Justice division asks courtroom to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts after Trump information libel go well with in opposition to Murdoch – stay | US information
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Trump’s justice division asks Manhattan federal courtroom to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts
Appearing at Donald Trump’s route, the justice division filed a movement in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Friday, asking a choose to unseal grand jury testimony transcripts from the federal sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late intercourse offender.
The transfer to share some however not the entire information associated to Epstein come after fevered hypothesis about Trump’s connections to Epstein, who was arrested and charged in 2019 after which discovered lifeless in his Manhattan jail cell.
Releasing the transcripts, nevertheless, won’t fulfill even some supporters of the president who wish to see him launch the entire information from the federal investigation into Epstein, together with a rumored listing of highly effective males alleged to have had intercourse with minors Epstein trafficked, and different paperwork.
The transfer comes after Trump filed a libel go well with in Miami on Friday accusing two Wall Avenue Journal reporters, and Rupert Murdoch and his corporations, of defaming him by reporting that one of many paperwork examined by prosecutors was a “bawdy” letter from Trump to Epstein in 2003, three years earlier than Epstein was first indicted.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded responsible in state courtroom in Florida to 2 felony costs, together with soliciting a minor, in trade for a deal during which he averted federal costs.
Over a decade later, in 2019, the federal investigation into Epstein was revived and he was charged by Geoffrey Berman, the US lawyer for the southern district of New York, of getting “sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage women by engaging them to have interaction in intercourse acts with him in trade for cash” between 2002 and 2005 in each New York and Palm Seaside.
Trump’s outrage over the report that means he despatched Epstein a lewd birthday letter in 2003 is probably going linked to the truth that this was through the interval that Epstein was accused of committing the crimes he was later charged with.
Trump was identified to have socialized with Epstein earlier than his arrest and publicly known as him a “terrific man” who “likes lovely ladies as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful facet”, in an interview with New York journal in 2002.
Key occasions
Robert Tait
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of nationwide intelligence, has known as for Barack Obama and former senior US nationwide safety officers to be prosecuted after accusing them of a “treasonous conspiracy” supposed to point out that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win was on account of Russian interference.
She stated Obama and senior officers in his administration had “[laid] the groundwork for … a years-long coup” in opposition to Trump after his victory over Hillary Clinton by “manufacturing intelligence” to recommend that Russia had tried to affect the election. That included utilizing a file ready by a British intelligence analyst, Christopher Steele, that they knew to be unreliable, Gabbard claimed.
The post-election intelligence estimates contrasted with findings reached earlier than the election, which indicated that Russia in all probability was not making an attempt to intrude.
In extraordinary feedback calling for prosecutions, she added: “The data we’re releasing as we speak clearly exhibits there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 dedicated by officers on the highest degree of our authorities.
US lawyer normal calls Epstein case ‘a matter of public concern’ in movement to unseal 2019 grand jury transcripts
In a proper request asking a federal choose to unseal grand jury transcripts from the 2019 investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late intercourse offender and longtime affiliate of Donald Trump, US lawyer normal Pam Bondi calls the case “a matter of public concern”.
Within the movement, filed on Friday in a Manhattan federal courtroom, Bondi, and her deputy lawyer normal, Todd Blanche, a former private lawyer for Trump, write that the request was prompted by the uproar following the justice division’s 6 July memo “describing an exhaustive assessment undertaken of investigative holdings referring to Jeffrey Epstein” which was undertaken with the FBI “to find out whether or not proof existed that might predicate an investigation into uncharged third events.” The memo concluded that there was no such proof existed.
“Since July 6, 2025, there was in depth public curiosity within the foundation for the Memorandum’s conclusions”, Bondi and Blanche write. “Whereas the Division of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation proceed to stick to the conclusions reached within the Memorandum, transparency to the American public is of the utmost significance to this Administration. Given the general public curiosity within the investigative work carried out by the Division of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation into Epstein, the Division of Justice strikes the Court docket to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts in United States v. Epstein, topic to acceptable redactions of victim-related and different private figuring out info.”
They add that the justice division will work with prosecutors in Manhattan, the place the grand jury testimony was taken, “to make acceptable redactions of victim-related info and different private figuring out info previous to releasing the transcripts. Transparency on this course of won’t be on the expense of our obligation underneath the regulation to guard victims.”
“Public officers, lawmakers, pundits, and peculiar residents stay deeply and anxious concerning the Epstein matter” they argue later within the movement. “Certainly, different jurists have launched grand jury transcripts after concluding that Epstein’s case qualifies as a matter of public concern.”
“In any case, Jeffrey Epstein is ‘essentially the most notorious pedophile in American historical past’” based on earlier filings, and the “info surrounding Epstein’s case ‘inform a story of nationwide shame.’”
Trump’s justice division asks Manhattan federal courtroom to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts
Appearing at Donald Trump’s route, the justice division filed a movement in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Friday, asking a choose to unseal grand jury testimony transcripts from the federal sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late intercourse offender.
The transfer to share some however not the entire information associated to Epstein come after fevered hypothesis about Trump’s connections to Epstein, who was arrested and charged in 2019 after which discovered lifeless in his Manhattan jail cell.
Releasing the transcripts, nevertheless, won’t fulfill even some supporters of the president who wish to see him launch the entire information from the federal investigation into Epstein, together with a rumored listing of highly effective males alleged to have had intercourse with minors Epstein trafficked, and different paperwork.
The transfer comes after Trump filed a libel go well with in Miami on Friday accusing two Wall Avenue Journal reporters, and Rupert Murdoch and his corporations, of defaming him by reporting that one of many paperwork examined by prosecutors was a “bawdy” letter from Trump to Epstein in 2003, three years earlier than Epstein was first indicted.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded responsible in state courtroom in Florida to 2 felony costs, together with soliciting a minor, in trade for a deal during which he averted federal costs.
Over a decade later, in 2019, the federal investigation into Epstein was revived and he was charged by Geoffrey Berman, the US lawyer for the southern district of New York, of getting “sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage women by engaging them to have interaction in intercourse acts with him in trade for cash” between 2002 and 2005 in each New York and Palm Seaside.
Trump’s outrage over the report that means he despatched Epstein a lewd birthday letter in 2003 is probably going linked to the truth that this was through the interval that Epstein was accused of committing the crimes he was later charged with.
Trump was identified to have socialized with Epstein earlier than his arrest and publicly known as him a “terrific man” who “likes lovely ladies as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful facet”, in an interview with New York journal in 2002.
Trump information libel go well with in opposition to Wall Avenue Journal reporters, Murdoch and corporations over report on letter to Epstein
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday in opposition to Dow Jones, Information Corp, Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Avenue Journal reporters, elevating claims underneath federal libel regulation, courtroom data present.
Reuters studies {that a} copy of the grievance was not instantly out there. The case was filed in Miami federal courtroom.
The day to this point
The White Home is trying to press forward with different enterprise however US politics stays consumed on Friday with Donald Trump’s determined effort to deflect consideration away from his administration’s resolution to not launch information from the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late intercourse offender who was associates with the longer term president earlier than he was first indicted. Listed below are among the day’s developments in that story, and the US authorities, to this point:
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Home Republicans handed Trump’s funding reduce proposal simply after midnight on Friday – clawing again practically $8bn in federal funding for international support and $1.1bn in help for public broadcasting. The 216-213 vote, with two Republicans, Mike Turner of Ohio and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, opposing the package deal alongside all Democrats, may have been a tie however for the truth that three Democrats elected in November have already died.
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Trump started his day by arguing on his social media platform that it was unattainable {that a} ‘bawdy letter’ to Epstein from Trump was within the justice division information since Democrats would have revealed it after they had been in charge of the justice division. “If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who managed the ‘information’ for 4 years, and had Garland and Comey in cost, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!” Trump posted. His argument is flawed, nevertheless, since: a. Democrats like the previous lawyer normal Merrick Garland are defenders of the norm that the justice division needs to be apolitical, and investigative information in circumstances that don’t go to trial are supposed to stay secret; and b. James Comey, a Republican, not a Democrat, was fired as FBI director by Trump two years earlier than the justice division arrested and charged Epstein.
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Steve Bannon has stated that the Wall Avenue Journal story concerning the birthday letter bearing Trump’s identify has united the president’s supporters behind him.
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Democrats are questioning the timing of CBS’s announcement that it was canceling The Late Present with Stephen Colbert, days after Colbert criticized the community’s guardian firm Paramount for settling a $16m lawsuit with Trump.
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The pinnacle of Israel’s Mossad spy company visited Washington this week as Israel seeks the Trump administration’s assist in ethnically cleaning Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants, Axios reported, citing two unnamed sources.
‘Public deserves to know’ if CBS’s cancellation of Colbert present was for political causes, demand Democrats
Democrats are questioning the timing of CBS’s announcement that it was canceling The Late Present with Stephen Colbert, days after Colbert criticized the community’s guardian firm Paramount for settling a $16m lawsuit with Donald Trump.
Colbert panned Paramount for settling with Trump over the president’s declare that CBS Information deceptively edited an interview with the then presidential candidate Kamala Harris. He known as the settlement, which coincided with Paramount looking for approval from the US Federal Communications Fee for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media (an organization ran by David Ellison, son of shut Trump ally Larry Ellison), “an enormous fats bribe”.
That sentiment was echoed by senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, who wrote on X that the settlement “seems to be like bribery”. Consultant Pramila Jayapal of Washington stated: “Individuals should know if this can be a politically motivated assault on free speech.”
Unbiased senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, additionally instructed that CBS’s announcement that the present would finish in Could 2026 was no coincidence. “CBS’s billionaire homeowners pay Trump $16m to settle a bogus lawsuit whereas making an attempt to promote the community to Skydance,” he stated. “Stephen Colbert, a rare expertise and the preferred late evening host, slams the deal. Days later, he’s fired. Do I feel this can be a coincidence? NO.”
And senator Adam Schiff, of California, who was a visitor on Colbert’s present final evening, demanded extra solutions as as to whether the present was canceled for political causes. “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Present for political causes, the general public deserves to know,” he wrote on X.
Celebrities have been expressing related emotions across the timing of Colbert getting the axe. Actor John Cusack shared a clip of Colbert on social media and wrote: “He’s not groveling sufficient to American fascism – Larry Ellison wants his tax cuts – doesn’t want comedians reminding folks they don’t seem to be cattle.”
Severance actor Adam Scott known as it “absolute bullshit” and Jamie Lee Curtis, requested for her ideas throughout a pink carpet interview, stated “it’s dangerous” and that “they’re making an attempt to silence folks”.
Trump indicators stablecoin regulation as crypto business goals for mainstream adoption
Donald Trump has signed a regulation to create a regulatory regime for US-dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies – or stablecoins – a milestone that might pave the best way for the digital belongings to change into an on a regular basis approach to make funds and transfer cash.
The invoice, dubbed the Genius Act, handed within the Home by 308-122, receiving help from practically half the Democratic members and most Republicans.
It marks an enormous win for crypto supporters, who’ve lengthy lobbied for such a regulatory framework in a bid to achieve higher legitimacy for the business.
“This signing is an enormous validation of your onerous work and pioneering spirit,” stated Trump on the signing occasion, attended by a number of crypto executives.
Trump additionally stated he was dedicated to preserving the greenback’s international standing as a reserve foreign money and pledged to by no means permit the creation of a central financial institution digital foreign money within the US.
Trump has reiterated his menace of imposing tariffs on members of the Brics group of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and stated the group would finish in a short time in the event that they ever type in a significant approach.
“After I heard about this group from Brics, six international locations, principally, I hit them very, very onerous. And in the event that they ever actually type in a significant approach, it can finish in a short time,” Trump stated.
Trump teases ‘large’ commerce offers quickly, suggesting when he sends tariff letter that signifies a deal
The federal government has some “large” commerce offers to announce quickly, Donald Trump stated simply now on the invoice signing.
“After I ship out the paper that you just’re paying 35% or 40% tariffs, that’s a deal,” he stated. “Then they’ll name and see if they will make a bit of bit completely different sort of a deal, like opening up their nation to commerce.”
Donald Trump is from the White Home talking now and is predicted to signal the bipartisan Genius Act into regulation shortly.
The cryptocurrency laws is the primary of its sort, aiming to manage stablecoins. The Home overwhelmingly handed the invoice in a 308-122 vote yesterday, after a handful of Republicans initially blocked it over a coverage dispute.
US rejects WHO international pandemic response accord
The United States has rejected an settlement adopted by members of the World Well being Group to enhance preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed international response to Covid-19, the federal government stated.
The Division of State and Division of Well being and Human Companies stated in an announcement they’d transmitted on Friday the official US rejection of the legally binding pact, which was adopted in Geneva in Could after three years of negotiations.
The pact goals to make sure that medicine, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the following pandemic hits. It requires taking part producers to allocate a goal of 20% of their vaccines, medicines and assessments to the WHO throughout a pandemic to make sure poorer international locations have entry.
US negotiators left discussions concerning the accord after Donald Trump started a 12-month means of withdrawing the US – by far the WHO’s largest monetary backer – from the company when he took workplace in January. Its exit means the US wouldn’t be certain by the pact.
“Developed with out ample public enter, these amendments increase the position of the WHO in public well being emergencies, create further authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO’s capability to facilitate ‘equitable entry’ of well being commodities,” the American assertion stated.
“Terminology all through the 2024 amendments is imprecise and broad, risking WHO-coordinated worldwide responses that concentrate on political points like solidarity, reasonably than fast and efficient actions,” the assertion, collectively issued by secretary of state Marco Rubio and secretary of well being and human companies Robert F Kennedy Jr, went on.
Kennedy, who has an extended historical past of sowing doubt about vaccine security, had slammed WHO in a video deal with to the Meeting throughout its vote, saying it had did not be taught from the teachings of the pandemic with the brand new settlement.
Kennedy and Rubio stated on Friday that the rejection protects US sovereignty. The truth is, the pact leaves well being coverage to nationwide governments and accommodates nothing that overrides nationwide sovereignty.
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has weighed in on the most recent CBS announcement of its cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s present, writing on X:
“CBS canceled Colbert’s present simply THREE DAYS after Colbert known as out CBS guardian firm Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that appears like bribery.”
She went on so as to add:
“America deserves to know if his present was canceled for political causes.”
On Monday, throughout his monologue, Colbert stated: “I don’t know if something – something – will restore my belief on this firm. However, simply taking a stab at it, I’d say $16m would assist.” He mockingly added that the technical identify in authorized circles is “an enormous fats bribe”.
In the meantime, Jon Stewart, who works for Comedy Central – which can also be owned by Paramount – condemned the deal on air final week, calling it “shameful”.
He added: “I might assume internally, that is devastating to the individuals who work in a spot that pleasure themselves on contextual, good journalism?”
Aaron Glantz
The US Division of Veterans Affairs has enthusiastically joined Donald Trump’s conflict on DEI – demanding that staffers report colleagues who have interaction in variety initiatives, banning LGBTQ+ pleasure flags from VA hospitals and shuttering an workplace investigating why Black veterans usually tend to have their psychological well being incapacity claims rejected.
Final week, VA secretary Doug Collins tweeted: “VA is now squarely centered on Veterans – not out-of-touch, woke causes resembling DEI and gender dysphoria therapies.”
Collins’ pronouncement comes as he faces powerful questions from US Senate and Home members within the wake of a Guardian report that the company had quietly eliminated language from its hospital bylaws that explicitly barred discrimination based mostly on sufferers’ marital standing or political beliefs.
Seventy Home members wrote to precise “profound alarm” that docs and different VA medical suppliers “will now have the ability to refuse remedy” based mostly on veterans’ political beliefs or whether or not they’re single, widowed or a part of a same-sex couple.
For the complete story, click on right here:
Israeli spy chief visits US amid bid to maneuver Palestinians out of Gaza – report
The pinnacle of Israel’s Mossad spy company visited Washington this week as Israel seeks the Trump administration’s assist in shifting Palestinian folks out of Gaza, Axios is reporting, citing two sources with data of the matter.
Per Axios’s report, the spy chief, David Barnea, instructed White Home envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been talking particularly with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.
The Israeli authorities stands accused of ethnic cleaning in Gaza, with its acknowledged purpose of capturing your complete strip, deporting Palestinian folks from the land, and remaining there indefinitely.
Whereas Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities claims such “relocation” could be “voluntary”, authorized consultants describe it as “a blueprint for crimes in opposition to humanity”.
Israel’s scheme to maneuver your complete inhabitants of Gaza right into a so-called “humanitarian metropolis” on the ruins of Rafah earlier than implementing its compelled emigration plan breaks worldwide regulation, Michael Sfard, certainly one of Israel’s main human rights attorneys, instructed my colleague Emma Graham-Harrison earlier this month.
[Israeli defense minister Israel Katz] laid out an operational plan for against the law in opposition to humanity. It’s nothing lower than that. It’s all about inhabitants switch to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outdoors the strip.
Whereas the federal government nonetheless calls the deportation ‘voluntary’, folks in Gaza are underneath so many coercive measures that no departure from the strip may be seen in authorized phrases as consensual.
Once you drive somebody out of their homeland that may be a conflict crime, within the context of a conflict. If it’s achieved on an enormous scale like he plans, it turns into against the law in opposition to humanity.
Trump reportedly pushing for 15-20% minimal tariff on all EU items
Donald Trump is pushing for a minimal tariff of 15% to twenty% in any cope with the European Union, the Monetary Instances is reporting, and the administration is now a reciprocal tariff charge that exceeds 10%, even when a deal is reached.
Trump has additionally been unmoved by the most recent EU provide to cut back automobile tariffs, and would preserve duties on the sector at 25% as deliberate, the report stated, citing sources.
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