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News24
a few seconds ago
- News24
US House panel subpoenas Clintons in Epstein probe
US House panel subpoenaed Bill and Hillary Clinton over links to Jeffrey Epstein. Other ex-officials, including Comey and Mueller, were also summoned to testify. Lawmakers pushed for transparency as conspiracy theories around Epstein persisted. The US House Oversight Committee on Tuesday subpoenaed former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for testimony on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to letters posted on its website. The Clintons were among multiple former government officials - including two of President Donald Trump's attorney generals from his first term - summoned by investigators in a major escalation of the controversy surrounding the investigation into the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 awaiting trial for sex trafficking. The White House has been facing increasingly intense demands to be more transparent after the Justice Department angered Trump supporters - many of whom believe Epstein was murdered in a cover-up - when it confirmed last month that he had died by suicide and that his case was effectively closed. The department also said Epstein had no secret 'client list' - rebuffing conspiracy theories held by Trump's far-right supporters about supposedly high-level Democratic complicity. Trump has urged his supporters to drop demands for the Epstein files, but Democrats in the Republican-led Congress - with some support from majority lawmakers - have also been seeking a floor vote to force their release. 'By your own admission, you flew on Jeffrey Epstein's private plane four separate times in 2002 and 2003,' committee chairperson James Comer wrote to former president Clinton. 'During one of these trips, you were even pictured receiving a 'massage' from one of Mr Epstein's victims.' 'It has also been claimed that you pressured Vanity Fair not to publish sex trafficking allegations against your 'good friend' Mr Epstein, and there are conflicting reports about whether you ever visited Mr Epstein's island.' Other officials targeted by the panel include former FBI director James Comey, former special counsel Robert Mueller and ex-attorney generals Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, and Alberto Gonzales. Their depositions will take place between mid-August and mid-October. Comer also issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for records related to Epstein - including its communications with Trump's predecessor Joe Biden and his officials. House Oversight Committee Democrats, backed by some Republicans, approved a subpoena in July for the Justice Department to hand over documents. Lawmakers have also been seeking testimony from Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for her role in his alleged crimes - although her cooperation is seen as unlikely. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's justices are expected to consider at a 29 September conference ahead of their October term whether to hear an appeal by Maxwell of her sex trafficking conviction.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The debanking issue is back as Trump slams — once again — some major lenders
Debanking is back in the spotlight this week after President Trump said Tuesday that the country's two largest US banks, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC), denied him as a customer. "The banks discriminated against me very badly, and I was very good to the banks," Trump said on CNBC's "Squawk Box," adding that "they discriminate against many conservatives." For years, Republicans have claimed that US banks have denied accounts to certain customers for political reasons. Crypto companies have warned more recently that they weren't permitted to get banking services during the Biden era. "I had hundreds of millions. I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash. I was loaded up with cash, and they told me, 'I'm sorry, sir, we can't have you. You have 20 days to get out,'" Trump said of his experience losing bank accounts with JPMorgan Chase. The president said he then went to Bank of America "to deposit a billion dollars plus" and was similarly denied. "He said, 'We can't do it,'" Trump told "Squawk Box" while also referencing pressure on banks from Washington, D.C., regulators as a key reason for why he and others have been denied banking services. "I ended up going to small banks all over the place," Trump added. The president's comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal report late Monday stating that the White House is preparing to draft a related executive order around debanking that would fine banks found discriminating against customers on political grounds. Bank of America did not immediately offer a response to Trump's comments. "We don't close accounts for political reasons, and we agree with President Trump that regulatory change is desperately needed. We commend the White House for addressing this issue and look forward to working with them to get this right," a JPMorgan spokesperson said in emailed comments. Both of these giant lenders and their CEOs have denied debanking customers on political grounds. Learn more about high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and CD accounts. Trump first brought visibility to the debanking issue back in January when he confronted Bank of America's Brian Moynihan about it during a live Q&A at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives," Trump told Moynihan. The president also appeared to include JPMorgan Chase CEO Jame Dimon in his confrontation. "I don't know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but you and Jamie and everybody else, I hope you open your banks to conservatives, because what you're doing is wrong," Trump added. Two months later, the Trump Organization sued major credit card lender Capital One (COF) for allegedly debanking hundreds of its accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Bank regulators have already eliminated one element in supervision that has been pointed to as a culprit of debunking, known as reputational risk. Critics said this element of supervision was previously too subjective, allowing regulators additional room to penalize lenders for taking on customers they deemed risky. "The heart of the problem is regulatory overreach and supervisory discretion," a spokesperson for the Bank Policy Institute, a D.C. banking industry advocacy group, said in an emailed statement. "The banking agencies have already taken steps to address issues like reputational risk, and we're hopeful that any forthcoming executive order will reinforce this progress by directing regulators to confront the flawed regulatory framework that gave rise to these concerns in the first place," BPI added. Each of the bosses for these big banks has addressed the issue by also pointing a finger at regulators. "We have not debanked anyone because of political or religious relationships, period," JPMorgan's Dimon said during a podcast interview earlier this year, in which he acknowledged that debanking happens. "The reality is that if they gave us clarity from the regulatory thing and avoid the second-guessing, that would be helpful," Bank of America's Moynihan said in a CBS interview on Sunday. David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Analysis-Brazil's economy ready to ride out Trump's 50% tariff
By Marcela Ayres and Bernardo Caram BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian goods imported by the United States will soon carry one of the highest tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, but that will not likely derail Latin America's largest economy, due to ample exemptions and stronger trade ties with China. The lower stakes for the Brazilian economy give President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva more room to stand his ground against Trump than most Western leaders, after calling him an unwanted global "emperor" and comparing his tariff threats to blackmail. Lula has said he is open to negotiating a trade deal, but dismissed Trump's complaints about the trial of right-wing ally Jair Bolsonaro as a threat to Brazilian sovereignty and judicial independence. Brazil's Supreme Court is trying the ex-president for allegedly plotting to overturn the 2022 election he lost to Lula. Those tensions, stoked by Bolsonaro's house arrest on Monday, are likely to make negotiations about the 50% U.S. tariff on Brazilian goods between Washington and Brasilia thorny and drawn out, even as the fallout for Brazil's economy looks limited. Unlike Mexico and Canada, which sell about three-quarters of their exports to the United States, Americans buy just 12% of Brazilian exports. By comparison, Brazil's exports to China have doubled in value over the past decade, now accounting for 28% of the country's total shipments. After exemptions laid out in Trump's executive order last week, including on aircraft, energy, and orange juice, the tariff taking effect on Wednesday will apply to just under 36% of Brazilian exports to the U.S. by value, according to estimates in Brasilia. Many of the affected exports are commodities such as beef and coffee, which should find alternative markets at modest discounts, according to economists. "We were already expecting a limited impact, but it dropped further with the exemptions," said Luiza Pinese, an economist at XP, who halved her forecast for the tariff impact on Brazil's gross domestic product this year to 0.15 percentage points. Goldman Sachs maintained its projection for Brazil's economy to grow 2.3% this year in light of the "notable" exemptions, adding that government support for affected sectors, expected in the coming days, should further soften the economic blow. "Brazil depends on the United States, that's true, but also on BRICS countries, on Europe, on Mercosur," Planning Minister Simone Tebet said at a public event last week, referring to major developing nations such as China, India, and Russia and a South American trade bloc. She said almost half of Brazil's agribusiness trade, an engine for Brazil's economy in recent years, is concentrated in Asia, compared to just 10% with the United States. "When it comes to industry, the ratio is four to one - four times more to Asia than to the United States," she added. SMALLER ROLE FOR TRADE Brazil is far less open to trade than most major global economies, limiting fallout from trade disruptions. Exports and imports amounted to 36% of its GDP last year, less than half the share in Mexico and nearby Paraguay, and just a quarter of the level in trade-focused Asian economies such as Thailand and Malaysia, according to World Bank data. Much of Brazil's exports are commodities easily redirected to different markets over time, said Thiago Carlos, a PIMCO portfolio manager for emerging markets. In the short term, more domestic food supply may even help to bring down inflation, he added. "With inflation likely to trend lower, the central bank may find room to begin easing monetary policy sooner than expected," said Carlos, noting the benchmark rate at the current level of 15% keeps monetary policy extremely tight, dragging on growth. Analysts polled by Reuters estimated that even without a U.S. trade deal and before exemptions, Brazil's growth outlook for 2026 would remain virtually unchanged from their consensus of 1.6%-1.7%. Still, Luis Otavio Leal, chief economist at asset manager G5 Partners, warned of potential knock-on effects if government aid is not well targeted to protect vulnerable sectors and jobs. "Exemptions applied to nearly 700 products - and Brazil exports about 4,000 different goods to the U.S.," said Leal. "A large number of firms that sell to the U.S. were not covered." Brazil's central bank said on Monday that U.S. levies on Brazilian goods could have "significant" effects on specific sectors, but broader macroeconomic effects are uncertain and will depend on negotiations and market risk perceptions. Flavio Ataliba, a researcher at Brazilian university FGV, noted that the vast country's regional variety will result in uneven impacts. The Northeast region, in particular, could be hit harder due to its export base of low-value-added, labor-intensive goods such as fresh fruit, seafood, textiles, and footwear - all now subject to the full 50% tariff, he added. 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
