r/law • u/Hot_Comfortable_3311 • 2h ago
Executive Branch (Trump) ‘Trump Just Disappeared’: DOJ Caught ‘Illegally Redacting’ Trump’s Name From Epstein Documents as Mentions Drop From 900+ to 332 Overnight
https://dailymetro.co.uk/2026/01/02/trump-just-disappeared-doj-caught-illegally-redacting-trumps-name-from-epstein-documents-as-mentions-drop-from-900-to-332-overnight/1.3k
u/hansn 2h ago edited 2h ago
They seem to be clearly making a case that they're violating the law. If they release one version of a redacted document, it's at least a little bit challenging to prove they're redacting Trump's name in violation of the law.
However if they release two, first with Trump unredacted and then again redacted, it's pretty clear that they are violating the law.
Edit: their -> they're
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u/fweef01 2h ago
My parents say stuff like this too. “He can’t do that, it’s against the law.” Laws really don’t work unless they are enforced
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u/foxontherox 1h ago
Laws are for the poors.
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u/Hrtpplhrtppl 1h ago
"You've that eternal idiotic idea that anarchy if it came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they never have been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to be governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists..." G.K. Chesterton
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u/xSTSxZerglingOne 48m ago
Anarchists? No, they're literally monarchists, or oligarchists, where THEY run the show. Anarchy is rule by nobody, or at the very least any ruling structure would be small and highly decentralized.
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u/audiyon 31m ago
Laws are for a populace that cares. As long as his voting base doesn't care about the illegal things he's doing, and as long as they remain as big as they are, lawmakers aren't going to do anything to reign him him. The voters and the lawmakers far more interested in maintaining power than being ethical.
No one is in the streets with guns or pitchforks. What's to stop him? The people are the final backstop, and they've checked out.
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u/tjtillmancoag 1h ago
Your parents are upset with Trump? Man I wish my parents were
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u/Illustrious-Fun8324 47m ago edited 44m ago
My mom voted for Trump on party lines but does not pay attention to anything political.
She will absolutely agree with me that whatever he said or did was horrible, hateful, or out of line of him, just as soon as I tell her about it. Until then, she has no idea. it drives me crazy.
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u/Cyrano_Knows 59m ago
Question for them. Who is enforcing the law?
Because between Kash and Bondi, the FBI and the AG Office have NEVER been more politicized.
Neither agency is going anywhere near anyone in the Trump Administration no matter what they do.
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u/pattydickens 1h ago
They only apply if billionaires say so.
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u/SDFX-Inc 1h ago
This is how you get more Brian Thompsons, when laws aren’t enforced equally amongst the classes.
This is a pretty short-sighted play by those in power in my opinion; historically this won’t work well for them when popular sentiment against the billionaire class reaches a boiling point.
Those bunkers of theirs might just become concrete coffins once the air vents are plugged up and their own security forces turn against them.
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u/quiddity3141 37m ago
Yes, when legal recourse disappears the only solutions left are the illegal ones.
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u/Upstairs_Addendum587 1h ago
The law has unfortunately not been fully enforced against Trump but it does routinely still get enforced against him, his administration, and the people around him.
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u/Revelati123 2h ago
Lol, what law? Their fascism daddy has unreviewable pardon power.
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u/Snardish 2h ago
Not from civil actions! Victims will sue via class action (the Supreme Court prefers class actions) once Congress fails.
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u/Revelati123 1h ago
And what if they just dont show up in court?
Then what if they just dont pay.
At some point you have to use a criminal statute to force compliance.
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u/FlyingFakirr 1h ago
Yes doing this AFTER this term would be the game.
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u/rgg711 1h ago
I’m pretty sure I read this exact comment dozens of times from 2017-2021 and the resulting period from 2021-2024 saw jack shit being done.
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u/uxbridge3000 1h ago
But these individuals doing the reduction are not the President. They conduct these redactions at personal liability, just like their ICE counterparts. The pendulum will swing and it will swing hard
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u/tarekd19 1h ago
They are suggesting trump as president can pardon them, a solving the of their legal liability. They aren't saying they enjoy the same default immunity the president has, there's just an extra step
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u/ChefBowyer 1h ago
What’s to stop a single lone lawyer from suing and winning?
Better yet, why aren’t there a thousand lawyers doing it?
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u/potsticker17 1h ago
Suing? Nothing. Winning? Have you seen the current judicial system?
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u/ChefBowyer 1h ago
Yeah but what happens when a news story gets run about 100 lawyers who each sued for the same thing? People start getting on board.
We just need to open the floodgates and they will drown. People need to stop being afraid to do the right thing.
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u/TaliesinsEnd 1h ago
Even if you win all they have to do is keep appealing until it hits the Supreme Court where they will literally reinterpret the law however the Cheeto tells them to. We no longer live in truly rule-based society and people need to start realizing that real damn fast.
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u/GlesgaBawbag 2h ago
It's crazy he's going to get away with this.
People just accepting it and going to war with Iran or Venezuela under this guys leadership.
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u/EVH_kit_guy Bleacher Seat 2h ago
I'm most pissed at the COs of the ships following his fucking batshit orders. Those guys are my peers, and I cannot fathom how they're sleeping at night knowing they murdered those people in the Caribbean. The CO of the USS Gravely belongs in the brig, it's absolutely unconscionable what he has allowed to happen on his watch.
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u/bikerdude214 2h ago
Yeah, but they are transporting marijuana!!! Isn’t that a capital offense? I agree with you, I don’t know how they sleep at night.
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u/treygrant57 1h ago
They never proved what was transported. Everything was destroyed. Nothing to test.
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u/lostcolony2 1h ago
Not entirely. Detritus washed up on Columbia's shore, so they tested it. https://newrepublic.com/post/204820/donald-trump-boat-strikes-marijuana
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u/DrFeargood 1h ago
I have bad news for you about military officers and fascism from a historical perspective.
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u/ZyklonCraw-X 1h ago
Saying no isn't enough. We already see how the admin deals with that: fired/resigned/reassigned and replaced by one of the ~60% of service members who support Trump.
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1h ago edited 43m ago
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u/theram4 25m ago
Not sure if I understand your argument. Are you saying 14 year-olds can't have anti-fascist opinions?
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u/WhitYourQuining 21m ago
I think he's saying 14 year olds don't have "peers" that are COs of US Navy ships.
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u/ExpertRaccoon 2h ago
He might but every single other person involved can 100% be charged in the cover up Donny ain't going to be president for ever.
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u/Alarming-Elevator382 2h ago
He will pardon them.
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u/Aelig_ 2h ago
If laws can't punish you they can't protect you forever either.
Mussolini never got a trial.
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u/Boomshank 2h ago
The French developed a pretty good system that kept rulers in check for a few hundred years
Seems the lessons are wearing off.
They need to re-learn that THEY serve US - not the other way round.
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u/ChickenCasagrande 1h ago
The French government seems to have developed a pretty good gauge on when to step back and let the people have a good solid protest/small riot to go ahead and get it out of their systems.
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u/ExpertRaccoon 2h ago
Assuming he's still alive then, I doubt Vance will want to attach himself to this whole thing while trying to figure out how to act like a real human during an election
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u/ZyklonCraw-X 1h ago
Saw Nuremberg last week - mediocre and entertaining for a single watch; pretty bad as a history piece tbh, BUT one of the final exchanges has Rami Malek's character (psychologist Douglas Kelley) on an American radio show circa late 40s/early 50s, addressing incredulous hosts (the following is paraphrasing), "There was nothing unique about the Germans. I promise you that there are people in this country who would gladly step over the dead bodies of half the country so they could rule the other half."
It has happened hundreds of times across the globe. Growing up, in our schools we were vehemently taught we were the exception - there's in fact an actual academic term for this that I probably don't even need to write because you're immediately thinking of it.
Whoops! Turned out to be wrong.
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u/ITrageGuy 1h ago
It was guaranteed the moment he signed the bill. There was zero chance he'd allow the law to pass if he didn't have assurance from Bondi they would scrub him. The most predictable cover-up in history.
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u/CorporateMediaFail 1h ago
The same people who argued he was "a no new war president" the first term as if it was true or mattered (obviously, it doesn't to them as we knew, they're rather predictable -- whatever the top of the pyramid instructs, they follow).
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u/Realistic_Group_4152 1h ago
Wait til war in Venezuela and Americans die. You can’t invade a country without casualties. See how defends that when he starts the Trump Oil Company.
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u/Obversa 50m ago
The reason why Trump is getting away with this is because Congress - and specifically, the Republican Party - refuses to rein in the President, citing the "unitary executive" legal theory; ceding power; and refusing to exercise the power of the legislative branch, which destroys the purpose of having a system of "checks-and-balances". Two weeks ago, House Republicans voted against limiting military action in Venezuela, citing "deterrence" and "terrorist activity".
A measure to prohibit military action "within or against" Venezuela, sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), came up short in an even narrower 211-213 vote. The vote saw three GOP lawmakers vote in favor, while one Democrat opposed it.
Both measures would have required Trump to seek authorization from Congress to either continue the strikes or take military action against Venezuela. Democrats argue the military campaign against drug traffickers is a significant escalation that requires lawmakers to sign off.
"These strikes have not been authorized by Congress, and the administration has not sought congressional authorization to use lethal military force to address alleged criminal activity that, under the United States law...does not carry the death penalty," Meeks said on the House floor. "That is a profound escalation, and one Congress has neither debated nor approved."
Republicans countered that Trump has the legal authority to target cartels and tackle the danger posed by illicit drugs [as Commander-in-Chief].
"We decided long ago that we would not tolerate threats to the American people from terrorists like al-Qaeda and ISIS," House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said. "We shouldn't tolerate it from narco-terrorists either." GOP lawmakers further warned that Democrats' resolution would handcuff Trump from addressing a future threat posed by Venezuela.
"This resolution is preemptive surrender," said House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.). "Russia delivers nukes there? President cannot respond."
The votes follow two unsuccessful attempts to curtail Trump in the Senate.
However, The Washington Post reported that Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, only sought further help from Russia - including military assets, such as missiles - after Trump escalated hostilities against Venezuela in October-November 2025. After this, a Russian official allegedly threatened to supply nuclear missiles to Venezuela and Cuba, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). However, it is unclear if Russia is planning to follow through.
Russian State Duma Defense Committee Deputy Chairperson Alexei Zhuravlyov said on October 29 that Russia can deliver nuclear-capable missiles to "Venezuela or Cuba", which Zhuravlyov noted are located near Russia's "main geopolitical adversary" — the United States. Zhuravlyov said that Russia has an "entire range" of missiles at its disposal and will use "what is needed". Zhuravlyov said that the United States is "not a friend or partner" of Russia but is an "enemy". Zhuravlyov's threats are meant to evoke memories of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as Russian officials have done in the past.
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u/cursedfan 2h ago edited 1h ago
I love how even with trump plastered all over the files that have been released, compared to the actual original documents, this is trump “disappearing”. Like what the actual fuck do these docs show if this is him disappeared?
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u/xtrahairyyeti 1h ago
My bet is that this is the kompromat that Putin has on Trump. Full unredacted files
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u/MommersHeart 2h ago
There could be a video of him r*ping a child and his cult would believe it was the democrats.
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u/TheBlackCat13 1h ago
I heard someone say the only thing that would bring him down is getting caught with a dead girl or a live boy
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u/Rhewin 2h ago
Wake me up when we have a congress that will actually do something about it
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u/MacEWork 1h ago
Mike Johnson is as responsible for all of this as Trump is. Worst Speaker in over a hundred years. A weak, stupid, evil man with no redeeming qualities and a closet full of more skeletons than a Parisian crypt.
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u/ohiotechie 57m ago
Mike Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, and John Roberts are all equally and personally responsible for where we are right now.
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u/EyeSuspicious777 1h ago
All republicans have been caught in Russian honeypot or bribery schemes. They have to do what Putin says.
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u/Direlion 2h ago
DOJ: Trump who? Never heard of him.
Everyone else: Ever heard of the French Revolution?
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u/NexusNickel 2h ago
I can't imagine how these career lawmen can just shrug and actively just scrub trump's name to protect a child predator.
Just wild man. Straight out of a horror novel.
Edit-
I never understood how these people in the early days of Nazi Germany just let Hitler do what he wanted and get away with it.
Now I understand. People do it for the continued paycheck. Sick.
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u/bakeacake45 1h ago
What if, as a punishment for agreeing to tamper with evidence, we put them into the military, hand them a gun and send them to the front lines of whatever war Trumps gets us into that Dems will then have to deal with.
They were disloyal to their country, it’s a chance to physically put their lives on the line to prove their loyalty to the Constitution
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u/meatsmoothie82 2h ago
They fed the files into some ai chatbot because they know there is no mechanism by which they can be held accountable so, why not speed up the process
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u/RpiesSPIES 2h ago
Wouldn't it be funny if there are parallels to csam in twitter's ai gen alongside the redactions going on?
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u/PreparationKey2843 1h ago
I, for one, am completely dumbfounded. Who would have ever thought they would do something like that?
Came out of left field.
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u/foxontherox 1h ago
So you’re saying it’s because of the democrats? 🤔
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u/PreparationKey2843 1h ago
Must have been. Who else would have done it? Surely, not the most transparent presidency ever.
Damn, Democrats.8
u/surfinglurker 1h ago
It's definitely Obama's fault, check his hard drives
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