Epstein Returns and the Courts Push Back

Talking Feds

Harry Litman

News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Senator Heidi Heitkamp and CNN's Aaron Blake join Harry to break down a week that saw a series of sharp legal setbacks for the Trump administration and the return of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Trump is working Congress to keep Epstein materials from the public eye, but the hydraulic push from victims may prove too much to ignore. Meanwhile Trump is making noises about his next targets for a military incursion despite a serious legal rebuff. And as a dismal new jobs report suggests, the economy may be cracking under the weight of the president’s chaotic—and apparently illegal—tariffs. Mentioned in this episode: Aaron’s reporting: ⁠ https://www.cnn.com/profiles/aaron-blake Judge Charles Breyer’s ruling in the Posse Comitatus case: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.450934/gov.uscourts.cand.450934.176.0_1.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Talking Fed, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials and special guests for a dynamic discussion of the most important political and legal topics of the day.
0:18.0	I'm Harry Littman. Congress returned to Capitol Hill last Tuesday
0:23.5	and brought the Jeffrey Epstein scandal with them. Victims rallied on the steps of Congress
0:30.0	and made a forceful push for real transparency, while Donald Trump and his cronies seemed more
0:36.9	reluctant than ever to play an open hand.
0:40.3	Elsewhere, Trump faced a battery of key legal defeats, an especially eloquent and incisive decision
0:48.3	came from Judge Charles Breyer in California, who ruled that the administration had broken the law by having troops
0:56.5	in Los Angeles conduct civil law enforcement.
1:00.8	The ruling may prove a game changer for Trump's plans to flood other Democratic-led cities
1:08.3	with federalized troops. Plus, a dismal jobs report followed quickly on a ruling that
1:15.4	found most of Trump's tariffs blatantly illegal. It was a double whammy for the president's agenda
1:22.2	and one that revealed the risks of his economic recklessness. To try to assess the risks to the Trump agenda
1:30.6	of Epstein's return to the headlines, the decisive legal setbacks around the country, and a
1:37.7	weakening job market, I'm excited to welcome back to Talking Fed's two of the most knowledgeable
1:43.6	political commentators in the country.
1:46.6	And they are. Aaron Blake, Aaron joined CNN earlier this summer as a senior political reporter
1:53.6	after more than a decade as one of the Washington Post mainstays. Prior to the Post, Aaron reported for the Hill and for his hometown
2:04.2	paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Aaron, congratulations on your move, and thanks for joining
2:10.6	talking feds again. Hey, Harry, thanks for having me back. And Senator Heidi Heitkamp.
2:17.0	Senator Heitkamp is the director of the University of Chicago's
2:20.4	Institute of Politics. She was the first female senator elected from North Dakota, where she served
2:27.8	from 2013 to 2019. Before that, she served eight years as North Dakota's Attorney General.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Harry Litman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Harry Litman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.