US senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about the Kentucky Republican’s condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.

The statement included a smiling picture of McConnell with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that he had died or was incapacitated. McConnell held a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in his hand.

Groff worked for Epstein for 18 years, from 2001 until his arrest in July 2019. No criminal charges have ever been brought against her (or anyone else connected to Epstein, apart from Maxwell). Since Epstein’s death, in August 2019, Groff has remained almost invisible and spoken only through her lawyers. Recent photographs have shown her going to pilates or walking her dog near her home in Connecticut, off-duty and low-key. Compared to the royals, politicians, billionaires and professors who have featured in the Epstein files, Groff is low status – a non-celebrity with no public reputation to lose. But when you search for her name in the files, you receive more than 160,000 results, more than anyone else. (I have read perhaps 10,000 of these, a fraction.) No one was more regularly in contact with Epstein, day-to-day.

After the release of the Epstein files, the US Congress’s committee on oversight and government reform decided to review the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation into Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. On 3 March 2026, they sent a letter to Groff asking her to attend an interview in Washington on 9 June: “The Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation.” They believe, in other words, that Groff knows more than she has ever said she knows.

Beyond her laughable attempt to overcome years of her own history with Jeffrey Epstein -- thoroughly documented both privately and in the media -- by simply ordering discussion of it to stop, Mrs. Trump has called for a hearing not for the perpetrators, nor for Epstein's co-conspirators, but a hearing in which the survivors testify.

I wish I were joking, but no. The linked BBC article, which focuses more on Mrs. Trump's well-established, undeniable ties to both Epstein and Maxwell, also has information on this proposed hearing:

In a surprise announcement on Thursday, the first lady called for congressional hearings for survivors of Epstein's sex trafficking.

Melania Trump on Thursday additionally called on lawmakers to "give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony".

"Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record," she said. "Then, and only then, we will have the truth."

Family of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, Sky and Amanda Roberts, and other survivors told BBC Newsnight that they "have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony.

"Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice," they said in a statement. They accused the first lady of protecting "those with power", including members of her husband's administration who they said still have not released all of the investigative files related to Epstein.

"Survivors have done their part," they said. "Now it's time for those in power to do theirs."

EDITED to note: I did not realize when I posted this that it was actually written in October, 2025 about an older NYT op-ed, because the complaint is exactly the same. Fresh off the current NYT article linked here, I happened to see this in the sidebar of the Common Dreams article about Saturday's (March 28, 2026) protests and assumed it was about the current NYT op-ed. My error. Thanks to @AmidFuror@fedia.io for pointing it out.

For those who haven't read it, this is the NYT article in question. I should note that the author gets thoroughly schooled in the comments:

A Challenge for ‘No Kings’ Protests, the Third Time Around -- by Jeremy W. Peters for the NYT

Archive.world link
(I am aware this site has problems, but it has the content. If you have a better archive link, please post it)

Invidious link

“Little Mike Johnson and all those Republicans have just created yet another participation trophy to give their very special boy in the White House to make sure he feels good about himself,” said Jen Psaki, former White House press secretary and the host of a show on MS Now.

“Any other adult in this country would feel completely embarrassed by the patronizing way that Trump is showered with fake awards on a near-daily basis. That’s just how Republicans have to treat this president,” Psaki added.

The “America First” award follows a series of other similar awards that have been manufactured and given to Trump.

Last month, Trump was given the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful, Clean Coal” award by a number of mining executives at the White House. In December, Trump was given the Fifa peace prize, an award that was made up and presented to him for promoting “peace and unity” around the world. And in October, the recipient of the Nobel peace prize, María Corina Machado, the rightwing Venezuelan opposition leader, dedicated the prize to Trump.

This is the video and edited transcript of yesterday's “The Ezra Klein Show” podcast with guest Anand Giridharadas, a journalist and author who has long been focused on how the elite shape the world the rest of us occupy without ever actually changing it much, and who is now focusing on Epstein.

This is an incredible deep dive into how the Epstein class as a whole operates, and how Epstein operated in it to such great success, even though it was such an open secret that the writer Tina Brown, upon being invited to a dinner with Epstein, Prince Andrew and Woody Allen, replied, “What the fuck is this — the pedophiles’ ball?”

If you want to know what's in it for the rich who already have all the money in the world but are not themselves pedos, or the famous or socially lofty who already have all the social cachet they'd ever want but are not themselves pedos, or what sucks people into that network of supporters and enablers of well-connected pedos who would not necessarily choose to be there, this is for you. A sample:

E.K. - There’s this amazing quote from Justin Nelson, Epstein’s personal banker. I’m quoting Nelson from the Times piece: He prepares a memo trumpeting Epstein’s large volume of business with JPMorgan, and noting that despite his status as a sex offender, he was “still clearly well-respected and trusted by some of the richest people in the world.”

His network is the proof that he is worth dealing with and not beyond the pale. Because if he was, well then how would he still have this network?

A.G. - He is revealing how these elites make decisions about trust — that I think are really different from the way folks at home go through the world and make decisions. I think you make character judgments about people, about how honest they have been and therefore will be.

These billionaires, these superelites, these superlawyers are working on a whole different kind of system. Their system has to do, as you say, with how loaded with connections you are in this network, how high your stock is on a given day in this network.

What Epstein figured out was how to game this. He figured out the vulnerability of this entire network, which is that these people are actually not that serious about character. In fact, character may be a liability for some of them, may be an unnecessary source of friction. These people are actually not that grounded in the evidence of how someone has lived.

This is one of the best articles I have ever read on how all the people involved and their hierarchies of favor worked together to protect Epstein, and are still working to protect others equally as heinous but of that same seemingly untouchable class.

The NYT column (embedded video plus lightly edited transcript, not paywalled):
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-anand-giridharadas.html

Archive link:
https://archive.ph/XdncI

Direct NYT link to podcast (not paywalled):
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010705735/the-infrastructure-of-jeffrey-epsteins-power.html

Other links to Ezra Klein podcasts (not paywalled):
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/opinion/how-to-listen-ezra-klein-show-nyt.html

I'm not posting this for the information described by the article title. Rather, I'd like to draw your attention to the very end of the piece:

The justice department had earlier told CBS News that the four men Khanna mentioned were “only included in this one document out of all the files. Wexner is referenced nearly 200 times in the files, and Bin Sulayem appears over 4,700 times.”

A legal representative for Wexner said: “The assistant US attorney told Mr Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr Wexner was being viewed as source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any respect. Mr Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”

Not entirely true. Les Wexner got a proffer from SDNY. I'll explain.

Looking at the photo of Pam Bondi's folder in this article, I got intrigued by the list of Jamila Priyapal's EFTA searches, and looked up the documents myself. The very last document listed in the photo is a PowerPoint presentation created by the federal Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and the NYC Joint Bank Robbery / Violent Crime Task Force for distribution to law enforcement.

On page 11 of this presentation, both Les Wexner and his wife Abigail are listed as two of the people receiving proffers, some via the FBI and some via the Southern District of New York.

A proffer is when law enforcement makes you an offer saying, in effect, "If you tell us what you know about this crime, we promise that what you tell us will not be used against you." (In case you're wondering, there is no non-criminal proffer possible in the context of this law enforcement presentation.)

In criminal law, proffers are made to people believed to be chargeable with an offense, usually serious, related to the evidence sought. Proffers are the carrot on the stick of criminal charges. Without a possible charge, a proffer has no power to protect.

Just so you know.

And frankly, had DoJ done their jobs and followed the law as written, Ro Khanna would never have been put in the position of trying to figure out who was who in the files in the first place. Redacting according to the provisions set forth in EFTA was what the DoJ was supposed to have done before the files were released, and did not. The release of unredacted victim names, including these four unrelated persons, is NOT on Ro Khanna. That's on the DoJ.

Suggesting that Americans inject disinfectants into their veins. Declaring that people believe he’s been treated worse than Abraham Lincoln. Claiming wind turbines are killing whales. Saying environmental regulations are forcing people to flush their toilets “10 times, 15 times as opposed to once.” Over the course of Donald Trump’s 77 years on earth, he’s had a lot of uniquely bizarre comments come out of his mouth. That streak continued over the weekend, as he reportedly suggested to a group of billionaires that Joe Biden had literally shit on a piece of White House furniture.

Archive link to above Vanity Fair article

From the original NY Times article quoted by Vanity Fair:

Mr. Trump blamed his successor, Mr. Biden, for the influx of migrants and mocked him and aides for what Mr. Trump said were bad decisions made around the Resolute Desk, which has been used by two dozen presidents.

“The Resolute Desk is beautiful,” Mr. Trump said. “Ronald Reagan used it, others used it.”

He then denigrated Mr. Biden, sounding disgusted, according to the attendee: “And he’s using it. I might not use it the next time. It’s been soiled. And I mean that literally, which is sad.”

The attendee who witnessed the moment said that dinner guests laughed and that Mr. Trump’s remark was interpreted as the former president saying that Mr. Biden had defecated on the desk.

Archive link