Amber Woods

18 Aug

Catch up on my grief over on Substack, where I’m apparently processing the loss of one of my oldest friends in public because I don’t know how to do it any other way. 💔 🧵

18 Aug

2/ Today: I’m Glad I Don’t Save Love for Eulogies. Twenty years of friendship, the book Ezra wanted me to finish, and what happens when grief takes a baseball bat to your knees. I’m trying to hang on.

10 Aug

Reminder: if you’re in South Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Vermont, or Alabama — vote tomorrow. 🗳️ Show up. Bring someone with you. Make your voice count. And a huge thank you to the poll workers who keep democracy moving while the rest of us cast our ballot

10 Aug

I’ve been quiet here for a few weeks. I lost one of my closest friends and an amazing artist, Ezra Berger, and grief rearranged pretty much everything in my life. But Ezra knew how much this meant to me (he helped design the cover of my upcoming book) and was so excited to hold a copy. 💔

4/ substack.com/@amberspeaks...

substack.comAmber Woods | SubstackInvestigative journalist & writer covering power, justice, and the human condition. Currently reporting on the Epstein survivors’ fight for transparency. Secure tips: Signal @Amberspeaks.47

5/ Thank you for staying with me during this unbelievable time of grief. I’m thankful for you. 💔

2/ I needed to step back and regroup. Mental illness is cunning—please check on your friends, and then check on them again. Tell them you love them. I was doing those things for Ez, but it still wasn’t enough to save him. Murals by Ezra Berger in Graw Alley, Havre de Grace, Maryland.

3/ August 13 at 1 PM ET, a federal court will hold a public hearing on the DOJ’s compliance with court orders involving the Epstein files. I’ll be listening live and posting updates here as it unfolds. If you’ve been wondering when I’d be back: August 13. Be sure you’re following me on Substack

28 July

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.

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. 💔 🧵

Art by Ezra Berger. Not to be recreated, copied or sold. All rights held by his sons.

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3/ I could not stop him. I tried. So, yes, I’m gutted. The book release will be pushed back to the end of August so I can be with his sons, his brother, and this community—and have space to grieve him.

4/ The Illusion Machine will not be delayed beyond that because Ezra was insistent that I should not wait. “Release it now,” he kept telling me. He was so excited. He wanted the first signed copy. This is all the words I can find right now.

2/ Grief doesn’t stop the work, but it changes your pace. I’ll be back. The fight for truth, transparency, and survivors continues. I’m just carrying something heavy while I walk right now.

23 July

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.

22 July

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.”

19 July

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.

18 July

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.

17 July

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.

14 July

13 July

Graham 1955-2026

13 July

We count the days because the delay is part of the story. Today is day 206 since DOJ’s legal deadline for the Epstein files. Every missing record may contain an answer a survivor has waited years to receive.

11 July

:::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. 🔥

11 July

MAGA’s ideological layer was fed through Steve Bannon directly by Jeffrey Epstein. Just sit with that.

11 July

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. 🧵

2/ The photographer caught a glimpse of them and insisted they be in a a photo of me. I laughed, but I’m glad she did. They’re a quiet reminder of why I became a journalist in the first place: Freedom matters. Accountability matters. Truth matters.

open.substack.comAmber Woods | SubstackInvestigative journalist & writer covering power, justice, and the human condition. Currently reporting on the Epstein survivors’ fight for transparency. Secure tips: Signal @Amberspeaks.47. Click to ...

3/ Thanks for coming on this journey with me. If you’re not following me on Substack yet, come on over. I’ll be sharing exclusive excerpts from The Illusion Machine, along with my usual deeper reporting. I’d be grateful to have you along. Free or paid 🖤✊🏼 open.substack.com/pub/amberspe...

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.

6 July

Day 199. Survivors are still waiting. Congress ordered the remaining Epstein files released. The Department of Justice has yet to comply. Millions of records remain hidden from the people they belong to: the survivors and the public.

5 July

Wakes up. :::checks White House Media Offenders for my name::: Pours coffee.

6 July

As I prepare to release my first book, my Substack is where I publish the deeper reporting. Most articles are free to read. Paid subscriptions are what allow me to do this work full time. I’d be grateful to have you there. 🖤✊🏼 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. 🧵

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I don’t have advertisers. I only answer to readers. If you’d like to help fund this work, a subscription, tip, or coffee directly supports the reporting behind every story—and the book I’m still writing because the investigation refuses to end. Thank you for being here. ko-fi.com/amberspeaksup

6 July

If this kind of reporting matters to you, consider subscribing. Most of my work is free because I believe the public deserves access to it. Paid subscribers make the next investigation possible. open.substack.com/pub/amberspe...

2/ I just published a new story on Substack. It’s gifted just subscribe open.substack.com/pub/amberspe...

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.

3 July

“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.

Hey remember that one time there was a shooter at the White House Press Correspondents Dinner and then no one ever talked about it again? That was weird.

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.

2/ He proposed. They were arrested.

3/ I expect to write their anniversary story someday.

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.

The internet remembers