logo
White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story

White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story

Yahoo5 days ago
The White House on Monday barred The Wall Street Journal from traveling with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Scotland, after the newspaper reported that he wrote a bawdy birthday message to his former friend, alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The move comes after Trump on Friday sued the WSJ and its media magnate owner Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion over the allegation in the article, which Trump denies.
The Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case has threatened to split the Republican's far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some of his supporters calling for a full release of the so-called "Epstein Files."
The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting, having barred Associated Press journalists from multiple key events since February.
"As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces," said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"Due to The Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board (Air Force One)."
Trump departs this weekend for Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts and will meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice, under Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, said there was no evidence suggesting disgraced financier Epstein had kept a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures before his death in 2019.
In its story on Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump had written a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared "secret."
Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple other high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.
The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump's far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles.
Epstein's death -- declared a suicide -- before he could face trial supercharged that narrative.
Since returning to power in January, Trump has moved to increase control over the press covering the White House.
In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) of its nearly century-old authority to oversee which outlets have access to certain restricted presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now "calling the shots" on media access.
In a statement, the WHCA president urged the White House to "restore" the Journal to the pool.
"This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment," said WHCA President Weijia Jiang.
"Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media."
aha/ksb
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

City fines Montreal church for hosting MAGA-affiliated singer Sean Feucht concert
City fines Montreal church for hosting MAGA-affiliated singer Sean Feucht concert

Yahoo

time14 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

City fines Montreal church for hosting MAGA-affiliated singer Sean Feucht concert

MONTRÉAL — The City of Montreal has fined a local church $2,500 for hosting a concert Friday night by the U.S.-based Christian musician Sean Feucht. The city says the church did not have a permit to organize the concert, which it says ran counter to Montreal's values of inclusion, solidarity and respect. Officials have cancelled Feucht's scheduled concerts in several Canadian cities in recent days, including Halifax, Charlottetown and Quebec City. Feucht has spoken out against "gender ideology," abortion and the LGBTQ+ community and his religious and political views have grabbed the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Montreal police arrested a 38-year-old man during a protest Friday night outside the church. They also say a smoke bomb was set off inside the church during Feucht's performance. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2025. The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio

US migrant raids spark boom for private detention providers
US migrant raids spark boom for private detention providers

Yahoo

time14 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

US migrant raids spark boom for private detention providers

Donald Trump's promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history has appalled some Americans. But others are cashing in on the boom in demand for private detention centers. Migrants captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents need to be temporarily housed in places like the facility being readied in California City, prior to deportation. "When you talk to the majority of residents here, they have a favorable perspective on it," said Marquette Hawkins, mayor of the hardscrabble settlement of 15,000 people, 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Los Angeles. "They look at the economic impact, right?" California City is to be home to a sprawling detention center that will be operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest companies in the private detention sector. The company, which declined AFP requests for an interview, says the facility would generate around 500 jobs, and funnel $2 million in tax revenue to the city. "Many of our residents have already been hired out there to work in that facility," Hawkins told AFP. "Any revenue source that is going to assist the town in rebuilding itself, rebranding itself, is going to be seen as a plus," he said. - Boom - Trump's ramped-up immigration arrests, like those that provoked protests in Los Angeles, saw a record 60,000 people in detention in June, according to ICE figures. Those same figures show the vast majority have no conviction, despite the president's election campaign promises to go after hardened criminals. More than 80 percent of detainees are in facilities run by the private sector, according to the TRAC project at Syracuse University. And with Washington's directive to triple the number of daily arrests -- and $45 billion earmarked for new detention centers -- the sector is looking at an unprecedented boom. "Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now," Damon Hininger, executive director of CoreCivic, said in a May call with investors. When Trump took office in January, some 107 centers were operating. The number now hovers around 200. For Democratic politicians, this proliferation is intentional. "Private prison companies are profiting from human suffering, and Republicans are allowing them to get away with it," Congresswoman Norma Torres told reporters outside a detention center in the southern California city of Adelanto. At the start of the year, there were three people detained there; there are now hundreds, each one of them attracting a daily stipend of taxpayer cash for the operator. Torres was refused permission to visit the facility, run by the privately owned GEO Group, because she had not given seven days' notice, she said. "Denying members of Congress access to private detention facilities like Adelanto isn't just disrespectful, it is dangerous, it is illegal, and it is a desperate attempt to hide the abuse happening behind these walls," she said. "We've heard the horrifying stories of detainees being violently arrested, denied basic medical care, isolated for days, and left injured without treatment," she added. Kristen Hunsberger, a staff attorney at the Law Center for Immigrant Advocates, said one client complained of having to wait "six or seven hours to get clean water." It is "not sanitary and certainly not... in compliance with just basic human rights." Hunsberger, who spends hours on the road going from one center to another to locate her clients, says many have been denied access to legal counsel, a constitutional right in the United States. Both GEO and ICE have denied allegations of mistreatment at the detention centers. "Claims there is overcrowding or subprime conditions in ICE facilities are categorically FALSE," said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. "All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers." - 'Strategy' - But some relatives of detainees tell a different story. Alejandra Morales, an American citizen, said her undocumented husband was detained incommunicado for five days in Los Angeles before being transferred to Adelanto. In the Los Angeles facility, "they don't even let them brush their teeth, they don't let them bathe, nothing. They have them all sleeping on the floor, in a cell, all together," she said. Hunsberger said that for detainees and their relatives, the treatment appears to be deliberate. "They're starting to feel that this is a strategy to wear people down, to have them in these inhumane conditions, and then pressure them to sign something where they could then agree to being deported," she said. pr/hg/ksb

Pope Leo says migrants and refugees can bring light and aspiration from dark corners of the world
Pope Leo says migrants and refugees can bring light and aspiration from dark corners of the world

Boston Globe

time15 minutes ago

  • Boston Globe

Pope Leo says migrants and refugees can bring light and aspiration from dark corners of the world

'In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope,' he said. 'Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes.' Advertisement The remarks from Leo, who ascended to the papacy earlier this year to become the first American pope, come amid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles and other cities have sparked protests across the country, and a surge in detentions has led to immigrants being held in overcrowded facilities with deteriorating conditions. Pope Leo showed a special interest in the well-being of immigrants during his work before the Vatican and has been described as the 'first modern immigrant pope.' In a May meeting, he emphasized this side of his past to diplomats, telling them, 'My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who in turn chose to emigrate.' Advertisement 'All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: It is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God,' he said. Before his papacy, Leo served the poor in Peru for decades and was especially concerned about Venezuelan migrants who fled there, opening churches as soup kitchens and asking priests to convert free spaces into makeshift refuges while bishop of Chiclayo. That side of his work has resonated with other leaders in the church. The Rev. Russell Pollitt, a Jesuit priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church near Johannesburg, said in May that Leo 'seems to have been someone who was on the side of migrants and refugees flocking to Peru from Venezuela.' 'I think that's important, that we don't lose that. Migrants and refugees are becoming a sort of scapegoat for politicians,' he said. In this past week's letter, Leo stressed that communities that welcome migrants and refugees can become living witnesses to hope. 'In this way, migrants and refugees are recognized as brothers and sisters, part of a family in which they can express their talents and participate fully in community life.' He wished for spiritual protection for 'all those who are on the journey, as well as those who are working to accompany them.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store