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Maxwell’s lawyer suggests Trump may be sympathetic to her case for a pardon
After Donald Trump reminded everybody on Friday that he’s “allowed to” pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, a former affiliate of his who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse ladies, Maxwell’s lawyer prompt that Trump may be sympathetic to the argument that her conviction was unjust.
“We haven’t spoken to the president, or anyone, a few pardon, simply but,” Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, advised reporters after her assembly with deputy lawyer common Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, Florida.
“Hear,” Markus added, “the president stated this morning he has the ability to take action. We hope he workout routines that energy in the precise and simply approach.”
Maxwell was reportedly granted a type of restricted immunity for the 2 days of interviews with Blanche, unnamed sources advised the New York Instances.
Markus additionally defined that Maxwell’s enchantment to the supreme court docket was based mostly the truth that “the federal government on the time promised her, promised Jeffrey Epstein, that any potential co-conspirators wouldn’t be prosecuted. And so she deserves that promise.”
Markus was referring to a non-prosecution settlement provided to Epstein in 2007, after his preliminary arrest on costs associated to intercourse with a minor, by the then US lawyer the southern district of Florida, Alex Acosta. That settlement, which allowed Epstein to keep away from federal costs in change for pleading responsible to lesser state crimes and serving simply 13 months in jail, outraged the victims, who complained that the federal government had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act when it resolved the federal investigation of Epstein with out consulting with them.
A 2020 evaluation of the case, printed after Trump misplaced the presidency, by the division of justice’s workplace {of professional} duty concluded: “Acosta exercised poor judgment by deciding to resolve the federal investigation by the non-prosecution settlement and when he didn’t make sure that the state of Florida meant to and would notify victims recognized by the federal investigation concerning the state plea listening to.”
Epstein was then indicted in federal court docket in Manhattan in 2019 and arrested earlier than being discovered lifeless in jail, in what was dominated a suicide. Maxwell was arrested a yr later after which convicted and sentenced to twenty years in jail in 2022.
Her lawyer prompt on Friday that Trump may be sympathetic to the argument that the unique non-prosecution settlement ought to have been honored by the federal government.
“I don’t suppose that President Trump is aware of that the justice division took the place that that discount shouldn’t, that promise shouldn’t be upheld,” Markus stated. “President Trump is the last word deal-maker. He is aware of {that a} promise made on behalf of the federal government ought to bind the federal government.”
“So we’re hoping the supreme court docket agrees with us that when the US lawyer’s workplace within the southern district of Florida promised that no potential co-conspirators could be prosecuted that that certain the southern district of New York as effectively,” Maxwell’s lawyer added.
Whereas Trump stated on Friday that pardoning Maxwell is “one thing I’ve not thought of”, and prompt later that “that is no time to be speaking about pardons”, his allies within the conservative media have raised the chance in latest days that Maxwell would possibly “simply may be a sufferer”.
When Maxwell was arrested in 2020, Trump acknowledged that he had “met her quite a few instances over time”, and provided some phrases of sympathy. “I simply want her effectively, frankly,” the president stated.
Key occasions
Professional-Israel lobbying group Aipac accuses Bernie Sanders of ‘blood libel’ for denouncing ‘extermination of Gaza’
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a robust pro-Israel lobbying group referred to as Aipac, accused Bernie Sanders, the nation’s most distinguished Jewish politician, of a ‘blood libel’ on Friday for his assertion denouncing what he referred to as “the Netanyahu authorities’s extermination of Gaza”.
The unique blood libel was the medieval fantasy that Jews used the blood of murdered Christian kids as an ingredient within the baking of Passover matzah, however it’s more and more utilized by supporters of Israel to solid even factual criticism of Israeli violence towards Palestinians as equally anti-semitic.
In his assertion, which Aipac known as a “hate-filled rant”, Sanders wrote:
After 21 months of brutal conflict, the Netanyahu authorities’s extermination of Gaza is coming into a brand new and horrible section. America and the world can’t proceed to look away. We should reckon with what’s being executed with our taxpayer cash, our weapons and the help of our authorities.
Greater than that, we should act to cease it.
After many months of Israel blocking humanitarian assist, kids and different weak individuals are ravenous to demise in rising numbers. …
Having already killed or wounded 200,000 Palestinians, principally ladies and kids, the extremist Israeli authorities is utilizing mass hunger to engineer the ethnic cleaning of Gaza. Don’t take my phrase for it, take heed to Israeli minister Amichay Eliyahu, who stated this week: “All Gaza can be Jewish… the federal government is pushing for Gaza being worn out. Thank God, we’re wiping out this evil.”
Regardless of these conflict crimes, carried out every day in plain view, the US has offered greater than $22 billion for Israel’s navy operations since this conflict started. In different phrases, American taxpayer {dollars} are getting used to starve kids, bomb civilians and help the cruelty of Netanyahu and his felony ministers.
Sufficient is sufficient. The White Home and Congress should instantly act to finish this conflict utilizing the complete scope of American affect. No extra navy assist to the Netanyahu authorities. Historical past will condemn those that fail to behave within the face of this horror.
If Democrats do not reply to Republican gerrymandering, Newsom says, ‘there might not be an election in 2028’
As our colleague Sam Levine reported earlier, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, hosted six Democrats from the Texas state legislature as Republicans of their state press forward with an effort to gerrymander congressional districts by redrawing the map of districts to make as many as 5 US Home seats simpler for Republicans to win in subsequent yr’s midterms.
The assembly comes as Newsom has threatened to retaliate by redrawing US Home districts in California to tilt the scales within the path of Democratic candidates.
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, was initially proof against the plan pushed by Donald Trump’s political group, the Texas Tribune reported, however agreed to name a particular session to redraw the maps after a name with Trump.
Two Democrats who symbolize California in Congress, Zoe Lofgren and Ted Lieu, have been additionally current.
“Donald Trump referred to as up Governor Abbott for one easy motive: to rig the 2026 elections”, Newsom stated in a press release. “California’s ethical excessive floor means nothing if we’re powerless due to it. This second requires us to be ready to combat hearth with hearth. Whether or not that’s a particular election, a poll initiative, a invoice, a combat in court docket. In the event that they proceed in Texas, we can be prepared.”
Whereas Democrats have management over drawing the strains in Illinois, Newsom faces important hurdles to redrawing California’s districts. Redistricting in California is managed by an unbiased redistricting fee, not the legislature. Newsom has prompt he may try to put a fast referendum to voters to present the legislature the ability to redraw the maps or try to untested authorized concept and have the legislature draw the maps anyway.
“Trump is aware of his agenda is deeply unpopular, so he’s working to silence voters as a substitute of win them over”, Lieu stated. “It’s an assault on our democracy, plain and easy. If Texas strikes ahead, California can be able to combat again within the courts, within the legislature, and on the poll field. And each Democratic-led state ought to critically take into account mid-decade redistricting in response. We gained’t let MAGA Republicans rewrite the principles unchallenged.”
Newsom’s workplace additionally cited statements from three fellow governors, Kathy Hochul of New York, JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who all prompt that they might redraw the congressional maps in their very own states if Republicans press forward in Texas and different states.
Pritzker additionally met with Texas lawmakers on Friday and stated that he desires Texas Republicans “to know that in the event that they’re going to take this drastic motion, that we additionally would possibly take drastic motion to reply”.
Talking after the assembly, Newsom acknowledged that he had beforehand supported unbiased redistricting and believes that ought to be the nationwide system.
“Issues have modified, so too should we. And I imagine that the individuals of California perceive what’s at stake”, Newsom stated, if Democrats don’t win the Home in 2026. “If we don’t put a stake into the guts of this administration, there might not be an election in 2028”.
Home Democrats demand Epstein birthday e-book that Trump reportedly signed
Lauren Gambino
California congressmen Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia on Friday despatched a proper request to attorneys representing the property of Jeffrey Epstein, demanding the discharge of a 2003 “birthday e-book” that reportedly incorporates a signed greeting from Donald Trump to the late intercourse offender.
The lawmakers are looking for a “full and unredacted” copy of the e-book, which was compiled in 2003 by Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime affiliate who’s serving a 20-year jail sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually visitors minors. They’ve requested for the doc to be handed over no later than 10 August.
“The general public deserves to know the reality and the survivors and their households deserve justice,” stated Khanna, who criticized Congress for leaving city with out voting on his bipartisan invoice to launch the Epstein recordsdata.
Trump is suing the Wall Avenue Journal for reporting that he contributed a bawdy message and signed drawing to the album, calling the doc, stated to have been reviewed by federal prosecutors, “faux”.
On Thursday, the New York Instances printed a picture of Maxwell’s dedication of the leather-bound album of birthday needs to Epstein on his fiftieth birthday from dozens of his associates and associates.
Garcia, the highest Democrat on the Home oversight committee, echoed the decision for transparency. “The American individuals should know who was concerned in Epstein’s trafficking community and if they’re in positions of energy in our authorities,” he stated.
The lawmakers’ request comes as Democrats clamor for the discharge of recordsdata from the federal investigations into Epstein – accusing Republicans of trying to defend Trump from disclosures about his shut and well-documented relationship with Epstein, which appeared to finish in 2004. Home Republicans broke early for an August recess amid uproar over the Epstein controversy.

Lauren Gambino
In an interview with the Guardian, Angelica Salas, the president of the Los Angeles-based immigrant rights group CHIRLA, stated Senator Alex Padilla’s new invoice provided Congress a “easy” solution to transfer previous many years of failed negotiations over complete immigration reform.
She stated the previous political calculation that had formed previous makes an attempt at an immigration overhaul – elevated enforcement in change for pathways to legalization – was not related after Trump’s One Huge Lovely Invoice Act turned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) into the highest-funded legislation enforcement company within the federal authorities.
“The stability now’s fully on the aspect of enforcement,” she stated. “So it’s sufficient. It’s time to do that.”
After many years of pushing for adjustments to state legal guidelines and metropolis ordinances, Salas stated there was little extra California or Los Angeles may do to guard immigrants with out an act of Congress.
“We now have executed all the things we are able to to guard our group,” she stated. “And what has occurred due to these protections, the federal authorities has are available in to crush us. So we proceed to ask extra of our elected officers on the state and native stage … however that’s not the answer. The answer is lastly to have individuals legalized on this nation, and that’s solely an act of Congress.”
The proposed laws, Salas careworn, was easy and would come with all immigrants, versus previous piecemeal makes an attempt to defend Dreamers or farmworkers. The veteran immigrant rights advocate, herself a naturalized citizen from Mexico, stated she was practical concerning the hurdles this laws would face in a Republican-controlled Congress that solutions to Trump. However she believes a shift in public sentiment will assist.
“I ask all people on this nation, so what do you select? Do you select what you see on TV the place you have got women and men being pummeled to the bottom, handled as lower than human,” Salas stated throughout her public remarks. “Or do you wish to replace your individual legislation so individuals can come out of those shadows, out of this worry and into the formal recognition that they deserve? In case you can belief them together with your youngster, when you can belief them together with your mom and your father, for us to maintain them, when you belief us to feed you, can’t you belief us of the American household?”

Lauren Gambino
Throughout a press convention in Los Angeles on Friday, Senator Alex Padilla grew emotional as he thanked the immigrant rights group for his or her advocacy and their help throughout what he described as “ lengthy, onerous summer season for all of us”.
In June, as tensions peaked over Trump’s determination to ship nationwide guard troops and active-duty marines to LA to quell widespread protests sparked by immigration raids throughout the town, the Democratic senator was forcibly eliminated and positioned in handcuffs after he tried to ask a query at a press convention held by Kristi Noem, the homeland safety secretary.
“Your help over the past six weeks has been a lot to me and to my household,” he stated, his voice catching with emotion. Padilla was joined by Angelica Salas, the manager director of the immigrant rights group, CHIRLA, in addition to David Huerta, the California labor chief who was arrested whereas observing the protests and held in detention earlier than being launched on bond.
Among the many audio system have been Alejandro Barranco, a Marine veteran whose father, Narcisco, was detained by federal immigration officers whereas working a landscaping job he had held for greater than 30 years; and Hazibi Johnson, whose brother was arrested and detained by Ice brokers in June.
Barranco, who was deployed to Kabul in 2021 to help with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, described his father’s arrest in June and detention, throughout which he stated his father was “locked in a facility with practically 100 others, no showers, no change of garments, one rest room”. After being transferred to a different facility, he was “pressured to go 14 hours with none water, and have become unwell from the filthy circumstances”.
His father has been launched on bond. However Barranco stated: “The trauma that day won’t ever depart him – or us.”
Johsnon, whose brother Fermando, a small enterprise proprietor, was arrested and detained in June, stated his absence has shaken her household, particularly her eight-year-old son who now panics when he sees black SUVs on the highway.
“That is what injustice does. It ripples out far past the individual being detained. It touches kids, elders, total households and communities,” she stated. “The worry doesn’t disappear when somebody is launched. It lingers within the on daily basis lives for many who love them.”
The press convention was held on the SEIU native 721 workplace in downtown LA, only a block from the place masked Ice brokers raided a Residence Depot as a part of the primary wave of enforcement operations to focus on day laborers within the metropolis.
Salas cited an evaluation, based mostly on knowledge from the LA Speedy Response Community, that discovered latest immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles county between 6 June to twenty July focused areas the place, on common, 80% of the residents have been Latino.
“We will present a sample of racial profiling, of blatant denial of constitutional rights, and a transparent message to immigrants and US residents alike that anybody at any second may very well be a goal,” she stated. But Salas stated the group remained “defiant”.
“Our households are greater than tears and worry, we’re loving human beings who combat to maintain our households collectively,” she stated. “We dream of a greater tomorrow for future generations, and we imagine in an America that could be a multiracial democracy the place we’re all welcome.”

Lauren Gambino
Senator Alex Padilla on Friday unveiled laws that might amend present legislation to permit thousands and thousands of immigrants to hunt authorized residency within the US – a long-shot effort by the California Democrat to confront what he referred to as the Trump administration’s “excessive cruelty”.
Throughout a press convention on the native SEIU headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, Padilla stated he was “not naive” concerning the odds of passing a sweeping immigration invoice with a Republican-controlled legislature and Donald Trump within the White Home. However he stated public opinion was shifting sharply towards the president’s mass deportation agenda and even some Republicans in Congress have been beginning to communicate out concerning the impression raids and enforcement operations have had on communities and key industries of their states.
“America of America will not be the US of America with out immigrants,” he stated, drawing loud cheers from the coalition of labor and immigrant rights advocates within the viewers.
The invoice, which can be formally launched within the Senate on Monday, proposes a “easy replace” to the Immigration Act of 1929 to permit authorized residency for immigrants who’ve lived repeatedly within the US for seven years and don’t have any felony document, Padilla stated. Advocates stated the invoice, if handed, may instantly open a path to legalization for as many as 8 million immigrants, together with Dreamers, farmworkers and TPS holders.
Padilla emphasised that the final time the legislation was up to date was underneath Republican president Ronald Reagan, who he quoted as having argued that increasing legalization was a “matter of primary equity” when he signed the modification into legislation in 1986.
“It creates a chance for individuals to have lived in shadows for too lengthy, to have the ability to take steps ahead, first in direction of legalization, as a step in direction of residency and doubtlessly finally citizenship,” Padilla stated. “That is nothing new. It’s not a brand new forms, it’s not a brand new company, it’s not a brand new program. It’s merely updating the lower off date.”
California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren launched companion laws within the Home.
Maxwell’s lawyer suggests Trump may be sympathetic to her case for a pardon
After Donald Trump reminded everybody on Friday that he’s “allowed to” pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, a former affiliate of his who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse ladies, Maxwell’s lawyer prompt that Trump may be sympathetic to the argument that her conviction was unjust.
“We haven’t spoken to the president, or anyone, a few pardon, simply but,” Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, advised reporters after her assembly with deputy lawyer common Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, Florida.
“Hear,” Markus added, “the president stated this morning he has the ability to take action. We hope he workout routines that energy in the precise and simply approach.”
Maxwell was reportedly granted a type of restricted immunity for the 2 days of interviews with Blanche, unnamed sources advised the New York Instances.
Markus additionally defined that Maxwell’s enchantment to the supreme court docket was based mostly the truth that “the federal government on the time promised her, promised Jeffrey Epstein, that any potential co-conspirators wouldn’t be prosecuted. And so she deserves that promise.”
Markus was referring to a non-prosecution settlement provided to Epstein in 2007, after his preliminary arrest on costs associated to intercourse with a minor, by the then US lawyer the southern district of Florida, Alex Acosta. That settlement, which allowed Epstein to keep away from federal costs in change for pleading responsible to lesser state crimes and serving simply 13 months in jail, outraged the victims, who complained that the federal government had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act when it resolved the federal investigation of Epstein with out consulting with them.
A 2020 evaluation of the case, printed after Trump misplaced the presidency, by the division of justice’s workplace {of professional} duty concluded: “Acosta exercised poor judgment by deciding to resolve the federal investigation by the non-prosecution settlement and when he didn’t make sure that the state of Florida meant to and would notify victims recognized by the federal investigation concerning the state plea listening to.”
Epstein was then indicted in federal court docket in Manhattan in 2019 and arrested earlier than being discovered lifeless in jail, in what was dominated a suicide. Maxwell was arrested a yr later after which convicted and sentenced to twenty years in jail in 2022.
Her lawyer prompt on Friday that Trump may be sympathetic to the argument that the unique non-prosecution settlement ought to have been honored by the federal government.
“I don’t suppose that President Trump is aware of that the justice division took the place that that discount shouldn’t, that promise shouldn’t be upheld,” Markus stated. “President Trump is the last word deal-maker. He is aware of {that a} promise made on behalf of the federal government ought to bind the federal government.”
“So we’re hoping the supreme court docket agrees with us that when the US lawyer’s workplace within the southern district of Florida promised that no potential co-conspirators could be prosecuted that that certain the southern district of New York as effectively,” Maxwell’s lawyer added.
Whereas Trump stated on Friday that pardoning Maxwell is “one thing I’ve not thought of”, and prompt later that “that is no time to be speaking about pardons”, his allies within the conservative media have raised the chance in latest days that Maxwell would possibly “simply may be a sufferer”.
When Maxwell was arrested in 2020, Trump acknowledged that he had “met her quite a few instances over time”, and provided some phrases of sympathy. “I simply want her effectively, frankly,” the president stated.
Fema presents $608m to states to assemble immigrant detention facilities
The Federal Emergency Administration Company (Fema) is getting ready to ship $608m to states to assemble immigrant detention facilities as a part of the Trump administration’s push to develop capability to carry migrants.
The funds from Fema’s “detention help grant program” cowl the price to states and native governments constructing momentary amenities, in accordance with an company grant description. The company has been accepting functions for funding since 9 July and states have till 8 August to use for the funds, in accordance with the grant description posted on-line.
The Trump administration has been encouraging states to construct their very own amenities to detain migrants. This program gives a approach for the administration to assist states pay for it.
The funds can be distributed by Fema in partnership with US Customs and Border Safety, in accordance with the company.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, stated on Friday that the state would apply for Fema reimbursement to pay for its new Everglades immigrant detention middle it calls “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The ability will price an estimated $450m yearly, in accordance with homeland safety officers.
Kristi Noem, the homeland safety secretary, has stated her division will faucet Fema’s $650m shelter and providers program to fund Florida’s facility. Congress throughout the Biden administration directed the division, which incorporates Fema, to distribute the cash to state and native governments to cowl the price of sheltering migrants.
That funding stream was separate from cash Congress put aside for Fema to cowl catastrophe aid. “Secretary Noem has been very clear that the funding for Alligator Alcatraz generally is a blueprint for different states and native governments to help with detention,” a Fema spokesperson advised Reuters.
The grant program started accepting functions simply days after attorneys for the division argued in court docket that the federal authorities couldn’t be sued over Alligator Alcatraz as a result of no funds from Fema had been used to pay for it and “DHS has not carried out, approved, directed, or funded Florida’s momentary detention middle.”
Information of the brand new Fema grants for detention amenities got here as Maryland’s Democratic governor, Wes Moore, vowed to take Donald Trump to court docket after the president denied the governor’s request for Fema catastrophe help aid following huge floods in Could, calling it “not warranted”.
“It’s an insult to Marylanders and the group nonetheless struggling within the aftermath of this storm,” Moore stated in a video response to the choice he posted on social media.
In latest weeks, Trump has boasted of approving Fema funds to flood victims in Texas and different Republican-run states that voted for him within the 2024 election.
Trump drives previous protesters exterior his golf resort in Scotland
Donald Trump has arrived at his Turnberry golf resort on the coast of Ayrshire, in south-west Scotland.
His motorcade, escorted by Police Scotland automobiles and ambulance crews, drove previous a small group of protesters, and no less than one supporter.
Whereas Trump has spoken fondly of Scotland, the place his mom was born and raised, the nation has not all the time returned his heat.
Throughout a earlier go to, in 2018, Trump was greeted at his Turnberry resort by a Greenpeace activist who paraglided instantly over his head trailing a banner that learn: “Trump: Nicely Beneath Par”.
Forward of his go to, one native newspaper, the Nationwide, which helps independence for Scotland, ran a preview of the go to with the headline: “Convicted US felon to reach in Scotland – Republican chief, who was discovered responsible for sexual abuse and defamation, will go to golf programs”.
Trump says ‘nothing’ stays to work out in commerce cope with UK, as Starmer presses for ‘full implentation’
In his remarks to reporters at Prestwick airport earlier, Donald Trump was requested about his scheduled talks with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, which the White Home has used to painting his primarily golf-themed journey as a working go to.
“Are you able to clarify,” a reporter requested Trump on the tarmac exterior Air Power One, “what’s lacking within the UK deal that it’s important to work out?”
“Nothing,” Trump replied. “I feel it’s extra of a celebration than a exercise. It’s an amazing deal for each, and we’re going to have a gathering on different issues, aside from the deal. The deal is concluded.”
Trump beforehand prompt that the talks have been to “refine” the US-UK commerce deal. Starmer advised Bloomberg Information in an interview on Thursday that the UK remains to be urgent for “full implementation” of the cope with the US.
The sticking level seems to be that whereas Trump agreed to chop US tariffs on metal imports from the UK that presently stand at 25%, the tariffs haven’t but been lifted.

Chris Stein
In response to the Home ethics committee’s report into Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s attendance of the Met Gala 4 years in the past, her chief of employees, Mike Casca, stated:
“The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee discovering that she made efforts to make sure her compliance with Home Guidelines and sought to behave constantly along with her moral necessities as a Member of the Home. She accepts the ruling and can treatment the remaining quantities, as she’s executed at every step on this course of.”