THE EPSTEIN FILES: The Justice Department released 13,000 sometimes heavily-redacted pages of documents from the investigation into the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, some completely black to hide their contents. Some pages, for instance, appeared to list names of “masseuses,” entirely redacted.

  And not all the files were released.

  While providing little information about the wealthy and influential men who hung around Epstein, the released materials are heavy on pictures of former President Bill Clinton, a Trump enemy. One photo shows Clinton in a hot tub with Epstein’s procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, and another person whose face is blocked out. “We did see something,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, wrote in a social media post above the image of Clinton. “Just not what you wanted.”

  The files also show that Epstein was friendly with the likes of Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and the legendary newsman Walter Cronkite.

  Trump, who was once a close buddy of Epstein’s in the pursuit of women, was barely mentioned in the released files.

  The files do show a child pornography complaint to the FBI, filed by former Epstein employee Maria farmer in 1996 that was completely ignored. “I’ve waited 30 years,” she told the NY Times. “I can’t believe it. They can’t call me a liar anymore.”

  The Department of Justice is in violation of the law passed by Congress to release all the files by midnight, last night. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said on Fox News that thousands more would be made public “in the coming weeks.” 

THE WAR ROOM: The US military last night struck as many as 70 Islamic State sites in Syria in retaliation for the ambush killings of two National Guard soldiers and a civilian interpreter. The strikes involved A-10 attack jets, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, and Apache helicopter gunships.

  President Trump wrote on social media that the United States was “inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible” for the killings a week ago. 

IT’S POLITICAL: Upstate New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, once a rising power in the party, announced she’s dropping out of the race for governor in her state and will not run for another term in Congress.

  Stefanik had been a moderate before she took an opportunistic hard right turn into Trumpism, and she’s been disappointed. Trump had named her to be ambassador to the United Nations but her nomination was pulled to keep the narrow Republican House majority.

  After announcing for governor of New York, Trump refused to endorse her even after another Republican joined the primary race. Stefanic said in her social media post that she wants to spend more time with her young son.   

THE REGIME:

— Workers yesterday added Donald Trump’s name to the face of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, proving that the name change was determined before the center’s board voted on Thursday to do it.

  Trump, who made himself chairman of the board and appointed most of its members, gave himself top billing over the assassinated Kennedy, making it the Trump-Kennedy Center. Legally the name change would have to be approved by an act of Congress, but Trump went ahead and did it.

  A spokeswoman for the Kennedy Center said, “The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction.” The vote was not unanimous and this report will continue to refer to the “Kennedy Center” and the Gulf of Mexico.

— The Pentagon says it blew up two more suspected drug smuggling boats in the eastern pacific, killing five occupants and bringing the total killed in these strikes to 100.

— The federal government under a law signed by President Trump is making wildland firefighters eligible for a payment of nearly $450,000 and college tuition for their family if they die or become debilitated from a smoke-related cancer. 

— A pregnant daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on social media denounced an “absurdly invasive pat-down” she was subjected to at a TSA checkpoint suggesting that if her father were in charge of the agency, he would try to abolish it. Evita Duffy-Alfonso said she nearly missed her flight after refusing to pass through the body scanner. She said, “The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the T.S.A. is gone.”

PUBLIC SHAMING: Kristin Cabot, the former human resources director caught in the arms of her boss on the Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert  spoke to the NY Times about the nightmare her life became afterwards. Cabot and her boss at the tech company Astronomer were both separating from spouses and out having fun with friends when they were caught on the kiss cam.

  Both resigned their jobs and Cabot said she was subjected to 500 or 600 phone calls a day, death threats, and people cruising by her home.

  She told the Times, “I made a bad decision,” and that, “I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That’s the price I chose to pay.”

THE SPIN RACK: Texas right wing attorney general Ken Paxton and his ex-wife, Angela, have lost their fight to keep their divorce records private. News organizations sued to see them as Paxton runs for the Senate to replace Republican John Cornyn. This could be quite damaging to Paxton in religious and conservative Texas. His wife originally announced she was divorcing Paxton on “biblical grounds” which pretty much means adultery … an allegation that has haunted Paxton for years.

BELOW THE FOLD: Speaking on his “affordability” tour in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, President Trump diverted into how during their raid on Mar-a-Lago looking for classified documents, the FBI rummaged through his wife’s underwear drawer. “I think she steams them,” Trump said of his wife’s undergarments and the “mess” they had made while searching her “panties.”

  The FBI probably saw more of Melania’s underwear than Trump has.

-30-