Justice Dept To Meet Epstein Accomplice Maxwell On Thursday: US Media
The former British socialite is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors on behalf of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own pedophile trafficking case.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche -- Trump's former personal lawyer for his 2024 hush money trial -- was expected to meet Maxwell in Tallahassee, Florida, according to US media.
"If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche said in a statement on Tuesday.
It marks another attempt by the Trump administration to defuse spiraling anger among the Republican president's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein's crimes and high-level connections.
A Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday hiked up that pressure as it claimed Trump's name was among hundreds found during a review of DOJ documents on Epstein. The White House has denied this.
The same paper claimed last week that Trump penned a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein, a former friend, for his birthday in 2003. Trump has sued for at least $10 billion over the story.
Many of his core supporters want more transparency on the Epstein case, and Trump -- who has long fanned conspiracy theories -- had promised to deliver that on retaking the White House in January.
But he has since dismissed the controversy as a "hoax," while the DOJ and FBI released a heavily-criticized memo this month claiming the so-called Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation.
Seeking to redirect public attention, the White House has promoted unfounded claims that former president Barack Obama led a "years-long coup" against Trump around his victorious 2016 election.
The extraordinary narrative claims that Obama had ordered intelligence assessments to be manipulated to accuse Russia of election interference to help Trump.
But it runs counter to four separate criminal, counterintelligence and watchdog probes between 2019 and 2023 -- each of them concluding that Russia did interfere and did, in various ways, help Trump.
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Local Germany
37 minutes ago
- Local Germany
What we know so far about the EU-US trade deal
The stakes were high with a looming August 1st deadline and $1.9 trillion transatlantic trading relationship on the line. Many European businesses will breathe a sigh of relief after the leaders agreed the 27-country bloc will face a baseline levy of 15 percent instead of a threatened 30 percent -- but the deal will not satisfy everyone. Here is what we know so far: What did the EU-US agree? Both sides confirmed there will be a 15-percent across-the-board rate on a majority of EU goods -- the same level secured by Japan this month -- with bilateral tariff exemptions on some products. The deal will bring relief for the bloc's auto sector, employing around 13 million people -- and hit by Trump with 25-percent tariffs, on top of a pre-existing 2.5 percent. "Obviously, it is good news for the car industry. So Germany will be happy. And all the EU members with auto supply chains, they go from 27.5 to 15 percent," said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute For International Economics. A 15-percent levy will remain "costly" for German automakers, "but it is manageable", said trade geopolitics expert Elvire Fabry at the Jacques Delors Institute. While 15 percent is much higher than pre-existing US tariffs on European goods -- averaging 4.8 percent -- it mirrors the status quo, with companies currently facing an additional flat rate of 10 percent imposed by Trump since April. Advertisement The EU also committed to buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States -- split equally over three years -- to replace Russian energy sources. And it will pour $600 billion more in additional investments in the United States. Trump said EU countries -- which recently pledged to ramp up their defence spending within NATO -- would be purchasing "hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of military equipment". Are there exemptions? Von der Leyen said the 15-percent rate applied across most sectors, including semiconductors and pharmaceuticals -- a critical export for Ireland, which the bloc has sought to protect. Trump in April launched probes that could lead to significantly steeper tariffs on the two key sectors, warning this month he could slap 200-percent levies on drugs. Brussels and Washington agreed a bilateral tariff exemption for key goods including aircraft, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products and critical raw materials, von der Leyen said. The EU currently faces 50-percent tariffs on its steel exports to the United States, but von der Leyen said a compromise on the metal had been reached with Trump. Advertisement "Between us, tariffs will be cut and a quota system will be put in place," she said. It is understood that European steel would be hit with 50-percent levies only after a certain amount of the metal arrived in the United States, but no details were initially provided on the mechanism. What happens next? The deal needs to be approved by EU member states, whose ambassadors will meet first thing Monday morning for a debrief from the European Commission. And there are still technical talks to come, since the agreement needs to be fully fleshed out. Von der Leyen described the deal as a "framework" agreement. "Details have to be sorted out, and that will happen over the next weeks," she said. In particular, she said there has yet to be a final decision on alcohol, critical since France and The Netherlands have been pushing for carve-outs for wine and beer respectively. "This is something which has to be sorted out in the next days," von der Leyen said.
Int'l Business Times
4 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Europe Hopes For 'No Surprises' As US Weighs Force Withdrawals
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Int'l Business Times
5 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
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