'No acceptable excuse': Trump's DOJ appears to reveal Epstein survivors in document drop

The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle

MS NOW, Stephanie Ruhle

Washington, Policy, Politics, President, News, Versant Media, Ms Now, Msnbc, Congress, Versant, Senate, Government

4.4 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On tonight's Nightcap: Feds arrest journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort over Minnesota church protests, the DOJ drops 3 million more pages of Epstein files and says no more will be released, and Trump nominates Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve Chair. Glenn Thrush, Charles Coleman Jr., Joyce Vance, Antonia Hylton, Jon Ralston, and Anthony Fisher join The 11th Hour this Friday night.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good evening once again. I am Stephanie Rule and check the calendar. We are now 276 days away from the midterms. It is Friday night, which means it's the nightcap. And we're going to get to it in a little bit. But first,
0:21.3	there is a lot of news we need to break down. Today, the Department of Justice released three
0:26.2	million pages of the Epstein files, a full six weeks after the legal deadline. Deputy Attorney
0:31.7	General Todd Blanche says the department collected more than six million pages, but it's only
0:36.2	going to release these 3 million.
0:37.9	Federal agents arrested Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, two independent journalists who covered the
0:43.2	anti-ice protests at a Minnesota church. And on a day that saw anti-ice protests across the country,
0:49.9	the Department of Justice had a change of heart. They have announced that it will be conducting
0:54.1	a civil rights investigation into the killing of Alex Preti by federal immigration agents.
0:59.6	Let's just take a break. I know it is a lot. I know it is exhausting. When I woke up this morning
1:08.1	to learn about Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, I had to pause.
1:12.1	Not just because this happened after a week of the president pledging to de-escalate the tensions in Minnesota.
1:18.2	Not just because multiple judges refused to issue warrants for these journalists already.
1:24.0	Not just because they are journalists, doing what journalists are allowed by law to do, and what's
1:30.3	needed by society to do. I had to pause and consider all that happened in just this month.
1:38.3	The U.S. military seized the president of Venezuela. The president threatened to invade Greenland. Ice agents shot and
1:45.7	killed Renee Good. The DOJ opened a criminal investigation of the Fed chair. The president threatened
1:51.7	new tariffs against our closest allies. Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Prettie.
1:57.8	The FBI raided a critical election hub in the state of Georgia and now the arrest of two journalists.
2:04.3	All of this happened in the first month of the year, and the month isn't even over yet.
2:11.2	But as the chaos continues, even intensifies, what we cannot do is take our eye off the ball because all of it is headed to one
2:20.6	place nine months from now when this administration faces a reckoning in the midterms.
	...

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