More than forty days after federal law required the release of the Epstein files, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it will post about three million additional documents from its trove on Friday.

In addition to the documents, 2,000 videos and about 180,000 images will also be released, according to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who “said the files included images taken by Epstein and others that were on his devices but he didn’t take,” NBC News reported.

“Blanche said that the public should not find within the files the names of any men who abused women in connection with Epstein,” NBC added. “His comments affirm an unsigned statement from the DOJ and the FBI last year that sparked an avalanche of criticism and calls for more transparency.”

When asked by reporters if he had updated the White House on the release of the files, Blanche said, “My team has certain communications with the White House — let me just be clear, they had nothing to do with this review. They had no oversight with this review, they did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what not to redact. They absolutely knew that I was doing this press conference today and I was releasing the materials today.”

Blanche insisted there was no “oversight by the White House” in the process.

Asked if the DOJ is releasing all documents related to President Donald Trump from the files, Blanche told reporters, “I can assure that we complied with the statute.”

“We complied with the act,” he said, “We did not protect President Trump.”

“We didn’t protect or not protect anybody,” he added, while declaring that “that there’s a hunger, a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents.”

Blanche insisted that President Trump has had the “same consistent message about Jeffrey Epstein.” He also insisted that “there’s not been a change, of course, or anything, and certainly his direction to … the Department of Justice was to release the files, be as transparent as we can.”

Q: “Can you assure the American public…that all documents, photos, and anything relevant to [Trump] connected to the case are being released?”

Blanche: “Yes…We didn’t protect President Trump.” pic.twitter.com/hQ7uf8Onzd

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) January 30, 2026

Image via Reuters

The newly launched effort to overturn same-sex marriage — backed by nearly 50 right-wing groups — is drawing outrage after the coalition posted a video featuring controversial rhetoric. The group argues that Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that recognized same-sex couples’ right to marry nationwide, harmed children — and aims to roll those rights back.

The Greater Than campaign’s website promotes claims such as:

“A woman who identifies as a lesbian can be a loving mother, but she cannot be a father. A gay man can be a loving father, but he cannot be a mother. Children need, deserve, and have a right to both.”

“No adult has a right to a non-biologically related child. No child should lose their mother or father so an adult- gay, straight, single or married- can create a baby.”

They also claim that the “legal existence of same-sex marriage requires the redefinition of legal parenthood in a way that makes a child’s mother or father optional in their life.”

READ MORE: ‘All Tools Necessary’: GOP Hardliners Press Trump on Insurrection Act

In the video, anti-same-sex marriage activists including Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, said: “It’s a mother and a father that bring forth children into the world, and that’s by design, because children need a mother and a father.”

Lila Rose of Live Action said, “Redefining marriage robs children of the natural right to their mother and father.”

And Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler said in the video that same-sex marriage “harms children in virtually every way imaginable.”

Critics blasted the group’ efforts to overturn marriage rights.

Jill Filipovic, who writes about women’s rights, U.S. politics, and foreign affairs, noted, “These are many of the same people who successfully overturned Roe v. Wade. We told you they’d come for same-sex marriage next. They’re coming. The only question is whether they succeed.”

READ MORE: Trump: ‘We’re Bringing Back God’

The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol, director of Defending Democracy Together, wrote: “Honestly glad to see all the cards out on the table. 1. People can stop being surprised by how radical and thorough-going the reactionary agenda is. 2) This is a chance to cause some rifts and wedges in Trump/MAGA world.”

Tim Miller of MS NOW and The Bulwark added, “I find it encouraging that these people are coming out of the shadows. Best to know who wants to nullify your family unit.”

“If these people had their way, my sister and I—and millions of other children of LGBTQ parents—wouldn’t exist,” wrote Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls. “Every child deserves a family as loving as the one I grew up in. And those are the same values that Chloe and I are passing on to our son. We’re not going back.”

Jessica Riedl of the Brookings Institution observed, “This video is nonsense on stilts. They are ranting about gay adoption as a reason to ban to gay marriage (separate issues) – and assuming that if gays cannot marry, they will instead raise kids within heterosexual marriages.”

The Bulwark’s Catherine Rampell, an MS NOW anchor, warned simply: “They’re coming for gay marriage.”

READ MORE: GOP Instability Deepens as Another Republican Candidate Calls It Quits

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As President Donald Trump’s immigration polling numbers deteriorate and criticism of federal agents grows — and following the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota — Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is calling for a national conversation about undocumented immigrants who pay taxes, have lived in the United States for years, and are good neighbors.

Gingrich called on President Donald Trump to “open up a national dialogue,” as he told Fox Business, saying that “this is about dignity,” a quote he took from U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL).

“Americans don’t want to see the police behaving like a mob, Americans don’t want to see people killed in the streets, and Americans don’t want to see the kind of hunting down people in a way that really demeans the process,” he insisted.

“We need a national conversation about what we’re going to do, about people who’ve come here, some of them 20 years ago, who’ve been obeying the law, paying taxes, good neighbors, have kids, go to PTA,” Gingrich said. “Very few Americans want to see the police walk in and pick them up and deport them.”

READ MORE: Right-Wing Groups Launch Coordinated Push to Overturn Same-Sex Marriage

“On the other hand, people do not want to give them citizenship,” he claimed. “So there should be some middle ground here on long-term goals.”

Federal agents, he said, “may well need more training and maybe more restraint.”

But Gingrich also claimed that anyone trying to stop them from carrying out the law is “engaged in insurrection.”

According to The Hill, “a growing number of Republicans and conservative commentators are urging the White House to shift course and scale back its aggressive immigration enforcement, especially for law-abiding immigrants with roots in their communities.”

MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough, The Hill added, suggested that “if you’ve been in America for a long time, if you’ve been law-abiding, if you’re an asylum-seeker, certainly if you’ve had children that have served in the military, you’re at the front of the line” to return to the U.S. if you’ve been deported.

READ MORE: ‘All Tools Necessary’: GOP Hardliners Press Trump on Insurrection Act