Amber Woods
@amberspeaks
Investigative journalist. Trauma-informed. Survivor focused. Relentless. Breaking News and Politics Substack: amberspeaksup100 Support: No DMs. Signal tips, leads: amberspeaks.47 Upscrolled: AmberSpeaksUp
517 days since the promise of transparency. The headlines came. The press conferences came. The promises came. The full transparency survivors were told was coming never did. I’m still here. So are the survivors. And we’ll keep counting the days until promises become action.
Art by Ezra Berger. Not to be recreated, copied or sold. All rights held by his sons.
Some stories change you. Some people do too. I’ve been quieter than usual because I lost one of my oldest and closest friends. He was an extraordinary artist, a muralist, and the painter behind the cover of The Illusion Machine. He was also family to me for more than 20 years. 💔 🧵
216 days past the deadline. Epstein survivors are still waiting for the full files while the government decides what the public is allowed to know. Survivors have waited long enough. Release the files.
A friend was an honorable infantry officer who knew Hegseth in combat. He told me the man we see now is not a transformation. “He was always a politician.”
You’re dang right I’m still counting every day. Today marks 212 days past the congressional deadline, survivors and the American people still do not have the complete Epstein files. That is not transparency. It is delay, omission and mostly—protection. Keep asking who benefits.
The legal deadline to release the complete Epstein files passed 211 days ago. Survivors are still fighting for transparency. Congress is still trying to force compliance. Do not let this disappear from the headlines. Release the complete, lawfully redacted files.
210 days since the Epstein Files Transparency Act deadline. Congress passed a law. Survivors were promised transparency. Yet the Justice Department still controlled the timing, the redactions and ultimately the meaning of “compliance.” A deadline means nothing if power can simply outlast it.
:::taps microphone::::: Me again. I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading the Epstein files. They are a class indictment: survivors treated as disposable, ordinary people as beneath them, and accountability reserved for everyone else. This should be a universal reckoning. 🔥
MAGA’s ideological layer was fed through Steve Bannon directly by Jeffrey Epstein. Just sit with that.
I’m going to keep talking about the brave survivors of the Epstein network. They continue to wait for files they were promised by law.
“If we gave up our freedom as the price of security, we would no longer be the great nation that we are.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg I wore my Ruth Bader Ginsburg socks to my book photoshoot last night. 🧵
Don’t let the story fade. Don’t let the survivors be forgotten. Release the complete Epstein files.
Hi. Me again. Today is 201 days since the deadline to release the Epstein files. Laws are supposed to mean something. Why are survivors and the public still waiting on millions of files? Transparency delayed is not accountability.
2/ I just published a new story on Substack. It’s gifted just subscribe open.substack.com/pub/amberspe...
I thought I was writing a book about the Epstein files. Instead, I found myself investigating the machinery around them. The survivors who won’t stop talking. The institutions running cover. The archives that don’t know how to lie. 🧵
NEW The government says it’s protecting survivors. A federal judge ordered answers. The DOJ responded by seeking more time and preparing an appeal. Millions of pages remain withheld. Read the filings. Ask why.
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” -Mary Oliver
195 days have passed. Survivors have waited long enough. Congress ordered the remaining Epstein files released. Americans were promised transparency. The Department of Justice has not complied. Millions of files remain withheld.
“Bill is there just for a fairly short period of time… I said you can declassify whatever you want.” Trump says acting DNI Bill Pulte has broad authority to release classified records during his brief tenure. Watch what gets declassified next.
Two people climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and unfurled a banner that reads: “When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.” A reminder that history is shaped not only by those with power, but by those willing to take extraordinary risks to make a statement.
NEW The House has rejected Rep. Thomas Massie’s amendment to stop the integration of the United States military with Israel’s under Section 219 (formerly Section 224) of the NDAA.
4/ If you’ve ever wondered why so many families feel like they’re doing everything right and still can’t get ahead, I hope you’ll read this one. I spent a long time reporting it—and living enough of it to understand why it matters. Photo of me and my mom 🥰
think one of the biggest misconceptions about caregiving is that it happens to “other people.” It doesn’t. 🧵
Most headlines about today’s Luigi Mangione hearing focused on one thing: the trial was delayed. But that’s not what matters most.🧵