Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown—whose 2018 reporting essentially reopened the Jeffrey Epstein case—wants to know why her flight information is in the Epstein files. 

“Does somebody at the DOJ want to tell me why my American Airlines booking information and flights in July 2019 are part of the Epstein files (attached to a grand jury subpoena)?” she wrote Sunday on X. “As the flight itinerary includes my maiden name (and I did book this flight) why was the DOJ monitoring me?”

“I expected my name to be in the Epstein files, since the Miami Herald published the series ‘Perversion of Justice,’” Brown continued on her Substack. “But what I didn’t expect to see was an American Airlines flight record from 2019 with my full name on them, including my maiden name, which I don’t use professionally. It’s an unusual name, so it’s clear it’s me.” 

The released flight logs occurred during the first Trump administration, around the time of Epstein’s arrest, which begs the question: Why were they following the reporter who was instrumental in putting Epstein’s crimes back in the public eye?

If there’s more to this, then Brown may have another book to write.  

The Department of Homeland Security’s tasteless holiday shitposting may have just violated the United States Constitution.

The federal agency’s official X account published multiple posts Thursday that appeared to violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another.

“Rejoice America, Christ is born!” read one post containing a video montage of snowy scenery complete with a choir singing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

“Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” read another post.

Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior. pic.twitter.com/SDYujiojXS

The post also included a video montage that was clearly meant to evoke nostalgia, but it was more off-putting than anything else. The video featured archival footage of Donald Trump spliced into clips from popular holiday movies. It even included a photograph of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem holding a Christmas tree in Chicago, where she launched a deadly large-scale immigration operation, to really put the eerie in cheery.

Increasingly, it seems the Trump administration views the separation between church and state as merely a suggestion.

It’s fitting that DHS would be the source of this blatant violation, as Noem’s ethnic cleansing approach to homeland security is transparently rooted in xenophobia and Christian nationalism. And the president has continually leaned into Christian nationalist rhetoric in order to please his conservative base.

“They say separation between church and state … I said, ‘All right, let’s forget about that for one time,’” Trump said earlier this spring during a National Prayer Day event.

DHS also did its fair share of disgusting holiday posting that didn’t violate the Constitution. One post referring to “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” read: “This Christmas, our hearts grow as the illegal population shrinks.” But the Trump administration’s continued efforts to tear apart families and communities demonstrates just the opposite.

Representative Thomas Massie torched Donald Trump’s pathetic swipe at him in his outrageous Christmas post. 

The president posted a

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