 miles away in southern New Hampshire.
Noem and authorities identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown student and Portuguese national. Noem said the alleged shooter entered the visa lottery program in 2017 and obtained a green card.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem wrote on social media.
Two students were killed and nine others were injured at Brown University on Saturday. Authorities also linked the alleged shooter to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor in his hometown.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program allots up to 55,000 immigrant visas to be available annually. Approved visas are picked from a random selection of individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. No more than 7% of approved visas can come from any one country.
In 2025, approximately 131,060 applicants were selected under the diversity visa lottery, including spouses and children. For fiscal year 2026, the United States approved 129,516 prospective applicants, including spouses and children, to obtain immigrant visas in the country.
The U.S. approved lottery winners are selected out of more than 20 million applications for fiscal year 2026. Lottery winners go through an interview process before being selected for a green card. Not all approved lottery winners are selected to receive legal status.
Approved applicants for fiscal year 2026 will likely not be affected by the program’s pause. The lottery program was created by Congress.

Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of a felony charge of obstruction by a jury Thursday in a case involving the judge’s actions related to a defendant in her court that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were attempting to arrest outside of the courtroom.
The jury returned the verdict at 8:38 p.m. Central Time.
The jury found Dugan not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of concealing related to defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was later arrested on the street outside the courthouse and has since been deported.
The obstruction charge could lead to up to five years in prison.
“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in the matter,” her legal team said. “We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning.”
Former Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan betrayed her oath and the people she served when she obstructed federal law enforcement during an immigration enforcement operation.Today, a federal jury of her peers found her guilty and sent a clear message: the American people…— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) December 19, 2025
Video from the courthouse depicts Dugan speaking with ICE officers in the hallway outside her courtroom and defendant Flores-Ruiz walking through a back hallway with a person identified in an affidavit as his attorney before heading to an elevator and then being chased down and arrested on the street outside of the courthouse.
🚨GUILTY. Now, lock her up.Hannah Dugan obstructed federal agents attempting to arrest an illegal alien with a violent criminal history, including strangulation, suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. https://t.co/QhC8gPBgBS— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) December 19, 2025
“Judge Dugan put her personal politics ahead of her sworn duty,” Wisconsin Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, wrote on social media. “Judges are supposed to enforce the law and protect the public, not play political activist from the bench.”
The prosecution had plea negotiations with Dugan and her legal team but an agreement was not reached.

Republicans are pushing back against California programs that provide taxpayer-funded tuition assistance to illegal immigrants, arguing the policies divert resources from the state’s taxpayers.
The California Dream Act Application allows illegal immigrants and students from mixed-status families to access state-funded financial aid for higher education.
The program applies to students attending public universities. There are currently around 9,500 California State University illegal immigrant students and about 4,000 University of California illegal immigrant students.
“Undocumented Californians are tax-paying residents,” Marissa Saldivar, assistant deputy director of communications for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, told The Center Square.
California Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, rejected that argument, calling it a “diversionary tactic” in an exclusive interview with The Center Square.
“Whether they pay some sales tax here and there is irrelevant,” DeMaio said. “We’re talking about billions of dollars that our taxpayers in California are now being forced to pay, and fewer services are being provided to citizens, and worse treatment is being given to U.S. citizens versus illegals.”
According to the California Budget and Policy Center, illegal immigrants paid an estimated $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022.
That same year, California residents paid an average of $3,734.82 in state income taxes. With roughly 19.6 million taxpaying residents, that equates to about $73.2 billion in state income tax revenue, not including sales taxes or higher-income tax brackets.
Some California educators argue that universities should continue to expand protections for illegal immigrant students.
“Universities have to keep showing support for the undocumented by making them sanctuary spaces where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot enter to detain and deport students,” Julián Jefferies, an associate professor of literacy and reading education at Cal State Fullerton, said. “Universities have a role in informing and advocating against the criminalization of immigrants, their scapegoating in the public media and [for] movement toward humane immigration policy.”
DeMaio told The Center Square the CDAA is “reckless and unfair to taxpayers” and incentivizes illegal immigration.
“As long as you dangle taxpayer-funded freebies to illegal immigrants, they will keep coming,” DeMaio said. “What we are doing in California is felony negligence … While the federal government is trying to secure our border, you have Democrat politicians openly promoting and advertising giveaways at taxpayer expense.”
DeMaio also argued these policies create a disadvantage for U.S. citizens seeking higher education.
“When you prioritize an illegal immigrant over U.S. citizens, you’re giving them the ability to get into a school when that slot could be for a U.S. citizen,” DeMaio said. “Or you’re allowing them to enroll in a high-demand class and take a seat from a U.S. citizen.”
DeMaio criticized Newsom’s continued efforts to enforce pro-illegal immigration ambitions and policies.
“Gavin Newsom is running for president,” DeMaio said. “I want every single voter in the nation to know that Gavin Newsom treats their son and daughter worse than someone here illegally.”

Texans continue to lead anti-Sharia law initiatives, including launching a new caucus in the U.S. House and filing legislation to remove the tax-exempt status of organizations that fund terrorism.
U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self, both Texas Republicans, on Thursday launched a new Sharia-Free America Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. They said doing so was necessary to “counter the alarming rise of Sharia Law in the United States. Sharia is a dominating force that is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution.”
“America is facing a threat that directly attacks our Constitution and our Western values: the spread of Sharia law,” Roy, who is running for attorney general in Texas, said. “From Texas to every state in this constitutional republic, instances of Sharia adherents masquerading as ‘refugees’ – and in many cases, sleeper cells connected to terrorist organizations – are threatening the American way of life.”
He also argues that “those who succumb to this political ideology seek to replace our legal system and Constitution,” saying that under Sharia law, “there is no freedom of speech, religion, or women’s rights.”
Self said, “The American way of life is under siege by radicals from a culture waging war against our Constitution and Western values. We’ve seen what happens when nations allow this infiltration: countries like France and England are on the verge of losing their identity and sovereignty. The same forces are at play here in America today, and if we don’t stop them, they will conquer our country too.”
This is the latest Sharia-related action Roy and Self have taken after filing the Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act in October. The two-page bill would direct the U.S, attorney general and secretaries of the departments of Homeland Security and State to prevent foreign nationals who observe Sharia from entering the U.S. or from remaining in the country.
Any foreign national who provides false statements about their adherence to Sharia Law would have their immigration benefits, visa or admittance to the country revoked and be considered inadmissible or deportable and removed from the U.S., according to the bill language, The Center Square reported.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also refiled a bill he’s filed multiple times over the past 10 years to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to ban all Muslim Brotherhood members from the U.S., The Center Square reported.
Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott issued three directives targeting Islamic groups, first designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations. CAIR and the Muslim Legal Fund of America sued Abbott, arguing his directives are unconstitutional and blamed Israel for his actions, The Center Square reported. CAIR also maintains it is not a terrorist organization and doesn’t fund terrorism.
Abbott also directed Texas Department of Public Safety to launch criminal investigations into the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR and directed law enforcement officers to investigate an Islamic Tribunal operating in north Texas that claims to make judicial rulings. The tribunal operates in Self’s district.
One week after Abbott’s FTO designation, President Donald Trump issued an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO.
Earlier this month, Abbott requested the Treasury Department to investigate CAIR for its alleged terrorist ties and suspend its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit status, The Center Square reported. He cited a federal court ruling, stating, “there is ‘ample evidence to establish’ that CAIR is associated ‘with Hamas,” in the Holy Land Foundation case, one of the largest terrorism financing cases in U.S. history.
Federal law prohibits FTOs from receiving tax-exempt status; domestic organizations created by known FTOs should not have tax-exempt status, Abbott argues.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation to allow the Treasury Department to terminate the tax-exempt status of groups that provide material support to terrorism, which he argues includes CAIR. Material support includes finances, services or training, he says.
“I’m introducing legislation to strip CAIR of its tax-exempt status because no organization who bankrolls terrorists should get a tax break, period,” Cornyn said. “CAIR is a radical group of terrorist sympathizers with a long history of undermining American values and trying to unconstitutionally impose Sharia Law on Texas, which is why I stand behind Governor Abbott’s decision to designate it as a foreign terrorist organization.”
He also called on Trump to designate CAIR as an FTO “at the federal level to ensure this breeding ground for anti-American hate is starved of funding and forced to close its doors once and for all.”
Under current U.S. tax code, an entity’s tax-exempt status is suspended if it’s designated as an FTO by the State Department. Cornyn’s bill would extend the current prohibition to organizations designated as FTOs in the last three years. It also establishes procedures for the IRS to notify such organizations, for them to be able to refute the designation, and for designations to be rescinded through administrative and judicial review.