Letters from an American - January 11, 2026

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

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January 11, 26. The news has seemed to move more and more quickly in the last week. The story underlying all others is that the United States Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files. The files from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Investigation into the activities of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, no later than December 19th. and it has not done so. Epstein and President Donald J. Trump were close friends for many years, and the material the Department of Justice, or DOJ, has released, suggests that Trump was more closely tied to Epstein's activities than Trump has acknowledged. Although Trump ran in 2024 on the promise of releasing the Epstein files,

suggesting those files would incriminate Democrats, his loyalists in the administration are now openly flouting the law to keep them hidden. Despite the clear requirement of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that they release all the files by December 19th, to date they have released less than 1% of the material. Another part of the backstory of the past week is at the Supreme Court on December 23rd, 25 rejected the Trump administration's argument that it had the power to deploy federalized National Guard troops in and around Chicago, a decision that seemed to limit Trump's power to use military forces within the United States. Yet another part of the back story is that on New Year's Eve,

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a 255-page transcript of former special counsel Jack Smith's, December 17th, closed-door testimony before the committee. In that testimony, under oath, Smith said that his office had developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power. Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a ballroom and a bathroom. He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention

of those documents. With pressure building over the Epstein Files and Jackson, Smith's testimony, and with the Supreme Court having taken away Trump's ability to use troops within the United States, the administration went on the offensive. Only a week ago, on January 3rd, the military captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores. After months of suggesting that he was determined to end what he called narco-terrorists, Trump made it clear as soon as Maduro was in hand that he wanted control of Venezuela's oil. Then on January 6th, the fifth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters determined to keep Trump in office, despite Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's majority of 7 million votes, Trump's White House

rewrote the history of January 6th, 2021, claiming that the rioters were peaceful patriotic protesters, and blaming the Democrats for the insurrection. That same day, after the Supreme Court had cut off the administration's ability to federalize National Guard soldiers and send them to Democratic-led cities, the administration surged 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis in the largest federal immigration enforcement operation ever launched. The next morning, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, and the administration responded by calling Good a domestic terrorist. On Thursday, January 8th, as protests broke out across the country, Republicans in both chambers of

Congress began to push back against the administration. In the House, representatives Roe Kana, a Democrat of California, and Thomas Massey, a Republican of Kentucky, the leading sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, asked U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmeyer to appoint a special master and an independent monitor to compel the DOJ to produce the Epstein files, as the law requires. The House also passed a measure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years. The Senate advanced a bill to stop the Trump administration from additional attacks on Venezuela without congressional approval. And just two days after Trump had reversed the victims and offenders in the January 6, 2021 insurrection,

suggesting that Capitol police officers had been among the offenders, the Senate unanimously agreed to hang a plaque honoring the police who protected the U.S. Capitol on January. January 6, 2021. Congress passed a law in March 2022, mandating that the plaque be hung, but Republicans, until now, had prevented its installation. Friday was a busy day at the White House. On Friday, Trump threatened Greenland, saying that he was going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not. Trump's threat against a North Atlantic treaty, organization or NATO ally has had American lawmakers and foreign allies scrambling ever since. In a joint statement, the leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the

United Kingdom said that Greenland belongs to its people. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, released a video explaining that what you are essentially talking about here is the United States going to war with NATO, the United States going to war with Europe. You're talking about the U.S. and France being at war with each other over Greenland. Trump's threats against Greenland came at a meeting with oil executives. When he attacked Venezuela to capture Maduro, Trump told reporters that United States oil companies would spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure of oil extraction in that country. But apparently the oil companies had not gotten the memo. They have said that they are not currently interested in investing in Venezuela because they have no idea how badly oil

infrastructure there has degraded and no sense of who will run the country in the future. What oil executives did suggest to Trump on Friday was that they would quite like to be repaid for their losses from the 2007 nationalization of their companies from the sale of Venezuelan oil Trump has promised to control. Conoco Phillips, for example, claims it is owed about $12 billion. We're not going to look at what people lost in the past

because that was their fault, Trump told them. That was a different president. You're going to make a lot of money, but we're not going to go back. Yesterday, the government made public an executive order, Trump signed on Friday, declaring yet another national emergency, his tenth in this term, by my count, and saying that any use of the revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil to repay the billions of

dollars owed to oil companies will materially harm the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Specifically, the order says, such repayment would interfere with our critical efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela, and by extension, jeopardize U.S. foreign policy objectives, including ending the dangerous influx of illegal immigrants and the flood of illicit narcotics, protecting American interests against malign actors such as Iran and Hezbollah, and bringing peace, prosperity and stability to the Venezuelan people and to the Western Hemisphere more generally. So, it appears, Trump wants to retain control of the money from the sale of Venezuelan oil. Tonight, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he is under federal

criminal investigation related to his congressional testimony about a $2.5 billion renovation of historic Federal Reserve buildings. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve grand jury subpoenas. Powell, whom Trump appointed, released a video noting that he has kept Congress in the loop on the renovation project and saying that complaints about renovations are pretexts. Trump is threatening criminal charges against Powell because the Fed didn't lower interest rates as fast as Trump wanted, instead working in the interest of the American people. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by

political pressure or intimidation. Powell vowed to continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people. The Federal Reserve is designed to be independent of presidents to avoid exactly what Trump is trying to do. The attempt to replace Powell with a loyalist who will give Trump control over the nation's financial system profoundly threatens the stability of the country.

Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, appeared to have had enough. He posted that if there were any remaining doubts whether advisors within the Trump administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question. He said he would oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed, including the upcoming Fed chair vacancy, until this legal matter is fully resolved. Kyle Cheney of Politico observed that it is hard to overstate

what a remarkable statement this is from a Republican senator, accusing the Trump White House of weaponizing the Department of Justice to control the Fed. Over a picture of the demolished east wing of the White House, conservative lawyer George Conway noted, I also must say that it's a bit rich that Trump and his DOJ think it's a good idea to gin up a investigation about supposed illegalities in, Checks notes, renovating a federal building. On social media tonight, Trump posted a portrait of himself with the title, Acting President of Venezuela.

Letters from an American was written and read. by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.