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Ghislaine Maxwell to meet justice officials as lawmakers sent home early to dodge Epstein files vote

Ghislaine Maxwell to meet justice officials as lawmakers sent home early to dodge Epstein files vote

Washington: Ghislaine Maxwell, the former socialite who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with her friend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually exploit girls, is set to meet with the US Justice Department to discuss potential new evidence in the sex-trafficking saga.
Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche – formerly President Donald Trump's lawyer – said he had approached Maxwell's counsel to see if she would speak with prosecutors, and anticipated meeting her 'in the coming days'. Maxwell's lawyer David Oscar Markus confirmed the discussions.
The development instantly sparked speculation Trump could pardon Maxwell if she were to give evidence that did not implicate the president, who is a former friend of Epstein, and whose presence in the so-called Epstein files has long been rumoured.
Trump has come under intense pressure over the Epstein case in the past fortnight, especially from his Make America Great Again base, after the Justice Department and FBI said they would not release any more records from the investigation and the case was effectively closed.
Many MAGA supporters believe well-known Americans or members of the liberal elite are embroiled in the Epstein affair, and have demanded the documents be publicly released. Some do not believe the disgraced financier killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial. The FBI says there is no evidence of foul play.
Trump, who denies any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and says the pair fell out in the 2000s, initially said he supported releasing the records. The White House furnished a group of right-wing podcasters and influencers with a select trove of documents in February, but these proved to contain little new information.
Since then, Trump has played down the scandal, calling it 'boring' and queried why anyone would still be interested in the Epstein matter. He denounced his own supporters for buying into 'bullshit', and said the Epstein matter was a 'hoax' perpetuated by the Democrats.
But amid continuing pressure, he asked Attorney-General Pam Bondi to unseal grand jury transcripts, which represent only a part of the evidence and must be approved by a judge, and release any 'credible' evidence.
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The Stockholm talks come hot on the heels of Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union on Sunday for a 15 per cent tariff on most EU goods exports to the US, including autos. The bloc will also buy $US750 billion worth of American energy and make $US600 billion worth of US investments in coming years. No similar breakthrough is expected in the US-China talks but trade analysts said that another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May was likely. An extension of that length would prevent further escalation and facilitate planning for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October or early November. A US Treasury spokesperson declined comment on a South China Morning Post report quoting unnamed sources as saying the two sides would refrain from introducing new tariffs or other steps that could escalate the trade war for another 90 days. Trump's administration is poised to impose new sectoral tariffs that will impact China within weeks, including on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, ship-to-shore cranes and other products. "We're very close to a deal with China. We really sort of made a deal with China, but we'll see how that goes," Trump told reporters before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck their tariff deal. Previous US-China trade talks in Geneva and London in May and June focused on bringing US and Chinese retaliatory tariffs down from triple-digit levels and restoring the flow of rare earth minerals halted by China and Nvidia's H20 AI chips and other goods halted by the United States. So far, the talks have not delved into broader economic issues. They include US complaints that China's state-led, export-driven model is flooding world markets with cheap goods, and Beijing's complaints that US national security export controls on tech goods seek to stunt Chinese growth. 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Trump has said he will decide soon on a landmark trip to China, and a new flare-up of tariffs and export controls would likely derail planning.

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