Florida attorney general identifies wrongful charges under halted immigration law
Both men were arrested in late May by deputies in northeast Florida's St. Johns County, more than a month after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami issued an order freezing the enforcement of the state statute. The law makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented migrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in his report filed at the beginning of July that he only became aware of the two cases at the end of June after requesting information from state and local law enforcement. As punishment for flouting her order and being found in contempt, the judge requires Uthmeier to file bimonthly reports about whether any arrests, detentions or law enforcement actions have been made under the law.
On May 29, St. Johns County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested a man with an active immigration detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another man on counts of illegal entry and driving without a valid driver's license, according to the status report.
As corrective action, the charge involving the man with the ICE detainer was dismissed in state court, and prosecutors filed a motion that was granted to vacate the charge for illegal entry in the second case, R.J. Larizza, state attorney for the jurisdiction that covers St. Johns County, said in a separate filing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation into law in February as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Immigrants rights groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of two unnamed, Florida-based immigrants living in the U.S. illegally shortly after the bill was signed into law. The lawsuit said the new legislation violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by encroaching on federal duties.
Williams issued a temporary restraining order and injunction that barred the enforcement of the new law statewide in April. The attorney general's office then unsuccessfully petitioned the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to override that decision. Uthmeier has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
After Williams issued her original order, Uthmeier sent a memo to state and local law enforcement officers telling them to refrain from enforcing the law, even though he disagreed with the injunction. But five days later, he sent a memo saying the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn't prevent police officers and deputies from enforcing the law.
The judge last month found Uthmeier to be in civil contempt of her ruling.
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Read Trump's lawsuit against Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein reporting
Donald Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman. In the filing, Trump calls the Wall Street Journal's report 'false and defamatory' and demands at least $10bn in damages and court costs from Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters, News Corporation chief executive Robert Thomson and related corporate entities. Read the court documents in full:
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘The ghost of Epstein is haunting Trump's presidency': inside the ‘Maga' revolt
'I feel so betrayed and so angry. This is not what I voted for.' 'This cemented permanent deep state power.' 'I'm concerned about being able to trust Donald Trump to keep his word.' 'What about justice for these young ladies who were trafficked? What about their justice? Don't they deserve justice?' These were just a few of the calls that besieged conservative radio hosts across the US this week. The president's ardent supporters spent the past decade fulminating over various foes, from Barack Obama and the deep state to undocumented immigrants and transgender children. Now they have a new target: Donald Trump himself. The 'Make America Great Again' (Maga) base is in revolt as never before. The trigger was Trump's broken promise to publicly release details about Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, who was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died in jail in 2019. Spurred by the president and his allies, Trump's movement has long latched on to the Epstein scandal, claiming the existence of a secret client list and that he was murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up. But last week the justice department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced there was no evidence that the disgraced financier kept such a list or was blackmailing powerful figures. Far from closing the case, the memo deepened supporters' obsession and sense of grievance. A movement defined by the view that elites rig the system against them felt cheated. Trump made efforts to douse the flames with ever-shifting explanations, excuses and distractions but merely poured fuel on the fire. To some, his erratic and evasive behaviour implies a guilty secret. It also evokes a line from President John F Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address: 'Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.' Having spent years embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only saviour who can demolish the 'deep state', Trump is now seen as co-opted by its corrupt bureaucracy. Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who ran against Trump for president in 2020, said: 'I talk to the base every day and nothing animates the base more than the deep state. This Epstein thing was Trump's promise. This was going to finally expose the deep state. Now Trump says nothing there? It ain't going to stand.' Epstein was first charged with sex offences in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter at his Florida home. He avoided federal charges due to a controversial plea deal that saw him jailed for just under 13 months. In 2019 he was arrested again in New York and charged with trafficking dozens of teenage girls and engaging in sex acts with them in exchange for money. A separate case against Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for helping him abuse girls, detailed Epstein's connections with high-profile figures such as Britain's Prince Andrew and the former US president Bill Clinton. Both have denied any wrongdoing. In 2019 – during Trump's first term as president – Epstein was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself, according to the authorities. Sceptics point to suspicious circumstances such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, along with other irregularities. They also speculate that the government is concealing details about the Epstein case to protect wealthy and influential clients, including Trump, a longtime associate who in 2002 told New York magazine: 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent a letter featuring a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein in 2003. The president denied writing the letter or drawing the figure, and sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters on Friday. When he was running for president, Trump said he would release files related to the case. But a bundle put out in February contained little new information. Then in June the spotlight turned back on the president when his former adviser Elon Musk claimed – in a now-deleted X post – that Trump is 'in the Epstein files'. Just a month later, a memo from the justice department and FBI said the Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation. An almost 11-hour video published to dispel theories Epstein was murdered showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died but appeared to be missing a minute of footage. The Maga faithful erupted in fury. Media personality Tucker Carlson, activist Laura Loomer and Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon claim the government's handling of the case lacks transparency. The far-right commentator Jack Posobiec said he would not rest 'until we go full Jan 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files'. Baffled, flailing and unusually out of step, Trump used his Truth Social platform to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, over the issue. 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals'?' Trump wrote. 'They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening.' He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration – 'all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein'. Yet while Trump has defeated many political foes, he has never had to take on his own base. Taking a scattergun approach, he said he supported the release of any 'credible' files related to Epstein while downplaying the case as 'pretty boring stuff'. He suggested without citing evidence they were 'made up' by former FBI director James Comey and former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The president even lashed out at his own supporters, calling them 'weaklings' for falling for what he called a 'radical left' hoax by the opposition to discredit him. 'I don't want their support anymore!' he wrote. Some responded by burning their Maga caps in protest. Still the pressure continued to build. Mike Pence, his former vice-president, said in an interview with CBS News that 'the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein's investigation and prosecution'. Even Mike Johnson, the loyal Republican speaker of the House, broke from Trump on the issue and urged the justice department to make public any documents linked to Epstein. A small but growing band of House Republicans followed suit. Musk put dozens of posts on X accusing Trump of a 'cover-up'. On Thursday the president made a concession by announcing that he will ask a court to allow the release of grand jury testimony in the case. It was the latest effort to defuse a crisis of his own making. His political career gained traction with the help of the 'birther' movement, pushing the racist idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore an illegitimate president. He was content to accept support from followers of QAnon, an antisemitic theory involving Satan-worshipping cannibals and a child sex-trafficking ring. Trump also cultivated the ultimate political conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, a 'big lie' that culminated in the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. 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He's doing this Jedi mind trick where he is trying to say, no this is not the conspiracy theory you actually care about.' Trump has already tested his base's loyalty in recent weeks by bombing Iran and pledging support for Ukraine, despite a pledge to avoid foreign entanglements, as well as signing a tax and spending bill that will strip health insurance from millions of people. But Epstein is different: a binary view of liberal elites as paedophiles, and Republicans as protectors of children, has become foundational. Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster, commented: 'One of the reasons why the Maga base was so obsessed is that it gave them licence to genuinely hate and loathe their political opponents, to consider that the Democrats were not merely wrong on the issues, that they were part of this evil paedophile cabal. 'That is the justification for so much of what Trumpism has become and suddenly to pull the rug out from under the base was a radical and a risky move. For once Trump has overestimated his ability to shape reality to his own will.' It is a rare political gift for Democrats, who have been reeling since Trump's victory in November and struggling to thwart his expansion of presidential power. Several Democrats on Capitol Hill have called for the release of all Epstein files and suggested that Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. Ro Khanna, a congressman from California whose measure that would have forced Bondi to publish all documents related to Epstein online was blocked by Republicans, said: 'The Republicans are basically protecting the rich and powerful. That's what the Epstein case is about: the rich and powerful men who were allegedly sleeping with underage girls and they should not have impunity. 'They're being protected, possibly because they're donors to people in Washington, because they play golf with people in Washington. So this is a question of whose side are you on? The Democratic party has a chance to have a rebirth of populism, to say we're on the side of the people, we get that this town hasn't worked for ordinary people for too long.' Some veterans of bareknuckle political fights of the past, however, warn that Democrats are still not rising to the moment. If the tables were turned and a Democratic president was suppressing such delicate information, it seems likely that Republicans would be aggressively flooding the airwaves demanding investigations and impeachment. Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: 'It's just weak. From a leadership perspective, there's an inability to put the knife in and twist it. 'There is a reluctance because of the tawdriness of it all to appreciate that for Democrats, they lost an election to the most prolific liar because he was perceived as being more honest in the eyes of the American people. This is a prime example to strip him of that in the eyes of his most fervent supporters, and at least move them by some percentage to the sidelines and demotivate them.' Schmidt advocates a national advertising campaign and series of town halls in which Democrats demand an end to the cover-up and ask what Trump and Bondi are hiding. 'This is a moment where Trump is weak, he's perturbed, he's disturbed – and what you do is you hit him.' Public opinion is turning against the president. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 69% of respondents thought the federal government was hiding details about Epstein's clients, compared with 6% who disagreed and about one in four who said they were not sure. Tara Setmayer, a Trump critic and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, believes the sense of betrayal could translate into a repudiation in next year's midterm elections for the House of Representatives and Senate. She said: 'Is there perhaps a political awakening happening with the most rabid of the Maga base? There may be some weakness here that could be exploited. Where it could hurt Trump in the midterms is by depressing the vote of Maga. They'll stay home and in these key swing districts where one or two percentage points difference can make all the difference in the House.' Walsh, the former congressman, agreed. He commented: 'It'll cause a lot of Trump supporters to not even vote because remember a lot of his supporters aren't Republicans; they are attached to him. If they're utterly disillusioned that the guy they thought was going to be the ultimate slayer of the deep state now is part of the deep state they're going to check out and that's going to hurt Republicans.' He added: 'Trump's legacy is the destruction of truth. He lies as he breathes and his lies to his supporters have made him popular among his supporters, so it's beautiful that he may actually be crucified on one of his lies.'
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Trump suing Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for $10bn after Epstein letter report
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the publication's owner, News Corp. The US president has accused the named individuals of defamation, claiming they acted with malicious intent and caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm. The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami, seeks at least $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages. In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump called the lawsuit "historic legal action" which he said was filed on behalf of himself and all Americans who will "no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media". "I hope Rupert and his 'friends' are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case," he wrote. It comes after Mr Trump claimed that a letter he allegedly wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was "fake" and said he would sue the "ass off" Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first published the story. The publication had said Mr Trump wrote the letter as part of a collection Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, planned to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003. It claimed the message, allegedly from Mr Trump, featured several lines of typewritten text, concluding with: "May every day be another wonderful secret." The text was framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, the WSJ claimed. The letter is also said to have featured the signature "Donald". Mr Trump immediately denied writing the letter when the WSJ report was published on Thursday night. 2:28 "The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein," he wrote on Truth Social. "These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper." Mr Trump ignored questions about Epstein as he signed a cryptocurrency bill at the White House earlier on Friday. The president's lawsuit comes as the US government filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019. In a Manhattan federal court filing, the Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts. Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of "the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein". The justice department previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony, which is typically kept secret under US law. The president has faced increased scrutiny over his alleged friendship with Epstein since his administration's U-turn on the so-called 'Epstein files'. Mr Trump pledged to release files on Epstein during his presidential campaign, as his MAGA movement accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein's paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called "client list" - thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in his child sex trafficking operation. But after a review of the evidence the US government has, the Justice Department recently determined that no "further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted".
