News – Page 148 – 105.7 WDNY

Top DOJ official denies there’s any effort to redact mentions of President Trump from Epstein Files

December 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The No. 2 official in the Justice Department told ABC News in an interview Friday that there has been “no effort” to redact President Donald Trump’s name from the release of files stemming from federal investigations into convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked Friday in an interview by ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas whether every document that mentions Trump will be released as the government continues its rollout of hundreds of thousands of files in the coming weeks.

“Assuming it’s consistent with the law, yes,” Blanche said. “So there’s no effort to hold anything back because there’s the name Donald J. Trump or anybody else’s name, Bill Clinton’s name, Reid Hoffman’s name. There’s no effort to hold back or not hold back because of that and — and so — but again, we’re not, we’re not redacting the names of famous men and women that are associated with Epstein.”

When directly pressed over whether there’s been any order to DOJ personnel to redact materials involving Trump, Blanche rejected any such suggestion and accused Democratic lawmakers of using selective disclosures from Epstein’s estate to present Trump in a negative light.

“President Trump has certainly said from the beginning that he expects all files that can be released to be released and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Blanche said.

Blanche sat for the interview just hours before the department released its first tranche of thousands of files, which contained little information related to Trump and instead included images of former President Bill Clinton without context, which were highlighted on social media by DOJ and White House officials.

A spokesperson for Clinton accused the department of selectively disclosing the pictures in a statement and denied that they showed any wrongdoing by the former president.

“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday only to protect Bill Clinton,” Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Urena said Friday. “They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton.”

“Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats,” the spokesperson said.

In the ABC News interview, Blanche further sought to defend the department’s decision not to release the entirety of its files subject to disclosure under the bill signed into law by Trump, which gave the Justice Department a 30-day deadline to release the entirety of its Epstein investigative files.

“I did not say that all the files will not be released, I said all the files will not be released today,” Blanche said when asked about an interview he gave earlier Friday to Fox News. “And the law is very specific that the Department of Justice is required to make sure that we protect victims. And as recently as Wednesday, we learned of additional victim names, and so we’ve received over 1,200 names of victims and their family members since we started this process. And so there’s an established precedent that in a situation like this, where it’s in essence impossible for us to comply with the law today, that we comply with the law, consistent with the law.”

When asked whether the public should be confident that Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney, would act in the public’s interest over Trump, Blanche said the American people should look at what the department ultimately releases.

“Your confidence should be in the fact that for decades, lots of people have been trying to go after President Trump falsely, and when it came to the Epstein saga, it’s exactly the same story.”

Blanche added that the process to make redactions to the documents, “was not Attorney General [Pam] Bondi, [FBI] Director Patel, Todd Blanche going through and coding millions of documents and saying, ‘yes, no, yes, no.’ You have multiple, dozens and dozens of the most highly trained lawyers in the Department of Justice working for the National Security Division. These are career lawyers engaged in this process.”

Blanche defends prison transfer of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell

In the interview, Blanche also defended the department’s controversial move over the summer to transfer Epstein’s convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell to a lower security prison facility just days after he sat for an interview with her over two days in Florida.

In an interview released by Vanity Fair earlier this week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles denied that Trump was involved in the decision and said he disapproved of Maxwell’s transfer.

While Blanche said he was “not permitted” to talk about security for individual inmates, he said Maxwell was facing “multiple threats” that warranted her being moved to a separate low-security facility in Texas.

“At the time that she was moved, there were multiple threats against her life, and like happens all the time at the Bureau of Prisons when that happens, one of the things that one of the options available to the warden and the security system within the Bureau of Prisons is to move the inmate,” Blanche said. “She’s not released. She’s in federal prison.”

Blanche further denied Maxwell was receiving any preferential treatment in the new facility, despite recent whistleblower disclosures released by congressional Democrats.

Blanche says investigations into Comey, James will continue

ABC News separately asked Blanche whether the department plans to continue pursuing prosecutions against two of Trump’s top political targets, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey after a federal judge tossed their indictments in November on the basis that a Trump-installed prosecutor was unlawfully appointed.

Two separate federal grand juries in the past two weeks have rejected the department’s efforts to re-indict James on mortgage fraud charges and a separate federal judge in Washington, D.C., has restricted prosecutors from accessing key evidence in their probe of Comey.

Blanche confirmed the department’s investigation into Comey “is continuing” and said it was “not a mystery” that DOJ plans to still seek charges against him and rejected any suggestion the prosecution was “vindictive.”

James and Comey have denied all wrongdoing.

When asked about the interview that Wiles, the White House chief of staff, gave to Vanity Fair in which she candidly appeared to concede the DOJ’s prosecution of James was “retribution,” Blanche again defended the department’s actions.

“Because we’re looking at the evidence, we’re investigating them, investigating the cases. We have law enforcement, career law enforcement, doing the investigations are being presented to a grand jury in the normal course,” Blanche said.

ABC News has previously reported that career prosecutors on both the James and Comey investigations recommended prosecutors not pursue either indictment based on what they considered the lack of sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.

3 police officers shot ‘without warning’ while responding to domestic call in Rochester

December 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(ROCHESTER, N.Y.) — Three police officers in Rochester, New York, were shot Friday night “without warning at close range” while responding to a domestic call at a home, police said.

Emergency services received a call from a man who said his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend was attempting to break into her home and possibly had a gun, according to the Rochester Police Department. The caller also told dispatchers he had a legal permit for a firearm and was carrying a pistol.

Officers arrived a short time later and located the suspect, identified by the caller as the ex-boyfriend, along the side of the house, authorities said.

“He immediately pulled out a handgun and fired multiple shots from close range toward the officers and the victim, striking two officers,” Rochester Police Chief David Smith said during a Saturday morning news conference.

Additional shots were fired, including an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and the man who called police, which resulted in the caller being shot multiple times, Smith said.

The suspect fled the scene but was located within minutes by another officer, who was also shot after being fired upon by the suspect.

That officer and others on scene returned fire, striking the suspect multiple times and killing him, police said.

One officer was shot multiple times in the upper body and is listed in stable condition. Another officer was shot in the upper body, rushed to surgery and is listed in critical but stable condition.

A third officer suffered serious injuries but is in stable condition, authorities said. The man who initially called police was shot multiple times and remains in serious but non-life-threatening condition.

Police have not released the identities of those involved and the investigation is currently ongoing.

What Trump’s threatened ‘blockade’ on sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers means for gas prices

December 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Oil prices jumped about 3% after President Donald Trump this week threatened to blockade all sanctioned oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela.

Venezuela, which has the largest known oil reserves in the world, exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil each day.

The threatened blockade risks a reduction of global oil supply and an amplification of geopolitical uncertainty — both of which could further push up oil prices and, in turn, pinch drivers at the pump, some analysts told ABC News.

But, they added, the effect on prices will likely remain muted unless the conflict escalates significantly, since Venezuela accounts for less than 1% of global oil output and most of its oil is sold on the black market.

Here’s what to know about what the threatened U.S. blockade means for oil and gasoline prices:

Where does the blockade stand and how has Venezuela responded?
On Tuesday, Trump threatened what he called a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure on the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose government depends in part on revenue derived from oil sales.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”

A day later, Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil, defying Trump’s threat.

“Trade in and out will continue — our oil and all our natural wealth that by the constitution and Bolivar’s legacy belongs — our wealth, our land, and our oil — to its only legitimate owner, which for centuries and centuries has been our sovereign people of Venezuela,” Maduro said on Wednesday, originally in Spanish.

The U.S. currently has 11 warships in the Caribbean — the most in decades — but even with an increased military presence, that would likely not be enough to put in place a blockade in the traditional sense, which involves sealing a country’s coastline completely and would effectively have been a declaration of war.

Why has the threatened blockade pushed up oil prices?
The threatened blockade of sanctioned oil tankers drove up the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures price — a key measure of U.S. oil prices — by about 3%, landing the price around $56.50 per barrel.

The measure had dropped to its lowest level since 2021 on Tuesday, just hours before Trump’s announcement. The dip in prices stemmed from a glut of oil alongside relatively slow global economic growth, which has constricted demand for fossil fuels.

“Everybody and their grandmother is bearish on oil prices,” Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told ABC News.

The threatened blockade disrupted those price doldrums, at least to a minor degree, some experts said.

Venezuela has exported about 749,000 barrels per day this year, with at least half that oil going to China, according to data from Kpler. That oil output amounts to less than 1% of global supply.

The news caused a “knee-jerk reaction” in oil markets due to heightened uncertainty tied to the U.S.-Venezuela conflict, Christopher Tang, a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management who studies supply chains, told ABC News. A continued standoff could push oil prices up to around $65 or $70 per barrel, but they’re unlikely to go much higher, Tang added.

“It’s not going to go up to $100 a barrel,” Tang said.

What could the threatened Venezuelan oil blockade mean for gas prices?
A jump in oil prices typically brings about an ensuing uptick in the cost of gasoline at the pump, some experts said, since crude oil makes up the key ingredient in auto fuel.

“The single most important price driver of gasoline is crude oil. As crude oil goes up, we expect gasoline to go up,” Timothy Fitzgerald, a professor of business economics at the University of Tennessee who studies the petroleum industry, told ABC News.

The average price of a gallon of gas stands at about $2.88, which marks a 5% decline from a year earlier, AAA data showed. Gas prices are hovering near their lowest level in four years due in part to the low cost of crude oil.

Providence mayor asks FBI to give $50K reward to tipster whose Reddit post helped lead to suspected Brown University gunman

December 20, 2025 by WDNY Radio

Providence mayor asks FBI to give K reward to tipster whose Reddit post helped lead to suspected Brown University gunman

Providence mayor asks FBI to give $50K reward to tipster whose Reddit post helped lead to suspected Brown University gunman — Police patrol Brown University following a mass shooting yesterday that left at least two people dead and nine others injured on December 14, 2025 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) — The mayor of Providence is asking FBI Director Kash Patel to give the $50,000 reward offered for information in the Brown University mass shooting to a local tipster who provided a detailed account of the suspect.

The man, only identified by authorities in a criminal complaint as “John,” provided the Providence Police Department with the most detailed account of the suspect, later identified as 48-year-old Carlos Neves Valente, and the gray Nissan Sentra he was driving — first on a Reddit post and later to authorities.

“One individual amongst those who provided tips stands out above the rest: John,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in the letter obtained by ABC News. “As discussed with the media last night, John is no less than a hero. His bravery, selflessness and stewardship on behalf of his community went far beyond what anyone could ever hope from a tip. I believe that our community is breathing easier today because of the extraordinary assistance John provided to our law enforcement agencies. I am writing to you today to request that the entirety of the $50,000 reward be issued to this incredible Providence neighbor.”

The FBI previously said there was a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the suspect.

In the letter, Smiley said law enforcement worked for 130 hours straight to find and identify the gunman — but that John was pivotal to the investigation.

“He blew this case right open,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters at a news conference on Thursday night. “He blew it open.”

It all began unfolding three days after the shooting when an anonymous source tipped off authorities to a post John had made on the website Reddit, according to the Rhode Island criminal complaint detailing the evidence against the suspected shooter.

“I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” John wrote in the post, describing “odd” behavior by the suspect.

After noticing the man they believed to be John interacting with the suspect in surveillance footage, police released images of him and asked for help in identifying him on Wednesday. Later that day, John approached a Providence police officer and said he was the person they were looking for.

John told detectives that he first encountered the suspect in the bathroom of Brown University’s Barus & Holley building in the hours before the Dec. 13 shooting and was suspicious, according to the affidavit.

John followed Neves Valente outside, where he said he observed the suspect approaching his car, the affidavit noted. The suspect and John would lock eyes as Neves Valente repeatedly walked around the block, in what John would describe “as a game of cat and mouse,” according to the affidavit.

The tip and surveillance video, along with the use of license-plate reader technology, led investigators to a car rental agency in Massachusetts where Neves Valente had rented the Nissan under his own name, authorities said.

Investigators tracked Neves Valente to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on the border with Massachusetts, where they found his body inside.

Authorities said Neves Valente burst into a lecture hall on the Brown campus on Dec. 13 and opened fire, killing two students and wounding nine others, before fleeing the scene. Two days later, he fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in the foyer of his apartment building in Brookline, Massachusetts, according to authorities.

Officials haven’t released a motive, but Neves Velente briefly attended Brown University in the early 2000s and studied in the same prestigious physics engineering program in the 1990s with Loureiro in their native Portugal.

What investigators know about suspected Brown, MIT shooter and hero tipster

December 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — New details about how police caught up to Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the 48-year-old former Brown University graduate student who allegedly perpetrated a mass shooting at Brown and killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, have emerged after a dayslong manhunt where officials said he made a series of moves designed to evade authorities.

Authorities credited the work of a tipster who they say “blew this case out in the open.”

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said local police helped track down Neves Valente, who was found dead in a New Hampshire storage unit on Thursday, in part thanks to surveillance video and a tip from an anonymous source that pointed authorities to a post on social media platform Reddit.

The tip referenced a post in which the Reddit user — later identified as John — called for police to “look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates,” according to the affidavit.

“I’m being dead serious,” the Reddit post read. “That was the car he was driving.”

After noticing the man they believed to be John interacting with the suspect on surveillance footage, police released images of him and asked for help in identifying him on Wednesday. Later that day, John approached a Providence police officer and said he was the person they were looking for.

John told detectives that he encountered the suspect in the bathroom of Brown University’s Barus & Holley building in the hours before Dec. 13 shooting and was suspicious, according to the affidavit.

“At some point they [John and Neves Valente] encountered each other on George Street, at which time, the Suspect ran in the opposite direction. John then ran up behind the person of interest, slowed to a good speed-walk and walked past the Suspect,” the affidavit said.

Ultimately, John questioned Neves Valente why he was circling the block prompting a response from the suspect, before John walked away, according to the affidavit.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters John’s information was crucial in tracking the suspect.

“I remember last night watching his interview, and he blew this case right open,” he said.

The tip and surveillance video, along with the use of license-plate reader technology, led investigators to a car rental agency in Massachusetts.

There, police obtained a copy of the rental agreement with the suspect’s name, as well as video of the suspect that matched the videos of the person of interest seen on the Brown University campus on the day of the shooting, the complaint said.

That discovery ultimately led investigators to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where the suspect was found dead, officials said.

Financial records and video evidence confirmed that the storage unit belonged to the alleged suspect and that the rental vehicle was connected to both the Rhode Island and Massachusetts cases.

Authorities identified the suspect as Neves Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown University student whose last known address was in Miami, Florida. Officials said Neves Valente died by suicide Thursday evening.

Officials confirmed that Neves Valente was found with a satchel containing two firearms, and evidence recovered from the vehicle matched what was found at the Providence crime scene.

Federal authorities confirmed that shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday, FBI SWAT teams executed court-authorized search warrants at a storage facility in Salem, which is where they found Neves Valente’s body.

The autopsy performed by the New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Chief Medical Examiner estimated that Neves Valente died on Tuesday, one day after the professor was killed at MIT, according to investigators.

Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) confirmed to ABC News that Cláudio Manuel Neves Neves Valente studied between 1995 and 2000 in the school’s physics engineering program, the same one attended at the time by slain MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro.

A 1998 announcement in Portugal’s official Diario da República referred to Neves Valente’s appointment as a teaching assistant at IST and a 2000 notice in the same publication mentions his termination from the role.

A spokesperson for IST declined to comment further on Neves Valente’s history at the institution, due to the ongoing investigation and out of respect for the friends and family of Loureiro.

Brown officials confirmed that Neves Valente was enrolled at the university from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001 as a graduate student in physics, entering Brown’s graduate program in September 2000 before taking a leave of absence in April 2001 and formally withdrawing in 2003.

“He was not a current student, was not an employee and did not receive a degree from the University, attending for only three semesters as a graduate student until taking a leave in 2001 and formally withdrawing effective July 31, 2003,” Brown University President Christina Paxson wrote in a letter to students and faculty Thursday.

During his time at Brown, he was enrolled only in physics courses, which were typically held in the Barus & Holley building. University records indicate he has had no active affiliation with Brown for more than two decades.

Police said the suspect acted alone and that there is no indication, at this time, of additional planned attacks. Investigators have not identified any writings, known criminal history or clear motive.

Officials said forensic teams are still processing evidence recovered in New Hampshire, including firearms, and will compare it with ballistic and DNA evidence from the Providence crime scene.

Paxson said the university is still reviewing how the suspect gained access to the building. She said the building was unlocked that day because exams were being held, and the university will examine security procedures moving forward.

Investigators said Neves Valente obtained lawful permanency in April 2017 and was issued a green card.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in an X post that Neves Valente received his visa through the diversity visa lottery program, and announced that, at President Donald Trump’s direction, she was pausing the program.

Each year, the State Department awards up to 50,000 immigrant visas to “winners” of the diversity visa lottery. The program was created by Congress in 1990 to allow applicants from countries with low rates of immigration into the U.S. to come here.

The winners are selected at random, but they must still go through a lengthy application process, which includes submitting criminal records, being interviewed at an embassy or consulate, and meeting other requirements, such as having a High School Diploma or two years of work experience. Applicants are then allowed to apply for lawful permanent resident status.

Investigators said they identified Neves Valente by name late Wednesday night and weighed whether releasing his identity could cause him to flee or take further action.

Officials said they believed he might return the rental car in Boston or attempt to leave the area, and they wanted the opportunity to arrest him without alerting him that police were closing in.

Officials said it remains unclear exactly when the suspect took his own life, but noted that he signed into the storage facility but was never seen leaving.

The site was secured by federal agents, and investigators said an autopsy will help determine the timing of his death.

ABC News’ Armando Garcia and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.

Nearly 5 million flu illnesses reported so far nationally, latest CDC data shows

December 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Flu activity is increasing across the country, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New York City is seeing some of the highest levels of flu-like activity across the country. States including Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas are seeing “moderate” activity of respiratory illnesses. All other states are seeing low or very low levels.

The CDC estimates that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations, and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.

The bulk of flu illnesses so far are being linked to the new variant known as subclade K, according to hundreds of samples sent to the CDC. Of just over 900 flu samples, roughly 90% were A(H3N2). Of those that had further genetic testing, nearly 90% belonged to subclade K.

The mutations seen in the new variant result in a mismatch with this season’s flu vaccine composition, the CDC notes. Experts believe that the flu vaccine will still help reduce the risk of severe illness, including hospitalization and death.

Two pediatric flu deaths were reported this week, bringing the total to three for this season. Last season had a record tying 288 die from flu – the same number during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. It’s the highest levels seen since 2004, which is when flu child deaths became mandatory for states to report to CDC.

About 90% of kids that died from flu last season were not vaccinated, a CDC study found. Flu vaccinations among kids have dropped 10% points lower than pre-pandemic with about 40% of kids getting the shot this season.

About 140 million doses of the flu vaccine have been distributed nationally so far this season, compared to 128 million last season.

The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months get their annual flu shot. Experts say it is not too late to get vaccinated.

Democrats examining legal options after DOJ says full Epstein release not expected Friday

December 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Democratic lawmakers warned the Trump administration that they’re “examining all legal options” to hold it accountable to Friday’s deadline ordering the Department of Justice to release all its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accusing the administration of “breaking the law.”

The Justice Department was set to release on Friday hundreds of thousands of documents stemming from its investigations into Epstein, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview with Fox News.

But as the administration reviews the documents for sensitive materials, Blanche said more productions would be coming over the next several weeks — indicating the administration does not believe it can fully comply with a law mandating the release of all files by 11:59 p.m. on Friday.

“So today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple of weeks I expect several hundred thousand more,” Blanche said.

The comments set off immediate reaction from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Schumer charged that the administration is “hell-bent on hiding the truth” while asserting that failure to release all of the Epstein documents by Friday’s deadline would be “breaking the law.”

“Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out,” Schumer pledged in a statement. “People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files. This is nothing more than a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.”

Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and said he hadn’t spoken to Epstein for more than a decade at the time of his arrest in 2019.

Trump’s name was mentioned several times across the hundreds of Epstein files that were made public earlier this year. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in an article published this week that Trump “is in the file” but that “he’s not in the file doing anything awful.”

Reps. Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, said they’re examining “all legal options” after “the Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself.”

“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring,” Garcia and Raskin said in a statement.

“Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law. We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ,” they added.

The White House has not publicly commented on the criticism from Democrats.

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who led the charge to force the vote to compel the Justice Department to release the files, posted the legislative text of the bill he co-authored highlighting the phrase “not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this act” and also the word “all” as it pertained to “unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorneys’ Offices.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee who has long been investigating Epstein’s financial ties, proclaimed that anything short of a full release of the files by end of day Friday amounts to a “violation of the law.”

“The law Congress passed did not say ‘release some of the Epstein files’ or ‘release the files whenever it’s convenient for Donald Trump.’ Anything short of a full release today is a violation of the law and a continuation of this administration’s coverup on behalf of a bunch of pedophiles and sex traffickers,” Wyden wrote in a statement.

Blanche, during the Fox News interview, suggested that the administration’s review has been partially hamstrung by a ruling from a judge in the Southern District of New York that demanded the administration verify that its review is fully protecting the identities of victims.

Blanche added that “there’s a lot of eyes” looking over the documents to ensure victim identities have been redacted. The Justice Department in recent weeks has enlisted scores of attorneys from the National Security Division to conduct the review, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Epstein files: DOJ to release ‘several hundred thousand’ documents

December 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — After years of legal battles and online speculation, the Justice Department on Friday is set to release what a top DOJ official says are “several hundred thousand” documents from the investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose connection to the rich and powerful and 2019 death by suicide has generated scores of conspiracy theories.

The DOJ faces a Friday deadline for the release of all remaining Epstein files after Congress last month passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act following the blowback the administration received seeking the release of the materials.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview Friday morning on Fox and Friends, said, “I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today … and then over the next couple of weeks I expect several hundred thousand more.”

Several Democratic lawmakers, responding in the afternoon to Blanche’s comments, objected to only a partial release of the files Friday.

Blanche, in his Fox appearance, said, “The most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims, and so what we’re doing is 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 Act says the Justice Department “may withhold or redact” the identities of Epstein’s victims, and contains exemptions that would allow the DOJ to withhold records that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.”

Blanche said “there’s a lot of eyes” looking over the documents to ensure victim identities have been redacted. The Justice Department in recent weeks has enlisted scores of attorneys from the National Security Division to conduct the review, according to sources familiar with the matter.

“Those documents will come in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.

He further suggested in the interview that the administration’s review has been partially hamstrung by a ruling from a judge in the Southern District of New York that demanded the administration verify that its review is fully protecting the identities of victims.

When asked whether the American public should expect any additional criminal cases to come in the wake of the release of the files, Blanche said, “Look, as the president directed, it’s still being investigated, and I expect that will continue to happen. So we, as of today, there’s no new charges coming but, but we are investigating.”

President Donald Trump recently directed the Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats associated with Epstein, a task that Attorney General Pam Bondi then referred to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The Justice Department and FBI announced in July that they would be releasing no additional Epstein files, after several top officials — including Patel and outgoing FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino — had, prior to joining the administration, accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.

The Senate subsequently voted to approved the Epstein transparency bill passed by the House, after which President Donald Trump signed it into law.

Critics of Trump have speculated about the degree to which the president, who had a friendship with Epstein until they had a falling out around 2004, appears in the Epstein files, while Trump has accused several well-known Democrats of having ties to the disgraced financier.

“Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump wrote on social media after signing the bill.

Epstein owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands and large properties in New York City, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida, where he came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.

In 2019, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein on charges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations,” using cash payments to recruit a “vast network of underage victims,” some of whom were as young as 14 years old.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.

Timeline of the Brown University mass shooting and MIT professor slaying

December 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Two elite Northeast institutions of higher education have been rocked by horrific acts of gun violence, just days apart.

In the first incident, two people were killed and nine were injured in a mass shooting at Brown University, when a gunman opened fire on the Rhode Island campus, officials said.

Two days later, some 50 miles away in neighboring Massachusetts, an esteemed professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was killed in a shooting at his home, officials said.

Following a dayslong manhunt, authorities identified the suspect in both shootings as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown graduate student, who attended the school some 25 years ago. Valente, a Portuguese national, and the slain MIT professor both attended the same physics engineering program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the school confirmed to ABC News.

Officials have not yet provided a motive for the back-to-back shootings that left residents of parts of New England on edge for days.

Here’s how the tragic shootings unfolded.

Nov. 26-Nov. 30

Valente, who is believed to have lived in Florida, rents a hotel room in Boston, according to federal officials.

Dec. 1

Valente rents a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates from a car rental agency in Boston and then drives to the vicinity of Brown University in Providence, where the vehicle is seen “intermittently” through Dec. 12, according to federal officials.

Dec. 13

A person of interest in the Brown shooting — subsequently believed to be the suspect, Valente — is seen in surveillance footage walking through a residential neighborhood near the campus, beginning around 2 p.m., in images and footage released by the FBI. But police have said they believe he had been around the Brown campus as early as 10 a.m. that day “casing out the area.” The individual is seen dressed from head to toe in dark clothing, including wearing a surgical mask over his face.

Around 2:16 p.m., an unknown person — later identified as a man who introduced himself as John — is seen interacting with the person of interest, according to the arrest warrant affidavit for Valente.

The shooting at Brown occurs at 4:03 p.m. in a lecture hall in the school’s Barus & Holley Engineering building during a final exam review, according to authorities and school officials.

Just after the shooting, a security video captures the person of interest emerging onto Hope Street from what investigators described as “lot 42” on the Brown campus.

The last video in the FBI’s timeline shows the individual walking north on Hope Street at 4:07 p.m.

Valente returns to Massachusetts over the next day, where at some point he switches the plates on his rental car to an unregistered plate out of Maine, according to federal officials.

Dec. 14

A man initially thought to be a person of interest in the Brown shooting is detained at about 3:45 a.m. at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Providence, according to law enforcement sources and police, though that individual is released hours later without being charged.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha says during a late-night press conference that there had been evidence pointing to this individual, but that evidence “now points in a different direction.”

Dec. 15

Authorities release new images and video of the person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown and the FBI announces it is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual responsible.

That night, authorities respond to a residence in Brookline, Massachusetts, after receiving a report of a man shot at his home, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.

The victim is identified by the office as 47-year-old Nuno Loureiro, a Portugal native who is a faculty member in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics and the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Video surveillance captured Valente in the area of the professor’s apartment that evening, according to federal officials.

Following the shooting, Valente drives to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, which he had rented in November, according to federal officials.

Dec. 16

Loureiro is pronounced dead at an area hospital in the morning, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.

Authorities release a new image and enhanced video of the person of interest sought in the Brown shooting.

Police received an anonymous tip in the investigation into the Brown shooting referencing a Reddit post in which the poster — later identified as John — called for police to “look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates,” according to the affidavit.

Dec. 17

A Brown University faculty member reports to state police seeing a suspicious vehicle in the area of the campus the morning of Dec. 11, describing it as a gray sedan with Florida plates, according to the affidavit.

Providence police announce they are seeking the public’s help in identifying and speaking to the unknown individual — later identified as John — “who was in proximity of the person of interest” in the Brown shooting.

John approaches Providence police officers at Brown University to report his interaction with the person of interest, according to the affidavit. He tells detectives that he saw the man approach a gray or silver sedan with a Florida license plate the afternoon of Dec. 13 at a location near Brown’s campus, according to the affidavit.

“John informed detectives that he recognized one of the images released to the press as the person he encountered that day, which prompted him to post on Reddit,” the affidavit states.

Detectives trace the vehicle to the one rented by Valente in Boston, according to the affidavit.

Dec. 18

A Rhode Island state court issues a state arrest warrant for Valente, charging him with two counts of murder and 23 felony counts of assault and felony firearms offenses in the Brown shooting.

While executing search warrants on the Salem storage unit facility shortly before 9 p.m., Valente is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a storage unit, authorities said.

During a late-night news conference, authorities identify the suspect in the Brown mass shooting as Valente and confirm he is believed to be the same man who gunned down Loureiro, saying the professor was the intended target.

Officials say investigators linked the Brown and MIT shootings through the vehicle, financial records and video footage.

ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Jon Haworth and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

As polls show low approval for Trump on the economy, will taking his economic agenda to voters help?

December 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is taking his message and vision on the economy directly to voters — but he faces an American public that, recent polling shows, feels largely negative toward how the president has handled economic issues.

“Here at home, we’re bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin,” Trump said during a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday night.

Vice President JD Vance also travelled to Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday to talk about the White House’s economic vision — just one week after Trump paid his own visit to the Keystone State for remarks on the economy.

But a Quinnipiac University poll published on Wednesday found that almost 6 in 10 registered voters disapprove of how Trump has handled the economy, while 65% say the state of the American economy is “not so good” or “poor.”

Quinnipiac University’s poll also found that 57% of registered voters think Trump is more responsible for the economy’s state right now, and 34% of voters think former President Joe Biden is.

Last week, Reuters and Ipsos published a poll that found that only 31% of Americans approve of how Trump has handled the cost of living — up from 26% in their late November polling.

Dan Schnur, a political communications and strategy expert who teaches at the University of Southern California, told ABC News that part of that comes from Republican voters, including working-class young men, feeling the impact of high costs.

“A lot of voters, particularly working-class young men, voted for him last year because they were angry about the inflation under Biden and they believed Trump would make things better,” he said. “That hasn’t happened yet, and so we’re beginning to see their disappointment.”

Ryan Mahoney, a Republican strategist and former communications director for the Georgia Republican Party, told ABC News he thinks this low approval may be because of a “disconnect from the White House to the American people, about the president acknowledging and empathizing with the cost crunch that the American people are feeling.”

Asked on Tuesday if he was worried about recent polling and whether affordability would be a political liability, Vance brushed off concerns — instead shifting blame to Biden.

“When we go out there and we tell our story, that gasoline and energy got way too high under Joe Biden’s administration, but we’ve lowered the cost of energy — the American people will understand that … They know what Joe Biden broke is not going to be fixed in a week,” Vance said.

ABC News has reached out to Biden’s office for comment on Vance’s remarks.

Inflation rose during Biden’s term (while slowing toward its end). At the time, Biden and his White House defended the administration’s performance on the economy by pointing to measures they took to bolster the economy, particularly as it struggled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economists have also said rising prices during Biden’s presidency did not occur in a vacuum, but emerged in part from factors such as the supply shortage imposed by the pandemic.

Despite the economic woes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. economy significantly outperformed other major industrialized nations as it emerged from the pandemic, according to an October 2024 report by the Brookings Institution.

Schnur said that while discussing Biden could be “part of, potentially, an effective message. The problem is that blaming your predecessor — for any president — has diminishing returns the longer they’ve been in office.”

From a tactical perspective, Mahoney said, “It’s OK to blame what happened for the four years before you got into office, that you’re having to wade through that … I think all of that is fair game,” Mahoney said. “I do think, though, you have to then present what your plan is.”

Trump is set to once again speak about the economy in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Friday — so will his administration’s focus on the issue and travels help Americans feel better about how they’re handling the economy?

“I love the idea of getting on the road … but at the end of the day, the script, the teleprompter, the remarks to folks, the interviews with press, have to acknowledge the problem and then provide the solutions,” Mahoney said.

Doug Heye, another GOP strategist and a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told ABC News, “In a normal political world, this is what you do, and this helps. But we just saw in Pennsylvania, where Trump was supposed to talk about the economy, and brings up all this other stuff, and all he does is get in the way of himself, and there’s no reason to think that that’s going to change.”

Schnur, meanwhile, cautioned that local visits may help Trump’s standing on the economy with older voters, but may have less impact on younger voters who get their news more through digital platforms — a challenge facing both major political parties.

David McIntosh, the president of the conservative political group Club for Growth, said Republicans should “take their message directly to the people this Christmas and in 2026” and explain that the way to reduce prices is “to have price transparency, reduce regulations, and allow free markets to bring back affordability.”

A White House spokesperson, in response to the recent polling and concerns raised by some in the GOP, pointed to how Trump was elected because of economic concerns and to Thursday’s better-than-expected inflation numbers as a sign of the administration’s success.

“President Trump was resoundingly re-elected one year ago precisely because he, unlike Democrats, understood and acknowledged Joe Biden’s economic disaster,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to ABC News.

+ More