It’s Monday, December 22. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: A new lawsuit paints social media firms as the new Big Tobacco. Maya Sulkin and Frannie Block have the shocking details. Plus: Trump warms up to legal weed, a history of tough Jews, Coleman Hughes’s end-of-year AMA, Free Pressers react to a viral essay about anti-white discrimination. And much more.
But first: the former president with some explaining to do.
The Justice Department on Friday released a large batch of its “Epstein files”: thousands of letters, receipts, and photos it gathered during years of investigations into the monstrous sex trafficker. The release, which was heavily redacted, didn’t confirm any of the wilder theories about Epstein. But the images leave plenty of powerful men with questions to answer, and none more than Bill Clinton.
One photo shows the former president on what appears to be a private jet with a blond woman sitting on the arm of his chair. Another shows him with Michael Jackson. In the most damning image in the release, Clinton is seen sinking into a hot tub with a young woman whose face is redacted.
Pressure is on the former president to explain what he was up to. But as Free Press columnist Eli Lake explains, the release of the photos broke a historic norm. The Justice Department generally doesn’t publicize information about people it hasn’t charged with crimes, but Congress forced the agency’s hand in this case. That means the scandal may spread with little justice to show for it. Don’t miss Eli’s latest on the former president who has some explaining to do, and the legal and political tangle surrounding Clinton, Donald Trump, and the Epstein files’ release.
—Mene Ukueberuwa
Is Social Media the New Big Tobacco? |
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The firms behind TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms knowingly fueled a mental health crisis. That’s the claim in a sprawling lawsuit, featuring revealing internal documents. Maya Sulkin and Frannie Block report on the most jaw-dropping claims in a potentially seismic legal showdown on one of the biggest issues of our time. | | |
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Brown University Deserved Better |
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For days after the Brown University shooting, the university community was left in the dark by authorities. Into the vacuum flooded fear, frustration, and unfounded theories about the alleged killer’s identity. Recent Brown grad Jillian Lederman argues that, in the midst of tragedy at her old school, “We failed more tests than we passed.” | | |
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Should We Feel Sorry for White Men? |
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In maybe the most viral essay of 2025, the writer Jacob Savage argued last week that the excesses of wokeness created a “lost generation” of white millennial men, who were shut out of elite spaces in the name of DEI. Is he right, and what should be done about it? Free Press contributors, including Ben Shapiro and Elliot Ackerman, react. | | |
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The Maccabees of the American Revolution |
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Every Hanukkah, Jews retell the story of the Maccabees, ancient heroes who wrested control of Jerusalem from the Greeks. The story has echoes in a forgotten thread of American history: the Jewish patriots who helped found the new republic. On the conclusion of Hanukkah, and with America’s 250th birthday drawing closer, their story is the perfect antidote to today’s resurgent antisemitism, writes Roya Hakakian. | | |
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The Abstainer in Chief Gets Friendly with Marijuana |
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On Thursday, President Trump instructed his administration to quickly reschedule marijuana, reclassifying it as a low-risk drug. The change, which is the culmination of months of intense lobbying by cannabis companies, is expected to supercharge the marijuana industry’s profits. Anti-weed lawmakers, including loyal allies of the president, are not happy about it, reports Tanner Nau. | | |
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