DoJ drops cases against LA protesters after officers caught making false claims
The officers' testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) amid the unrest. The DoJ has charged at least 26 people with 'assaulting' and 'impeding' federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers' inaccurate reports, court records show.
The DoJ has also dismissed at least three felony assault cases it brought against Angelenos accused of interfering with arrests during recent immigration raids, the documents show.
The rapid felony dismissals are a major embarrassment for the Trump-appointed US attorney for southern California, Bill Essayli, and appeared to be the result of an unusual series of missteps by the DoJ, former federal prosecutors said.
The Guardian's review of records found:
Out of nine 'assault' and 'impeding' felony cases the DoJ filed immediately after the start of the protests and promoted by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecutors dismissed seven of them soon after filing the charges.
In reports that led to the detention and prosecution of at least five demonstrators, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents made false statements about the sequence of events and misrepresented incidents captured on video.
One DHS agent accused a protester of shoving an officer, when footage appeared to show the opposite: the officer forcefully pushed the protester.
One indictment named the wrong defendant, a stunning error that has jeopardized one of the government's most high-profile cases.
'When I see felonies dismissed, that tells me either the federal officers have filed affidavits that are not truthful and that has been uncovered, or US attorneys reviewing the cases realize the evidence does not support the charges,' said Cristine Soto DeBerry, a former California state prosecutor who is now director of Prosecutors Alliance Action, a criminal justice reform group.
She said officers often call for charges that prosecutors don't end up filing, but it was uncommon for the DoJ to file, then dismiss cases, especially numerous felonies in rapid succession.
'It seems this is a way to detain people, hold them in custody, instill fear and discourage people from exercising their first amendment rights,' DeBerry said.
There are at least 18 cases brought by the DoJ against LA protesters that prosecutors have not dismissed, covering a wide array of alleged criminal conduct, according to case records the US attorney's office shared with the Guardian. In three of those cases, protesters have agreed to plea deals, including one defendant accused of spitting at an officer and another who allegedly threw rocks. Some still facing charges are accused of throwing bottles and molotov cocktails, pointing a laser at a helicopter and aiding in civil disorder by distributing gas masks.
In six of the felony dismissals reviewed by the Guardian, the DoJ has re-filed lower-level misdemeanors against the defendants.
For the many protesters whose charges were withdrawn or scaled back, the officers' initial allegations, as well as the DoJ's filings, have deeply impacted their lives. All the demonstrators who won dismissals spent time in jail before the government's cases against them fell apart.
'We are not the violent ones,' said Jose Mojica, one of the protesters whose assault case was dismissed, in an earlier Guardian interview. 'They are chasing down innocent people.'
The DoJ's initial wave of cases stemmed from one of the first major protests in the LA region, a demonstration on 7 June in the south Los Angeles city of Paramount. Border patrol sightings had sparked fears that agents were targeting laborers at a Home Depot, and as dozens of locals and demonstrators gathered outside an office complex that houses DHS, officers fired teargas and flash-bang grenades while some protesters threw objects.
The US attorney's office filed a joint case against five demonstrators, charging each with assaulting officers, a felony the DoJ warned could carry 20-year sentences.
A criminal complaint, written by DHS and filed in court by the DoJ on 8 June, said that as the crowd grew, some protesters 'turned violent'. Two sisters, Ashley, 20, and Joceline Rodriguez, 26, began 'blocking' officers' vehicles, the complaint alleged. When a border patrol agent attempted to move Ashley, she 'resisted' and 'shoved the agent with both her hands', then Joceline 'grabbed the arm' of one of the agents to prevent her sister's arrest, the charges said. Both were arrested.
In an investigative file, DHS suggested that 'in response' to the sisters' arrest, Christian Cerna-Camacho, another protester, began to 'verbally harass' agents, making threatening remarks. Demonstrator Brayan Ramos-Brito, then 'pushed [an] agent in the chest', DHS claimed, at which point, a fifth protester, Jose Mojica, 'used his body to physically shield' Ramos-Brito and then 'elbowed and pushed' agents. Agents then 'subdued' and arrested Mojica and Ramos-Brito, the complaint said.
All five defendants are Latino US citizens.
DHS's own subsequent reports, however, reveal multiple factual discrepancies in the narrative initially presented by officers and prosecutors. While the complaint suggested Cerna-Camacho, Ramos Brito and Mojica attacked agents in protest of the sisters' arrest, records show the women were arrested in a separate incident – which occurred after the men were detained.
Border patrol agent Eduardo Mejorado, a key witness considered a victim of the assaults, appeared to initially give inaccurate testimony about the order of events. He 'clarified' the timeline when questioned, a DHS special agent wrote in a report three days after charges were filed. A supervisor on the scene also documented the correct chronology in a later report and 'apologized' for errors, saying, 'Due to the chaos of the events that day, some events may have been miscommunicated'. Mojica had outlined the discrepancies in an interview with the Guardian days after his arrest.
The DHS special agent also noted that defense lawyers had presented video they said was 'in direct contrast to the facts' laid out in the initial complaint. The footage, seen by the Guardian, appeared to show an agent pushing Ramos-Brito, not the other way around, before he was taken to the ground along with Mojica, who was also not seen in the footage shoving or assaulting agents.
The agent acknowledged the officer's shoving and said the subsequent 'fight' was 'hard to decipher'. The agent also claimed Ramos-Brito's behavior before he was pushed included 'pre-assault indicators', such as 'clenching fists' and 'getting in [the agent's] face'.
Meanwhile, chaotic social media footage of the arrest of the sisters appeared to show an officer pushing Ashley, prompting her to briefly raise her hand, at which point two agents grabbed her and took her to the ground. Her older sister was then seen briefly touching the arm of one of the agents on top of her sister. Both appeared to be filming with their phones before their arrests, and it's unclear who DHS and the DoJ were alleging were the victims in their purported assaults.
DHS records also show that one supervisor emailed a female border patrol agent seen in the video standing near the sisters, saying he was 'trying to tie that whole event together for prosecution' and looking into a 'rumor' Ashley 'may have shoved' this agent. The agent responded that she had told Ashley to move, but did not say she was shoved.
Within two weeks of the initial charges, the US attorney's office filed motions to dismiss the cases against the sisters, Ramos-Brito and Mojica 'in the interest of justice', without providing further explanation.
The DoJ then filed a new case against the sisters, this time accusing them each of a single misdemeanor, saying they 'assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with' border patrol, but offering no detail. The sisters pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanors; Ashley's lawyer declined to comment and Joceline's attorney did not respond to inquiries.
The DoJ also filed a misdemeanor indictment against Ramos-Brito, but then said it was erroneous and rescinded it, only to refile a misdemeanor in a different format. Ramos-Brito pleaded not guilty and his lawyer didn't respond to emails.
Mojica, who spoke out about how he was injured during his arrest, has not been charged again.
Essayli, the US attorney for LA, who is an ardent Trump supporter appointed this year, initially published mugshots of the defendants, but has not publicly acknowledged that he has since dismissed their felonies. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for Essayli, declined to comment on a detailed list of questions about specific cases. The LA Times reported last week that Essayli was heard 'screaming' at a prosecutor over a grand jury's refusal to indict one of the protesters.
McEvoy said the LA Times story relied on 'factual inaccuracies and anonymous gossip', without offering specifics, adding in an email: 'Our office will continue working unapologetically to charge all those who assault our agents or impede our federal investigations.'
Bondi defended Essayli in a statement, calling him a 'champion for law and order who has done superlative work to prosecute rioters for attacking and obstructing law enforcement in Los Angeles'. She added: 'This Department of Justice is proud of Bill, and he has my complete support as he continues working to protect Californians and Make America Safe Again.'
Jaime Ruiz, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border patrol, did not respond to detailed questions about cases and officers' inaccurate testimony, saying the department is 'unable to comment on cases under active litigation'.
'DHS and its components continue to enforce the law every day in greater Los Angeles even in the face of danger,' he added. 'Our officers are facing a surge in assaults and attacks against them as they put their lives on the line to enforce our nation's laws. Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been clear: If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, added in a statement: 'Our agents, officers, and prosecutors will continue to work together to keep Americans safe, and we will follow the facts, evidence, and law.' Mejorado, the border patrol agent, could not be reached.
Cerna-Camacho is the only defendant of the five whose original charges are still pending, but when he showed up to court for his recent arraignment, the DoJ attorney was forced to admit his office had made an error: the one-paragraph indictment filed against Cerna-Camacho erroneously named Ramos Brito. Cerna-Camacho's lawyers have argued that the government's 30-day window to indict his client had passed, and the case must be dismissed. Cerna-Camacho pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer declined to comment.
'This is an extraordinary mistake and a dangerous embarrassment,' said Sergio Perez, a former DoJ lawyer who is now executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, a California-based legal advocacy group, about Cerna-Camacho's case. 'The US Department of Justice is supposed to be the pinnacle of professional and responsible criminal prosecutions. When you can't get the name right, it calls into question all other factual assertions in those documents. It's way beyond a clerical error. It's smoke where there is likely fire.'
The case is a significant one for the Trump administration. Cerna-Camacho was arrested four days after the protest, when two unmarked vehicles rammed his car while his toddler and infant were inside, with officers deploying teargas. The incident caused outrage locally.
But DHS aggressively defended the arrest, publishing a photo of Cerna-Camachobeing detained, and saying he had 'punched' a border patrol officer at the Paramount protests. Video from the protest showed Cerna-Camacho and an officer scuffling in a chaotic crowd, with Cerna-Camacho at one point raising his hand, but it's unclear if he made contact with the officer.
In an initial complaint against Jacob Terrazas, DHS accused the man of felony assault, saying he was 'one of several individuals … actively throwing hard objects [at officers]' during the Paramount protests, without referencing specific evidence or details. Video of his arrest showed an officer slamming him to the ground, and at his arraignment, Terrazas appeared badly concussed, and a judge ordered he immediately get medical attention.
Terrazas was released after nine days in jail, then two days later, the DoJ moved to dismiss the case. However, prosecutors filed a new misdemeanor charge, accusing him of a 'simple assault' misdemeanor, saying he 'aided and abetted' others and 'forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with' a border patrol employee, without providing details. Tarrazas has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer did not respond to inquiries.
The government has also dismissed its 'conspiracy to impede an officer' felony charges against Gisselle Medina, but then filed an 'accessory' to 'assault' misdemeanor, claiming in a brief charging document that she had 'assisted the offenders'. The charges did not offer any details on how she allegedly assisted others. Medina has not yet been arraigned and her lawyer did not respond to inquiries.
The DoJ also recently dismissed felony assault charges against Russell Gomez Dzul, who had been stopped 7 June by border patrol when officers deemed him suspicious for appearing 'nervous' near them and biking away, but then filed a simple assault misdemeanor, without offering details. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. Andrea Velez, a US citizen arrested during a 24 June raid in downtown LA on her way to work, also had a felony assault charge dismissed this month, and has not faced further prosecution.
One of the only cases from the first round of prosecutions that the government has not dropped is the one that made international headlines – the arrest of David Huerta, a prominent California union leader jailed while observing an immigration raid.
Carley Palmer, a lawyer who served as a supervisor in the US attorney's office in LA until she left last year, said the dismissals and downgrading of charges likely occurred after more in-depth evaluation by line prosecutors and supervisors, and in some ways reflected 'the process working': 'We want prosecutors to feel they can reevaluate evidence and change their mind when new information comes to light.' Prosecutors might dismiss cases if a grand jury declines to indict, if they believe they can't persuade jurors at trial, or if they learn officers violated the defendants' rights, she added.
The LA Times reported that Essayli has struggled to secure indictments at grand juries.
Palmer, now an attorney at the Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg firm, said it was unusual, however, for the office to prosecute these kinds of 'he said she said' protest scuffles in the first place, taking away resources from traditional priorities, including fraud, economic crimes, public corruption and civil rights abuses.
'Federal charges are very serious and have real implications for people's lives,' Palmer added. 'Even if it gets dismissed, it will be on someone's record for the rest of their lives. It carries a lot of consequences, so you want prosecutors to understand and appreciate the power they have.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
College endowment tax is leading to hiring freezes and could mean cuts in financial aid
A big increase in the tax on university endowments is adding to financial uncertainty for the wealthiest colleges in the U.S., leading several already to lay off staff or implement hiring freezes. Spending more endowment money on taxes could also lead colleges to reduce financial aid, cutting off access to elite institutions for lower-income students, colleges and industry experts have warned. President Donald Trump signed the tax increase into law last month as part of his signature spending bill. The new tax rates take effect in 2026, but colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford already are citing the tax as one of many reasons for making cuts across their universities. Each will be on the hook to pay hundreds of millions more in taxes, while also navigating reductions in research grants and other threats to funding by the Trump administration. A tax on college endowments was introduced during Trump's first administration, collecting 1.4% of wealthy universities' investment earnings. The law signed by Trump last month creates a new tiered system that taxes the richest schools at the highest rates. The new tax will charge an 8% rate at schools with $2 million or more in assets for each enrolled student. Schools with $750,000 to $2 million will be charged 4%, and schools with $500,000 to $750,000 will continue to be charged the 1.4% rate. The tax applies only to private colleges and universities with at least 3,000 students, up from the previous cutoff of 500 students. 'The tax now will really solely apply to private research universities,' said Steven Bloom, assistant vice president of government relations for the American Council on Education. 'It's going to mean that these schools are going to have to spend more money under the tax, taking it away from what they primarily use their endowment assets for — financial aid.' This small group of wealthy colleges faces a tax increase The law will increase the endowment tax for about a dozen universities, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are expected to pay the 8% rate next year. The schools facing the 4% rate include Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, Rice University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt University. Some universities are on the edge of the law's parameters. Both Duke and Emory, for instance, were shy of the $750,000-per-student endowment threshold based on last fiscal year. Endowments are made up of donations to the college, which are invested to maintain the money over time. Colleges often spend about 5% of their investment earnings every year to put toward their budgets. Much of it goes toward scholarships for students, along with costs such as research or endowed faculty positions. Despite the colleges' wealth, the tax will drastically impact their budgets, said Phillip Levine, an economist and professor at Wellesley College. 'They're looking for savings wherever possible,' Levine said, which could impact financial aid. ' One of the most important things they do with their endowment is lower the cost of education for lower- and middle-income students. The institutions paying the highest tax are also the ones charging these students the least amount of money to attend.' For example, at Rice University in Houston, officials anticipate the college will need to pay $6.4 million more in taxes. That equates to more than 100 student financial aid packages, the university said, but Rice officials will explore all other options to avoid cutting that support. How colleges are adjusting to financial pressures In the meantime, some universities are going forward with staff cuts. Yale University says it will have to pay an estimated $280 million in total endowment taxes, citing the tax in a campus message implementing a hiring freeze. Stanford University announced plans to reduce its operating budget by $140 million this upcoming school year, which included 363 layoffs and an ongoing hiring freeze. The university spent months trying to determine where to reduce its budget, but said it would continue to support undergraduate financial aid and funding for Ph.D. students. Research universities are under increasing financial pressure from reductions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. No university knows this pressure better than Harvard, the country's wealthiest college. Its $53 billion endowment puts it at the top of the list for the new tax, but it's also seeing massive portions of research funding under threat in its ongoing battle with the White House. The federal government has frozen $2.6 billion in Harvard's research grants in connection with civil rights investigations focused on antisemitism and Harvard's efforts to promote diversity on campus. But the impact of other administration policies on the university could approach $1 billion annually, Harvard said in a statement. 'It's not like Harvard is going to go from one of the best institutions in the world to just a mediocre institution. That's probably not going to happen," Levine said. 'But that doesn't mean it's not going to be a bad thing — that there won't be pain and that students won't suffer.' ___ Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Sharon Lurye in Philadelphia contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Mom reveals awful way she found out about designer daughter's death
The mom of an fashion designer, who was found dead at a Hamptons yacht club this week, said her other daughter was 'crying and shaking' as she broke the news to her. Ireland-born Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra's body was found at Montauk Yacht Club, New York, on Tuesday - triggering an investigation into her death. 'I don't know what happened to my daughter,' Elma Nolan, she said days after Martha, 33, was tragically found dead. She said that her youngest daughter and Martha's sister, Jacqui, broke the horrifying news to her, saying she 'arrived on Tuesday night and she was crying and shaking.' 'She said, "I have terrible news. Martha's dead,"' Elma recalled to the Irish Independent. Investigators have not yet said how Martha died aboard a luxury yacht. No arrests have been made. Although detectives said that Nolan-O'Slatarra's body did not show signs of violence, they have not yet ruled out foul play. The 33-year-old moved to Manhattan from the small village of Carlow, Ireland in 2018, and founded fashion swimwear label East x East. Her heartbroken mom said the tragedy came as her daughter was planning a trip home to visit her family in Carlow. Recalling her last phone call with her daughter, Elma said that they briefly discussed Martha's travel plans for her vacation home to Ireland. 'She wanted to know if I would be around to pick her up,' she said. 'It was a very quick call because she is so busy. But that's the last time we spoke.' She said she has been waiting for answers over what happened to Martha, who was found unconscious aboard the docked yacht around midnight Tuesday before being declared dead at the scene. One boater at the scene described the ship as a 'party boat' and told Daily Mail she heard screams when the woman's body was found. Many in the wealthy enclave have now been left reeling as questions remain about what may have happened to the Manhattan resident, whom locals described to the New York Post as 'well-known in the community'. 'She was very friendly, always smiling,' one local said. 'There's going to be a lot of conversation out of this.' Another regular at the Yacht Club claimed Nolan-O'Slatarra's boyfriend owns the boat - which is registered in Long Beach, New York - and told Daily Mail that whenever she saw the boat owner he would be 'drunk and always messed up.' As Nolan-O'Slattara fell unconscious Monday night, she said, the boat owner was seen running outside naked screaming 'that's my girlfriend' as he tried to get help from other boaters. The fashion designer lived a ritzy lifestyle in New York City before her untimely death, and often shared pictures of herself enjoying private jets and living it up with her glamorous pals. On her TikTok account, Nolan-O'Slatarra was seen with her friends taking a Falcon jet to Nashville for a concert in 2021, with the designer highlighting her '#milehighclub' and '#privatejet' life in the captions. Last October, she shared a video of herself and a male companion drinking bubbly as they flew over a sunny, rural looking area. She captioned the short clip: 'Heli on up.' Nolan-O'Slattara also shared a TikTok clip of herself with the same man sitting in a luxurious convertible car as it drove through picturesque countryside. She grew up in the small town of Carlow, Ireland, roughly 55 miles outside of Dublin. She left home at 16 after her parents sent her to the highly regarded Institute of Education, a private secondary school in Dublin. In an interview with the Irish Independent last year, Nolan-O'Slatarra said she 'loved' her new life in New York City. 'I was the small town girl who needed to get out to achieve her big dreams,' she said, highlighting how she was 'money driven', 'business driven' and 'always knew I wanted to be successful'. After secondary school, she attended University College Dublin where she studied the fundamentals of business as an undergraduate and later earned a master's degree in digital marketing. Once she completed her degrees, Nolan-O'Slatarra interviewed for graduate scheme positions at major companies, including Deloitte and Ernst & Young, but said she was told it would be nine months before she would be informed of a hiring decision. The entrepreneur was looking for a 'change' in the interim and ended up in the US in 2015 after her dad bought her a one-way ticket to New York City, the newspaper reports. Although she only intended to be in the city for nine months, Nolan-O'Slatarra got a job at fintech start-up Street Diligence, a company that worked with what she described as 'top-tier hedge funds'. She claimed the firm's CEO offered to pursue visa sponsorship after she successfully landed investment bank Jefferies as a client. She left Street Diligence after two years, bouncing around at multiple companies before starting her firm Brand Growth Consultants in 2021. She launched several companies that same year, including her direct-to-consumer Amazon brand Duper and her resort wear line East x East, her LinkedIn page reveals. East x East had a brand shoot in Mallorca, Spain in 2023. Just weeks ago, Nolan-O'Slatarra celebrated the grand opening of the brand's popup shop at Gurney's Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa. 'Goals Achieved,' she wrote on a video shared of the shack housing her bikinis and beach wear shared on TikTok on July 1 as she encouraged the public to come visit. Nolan-O'Slatarra was also appointed director of operations at K4 Capital Management, an investment management firm, in June last year.
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump's attempts to distance himself from the Epstein files are failing
One of Trump's preternatural abilities is his apparent animal instinct to lie on the spot whenever he senses he might be cornered. His initial Pavlovian training by his mob lawyer Roy Cohn and subsequent experience in more than 4,000 lawsuits and countless scandals seem to have ingrained in him that lying, the more outrageous the better, buys him time, plays to his credulous followers as insouciant defiance, and wears down his accusers. When Trump's distractions failed to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files, he offered a story without missing a beat to distance himself from any taint. In his tale, he was traduced by Epstein. Trump was taken advantage of, violated, despoiled. There could be no guilt by association; Trump was a victim, too. Perhaps, after claiming to no effect that Barack Obama, Joe Biden and the former FBI director James Comey had fabricated the files, he felt that he had at last found ground where he could gain some traction. Trump always designates a scapegoat, but neither Tren de Agua nor Hunter Biden would fit with Epstein. All along, Trump has missed the easiest and most obvious scapegoat. Why not blame Epstein for Epstein? Trump just needed to invent a story. He began by blurting on 28 July: 'But for years, I wouldn't talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn't talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said, 'Don't ever do that again.' He stole people that worked for me. I said, 'Don't ever do that again.' He did it again. And I threw him out of the place – persona non grata. I threw him out, and that was it. I'm glad I did, if you want to know the truth.' After establishing the premise of his story, he added more detail the next day. 'People that work in the spa – I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago – and people were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone. And other people would come and complain, 'This guy is taking people from the spa.' I didn't know that. He took people that worked for me. And I told him, 'Don't do it any more.' And he did it. I said, 'Stay the hell out of here.'' A reporter followed up to ask if any of those employees were young women, an opportunity for further Trump story enhancement. 'The answer is yes, they were in the spa,' Trump said. 'I told him, I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa' … And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again.' Then Trump was asked if one of those young women was Virginia Giuffre, who was exploited by Epstein beginning at age 16 in 2000 until she escaped his clutches in 2002, eventually filing lawsuits against him that helped break the case open. 'I think she worked at the spa,' Trump replied. 'I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her.' He added, 'And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know – none whatsoever.' Trump's self-defensive remarks were an accumulation of lies and distortions, each one at risk of tumbling on the next. Unfortunately, it was contradicted by the factual timeline. And his comments about Giuffre, the tragically abused child who bore witness, for whom he offered not a word of sympathy, depicting her as stolen property, offended the Giuffre family, who came forward to denounce his heartlessness. '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,' read the family's statement. This was not the public relations success that Trump had hoped for to lay the Epstein scandal to rest. Trump suggested in his story that Giuffre was only one of the 'people' Epstein had poached from him. In his telling, he first warned Epstein before he 'stole' Giuffre. In fact, it was Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend and accomplice, who recruited Giuffre and participated in her sexual abuse. There is no record of others than Giuffre recruited from the Mar-a-Lago spa. Trump's story of multiple 'people' and his warning to Epstein are baseless. Still, the ever reliable White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: 'The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees.' Trump went on Newsmax to praise her, the press secretary, as if she were the winner of a modeling contest: 'She's become a star. It's that face, it's that brain, it's those lips, the way they move, they move like she's a machine gun.' It was true Trump had not spoken 'for years' to Epstein. But there his truthfulness ended. Three years after Trump claimed he had cut his ties to Epstein for stealing Giuffre, in 2003, Trump sent him a risqué poem celebrating his 50th birthday inside his drawing of a naked woman, signing his name to represent pubic hair, according to the Wall Street Journal. 'We have certain things in common, Jeffrey … A pal is a wonderful thing … and may every day be a wonderful secret.' According to the Washington Post, their relationship ruptured not in 2000 as Trump claimed, but in 2004 over a real estate rivalry to purchase a Palm Beach estate. Trump, whose casinos went bankrupt that year, somehow found the cash to outbid Epstein. Four years later, Trump sold the estate to a Russian oligarch closely tied to Vladimir Putin for double the price, at $95m. 'Don't say Russian,' Trump told a reporter from the Palm Beach Post. He urged the reporter just to write 'foreign'. Trump and Epstein socialized together for years with 'young women', some underage, and often with models, including a party for 'calendar girls' at Mar-a-Lago in 1992, where the two were the only other guests, and Trump's alleged groping of the model Stacey Williams in Trump Tower with Epstein present in 1993. Trump denies these allegations. 'Epstein enjoyed hanging out backstage at beauty pageants and fashion shows with his Palm Beach and New York neighbor and friend Donald Trump, former models said,' the Miami Herald reported. Trump himself owned three beauty pageants. He described going backstage on the Howard Stern radio talk show in 2005: 'You know they're standing there with no clothes … And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.' Trump created Trump Model Management, also known as T Models, in 1999. T Models recruited girls as young as 14 to the US on tourist visas with lavish promises of fame and fortune, and once they arrived paid them minimally. 'It is like modern-day slavery,' said one of the models, Rachel Blais. 'Honestly, they are the most crooked agency I've ever worked for, and I've worked for quite a few.' Epstein wanted a modeling agency of his own. He admired Trump's T Models and sought to replicate it. He invested in one based in Paris operated by Jean-Luc Brunel, a model agency head who was also accused of sex trafficking. Courtney Powell Soerensen, a model, told the Miami Herald: 'Epstein had to have his slimy peons and Brunel was the ideal person to do the job.' Brunel had been the subject of a 60 Minutes exposé as an alleged sexual abuser of models in 1988. In New York, in the 1990s, Brunel lived in Trump Tower. 'The modeling agency was the perfect vehicle for Epstein to get more victims,' Giuffre said. Heather Braden, a model, told the Miami Herald she saw Brunel, Epstein and Trump at parties together frequently in the early 1990s. Brunel was charged with rape in 2021 and died by apparent suicide in a French prison in 2022, about two years after Epstein's apparent suicide. Trump had never before told his self-exonerating story about how he had broken with Epstein over Giuffre. But he had spoken publicly about his relationship with Epstein in 2002, when he rejoiced in their friendship to New York magazine: '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. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' Little remarked upon in the citation of this quote was that Trump's response to the writer appears intended to offer a more positive and vivid picture of Epstein, at least in Trump's eyes, than the reclusive and serious image Epstein was trying to promote. Trump's description was preceded in the article by this set-up: 'Epstein likes to tell people that he's a loner, a man who's never touched alcohol or drugs, and one whose nightlife is far from energetic. And yet if you talk to Donald Trump, a different Epstein emerges.' Trump, always seeking to elevate himself, preened in talking about Epstein as following his example as a Casanova. Now he continues to stonewall the public over the Epstein files. Days after Maxwell was interviewed by the deputy attorney general Todd Blanche in her Florida prison, she was granted transfer to a minimal security penitentiary in Texas. Her move heightens the intrigue surrounding her deposition, which the administration is keeping secret despite calls by Democratic senators for its release. By invoking Giuffre, Trump has activated her family. They were enraged by the favor suddenly granted to Maxwell and wonder whether it is part of a deal. 'President Trump has sent a clear message today: pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter,' read their statement. 'This move smacks of a cover-up. The victims deserve better.' Trump's ill-conceived story about Giuffre has undermined rather than bolstered him in maintaining control of the storyline. Sidney Blumenthal is a Guardian US columnist
