Good morning everyone, and Merry Christmas Eve. If you celebrate, I’m wishing you a joyful and peaceful holiday.
For your awareness, I will have another update for you later this evening and will likely share one more tomorrow on Christmas, assuming there is news to cover, which there usually is.
This holiday season, I am filled with deep gratitude for you. For your support, your trust, and your belief in this work. I am incredibly proud of what we are building together and deeply passionate about lifting up voices that deserve to be heard. Doing this work with you by my side means everything to me.
Let’s keep going. Let’s keep fighting. And let’s protect independent media at a time when the mainstream is rapidly crumbling.
Here’s what you missed:
- The White House quietly seized control of the Department of Justice’s public messaging after a botched Epstein files release sparked backlash, with Donald Trump’s team scrambling to manage fallout over pulled documents, confusing redactions, and erroneous materials amid mounting criticism of Attorney General Pam Bondi. According to Axios, the White House is now running public communications for the Department of Justice.
- According to CNN, the U.S. Department of Justice is scrambling to recruit holiday volunteers to redact and release additional Jeffrey Epstein records after missing a congressionally mandated deadline, amid criticism over heavy redactions and disclosures that include references tied to Donald Trump and the case of Ghislaine Maxwell.
- Overnight, I spoke with Congressman Ro Khanna. Congressman Khanna has confirmed that he will be filing inherent contempt proceedings against Pam Bondi once Congress returns to session and will seek a special magistrate appointment from SDNY to review the DOJ's redactions in the Epstein files.
- Donald Trump spent the evening ranting about late-night shows, seemingly upset about their coverage and/ or jokes about the President.
- He further argued that CBS should “put Colbert to sleep” and cancel the Stephen Colbert show.
- Jack Smith urged the House Judiciary Committee to quickly release the full video of his closed-door deposition so the public can hear his testimony directly rather than through secondhand summaries.
- According to The Guardian, a Guatemalan man, Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, died after weeks in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at Fort Bliss as his wife, Lucía Pedro Juan, was deported before seeing him, fueling criticism from lawmakers and advocates over alleged medical neglect and inhumane conditions at the Trump-era detention camp.
- NBC News has confirmed that the White House rejected an appeal from Florida’s Catholic bishops, led by Thomas Wenski, to pause immigration enforcement over Christmas, saying Donald Trump would continue deportations as promised despite concerns about fear and hardship for noncriminal immigrants.
- The U.S. Department of Justice sued Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker over new state laws limiting civil immigration arrests at courthouses and requiring protections at hospitals and schools, arguing the measures impede federal enforcement, while state leaders and advocates say they protect constitutional rights and public safety.
- The Trump administration, led by Marco Rubio, imposed visa bans and sanctions on Thierry Breton and four other Europeans involved in combating online hate and disinformation, escalating a transatlantic clash over the EU’s Digital Services Act and U.S. claims that Europe is censoring American speech.
- Emmanuel Macron and the European Union condemned U.S. visa bans on European officials and activists tied to regulating U.S. tech firms, calling the move coercive retaliation over the EU’s Digital Services Act and an attempt by the Trump administration to undermine European digital sovereignty.
- NBC has confirmed that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine “reluctantly” signed a law ending Ohio’s four-day grace period for counting late mail-in ballots, citing uncertainty over a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that could otherwise create election chaos, a move critics say risks disenfranchising voters ahead of the midterms.
Good news:
- Sandy Springs Fire Department firefighters teamed up with Santa and superheroes to rappel down Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for a third straight year, delivering a memorable Christmas surprise that brought joy and encouragement to young cancer patients unable to leave their rooms.
- Clare Jones, a single mother from Swansea given months to live, was overwhelmed after asking strangers for Christmas cards and receiving thousands of messages, gifts, and acts of kindness that turned a simple request into a powerful display of compassion and community.
- Astronomers studying a bizarre lemon-shaped object orbiting a pulsar say it may represent an entirely new class of planet, with extreme gravity stretching its shape and an exotic carbon-rich atmosphere where diamond rain could form, defying current planetary science models, according to researchers including Michael Zhang and Peter Gao, using observations from NASA and international partners.
- Jeremy Barton was reunited with his black cat Shadow after five months lost in the wilderness of British Columbia, thanks to the kindness of strangers Christine Sutherland and Bruce Kosugi, who helped rescue and transport the cat home just in time for Christmas.
See you this evening.
— Aaron
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