Mexico Extradites 26 Alleged Cartel Members to US
Mexican Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch stated on X that the extradition was carried out at the request of the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ), which has provided assurances it would not pursue the death penalty for those facing prosecution.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not': Sex trafficker fights DOJ move to unseal grand jury records
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein who after his death was convicted of sex trafficking girls and young women as his accomplice, is opposing the government's requests to unseal the grand jury transcripts in her criminal case. The Trump administration has been firefighting the fallout from the so-called 'Epstein Files' since the DOJ released a memo last month that contained little new information and concluded no further investigation was warranted into the late sex offender's alleged sex trafficking scheme. Since the uproar, which has included Republican lawmakers and many from his MAGA base, President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to make public 'any and all pertinent' grand jury transcripts in the Epstein and Maxwell criminal cases. Experts say these documents only account for a small fraction of the files related to the investigations. The grand jury transcripts are sealed, and Maxwell's attorneys say she wants to keep them that way as she continues to make appeals to the Trump administration to toss or lessen her prison sentence. The 63-year-old is serving 20 years after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and other counts for her role in the scheme to sexually exploit and abuse teenage girls and young women with Epstein. Her attorneys have taken an appeal of her conviction to the Supreme Court. 'Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,' Maxwell's attorneys wrote in a Tuesday filing. The public interest in the Epstein case 'cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.' The Supreme Court will consider whether to take up her appeal in September. If the judge allowed the transcripts to be unsealed before then, her lawyers argued, the documents could impact any future litigation. Releasing the raw transcripts would 'inevitably influence any future legal proceeding' and cause 'severe and irrevocable' reputational harm, her attorneys said. Maxwell has never been allowed to review the documents. Her lawyers asked the court to deny the government's motion to unseal the transcripts. The judges overseeing the cases previously asked the government to address legal questions before they can consider releasing them. On Monday, the DOJ gave the judges annotated versions of the transcripts, identifying what information is not publicly available. However in an attached memo, Bondi admitted that 'much' of the information in the transcripts is already in the public domain. 'The enclosed, annotated transcripts show that much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony—with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses—was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,' Bondi wrote. The attorney general also noted that the government has provided notice about its requests to unseal transcripts to all but one of the victims referenced in the documents. 'The Government still has been unable to contact that remaining victim,' she wrote. After meeting with the DOJ last week, Maxwell was moved from a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida to the Federal Prison Camp Bryan in southeast Texas. The Florida prison was classified as a minimum security prison, where she was detained in an 'honor dorm' for the best-behaved inmates, and activities included yoga and pilates. The Texas prison mainly houses those convicted of 'white-collar' crimes and minor offenses and boasts a sports field, gym, arts and crafts activities, and a theater program. Earlier this week, two of Epstein's victims criticized the Trump administration's handling of the case. The victims remained anonymous and filed their letters in the New York case related to the late pedophile. 'The latest attention on the 'Epstein Files', the 'Client List' is OUT OF CONTROL and the ones that are left to suffer are not the high-profile individuals, IT IS THE VICTIMS. Why the lack of concern in handling such sensitive information for the victims sake?' one wrote in a Monday filing. Another wrote: 'Dear United States, I wish you would have handled and would handle the whole 'Epstein Files' with more respect towards and for the victims. I am not some pawn in your political warfare.' Furor has mounted over the administration's handling of the case since the Justice Department released its July 6 Epstein memo. In it, the DOJ confirmed that Epstein died by suicide and said there was no evidence to support the existence of a 'client list' of high-profile individuals involved in his alleged sex trafficking. The memo put to an end months-long anticipation for new Epstein information. In February, Bondi had released 'Phase 1' of the files, a tranche of documents that included mostly publicly available information. She also suggested that the 'client list'was sitting on her desk. Parts of Trump's MAGA base and prominent lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for heightened transparency around the Epstein files. Those calls grew louder after the Wall Street Journal published a report last month claiming that the president drew a sexually suggestive 50th birthday card for Epstein in 2003. Trump has vehemently denied making the card and sued the Journal in a $10 billion defamation case. The Wall Street Journal also reported that DOJ officials told the president in May that his name, among many others, had appeared in the Epstein Files. Being named in the files does not suggest any wrongdoing. The president's name was reportedly redacted from documents as the administration prepared for their potential public release, Bloomberg reported last week. The Trump administration has declared itself the 'most transparent' in history.
Axios
6 hours ago
- Axios
Ex-New Mexico state candidate gets 80 years for shootings at Dems' homes
Solomon Peña, an unsuccessful New Mexico state House candidate, was sentenced to 80 years in prison Wednesday "for orchestrating a politically motivated shooting spree and plotting to murder witnesses to obstruct justice," the Justice Department announced. The big picture: A federal jury in March found the 42-year-old guilty of of all charges related to the drive-by shootings targeting the homes and offices of elected state state Democratic officials in N.M. in December 2022 and January 2023. Peña, who ran for the House District 14 seat in the 2022 midterms, was convicted of 13 charges. These included conspiracy, firearms charges, four counts of intimidation and interference with federally protected activities, per a Department of Justice statement Wednesday. Driving the news: "After his electoral defeat, Peña falsely claimed the election was rigged and began pressuring members of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners not to certify the results," per the statement. He recruited accomplices Jose Trujillo and Demetrio Trujillo to carry out the shootings after the commissioners refused his demands, the DOJ said. "One of the shootings involved a fully automatic machine gun. Multiple rounds struck areas of the homes where children had recently been or were sleeping," the statement noted. "Following his arrest, Peña attempted to have Jose and Demetrio Trujillo murdered to prevent them from testifying, offering fellow inmates money and a vehicle in exchange for their deaths." Zoom in: Jose Trujillo previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, interference with federally protected activities and other charges including firearms offenses and was sentenced to 37 months in prison, according to the DOJ. Demetrio Trujillo pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to 180 months in prison. For the record: The court in Albuquerque ordered Peña to pay restitution and a $250,000 fine. "Upon his release from prison, Peña will be subject to three years of supervised release," the DOJ said.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
FBI returns stolen Hernán Cortés manuscript to Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nearly five centuries after Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés signed it and decades after someone swiped it from Mexico's national archives, the FBI returned a priceless manuscript page to Mexico on Wednesday. The FBI said in a statement that the document had changed hands various times over the years, so no one will be charged. 'This is an original manuscript page that was actually signed by Hernán Cortés on February 20, 1527,' said Special Agent Jessica Dittmer, a member of the FBI's Art Crime Team. By then, Cortés had conquered the Aztec empire in 1521, two years after landing in present-day Mexico. While archivists at Mexico's General Archive of the Nation were microfilming their collection of documents signed by Cortés in 1993, they discovered that 15 pages of the manuscript were missing. They believe it was stolen between 1985 and 1993. Mexico requested the help of the FBI's Art Crime Team last year for this particular page. The FBI eventually narrowed the search to the United States and located the document, though the agency did not say who had it. The New York City Police Department, U.S. Department of Justice and Mexico's government were all involved in the investigation. It is the second Cortés document the FBI has returned to the Mexican government. In 2023, the agency returned a 16th-century letter from Cortes. 'Pieces like this are considered protected cultural property and represent valuable moments in Mexico's history, so this is something that the Mexicans have in their archives for the purpose of understanding history better,' she said.
