Judge: Trump administration better positioned than courts to disclose Epstein files – National & International News – WED 20Aug2025
Judge says Trump administration is in a better position to disclose Epstein material than the courts.
Israel embarks on widely condemned Gaza City offensive.
Judge says Trump administration is in a better position to disclose Epstein material than the courts
Manhattan-based US District Judge Richard Berman has rejected a request from the Trump administration to release the 70 or so pages of grand jury testimony in the government’s case against Epstein. Following the uproar over the FBI’s announcement that it would not release more Epstein-related files, President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to request the release of grand jury materials in Epstein’s case.
In his decision, Judge Berman stated that the administration itself is better positioned to release Epstein-related materials to the public than the courts. Berman wrote that the Trump administration’s “grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession,” which he claims runs to over 100,000 pages of material. Another federal judge made similar comments last week when he refused to release grand jury files in the case against Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell
House Committee disclosures
Last week, the Department of Justice began releasing files to the Republican controlled House Oversight Committee after the committee issued a subpoena. A committee spokesperson later said that the committee would release files to the public after redacting information pertaining to victims and any information that could “negatively impact ongoing criminal cases and investigations”.
Democrats on the committee have criticized Republican chair James Comer for allowing the DOJ to release the files slowly over time rather than all at once as demanded by the subpoena the committee issued. The Democrats also say the DOJ was already instructed to redact victim information, so further redactions should be unnecessary and will only increase the delay in their release to the public.
Israel embarks on widely condemned Gaza City offensive
A spokesperson for Israel Defense Forces says that the military has begun the second phase of its planned offensive on Gaza City, Gaza’s largest pre-war population center in the north of the Strip. So far, the offensive has taken the form of increased bombardment of the city, where nearly 1 million people are still believed to be sheltering. On the first day of this phase, Israeli killed at least 81 Palestinians across the Strip, including by shelling in Gaza City, an attack on a tent encampment in southern Gaza, and shooting dead at least 30 people seeking aid from distribution points. The official death toll in Gaza since October 2023 crossed 62,000 earlier this week, but many estimate the real number of deaths to be much higher.
Amid mass starvation, daily massacres, and the growing international acceptance of credible allegations of genocide, the international community has widely condemned the planned Gaza City offensive. This includes a number of Israel’s allies who are openly questioning Israel’s assertions that the offensive will end the war quicker and bring more Israeli hostages home. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, led by families of hostages, have staged protests demanding a ceasefire and calling the new offensive a death sentence for the remaining hostages.
Israel’s government is also under growing international and domestic pressure to accept a temporary ceasefire deal which Hamas accepted earlier this week. Despite escalating violence in the Strip, Israeli officials have said they will respond to the ceasefire deal by Friday.
Netanyahu’s “Greater Israel” plan and a new Iran war on the horizon
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew widespread condemnation when he said he felt a “spiritual” connection to the “Greater Israel” movement. “Greater Israel” is an expansionist vision embraced by Israel’s far right which calls for Israel to annex Gaza, the West Bank, as well as parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. Critics have compared the “Greater Israel” movement to Hitler’s vision for “Lebensraum” (German for “living space”) which was one of the drivers of his attempt to conquer Europe.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of attempting to create “Greater Israel” through his campaign in Gaza, plans to increase illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and accelerate Palestinian ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and his land grabs in southern Lebanon and Syria. This is the first time that Netanyahu has admitted to his intentions outright.
The one country in the Middle East that poses a credible threat to Netanyahu’s plans for “Greater Israel” is Iran. In recent speeches, Netanyahu has called for Iranians to rise up against their government, a rhetorical tactic he deployed ahead of the 12-day war earlier this summer. Foreign policy analyst Dr. Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute has laid out the case that a new conflict between Iran and Israel may be imminent, and would likely draw the US in. Possibly bolstering Parsi’s argument is the announcement today that Israel will purchase two new Boeing air refueling tankers with $500 million in US taxpayer money. These refueling tankers played a vital role in Israel’s long-distance strikes on Iran earlier this year.
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