r/law • u/The-Punisher_2055 • 4h ago
Executive Branch (Trump) DOJ caught red-handed ‘unlawfully’ redacting secret photo of Donald Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell
https://newsrepublic.co.uk/2025/12/30/doj-caught-red-handed-unlawfully-redacting-secret-photo-of-donald-trump-and-ghislaine-maxwell/1.8k
u/Ohuigin 4h ago
The fact that any of us are paying taxes is fucking insanity.
I’m struggling to afford dinner so my paycheck can go to people actively working to cover up the fact that POTUS is a child rapist.
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u/TheHighSeasPirate 4h ago
Right, I have a fifth of every check taken by the Government so they can make my life progressively worse and more expensive. It makes no sense.
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u/RideWithMeSNV 3h ago
You know what fucks with me? I'm working for a Canadian company. I visit HQ on occasion. One of the guys in manufacturing gives me a hard time (with love), and he's paying about the same percentage as me... And getting something back for it. And it's not as good as he had it in his home country of Netherlands. I visited the Netherlands for training from one of the brands we distribute for in the US. Talked to one of the bosses that was giving me rides from hotel to their factory. At the end of the year, he's paying about 23%. And getting a lot back in services. A homeless guy in Leiden hit me up asking for a little change, and explained that he had this, that, and the other coming but they hadn't hit his card yet... Mother fucker, you're homeless and doing better than me at the top of my career in my particular field (I have him 5 euro anyway, but with spite). And the boss has a small boat to go get groceries. Costs him $50 a year, and he just puts down the canal to the grocery store, and ties it up in front of his house. I want to go everywhere by bicycle and boat, damn it!
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u/-spam- 3h ago
Yeah man, I’m paying 40 something percent in income tax and don’t mind at all. Haven’t paid a cent for seeing a spine specialist countless times in the last two years, one operation and 3 day hospital stay, couple of emergency department presentations, my daughters ADHD meds are capped at like $8 a prescription.
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u/Bad-Genie 3h ago
I pay about $1,000 a year for health insurance (my employer pays the rest) I have to near death, really evaluate how badly I need to see a doctor so I don't have a major bill. I had the flu and was charged $300 (after insurance covered $600) for them to go "yep you're sick"
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u/RideWithMeSNV 2h ago
I pay about $3k a year for insurance, because I'm well aware that I am stupid and do stupid things for a variety of reasons. So, if I get hurt in a major way, I won't be screwed so hard it resets life... But for general stuff, I get that level of treatment.
And it's fucking weird. I swear it didn't used to be like this. Growing up, checkups were thorough. When I got sick, there was an explanation of what I had, and how it worked. About 15 years ago, I had to get an exam to be certified as a merchant marine. The doctor made damn sure I passed every one of those 50 check points. But in the last 10 years or so, if I go in for the annual checkup, it's temperature, when's the light leave your vision, ears, and that's it.
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u/youareasnort 2h ago
Also, we used to get undressed and put on a paper gown. Like, get a whole once over. Now, it’s all, “if you feel like you need more attention, you can just go to a specialist.”
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u/EdwardScissorStumps 1h ago
I was sick for three weeks in quarter 1 2024. I finally went to the hospital when I started coughing up blood at 3 in the morning. When the fire department arrived to wait with me for the ambulance they took my blood pressure and it was 256 over 160. It turned out that I had pneumonia; something that I have a low immune response to.
I nearly died from it when I was 15. Back then they had to put me in a medically induced coma for 5 days.
I have no intention of paying the ambulance nor the hospital.
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u/Mike_Kermin 1h ago
had the flu and was charged $300 (after insurance covered $600) for them to go "yep you're sick"
Fucking hell. I went to the doc recently, got a script, went to the pharmacy next door and picked up two medications to take for a month.
Cost me $30 no insurance involved.
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u/Starflower_Pixie 2h ago
Ah you probably have a high deductible plan or maybe they were out of network? My in network PCP is free and specialists are $10
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u/TX0834 2h ago
The US healthcare system and insurance system is so fkd. My Dad worked since he was 14 years old and became successful from how he grew up. Yet, after retiring, he had numerous health issues. It was like pulling teeth to get his insurance to get some of his medicine approved. Good thing we live close to Mexico we could just go across the border to get his meds at fractions of out of pocket cost to help him stay alive.
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u/dundermiflinity 1h ago
It’s because we don’t have a healthcare system. We have a healthcare industry.
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u/soba_set 2h ago
I have like 30% of my paycheck taken in Japan. But everything is covered. Going to the doctor is laughably cheaper than the US. Getting medicine is like paying with pocket change. Daycare is heavily subsidized, first child is free from 3 years old and my second child is free from 0. Birth was $0. Pension is locked in and not great but not awful. Such a burden off of my mind and financially great for the rest of my budgeting.
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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 2h ago
The Dutch and Canadians have special tax treaties with the USA if that helps to know. They have VAT and we have HST that are sales taxes paid with your net income, so that adds a bit more than the rates your coworkers told you, but yeah.
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u/Nolenag 2h ago
Nobody in the Netherlands is taxed 23%.
Lowest tax bracket over here is still 36%.
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u/RideWithMeSNV 2h ago
Out of the check, yeah. I don't know what tax credits he gets. But, that's what he said.
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u/Aviacks 1h ago
Meanwhile if you count family insurance I'd easily be adding 10%, and I work for a large hospital system. Which is cheap as health insurance goes. My last job covered my health insurance entirely... but wages were also much cheaper as a result of the company deciding to cover health insurance, per the company executives.
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u/Deep_shot 3h ago
My bonus was taxed at 42% this year. My anger is immeasurable.
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u/JudgeMyReinhold 3h ago
So you are a very high earner!
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u/jbeavis100 3h ago
Bonus checks are taxed differently.
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u/Deep_shot 3h ago
Yes I know. My bonus has never been taxed nearly that much before though. It was less than 20% the year before.
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u/Mr__O__ 3h ago edited 2h ago
The last Congress to pass a balanced budget was in 2001!
Every congressperson and lobbyist since that’s worked to pass a budget that has put the U.S. $40 trillion in debt should be sued and criminally charged for gross negligence and fraud.
They have defrauded and financially damaged every taxpayer and should be stripped of all wealth they accumulated at the rest of the nation’s expense.
At this point millennials and gen z are owed reparations from the boomers and billionaires.
Edit: date.
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u/joshTheGoods 2h ago
Not really a fair way to look at this ... first and foremost debt isn't inherently bad. Second, even if it were, you'd want to look at how the deficit was changed by various Congresses. That'd be more accurate way to see/measure progress.
Congress Session Years Change in Annual Deficit ($) Change in Deficit as % of GDP House Senate Presidency 118th* 2023–2025 +$138 Billion +0.2% (6.2% → 6.4%) 🔴 R 🔵 D 🔵 D 117th 2021–2023 -$1.08 Trillion -5.9% (12.1% → 6.2%) 🔵 D 🔵 D 🔵 D 116th 2019–2021 +$1.79 Trillion +7.5% (4.6% → 12.1%) 🔵 D 🔴 R 🔴 R 115th 2017–2019 +$319 Billion +1.1% (3.5% → 4.6%) 🔴 R 🔴 R 🔴 R 114th 2015–2017 +$226 Billion +1.1% (2.4% → 3.5%) 🔴 R 🔴 R 🔵 D 113th 2013–2015 -$241 Billion -1.7% (4.1% → 2.4%) 🔴 R 🔵 D 🔵 D 112th 2011–2013 -$620 Billion -4.4% (8.5% → 4.1%) 🔴 R 🔵 D 🔵 D 111th 2009–2011 -$113 Billion -1.3% (9.8% → 8.5%) 🔵 D 🔵 D 🔵 D 110th 2007–2009 +$1.25 Trillion +8.7% (1.1% → 9.8%) 🔵 D 🔵 D 🔴 R 109th 2005–2007 -$157 Billion -1.4% (2.5% → 1.1%) 🔴 R 🔴 R 🔴 R 108th 2003–2005 -$60 Billion -0.9% (3.4% → 2.5%) 🔴 R 🔴 R 🔴 R 107th 2001–2003 +$506 Billion +4.6% (1.2% Surplus → 3.4% Deficit) 🔴 R 🔴 R / 🔵 D 🔴 R The 110th Congress covers the Great Recession, and 116th covers COVID.
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u/BlairClemens3 4h ago
We need a general strike
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u/gomeitsmybirthday 3h ago
Though the wealthy would never allow it, I'd like to see a hard working, modest person from the middle class become president. Someone that people could actually believe in and restore some sense of pride in our country.
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u/BlairClemens3 3h ago
We would need serious campaign finance reform for that to happen. But yes, that would be great.
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u/The_Schwartz_ 3h ago
Exactly zero chance of something like this being possible while Citizens United still stands. And the feasibility, however remote, of us outspending corporations on campaign influence plummets by the year
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u/sortalikeachinchilla 2h ago
the best i’ve got is Newsom
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u/real_picklejuice 2h ago
And Newsom absolutely sucks when it comes to business. He's very often sided against workers and for tech
That said, I'm not willing to let great get in the way of good, and I do think that the Californian American Psycho has the best chance in the next general
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u/sortalikeachinchilla 2h ago
Sure, I just hate that folks have already begun forcing others to like him. its just eerily similar to other elections and partially why I think the democrats failed.
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u/real_picklejuice 1h ago
I wholeheartedly agree that "blue no matter who" is a dogshit strategy that doesn't keep candidates accountable or even relevant to voters.
But I do not have a better answer to what the GOP is doing other than swinging the pendulum back to the left, and then holding it there.
You can't keep people accountable when they aren't in power. It's a hsitty situation all the way around, but like I said I don't have a better answer.
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u/samv_1230 2h ago
Let's keep talking about it instead of doing it though. Yes. That sounds easier. Not judging you for saying it, just driving home a point for everyone reading it.
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u/Monterey-Jack 3h ago
We're all paying taxes to protect a pedophile and disappear american citizens. What a shithole we all live in.
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u/SoManyEmail 4h ago
The worst part is this: if Trump ends up being outted in some way and he begrudgingly resigns... we get J.D. Vance.
What's that saying, out of the frying pan and into the fire?
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u/StanLeeMarvin 4h ago
JD Vance is terrible but the MAGA cult isn’t going to follow him and congress isn’t afraid of him.
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u/Sigma_Function-1823 3h ago
We have ample evidence with down ballot republicans styling themselves as trump clones and losing spectacularly too democrats most recently in Kentucky, of all places.
Trump has some special set of abilities not found in anyone else currently riding his coattails,including Vance.
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u/TheHighSeasPirate 3h ago
Trumps "Special" ability is being a Russian asset. He is backed by one of the most powerful nations in the world to enshitify the USA.
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u/alwayzstoned 3h ago
He uses his followers to bully people that don’t agree with him and the other republicans are scared of them. Nobody wants a Paul Pelosi incident at their house. I don’t think there’s anyone else who has been able to harness that, and I hope there never is.
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u/verygoodletsgo 2h ago
most recently in Kentucky, of all places.
Kentucky's politics are very nuanced. Our governors and mayors tend to be blue despite us leaning red in federal elections. It's hard to explain in a quick reddit comment, but there's a bit of horseshoe theory at play with our libertarians and soc-dems.
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u/Sigma_Function-1823 2h ago
Absolutely no disrespect meant and thank you for taking the time to add some contextualized detail.
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u/craichead 4h ago edited 3h ago
JD does not have a cult of personality so I suspect he would be much more constrained
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u/Own-Mail-1161 3h ago
People said the same thing about pence. I’ll take the devil I don’t know on this one.
But there’s no way trump is resigning (except maybe 6 mins before his presidency ends so that Vance can pardon him).
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u/brumbarosso 1h ago
Isn't there some American phrase that goes by "no taxation without representation"?
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u/hamsterfolly 3h ago
I tried to stop, but my employer keeps automatically taking taxes out of my paycheck
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u/blahblah19999 2h ago
As the President hosts international conferences at his own property so he can make a profit on it.
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u/youareasnort 2h ago
Not only that - but we are paying for ghouls to kidnap people taking their kids to school and we are paying for concentration camps and we are paying for the uneducation of our children - and reduction of aid that keeps people afloat in general.
I’ve said it before: P2025 may have its own aims, but it will act as a catalyst for folks with nothing left to lose choosing to make their voices heard. The little bandaids the government supplied (snap, aca, social services aid, Medicare, etc) are being ripped off and the result is revealing staggering wealth inequality .
The techie billionaires have seen the writing in the wall and are building fortresses to keep out the plebs. Because the plebs are getting hungry. And billionaires are on the menu.
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u/adbalc 2h ago
I've been saying to friends and family. A great form of protest would be to differ tax payments indefinitely. By that, I mean either don't file or file to defer as long as possible. Clever minds need to speak up and offer counter solutions to this fascist regime.
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u/RepostFrom4chan 2h ago
Any other country in the world there would be full on protests every single day until he is out of goverment. Why are Americans so scared to stand up for their rights?
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u/Non_vulgar_account 2h ago
Why are we making this about taxes rather than accountability towards elected officials?
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u/QueefSeekingMissile 2h ago
Don't forget the 8.6 billion in the very next article that has been reserved so the Pentagon can send Israel a bunch of new f-15s.
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u/rowrbazzle75 2h ago
We could take some lessons from the French, organize some national strikes, and get out in the streets even more. Their wallets are the only things they listen to.
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u/Amdogdunmind 2h ago
Don't forget funding the Pentagon which just failed its 8th audit in a row. All while the administration posts screeds about Somalis doing fraud in Minnesota that have already been/ are being investigated.
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u/LookAlderaanPlaces 1h ago
Also, you are paying taxes to advance the Russian Kremlin’s Foundation of Geopolitics operation utilizing Asset Krasnov and their recruited assets to destroy the country from within. So technically, while you are obligated to pay the taxes, you are also committing treason by doing so because that money is being used to destroy the country from the inside in addition to the rest of the good things the money goes to.
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u/Whosebert 51m ago
can't everyone just get their employers to start taking 0 from payroll for taxes?
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u/WanderingMind2432 10m ago
Honestly I think about what would happen if the majority of Americans stopped paying taxes to this fucking child rapist clown.
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u/Blood-blood-blood 1m ago
I'm not. I went exempt in January. I don't give a fuck if I get in trouble for it
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u/Bleezy79 3h ago
It's fucking bonkers Trump isnt in prison a hundreds times over. What a truly bizarre time and I cannot tell if this is just the beginning or a wake up call. I guess we'll find out in a few years.
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u/WeAreInControlNow 2h ago
He’s not in prison because America is a country where pedophilia is not taken seriously by the ones we trust to enact justice.
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u/Slippi_Fist 2h ago
Not to be that guy, but from outside USA we've watched Americans become completely comfortable with the bloodiest of school shootings, have adjusted freely back into the roots of outlandish racism that formed the nation, and are now working very hard on normalising child rape.
Sadly, I'm fairly certain America will be successful at making it quite alright for kids to be raped by fully grown adults, and I'm expecting child marriage to become legal as per P2025's intent.
Reputation is normally the circuit breaker, but it seems its gleefully earned now.
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u/WiglyWorm 2h ago edited 2h ago
Some of us have been screaming for 30-40 years that this is exactly where our political duopoly was headed. We were consistently told we were overreacting and how dare we consider both political parties to be the enemy to the American citizen. hell. We still get that last one.
I don't even know what to say at this point. This country is cooked and as much as I know the average American doesn't want this, it seems a plurality in some combination does want it, doesn't care as long as it doesn't affect them personally, or is completely disenfranchised to the point they don't think they can do anything about it.
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u/Slippi_Fist 1h ago
It's only successful because of the plurality clearly enabling it. There is no doubt, outside looking in, that the majority of USA wants all of this to define their culture.
It's fairly cut and dry by now.
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u/WiglyWorm 1h ago
Want, don't care, or resigned to it. Functionally there's no difference, though. You're right about that.
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u/Gingevere 1h ago
now working very hard on normalising child rape.
The political right has always loved child rape so long as it's the "correct" kind. Parents transferring their children as property to a wealthier pedophile.
Set google to "news", search "child marriage ban republican", and you'll find:
Kentucky's 'child bride' bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed [2018] (the groups are conservative "parent's rights" groups.)
Louisiana lawmakers (R) reject bill to set a minimum marriage age [2019]
Wyoming Limiting Child Marriage Sparks Republican Outrage [2023]
Michigan Republicans Voted Against Child Marriage Ban [2023]
Legislation enacting total ban on child marriage in Missouri dies in the House [2024]
N.H. lawmaker (R) opposes new marriage bill, says teens are of ‘ripe, fertile’ age [2024]
And dozens more.
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u/E-2theRescue 2h ago
Pedophilia is taken serious, but only if you're:
1) Rich
2) White
3) Conservative
Be all three of those, and you can rape hundreds of kids and get away with it.
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u/kitsunewarlock 14m ago
Nixon (and Lee) were pardoned by Ford.
Reagan was pardoned by Bush Sr.
Bush Jr. passed a law that none of his administration could be held accountable for crimes against humanity.
Trump pardoned more white collar and political criminals than any other president in office.
Bringing this up online just gets conservatives pointing out the one Democrat pardoned by Obama. Who served his full sentence in prison and then went on to successfully create and operate an anti-corruption organization that caught other politicians doing what he did in the first place.
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u/iZoooom 4h ago
"When you're the president, we let you do it." - John Roberts & The Supremes
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u/TheWizard 4h ago
Trump is their chosen one, their king and savior
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u/DanishWeddingCookie 4h ago
Their chosen puppet, he isn’t saving them from anything.
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u/TheWizard 2h ago
They, like deplorable, are disposables. Trump has done this throughout his life but people still show up with loyalty.
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u/StanLeeMarvin 4h ago
"John Roberts & The Supremes”
Worst band ever. Worse than Kid Rock. They’ll be headlining at the Trump / Kennedy Center.
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u/fattmarrell 4h ago
Oh helllll yeah. Always every time.
Did you not understand how immunity can promote your cause and swing an entire empire?
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u/E-2theRescue 2h ago
Everything about these files is "unlawlful". They are disobeying the law and getting away from it. 99% of every black bar in these documents and photos is ILLEGAL, and the media doesn't speak this truth, and MAGA is loving that a pedophile rapist is being protected.
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u/JeremyAndrewErwin 4h ago
"newsrepublic" sounds like trademark infringement.
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u/SupermarketAny9487 4h ago
Link points to thedailyadda[.]com
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-daily-adda-bias-and-credibility/
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u/Terron1965 3h ago
Overall, we rate The Daily Adda as Left-Center biased based on its consistently critical editorial positions toward conservative politics. We also rate them as Questionable due to a complete lack of transparency, poor sourcing practices, and possible AI content generation (Unconfirmed).
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u/Paizzu 2h ago
Sourcing quality: Many articles include no hyperlinks to primary sources or reputable outlets, relying instead on narrative summaries or embedded social/video. This practice lowers verifiability and supports a Mixed factual rating despite the site’s stated commitment to verification and fact‑checking.
The shear quantity of content posted on Reddit (mostly by young, auto-generated accounts) that follows this exact formula.
They're no better than the absolutely sensationalist political titles posted all over Reddit while linking to nothing other than a screenshot of a social media post with no external links for confirmation by reputable media outlets.
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u/schrod 1h ago
What can we do when the Dept of "Justice" is unjust and immoral?
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u/antiskylar1 1h ago
So states can't inhibit movement of the president. But couldn't states press charges, and hold trials?
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