Dr. Bernice King to lead voting rights rally in Selma this Saturday
ALSO INSIDE: Former US Attorneys General Bondi and Garland in crosshairs of Epstein investigation.
Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
Dr. Bernice King to lead voting rights rally in Selma
Just over 60 years after her father led the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Rev. Dr. Bernice King announced she will return to Montgomery to lead thousands in a rally to defend voting rights.
The All Roads Lead to the South rally was announced earlier this week, after Republican-led legislatures in Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia moved forward with plans to redraw their congressional maps and eliminate majority-Black districts. Southern states’ rapid push to dilute the power of Black voters comes in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to roll back key protections for non-white citizens in the Voting Rights Act — legislation that was one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s most seminal achievements.
“All Roads Lead To The South is a trumpet moment,” said Rev. Dr. Bernice King. “Like in Nehemiah, when the trumpet sounded, the people left their separate places on the wall and came together to defend what was sacred. The ruling is that sound. And this trumpet call is not for a moment; it is for a movement.”
Organizers say the rally is the beginning of a series of actions that will take place over the course of the summer and into the 2026 midterm elections. In addition to rallies and marches, they are planning voter registration drives, economic boycotts, and other tactics reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement. Grassroots groups No Kings and Indivisible have come out in support of All Roads and plan to mobilize their massive volunteer bases to support its efforts.
For anyone interested in attending, free rides are available from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Akilah Hughes, host of COURIER’s web series, How is this Better? will be covering the rally, with updates throughout the day on TikTok and Instagram.
Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.
It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.
What Happened
During a field hearing on Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida, Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee detailed 30 years of prosecutorial failures that allowed Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation to flourish into a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the committee’s ranking member, argued that systemic failures beginning in Palm Beach continued through both Trump administrations and remained largely unaddressed under the Biden administration. Aside from the conviction of Epstein associate Ghislane Maxwell, no additional alleged co-conspirators were prosecuted by Biden’s Department of Justice, while Trump’s DOJ has repeatedly claimed that there is not enough evidence to charge anyone else with a crime.
“I want to understand why Merrick Garland and the former Justice Department under the Biden administration did little to nothing to bring justice for the survivors or have additional prosecutions,” said Garcia. “Merrick Garland, for me, is at the top of that list of folks that we need to speak to and ask questions of.”
Tuesday’s hearing outlined how law enforcement and government prosecutors repeatedly bent over backwards to accommodate Epstein after his first arrest in 2006. Women who survived years of abuse described how the justice system not only failed them, but was often used against them. After Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw approved unsupervised work release privileges that enabled him to continue his trafficking operation undeterred. Epstein would regularly tell his victims that if they went to the police, it was them, not him, who would be treated as the criminals.
“Jeffrey had already threatened my friend, and he had told me that I would be charged with prostitution if I ever interacted with law enforcement,” said Dani Bensky, a dance choreographer who had been abused by Epstein when she was a minor. “He made it clear that he held the cards.”
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Special treatment continued to follow Epstein wherever he went. He was granted at least $300 million in tax breaks by the US Virgin Islands, exempted from registering as a sex offender in New Mexico, and obtained discreet medical care in New York for girls and women he abused. Meanwhile, multiple banks turned a blind eye as Epstein made over $1 billion worth of suspicious transactions — activity that financial institutions are required to report to federal authorities as potential red flags for money laundering and human trafficking.
The privileges granted to Epstein appear to have extended to his clients and co-conspirators as well. Witness accounts allege sexual abuse by billionaires such as Leon Black and Donald Trump, money laundering by longtime Epstein associates Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, and questionable financial entanglements with high-level officials, including US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Even officials not associated with Epstein have appeared eager to maintain the status quo at the expense of justice. Former US Attorneys General Bill Barr, Merrick Garland, and Pam Bondi oversaw an investigation that members of the Oversight Committee believe produced countless leads, yet documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act indicate that none were pursued. Others, including current and former US Treasury Secretaries Scott Bessent and Janet Yellen, have stonewalled financial investigations in both the House and the Senate, prioritizing the interests of implicated financial institutions above all else.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a member of the committee who attended the hearing, said her goal is to put an end to the sweetheart deals and gentlemen’s agreements embedded in the system that make justice unobtainable.
“So much could have been prevented if institutions and government had done its job,” Ansari told COURIER. “Moving forward, we have a real opportunity here to right the wrongs of the past, to make sure that future generations and children and young girls who are watching this today feel that they can trust their government, feel that if they are abused or they are raped, or if they are assaulted and they report that abuse, that there will be accountability and that there will be justice.”
The committee plans to continue holding depositions and interviews, but without buy-in from Republicans, who currently control the House, it’s unclear whether any actions taken will carry real weight. Garcia and Ansari are hopeful that this dynamic could shift in January, however, if Democrats are able to secure a majority in Congress.
It’s easy for individual members of Congress to get overlooked by national outlets as they quietly skate to reelection again, and again, and again. The following is an overview of different congressional representatives you may not have heard of, with fun facts about their origin stories they’ve tried to keep out of the public narrative.
US Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District
Since taking office in 2005, Rep. Foxx has:
Seen her net worth decrease from around $5.8 million to $5.3 million
Sponsored 261 bills, 10 of which have been signed into law
Expressed belief that sexual assault victims should be forced to birth the child of their abuser
Voted against sending federal aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina
Spend more than a decade trying to end birthright citizenship
Described universal healthcare as a bigger threat than terrorism
Rejected the idea that violence based on sexual orientation is a hate crime
Fun Facts
When she’s not telling reporters to shut up, Rep. Foxx is bullying ten-year-olds and taking pot shots at teachers, apparently. Earlier this year, an elementary school student from her district sent the octogenarian congresswoman a letter about electric vehicles as part of an assignment. In response, Foxx told the student that he should “turn away from this dangerous path,” and accused his teacher of indoctrinating him with propaganda.
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COURIER’s newly-launched Epstein investigation project
For too long, the Epstein Class has dealt in wealth, power, and politics to avoid accountability and deny victims & survivors their due justice. The public deserves the truth, but the Trump Administration is failing its legal obligation to deliver it.
That’s why we’re expanding our coverage to follow the money and investigate the power players in and outside the government. With a new database by Thorian AI, we have unprecedented access and ability to navigate more than 1.2M files and we’re sharing access—and what we’re finding—with you.
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AKA why I have zero respect for the “justice” system or anyone who’s part of it. Y’all are pieces of shit.