'We Saw Trafficking Like We've Never Seen:' Kristi Noem on Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts
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Los Angeles Times
18 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Virginia Giuffre's family expresses shock over Trump saying Epstein ‘stole' her
The family of Virginia Giuffre, who was among Jeffrey Epstein's most well-known sex trafficking accusers, said that it was shocking to hear President Trump say the disgraced financier 'stole' Giuffre from him and urged that Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell remain in prison. Giuffre, who had accused Britain's Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by Epstein, has been a central figure in conspiracy theories tied to the case. She died by suicide this year. Her family's statement is the latest development involving Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges, and the Republican president, who was his one-time friend. Trump denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and said he cut off their relationship years ago, but he still faces questions about the case. Trump, responding to a reporter's question on Tuesday, said that he got upset with Epstein over his poaching of workers and that Epstein had stolen Giuffre from his Palm Beach, Florida, club. 'It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been 'stolen' from Mar-a-Lago,' the family's statement said. 'We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this,' it continued. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted the president was responding to a reporter's question and didn't bring up Giuffre himself. 'The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,' she said. The family's statement comes shortly after the Justice Department interviewed Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking and other charges and is serving a 20-year sentence in Tallahassee, Florida. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell in a Florida courthouse, though details about what she said haven't become public. Maxwell's lawyers have said she testified truthfully and answered questions 'about 100 different people.' They have said she's willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony and if lawmakers agree to satisfy other conditions. A message seeking comment about the Giuffre family's statement was sent to Maxwell's attorney Thursday. A Trump administration official said the president is not currently considering clemency action for Maxwell. Giuffre said she was approached by Maxwell in 2000 and eventually was hired by her as a masseuse for Epstein. But the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, she said, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates. Giuffre said she was flown around the world for appointments with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18 years old. The men, including Andrew, denied it and assailed Giuffre's credibility. She acknowledged changing some key details of her account. The prince settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a 'substantial donation' to her survivors' organization. The American-born Giuffre lived in Australia for years and became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors after emerging as a central figure in Epstein's prolonged downfall. Her family's statement said she endured death threats and financial ruin over her cooperation with authorities against Epstein and Maxwell. Catalini writes for the Associated Press.
New York Post
18 minutes ago
- New York Post
Mass shooting on Park Avenue shows how dangerous a Mayor Mamdani would be for NYC
New Yorkers' collective sense of safety was bruised and rattled this week — a chilling wake-up call. On Monday, a deranged gunman waltzed into a Park Avenue skyscraper toting an M4 rifle. There he killed four innocents, including 36-year-old NYPD Officer Didarul Islam. The flood of frantic 9-1-1 calls reporting an active shooter drew an immediate and robust police response, led by officers in its specially trained Strategic Response Group, who arrived on the scene within six minutes. Both Officer Islam's sacrifice and the selfless professionalism of the hundreds of officers who bravely rushed to the scene brought home a crucial reality: The NYPD is an institution the city simply cannot live without. None of this is good for the victor of the Democratic mayoral primary, Zohran 'Nature Is Healing' Mamdani, who has a long and troubling history of statements deriding, taunting and calling to defund and dismantle the NYPD — whose officers are often the ones holding the very thin line between good and evil, order and chaos. Perhaps sensing a vibe shift, the mayoral hopeful called a press conference Wednesday to do some damage control. His performance struck me as contrived, insincere and deeply misguided. The policy proposal at the center of Mamdani's prepared statement — stronger national gun controls and a nationwide assault weapons ban — was especially frustrating. After all, how effective will additional gun controls be in a city with fewer police, and fewer opportunities to enforce those laws? During his campaign, Mamdani declared his intention to get the NYPD out of traffic enforcement. Yet more than 40% of the NYPD's gun arrests begin as traffic stops, as former NYPD executive John Hall explained in a 2021 Manhattan Institute report. And what would a Mayor Mamdani propose be done with gun-toting lawbreakers who are caught in a city without the jail space to house them? Seems like something he should think about, given his full-throated support for the plan to close the Rikers Island jail complex and replace it with a system whose maximum capacity is approximately half of the current jail population. Mamdani on Wednesday repeatedly turned up his nose at opportunities to retract any of his many troubling anti-NYPD statements. Rather than exhibiting sincere contrition for his anti-cop extremism, Mamdani chose deflection and indignation when reporters asked whether would explicitly disavow his prior calls to defund and dismantle the NYPD, or his smearing of its officers as racist. In fact, Mamdani merely restated the idea undergirding many of the 2020 calls to defund the police: That other actors — like violence interrupters, social workers and, as Mamdani has proposed, community safety agents — are better suited to take over NYPD functions like traffic enforcement, mental health crisis response and even domestic violence calls. He continued to defend his calls to dismantle the SRG unit, despite its admirable response Monday. Worse yet, he actually thought it appropriate to reiterate criticisms of the unit for its handling of unruly protests, accusing officers of First Amendment suppression and excessive force. Even in the wake of tragedy, Mamdani couldn't fully conceal his inner NYPD critic. If Wednesday's event was meant to make Mamdani's candidacy more palatable to those who had reservations about his history of anti-police stances, it missed the mark. From beginning to end he was, in every way, the wrong man for the moment. Cop-haters like Mamdani fail to acknowledge a fact the rest of us recognize: Our police are our protectors. The work they do — whether it's arresting armed gang members, taking fire from mass shooters or enforcing the subway fare — shields us from the crime and disorder that once defined this city. The calls coming from those Park Avenue offices on Monday were not asking for mediators, or social workers, or unarmed safety agents. They were pleading for armed police officers. This attack reminds us that the public rarely has control over whether or when evil will darken our doorsteps. But we do have some control over who will be there to meet it when it does. For that, those of us who live or work in the Big Apple will always owe the police our thanks and support. But from Mamdani, they are owed an apology. Rafael A. Mangual is the Nick Ohnell fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a contributing editor of City Journal, and author of the book 'Criminal (In)Justice.' All views expressed are those of the author and not the Manhattan Institute.
19 minutes ago
Josh Hawley says he had 'good chat' with Trump after dustup over stock trading bill
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Josh Hawley is brushing off President Donald Trump's quip that he's a 'second-tier' senator after the Republican's proposal to ban stock trading by members of Congress — and the president and vice president — won bipartisan approval to advance in a committee vote. The Missouri Republican told Fox News late Wednesday that it's 'not the worst thing' he's ever been called and that he and the president 'had a good chat' clearing up confusion over the bill. The misunderstanding, Hawley said, was that Trump would have to sell his Mar-a-Lago private club and other assets. 'Not the case at all,' Hawley said on 'Jesse Watters Primetime.' It was the second time in many days that Trump laid into senators in his own party as the president tries, sometimes without success, to publicly pressure them to fall in line. Earlier, Trump tore into veteran GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa over an obscure Senate procedure regarding nominations. In a social media post, Trump called Hawley a 'second-tier Senator' who was playing into the hands of Democrats. Trump added: 'I don't think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the 'whims' of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!' Stock trading by members of Congress has long been an issue that both parties have tried to tackle, especially as some elected officials have become wealthy while in elected office. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, it was disclosed that lawmakers were trading as information about the health crisis before it became public. Insider trading laws don't always apply to the types of information lawmakers receive. Hawley's legislation with the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, sailed out of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, after his support delivered a bipartisan vote over the objections of the other Republicans, who have majority control. GOP senators had been working with the White House on the stock trade bill, and some supported a broad carve-out to exclude the president from the ban, but it failed, with Hawley joining Democrats to block it. Trump also complained that Hawley joined with Democrats to block another amendment that would have investigated the stock trades of Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita, and her spouse. Paul Pelosi has been a much-watched trader, but the California lawmaker's office said she personally does not own stock. Hawley said after his conversation with Trump that the president 'reiterated to me he wants to see a ban on stock trading by people like Nancy Pelosi and members of Congress, which is what we passed.' The senator also suggested the Democratic leader should be prosecuted, but it's not clear on what grounds. Pelosi has said repeatedly that she's not involved in her husband's work on investments, strongly supports the bill and looks forward to voting for it in the House. 'The American people deserve confidence that their elected leaders are serving the public interest — not their personal portfolios,' she said. In a joint statement, Hawley and Peters said the legislation, called the Honest Act, builds on an earlier bill and would ban members of Congress, the president, vice president and their spouses from holding, buying or selling stock. An earlier proposal from Hawley, named after Pelosi, had focused more narrowly on lawmakers. If the bill were to become law, it would immediately prohibit elected officials, including the president, from buying stocks and would ban them from selling stocks for 90 days after enactment. It also requires the elected officials to divest from all covered investments, but not until the beginning of their next term in office — shielding the term-limited president from that requirement. 'We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted to do for decades,' Hawley told the panel. 'And that is to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that frankly only members of Congress have on the buying and selling of stock.' During the committee hearing, tensions flared as Republicans sought other approaches. GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida proposed one amendment that would exempt the president, the vice president, their spouses and dependent children from the legislation, and the other one that would have required a report on the Pelosi family's trades. Both were defeated, with Hawley joining the Democrats. 'We are one step closer to getting this bill passed into law and finally barring bad actors from taking advantage of their positions for their own financial gain,' Peters said in a statement. One Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said the overall bill is 'legislative demagoguery.' 'We do have insider trading laws. We have financial disclosure. Trust me, we have financial disclosure,' Johnson said. 'So I don't see the necessity of this.' Trump's post criticizing Hawley comes after a similar blowback directed Tuesday night at Grassley. In that post, Trump pressured Grassley to do away with the Senate's longtime 'blue slip' custom that often forces bipartisan support on presidential nominations of federal judges. The practice requires both senators in a state to agree to push a nominee forward for a vote. Trump told Grassley to do away with the practice. 'Senator Grassley must step up,' Trump said, while claiming that he helped the senator, who was first elected in 1980, to win reelection.
