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President Donald Trump continues to resist efforts to make the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Jeffrey Epstein files public, claiming that Democrats who are calling for the release of files are merely waging a partisan attack against him. But the controversy isn't going away.

During a Thursday, October 9 appearance on CNN's "The Situation Room," MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) — a major Trump ally who disagrees with his handling of the case — stressed that the files should have long since been released, and that the public has a right to know what's in them.

"I'm talking about the Epstein list," Greene told hosts Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown. "This has been the most, I don't understand why, I genuinely do not understand why, there's been any effort to hide this and prevent it from coming out. But because of the efforts for years now to hide it and prevent it from coming out, it certainly makes you feel afraid when you're one of the ones truly on the front lines pushing it to come out."

The MAGA congresswoman continued, "I also serve on the (House) Oversight Committee, and we're leading that investigation there. So I'm involved on both fronts: the Oversight Committee investigation, as well as my signatures on the discharge petition."

When asked if the House Oversight Committee is "doing enough," she responded, "Actually, to tell you the truth, the Oversight investigation has the power to go much further than (Rep.) Thomas Massie and (Rep.) Ro Khanna's resolution."

Greene continued, "The Oversight Committee has subpoenaed a lot more information than Thomas Massie's resolution specifically calls for. But here's my stance: I'll work on any — this involves women who were raped, women at 14 years old, 14 years old who were raped. And they say there's more people involved. I don't know how anyone in their good conscience can be against letting that information come out. So I want to help on any front that I can."

On Wednesday, October 8 in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, former FBI Director James Comey pleaded "not guilty" to two charges: lying to Congress and obstruction of Congress. A trial date was set for early January 2026.

Many legal analysts on MSNBC and CNN have been highly critical of the indictment, describing the charges against Comey as highly flawed at best. And MSNBC's Joe Scarborough — a Never Trump conservative, former GOP congressman and 1990 graduate of the University of Florida law school — views the Comey indictment as politically motivated and a glaring example of President Donald Trump's thirst for revenge against political opponents.

During the Thursday, October 9 broadcast of "Morning Joe," Scarborough warned that the Comey case won't be the last of Trump's politically motivated indictments.

Scarborough told fellow host Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin and the Rev. Al Sharpton, "I just fear we've entered a new era, and this weaponization of justice is going to be a wicked cycle. And some of the very Republicans right now doing it may be the targets three years from now…. What goes around, comes around. And again, these lawyers who are smart enough to say, 'I want no part of this,' they'll be in good shape."

Scarborough continued, "We can look back to Donald Trump's first term. We can look back to the people that went out and did his bidding just because he was telling them to do it, who no longer have law licenses. Again, what goes around comes around. And if you're like going into court filing bogus charges because you were told to by the president — like, obedience, rev, (is) not a defense when you're in front of the bar committee."

Sharpton agreed with Scarborough's analysis, stressing, "We can't normalize using the justice system or judicial process for vengeance…. The Democrats should not do that, nor the Republicans."

Rubin lamented that the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Eastern District of Virginia "is in chaos right now" thanks to the Comey indictment. Federal prosecutors, Rubin noted, are telling Lindsey Halligan — who is prosecuting the case — that the charges have no merit.

The MSNBC legal analyst told the panel, "Morale is sinking there. Why? Because all these people are watching this prosecution take place that their own colleagues wrote an extensive memo to Lindsey Halligan about, saying: We don't believe this is in the interest of justice. We don't believe we can win a conviction. Under the justice manual — which is a bible for federal prosecutors — if you don't believe you can get a conviction, you're not supposed to bring the case."

In a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday morning, October 8, former FBI Director James Comey entered a "not guilty" plea to two federal charges: lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. A trial date of January 5, 2026 was set.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz was present inside the courtroom during Comey's arraignment and later shared some takeaways with her colleagues Pamela Brown and Wolf Blitzer.

Outside the courthouse, Polantz told them that Comey's attorneys will try to get the case dismissed based on the argument that it is a "vindictive and selective" prosecution encouraged by President Donald Trump.

"There was another thing that came out in this hearing," Polantz continued. "The government side, the prosecutors, the Justice Department — they're not ready. They don't have all of the evidence gathered and have their hands around it at this time. That was what one of the prosecutors told the judge today. And they're still working on declassifying information…. But the judge made clear that he doesn't think this is complicated, and this should move very fast."

Polantz noted that "the plan of the defense" is to "challenge" the indictment "every way they can" and "how this prosecution was brought, how the indictment was brought." And one of things Comey's attorneys will question, according to Polantz, is the appointment of Lindsey Halligan — the prosecutor in the case.

Comey's attorneys, Polantz told Brown and Blitzer, will question Halligan's qualifications and whether she "is appropriately shepherding this prosecution, this case, through the system."

"They're going to try to get her tossed off," Polantz observed. "That's a way to toss the case."

After speaking to Polantz, Brown and Blitzer brought on CNN's Elie Honig — a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor — for additional legal analysis of the hearing.

When Brown asked Honig "what stands out" to him, he responded, "So a few things. First of all, just how fast we're going to get to trial here: under three months. I'm sure it's happened in the history of the federal courts, but it's virtually unheard of. I don't know if I've ever, in my experience, seen a case get to trial that fast.… Jim Comey wants to go to trial. He wants to do it quickly. The fact that the trial is only going to be two or three days shows me that this is a very narrow issue. This all has to do with whether Jim Comey lied in that one bit of testimony that we saw from 2020, when he essentially said to (Sen.) Ted Cruz that he never authorized anyone to leak at the FBI."

Honig added, "This is not going to be a sprawling, weeks long case."

Right-wing media outlets, from MAGA and white evangelical to libertarian, are full of ads for gold. Many libertarians believe that gold will be a safe haven during a financial crisis or a devaluation of the U.S. dollar, and trends forecaster Gerald Celente has said many times that he is "thoroughly invested in gold."

But during a Wednesday morning, October 8 conversation on CNN, host John Berman and his colleague Matt Egan warned that a gold surge could spell trouble for the U.S. economy.

When Berman observed that gold prices are on the rise, Egan responded, "It's been just a gangbusters year for gold. And normally, that is not a good sign about the state of affairs in the world. Right? Gold is where investors go not when they're feeling good, but when they feel like the world is on fire."

Egan noted that in 2025, gold may experience its biggest surge since 1979 — a year in which the U.S. was plagued by deep, painful hyperinflation — and added that billionaire hedge fund investor Ken Griffin "said it's really concerning that there's been this move away from the dollar and into gold because it's, in some ways, an indictment of the U.S. dollar."

Describing gold's performance in 2025, Egan told Berman, "We are talking about historic gains."

"Look, they're talking about bigger gains this year than after 9/11," Egan explained. "After the 2008 financial crisis, after COVID, bigger than even during the inflation crisis under President Biden. In fact, this 52 percent gain so far this year puts gold on track for its best year since 1979. And keep in mind, that was a time when there was double- digit inflation in the United States and a global energy crisis, right?"

Egan continued, "So it's just truly stunning. It what's unusual is the fact that gold is going up, even as the stock market is booming as well."

During a hearing on Tuesday morning, October 7, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and other Republicans asked Bondi softball questions. But the U.S. attorney general became angry and combative when questioned by Senate Democrats, including Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse and Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar.

Bondi often recited MAGA talking points, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown while claiming that President Donald Trump enjoys broad support.

CNN brought on two of its legal analysts during the hearing: Elliott Williams and Alyse Adamson.

Williams noted how evasive Bondi was when answering questions from Democratic senators.

Asked what "stood out" to him about Bondi's testimony, Williams responded, "I think two things. One, there is a level of punchiness or punching back from the attorney general that we really are not used to seeing in hearings. You saw it with (FBI Director) Kash Patel as well. She clearly has, in the binder, literally an opposition file on every one of the Democratic senators and is pointing to things about their states — things about them personally — that might be distractions from the questions they're asking, but are ways to turn the questioning back on to them. That's just not something you often see in the lofty decorum of these hearings. That's one."

Williams continued, "Number two — and I think the way the Democrats or anybody of either party could just get out of the partisan fight here — there's one question she's not being asked. And it occurred to me with her opening statement today where she says: you know, all of this is designed to halt an agenda that won the popular vote and all seven battleground states less than a year ago. She's bringing politics into this. The question for her from anybody ought to be: Madam Attorney General, does the fact that something's popular make it legal, yes or no? And just ask her to get on the record, because all these things about polls and this is what the people wanted — but she's not talking about the legality of them. She's sort of ducking the questions."

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