Brown University Suspect Found Dead, Epstein Files Deadline, Kennedy Center Renamed

0:01The suspect in the Brown University shooting has been found dead. This was always going to be an investigation where something was going to break it open. How an anonymous Reddit post led to a storage locker in New Hampshire. I'm Leila Faudil, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The DOJ faces a deadline today to release its files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. What will and won't be released. And President Trump's hand-picked Kennedy Center board has voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center. One Democratic representative says her dissent was silenced, literally.

0:39As I tried to push my button to voice my concern and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

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1:38Save on cold and flu prescriptions at GoodRx.com slash upfirst. This message comes from NPR's sponsor, Odoo Business Management Software. Some say Odoo is like fertilizer because it promotes growth. Others say it's a magic beanstalk, scaling with efficiency. Odoo, exactly what a business needs. Sign up today at odoo.com. Authorities have announced that the suspect in the shooting at Brown University on Saturday that killed two students and injured nine was found dead last night. Yeah, the same man is also believed to have fatally shot an MIT physics professor at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday.

2:19And the big break in the case appears to have come via the social media site Reddit. Ben Burke of member station Ocean State Media joins us now after a long day and night of reporting. Ben, thanks so much for joining us. Good morning. So what do we know about the suspected killer, and do we know anything about why he did this? The man's name is Claudio Neves Valente. He's a 48-year-old from Portugal who re-entered the country in 2017. But a while back in the year 2000, he was actually attending Brown University as a graduate student. He dropped out after a year. 25 years later, authorities say that he shot up a building that he likely did a lot of his graduate work in.

3:00And the MIT professor that he allegedly killed two days later was a physicist as well. Authorities say Valente went to university in Portugal with this professor. And even though they have drawn these connections, they still don't have a clear sense for his motive. They do know Valente killed himself in a storage locker before investigators even got there, most likely. You know, it took five days for the authorities to catch up to him. Do we have any sense of how he avoided getting caught. Valente wore a winter coat and a medical mask, which made it hard to see his face on surveillance cameras.

3:35The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Leah Foley, said he drove a rental car and swapped the license plate while he was on the run. He was using a phone that was obfuscating ability to track it. And he was using, like, not credit cards that were tied to his name. And so he was sophisticated in hiding his tracks. As sophisticated as this operation might seem because of these details, authorities right now are saying that they think Valente acted alone. What was the break in the case? It's a wild story. It seems that the break in the case happened on Reddit. There's a witness who saw Valente in a bathroom at Brown a few hours before the shooting.

4:17He found Valente suspicious. So he followed him out of the building, chased him to his car, and confronted him. But then the witness walked away, and the shooting happened an hour or two later. For days, investigators didn't have a lead on how to find the shooter until this same witness posted on Reddit describing the suspect's vehicle. And that Reddit post is how investigators connected the suspect to a vehicle, which they were then able to track with a license plate reader to find him. That is a wild story. So what questions are left beyond the obvious one of like, why did he do this? A big question is what's the political response to this going to look like?

4:59Immediately after the news broke last night, Trump suspended the green card lottery program that allowed this alleged shooter to come to the United States in 2017. Another big question is how are people going to react to how Brown University responded to this tragedy. Trump's been blaming the university for not having enough cameras on campus, but the university defends its security protocols. That is Ben Burke from member station Ocean State Media after a long day and night of reporting. Ben, thank you so much. Anytime.

5:38Today is the deadline for the Justice Department to release the files related to the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump signed a law last month that orders the attorney general to share records about the convicted sex offender and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. But there are questions about what exactly will be made public and if the deadline will be met. NPR's Stephen Fowler has been covering the Trump administration's evolving stance on the Epstein Files and is with us now. Good morning, Stephen. Good morning. So what can you tell us about what might be released today. There's this law, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

6:12It was signed by Trump and passed nearly unanimous by Congress. It directs the attorney general to make all unclassified records, documents, communications, investigative materials available in a searchable and downloadable format. That should include information from the Justice Department related to the prosecution and non-prosecution of Epstein, hundreds of gigabytes of digital and physical evidence that the FBI has, grand jury files, and other things that have already been made public otherwise. It's also worth pointing out the law gives this deadline of 30 days after Trump signed it as a deadline, but there is no enforcement mechanism or penalties or consequences written into the law for this time not being met or any improper redaction of information.

6:56Now, I think many people may remember that members of Congress from both parties have been on this, pushing the administration to release these files. So have any of them said anything about what they expect the DOJ to do? Well, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey, he's one of the main people that have been pushing for the files to be released. He shared a 14-minute video yesterday explaining his expectations. He says there's information from Epstein's victims that should be included in these files, like the names of at least 20 men accused of sex crimes. So if we get a large production on December 19th, and it does not contain a single name of any male who's accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven't produced all the documents.

7:45It's that simple. Is it that simple? It's not. The law does give the attorney general's office leeway to redact certain things, and the House won't be in session today to react, Massey thinks it'll take a few days to understand if there's anything that's been left out. In the meantime, there have been other releases dripping from the House Oversight Committee Democrats and Republicans of different Epstein materials, including one just yesterday. These are things that are like private files, emails, photographs, texts, and more from Epstein's private estate handed over under a congressional subpoena, and there is this massive body of already public files and court records and things like that that already exist.

8:26So we don't know what files will be released, if they will be released today, or what sort of reaction and fallout might come. But this has still driven a lot of political conversation really through much of the year. And I guess I'm just wondering, based on your reporting, if you think that's going to continue. Absolutely. The way the Trump administration has handled the Epstein files, including downplaying the release of information for much of the year, means that anything that comes likely won't be the end of the story. Democrats have used the file this year, and Trump's changing message is one of the few levers of power they have to go after the administration.

9:01There's also a large portion of Trump's base that's been unhappy because they were promised by the president, attorney general, FBI director, and others that there was a cabal of child predators being protected by powerful people in the government that would be revealed. Throughout all of this, Epstein and Maxwell's victims say they're disappointed that their allegations of abuse have been used as a political cudgel wielded by politicians in Washington. That is NPR Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thank you. Thank you.

9:36The Kennedy Center seems to be getting a new addition to its name. Yeah, the board of the famed Washington, D.C. Cultural Institution voted Thursday to change its name to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The president's press secretary announced the news on social media, stating that it was a unanimous decision. And while the change has already taken effect on the center's website, critics, critics including members of the Kennedy family, say this move requires congressional approval. And P.R.'s Andrew Limbong is here to tell us more about this.

10:11Good morning, Andrew. Hey, Michelle. So how did this all come about? Well, you know, this is something that the president has been teasing for a bit. I was actually at the Kennedy Center Honors a few weeks ago, where he appointed himself to become the first president ever to host that show. And he was playing coy with the press when they asked him about it, deferring to the board, but then noted how much effort he's been putting into revitalizing the place. But you know, actually, after the news was announced, Ohio Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty posted a video on social media claiming that during the call when the vote was held, dissenting voices were silenced.

10:41I was on that call. And as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support of this. I was muted. Roma Dharavi, the vice president of public relations at the center, told me that Representative Beatty is a non-voting member. You know, Beatty is what's called an ex-officio member. She's coming in from Congress and not appointed by the president. But Congresswoman Beatty's office tells me that she has voted on Kennedy Center board matters in the past. So we're talking a lot about the board here. Can you tell us, like, who's on it? Like, What's the governance structure there?

11:15Yeah, well, President Trump made himself the chair of the board earlier this year. He replaced the former chair, David Rubenstein, and also fired the former president, Deborah Rutter. And then he kicked out all of the members appointed by President Biden. And now the board is stacked with, you know, I think it's fair to call them people loyal to the president. You got a second lady, Usha Vance, Fox News host, Laura Ingram, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and more. So those are the members appointed by the president. And then there are other members appointed by Congress. And I think that's the question is like, who really has the authority here?

11:42So then the other question is, is the board really allowed to rename the center? Yes. Speaking of authority, so congressional Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, sent a statement stating that federal law prohibits changing the name without congressional action and that the president doesn't have the legal authority to do so. And then they also noted that the incident with Congressman Beatty reflected a, quote, troubling lack of transparency and respect for the rule of law. So Kennedy Center is a really big deal in the Washington, D.C. area. and obviously some people come in from all over the country and frankly the world to perform there.

12:14But for people who aren't familiar with it, just what is it? Yeah, it's like intended to be a public auditorium for the country, right? It was originally going to be called the National Cultural Center. And then in 64, President Johnson signed legislation naming it the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a, quote, living memorial to President Kennedy, who was just assassinated a few months prior. And so, you know, the place hosts concerts and musicals and plays and there's a lot of free events. And it also helps develop young playwrights and supports dance companies that can't afford to tour.

12:42So it's big locally and nationally. And the president is really interested in it? I mean, he is now, right? He kind of ignored it mostly during the first term. But this time around, he's made a big effort to exert his influence over it. He put in some money for it to repair and renovate the place in his one beautiful bill earlier this year. And he's hosting the honors, which is something that most presidents sort of take a hands-off approach to. That is NPR's Andrew Limbaugh. Andrew, thank you. Thanks, Michelle.

13:14And that's up first for Friday, December 19th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faldin. With school out for the holidays and parents needing to juggle work, family, and the holiday rush, kids end up getting more screen time. Now, is that increased time online always harmful? Well, according to experts, it depends. Kids are using digital space as sort of the last frontier to get away from us. And is all screen time created equal. You want to break that down into different kinds of screen time in the same way you would break it down into different kinds of food. This weekend on The Sunday Story, researcher Eli Stark-Elster breaks down the difference between games that are perhaps not so nutritious and the ones that we might even consider wholesome.

13:55Listen to The Sunday Story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Robbie Griffiths, Megan Pratt, Jane Vanasko, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zayad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our executive producer is Jay Shaler. We hope you'll join us again on Monday. This message comes from Mint Mobile. At Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no hidden fees. Plans start at$15 a month. Make the switch at mintmobile.com slash switch.

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