Category «Congress»

House Judiciary Cmte released deposition transcript of former Special Counsel Jack Smith

Aaron Parnas: “The House Judiciary Committee on December 31, 2025 released the full deposition transcript [255 pages] of former Special Counsel Jack Smith, offering the most detailed public account yet of Smith’s rationale for prosecuting Donald Trump and rebutting Republican claims that the investigations were politically motivated. Smith sought to testify publicly, but his request …

Subjects: Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

They’re Coming For Your Wildlife Refuges

Wes Silver’s Newsletter The Fish and Wildlife Service’s over-holiday review, and what it means for 850 million acres of public land and water – “Of all our public acres, it’s wildlife refuges that rely most on conservation rather than preservation. The system was conceived by the Boone and Crocket Club, an early advocate for what’s …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Reframing misinformation as informational-systemic risk in the age of societal volatility

Reframing misinformation as informational-systemic risk in the age of societal volatility – Misinformation Review, December 22, 2025, Nuurrianti Jalli – “When a bank run, a pandemic, or an election spirals out of control, the spark is often informational. In 2023, rumors online helped accelerate the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. During COVID-19, false claims about vaccines …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Education, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

The Epstein Files Trump’s DOJ Didn’t Mean to Show You

The Epstein Files Transparency Act required full release of all unclassified DOJ Epstein records by December 19, 2025. To date, DOJ has released two partial, heavily redacted sets, still withholding an untold number of documents in multiple formats, and no schedule of release has been made public. In addition, the DOJ removed and added additional …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

The year the government broke

The Verge [no [paywall] –  “2025 was the year the federal government and consumer protections were gutted…There was the record 43-day government shutdown that threatened food access for millions of low-income Americans, threw air travel into chaos, halted space launches, and delayed consumer products that needed regulatory approval. There was Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

Searchable database for the Epstein Files – Only Fraction of Files Released

Below the Belt – We created a searchable database for the Epstein Files, including everything the DOJ wants hidden. “The repository will continue to grow as the Trump administration releases hundreds of thousands more documents from the investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. The US Department of Justice on Friday [December 19, 2025] published a …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Search Engines

The year Trump broke the federal government

The Washington Post [no paywall]: “How DOGE and the White House carried out a once-unthinkable transformation of the nation’s sprawling bureaucracy…“It isn’t easy to fire federal employees,” her co-worker told her. “We have all these protections. We’ll be okay.” He was wrong. The United States’ 2.4 million federal employees were about to get caught up …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Housing, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

‘Don’s Best Friend’: How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women

Follow up to Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich and Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term Jeffrey Epstein Fallout Friendship With Trump Epstein’s Grand Jury Records Maxwell’s Grand Jury Materials How Epstein Got Rich Files to …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

The USA’s Censorship and Surveillance Plot is Working

Privacy Guides sits down with technology journalist Taylor Lorenz to decipher a slate of bills – including KOSA, the SCREEN Act, the App Store Accountability Act, and ongoing efforts to repeal Section 230 – being fast-tracked through Congress which threaten free speech, privacy, and your right to freely access information on the internet. There are …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term

Note – “Chris Whipple, the author of this feature told Anderson Cooper that all of the interviews with Susie Wiles were on the record and tape-recorded. He compared the confluence of factors to a lightning strike. “She knew I was working on a book at the outset,” he said, and “when I told her that …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Education, Government Documents, Legal Research

What 1,000 pages of documents tell us about DOGE

The Verge [no paywall]: “As Brendan Carr heads to Capitol Hill, newly released documents still don’t say much about what DOGE did at the FCC. Months after staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency were found in the Federal Communications Commission directory, the FCC is being accused of slow-walking demands for information about what they …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Courts, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Fall 2025 Yale Youth Poll. Full results and toplines.

[Note – this is a long and complex report – please set aside some time to review all the data points] “The Yale Youth Poll, an undergraduate-led research project at Yale University, today released a new poll of young American registered voters (aged 18-34) and the general registered voter population. The poll sampled 3,426 registered …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation