What happened this week in non-Epstein news?

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I spent much of this week running down leads I hoped would turn into stories, and while some are still in the works, none were ready for print. While some weeks are flush with big scoops and new material, others simply aren’t. For me, this was the latter. But that doesn’t mean important things weren’t happening.

The story that consumed much of the last few days is renewed interest in Donald Trump’s ties to the now-deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Their ties have been well-documented for years, with numerous photos of the two socializing. But with speculation swirling yet again that Trump is named on Epstein’s supposed list of clients and MAGA faithful who’ve spent years immersed in this story having a cow because Trump is telling them to leave it alone, the Wall Street Journal dropped a story about a perverted birthday message Trump wrote to Epstein in 2003. Now Trump is suing the newspaper, as well as parent company News Corp., Dow Jones and Rupert Murdoch.

Despite this maelstrom, there were so many other stories that flew under the radar pertaining to mass deportation and rampant government corruption. I pulled together a few that stood out for the purpose of bringing them to your attention, particularly because I anticipate them coming up in my reporting in the very near future.

More people disappeared to El Salvador

The March 15th flights to El Salvador remain a pivotal moment in Trump’s cruel mass deportation efforts, and now it appears there were even more people on those flights than previously known. In a stunning report from 404 Media on Thursday, the independent news outlet revealed they’d reviewed the flight manifests and found dozens of names that had not been previously shared. 

Soon after the flights, CBS News published a supposed “internal government list” naming the 200 or so people on the flights; but according to the actual manifests that were obtained by a hacker and shared with 404, at least 42 additional people—both men and women—were disappeared that day. There’s speculation that their families may not even realize they’re missing and haven’t inquired about their whereabouts. Their locations remain unknown.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to 404 Media’s request for comment. They’ve listed out all the names of the missing here.

DOJ fires more staff who worked on Jack Smith’s team

Last Friday and early this week Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the firing of at least 20 people who worked for the Department of Justice. What did all these prosecutors and support staffers have in common? They each worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into the crimes of Donald Trump.

If you’ll recall, Smith looked into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and the ensuing violence on January 6, 2021. The administration fired 14 attorneys tied to the investigations during its first week back in office, and now support staff and litigation assistants have become collateral damage. Per Reuters, at least 37 people who worked for Smith have been fired since Trump’s second inauguration. The Handbasket is working on gathering additional information about the people who were fired and if they plan to take any action against the department.

Teen sent to Florida immigrant concentration camp

A teenager named Alexis ended up detained in Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ concentration camp for immigrants during its first two weeks of operations. The 15-year-old Mexican national, per reporting from the Miami Herald, was in a vehicle with friends that was pulled over on July 1st and lied about his age so he wouldn’t be separated from the group. All passengers were taken by Florida Highway Patrol and were later transferred to immigration authorities.

Alexis, according to his father who spoke to the Herald, spent three nights with adults at the makeshift detention center in the Florida Everglades that got its name from the alligators and other dangerous wildlife who inhabit the surrounding swampland. Trump attended the grand opening of the sadistic center the same day Alexis was detained and marveled at the rows of bunk beds in cages. Once he provided proof he was a minor, Alexis was transferred to a shelter for migrant children.

“All I can say is that I am very sad,” his father Igancio told the Herald. “It is very sad that a lot of families are being separated.”

Reopening the real Alcatraz

While the name Alcatraz has become associated with Florida of late, the real was once a federal penitentiary on an island just off San Francisco and became a museum and tourist attraction decades ago. On Thursday Attorney General Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited the island for a tour in anticipation of a potential plan to reopen the facility as a prison. 

Long an absurd preoccupation of Trump’s, he posted about it on Truth Social earlier this month writing: “Because of the Violence and Criminality I have seen due to the Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden, in particular allowing millions of people into our Country who shouldn’t be here, I wanted something representative to show how we fight back, and then, it happened, I saw a picture of ALCATRAZ looking so foreboding, and I said, ‘We’re going to look into renovating and rebuilding the famous ALCATRAZ Prison sitting high on the Bay, surrounded by sharks. What a symbol it is, and will be!”

Despite there being no direct power or waterlines from the mainland, and despite the fact that when it was operational up until 1963, it was “roughly three times more costly to operate than any other prison in the country,” Trump’s team remains undeterred. Bondi told Fox News on Thursday that it could be used to house "violent criminals, federal predators and illegal aliens." But as we’ve seen in the violent attacks on communities across the country, none of those qualities are actual prerequisites for being detained by Trump’s secret police.

Sex trafficking office axed

The State Department sent out notices late last week that scores of staffers were out of jobs thanks to a Reduction in Force (RIF), cutting short vibrant careers and hobbling key functions of the agency. And as a result of the RIF, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) which worked to combat sex and labor trafficking was reduced to the point of being non-functional.

With Epstein back in the news, sex trafficking is certainly top of mind, and now the Trump administration has eliminated most of the people working in the office that mitigated it, or resigned them to other offices. Per Mother Jones, TIP produces an annual report that grades every country in terms of trafficking. The deadline for this year’s report just passed and it has still not been released. It’s not clear if it will be released at all.

From The Handbasket to the House

Last week I reported on FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson and how he was completely MIA in the wake of the deadly Texas floods. Richardson, looking like he just came off a 48-hour bender, finally visited over the weekend to survey the damage and make faces pretending to understand what was going on.

Richardson’s disappearing act was first reported here last Monday and was later picked up by numerous national outlets like The Rachel Maddow Show. It eventually made its way to a meeting of the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday where Rep. Al Green displayed a fake missing person’s poster featuring Richardson.

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