Justice Department and FBI sued for access to records on Jeffrey Epstein probe
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, appears to the be first of its kind. The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.
'The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,' said Skye Perryman, the president and chief executive of the Democratic-aligned group.
The federal government often shields records related to criminal investigations from public view.
Democracy Forward has filed dozens of lawsuits against Mr Trump's Republican administration, challenging a range of policies and the president's executive orders.
The case has been subject to heightened public focus since the Justice Department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case.
The decision sparked frustration and anger among online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Mr Trump's base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.
The Trump administration has sought to unseal grand jury transcripts, though that has been denied by a judge in Florida. US District Judge Robin Rosenberg said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the exceptions under federal law that could make them public.
A similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York.
The House Oversight Committee has also subpoenaed the Justice Department for files on the investigation, part of a congressional probe that legislators believe may show links to Mr Trump and other former top officials.
Since Epstein's 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on Epstein and who else knew about his sexual abuse of teenage girls.
Mr Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department's decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation, but legislators from both major political parties have refused to let it go.
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Reuters
20 minutes ago
- Reuters
Lula and Putin discuss peace in Ukraine before US summit
BRASILIA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for about 40 minutes, the Brazilian presidential palace said, adding that Putin shared information about his discussions with the United States and "recent peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine." The leaders also discussed their cooperation in the BRICS group of emerging countries and "discussed the current international political and economic scenario," according to the statement. The conversation with Lula is the latest of a flurry of calls between Putin and foreign leaders in recent days ahead of the Russian president's expected meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump next week. Putin spoke to the leaders of China and India, both also part of the BRICS group of developing nations, and other presidents from Central Asia and Europe on Friday to brief them on his contacts with the United States about the war in Ukraine. Lula has been in a public spat with Trump since the U.S. imposed a 50% tariff on the imports of Brazilian goods, which Trump linked to an alleged "witch hunt" against his ally and Brazil's former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. U.S. imports of some Brazilian products, such as orange juice and aircraft, received a lower rate. Lula told Reuters on Wednesday he planned to call the leaders of the BRICS countries, which also include South Africa, to discuss a joint response to Trump's tariffs on U.S. imports. The Brazilian leader spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. Trump has threatened BRICS nations with additional 10% tariffs last month, as the group gathered in a summit in Rio de Janeiro in July.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Stakes high for Trump-Putin summit as Zelenskyy faces nightmare deal
For Ukraine - its exhausted, brave soldiers, its thousands of bereaved families mourning their dead, and its beleaguered president - it is exactly what they feared it would be. They fear the compromise they will be forced to make will be messy, costly, unfair and ultimately beneficial to the invading tyrant who brought death and destruction to their sovereign land. Six weeks ago, I spoke to President Zelenskyy in London. I put it to him in our Sky News interview that Presidents Trump and Putin were heading towards making a deal between themselves, a grand bargain, in which Ukraine was but one piece on the chess board. Zelenskyy smiled as if to acknowledge the reality ahead. He paused and then he said this: "We are not going to be a card in talks between great nations, and we will never accept that… I definitely do not want to see global deals between America and Russia. "We don't need it. We are a separate story, a victim of Russian aggression and we will not reward it." 35:37 It was a response that betrayed his greatest fear - that this will become essentially a Trump negotiation in which Zelenskyy and Ukraine will be told "take it or leave it". And, by the way, if you "leave it", then it will be painful. Harsh realities It's the prospect that now confronts Zelenskyy as Trump and Putin plough ahead on a course that has clear attractions for both of them. Of course, Zelenskyy is right to say there can be no deal without Ukraine. But there are harsh realities at play here. President Trump wants a deal on Ukraine - any deal - that he can chalk up as a win. He wants it badly and he wants it now. It's the impediment to a broader strategic deal with Putin and he wants it out of the way. It's what he does, and it's the way he does it. And President Putin knows it. He knows Trump, he sees an opportunity in Trump, and he can't get across Russia to Alaska fast enough. He will be back at global diplomacy's top table. Always a deal to be done Make no mistake, when Trump says he just wants to stop the killing, he means it. Such wanton loss of young lives offends him. He keeps saying it. He sees war, by and large, as an unnecessary waste of life and of money. Deals are there to be done. There's always a deal. 6:04 Sadly for Ukraine, in this case, it is unlikely to be a fair deal. How can any deal be "fair" when you are the victim of outrageous brutality and heinous crimes. But it may well be the deal they have to take unless they want to fight an increasingly one-sided war with much less help from President Trump and America. A senior UK diplomat told me if things turn out as feared, it should not be called a land-for-peace deal. It should be called annexation "because that's what it is". But here's the rub. Peace, calm, the end of the nightly terror of war has much to recommend it. In short, a bad peace can often seem better than no peace. But, ultimately, rewarded dictators always come back for more. If Ukraine has to accept a bad peace, then it will want clear security guarantees to make sure it cannot happen again. It is the very least they deserve. There is much at stake in Alaska.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Iran and Russia stand to lose from US deal with Azerbaijan and Armenia
Iran expressed concern about foreign interference on Saturday, fearing it had been carved out of a declaration brokered by Donald Trump between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The two countries have come closer to ending 35 years of enmity by signing a peace treaty in Washington and agreeing to a US private consortium taking control of a strategic corridor on Iran's border. The corridor passing through southern Armenia will link Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhchivan, a longstanding demand of Baku. The US will operate the corridor under Armenian sovereignty on a 99-year land lease, changing the balance of power in the region. Some Iranian commentators claimed the deal amounts to 'Iran's geopolitical suffocation in the region'. Control of the corridor that runs along the border between Armenia and northern Iran has been the single biggest block to a peace deal between the two countries. The deal is also a further blow to Russia's diminished influence in the region, as Armenia's prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, guides his Christian-majority country towards the west, and eventually the EU. Russia – which still has a military base in Armenia – seems unable to resist the Trump initiative, partly due to its preoccupation with Ukraine. In a statement on Saturday the Iranian foreign ministry said: 'Establishing communication networks will serve the security, and economic development of the nations of the region when it is done within the framework of mutual interests, respecting the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries of the region, and without foreign interference'. Abbas Mousavi, former Iranian ambassador to Baku and a deputy presidential spokesperson, described Trump's direct involvement in the issue of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia as 'interesting, offensive and dangerous'. But there is little Iran can do to block a deal that the US, Armenia and Azerbaijan see as in their mutual interest. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan, the superior military power which is largely run as an authoritarian dictatorship, wrested back full control of the region in 2023 by force, prompting almost all of the territory's 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. In the most novel part of the deal, an – as yet unformed – US consortium will take control of a 20-mile long transit corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave. It will be named the 'Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity'. The proposal, first discussed in the Biden administration, raises the prospect of a US presence right on the Iranian border. Tehran worries such a development might cut off its access to the Black Sea as well as to Europe via Georgia. A further opening of the border with Turkey would integrate Armenia into the Middle Corridor project, an economic trade route between Europe and China that bypasses Russia and Iran. Armenian leaders have long seen economic benefits in this project for their landlocked country. The White House said the new transport corridor would 'enable unhindered connectivity between the two countries, while respecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity and people of Armenia'. The route is billed to include roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines and fiber-optic lines. A US commercial presence lowers the incentive for either side to resort to military solutions. As part of the Washington accord, the two sides have also agreed to end other border disputes, but Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, stressed in press briefings that a final agreement required the Armenian constitution to be amended to eliminate 'baseless territorial claims' against Azerbaijan, adding to not do so would be seen as 'an act of disrespect' by the US. Armenia is expected to hold a referendum on the constitution in 2027, but the more Aliyev highlights his demand, the more hostility will grow inside Armenia. But Aliyev, and his ally Turkey, gain greatly from the agreement so may not look for obstacles. As part of the agreement, for instance, restrictions on military cooperation between Azerbaijan and the US can be lifted. Aliyev said: 'We have pre-signed the Peace Agreement, which has been negotiated for a long time, and the fact that it is pre-signed in the capital of the No 1 superpower, in the world's No 1 office, and in the presence of the great president of the USA, means that there should be no doubt that any of the parties will make a step back.' He also called for Trump to be awarded the Nobel peace prize.
