DOJ Asks Court To Release Grand Jury Testimony In Epstein Case - Laura Coates Live - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
The Trump administration's chaotic handling of the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files continued Friday as the Justice Department asked a federal judge to make public years-old grand jury testimony made behind closed doors against the convicted sex offender. In its filing, the department justified releasing the heretofore secret evidence as 'a matter of public interest.'
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump administration asks judges to release Epstein, Maxwell grand jury transcripts
By Luc Cohen and Jack Queen NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump's administration urged two judges on Tuesday night to release testimony heard by the grand juries that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges as the president seeks to calm an uproar over his administration's handling of the matter. The Justice Department first sought court permission on July 18 to make public transcripts of the confidential testimony given by witnesses years ago in the two cases, but Manhattan-based U.S. District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer asked the government to flesh out the legal bases for the requests. In a pair of court filings just before midnight, prosecutors said unsealing the materials would be appropriate given the "abundant public interest" in the Epstein case and persistent scrutiny of how it was handled by federal law enforcement. The Epstein case has been at the center of conspiracy theories for years. Trump has faced pressure in recent months to make public documents from the federal investigations into Epstein and Maxwell. Epstein hanged himself in jail in 2019, an autopsy concluded, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges brought by federal prosecutors. He had pleaded not guilty. Maxwell, Epstein's longtime girlfriend, was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking charges and is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida. Maxwell had pleaded not guilty and is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her conviction. Trump said this month he had asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of grand jury transcripts in the two cases. The president did so after the Justice Department said it concluded that Epstein died by suicide and that there was no incriminating list of his clients. The Justice Department's announcement angered some of Trump's conservative supporters who believe the government is covering up Epstein's ties to the rich and powerful and that the financier was murdered in jail. Grand juries are convened by prosecutors and meet in secret to hear witness testimony and decide whether to indict people suspected of crimes. Records of their proceedings usually remain sealed. There are only limited circumstances under which such transcripts can be disclosed. Even if one or both of the judges allow the transcripts to be made public, it is not clear whether the public would learn anything new or noteworthy. Maxwell's four-week trial in 2021 included public testimony from alleged sex trafficking victims, associates of Epstein and Maxwell, and law enforcement officers. The transcripts also would not represent all the previously unreleased material in the government's possession. Investigators and prosecutors may pursue leads that they cannot substantiate or interview potential witnesses whom they do not ultimately call to testify before a grand jury. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in Florida on July 23 denied the administration's request to unseal records from grand jury investigations in 2005 and 2007 in that state into Epstein. The judge found that the request did not fall into any of the limited exceptions that may allow for the release of such material. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a prostitution charge brought under Florida law and was given a 13-month sentence in a deal with prosecutors now widely regarded as too lenient. Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, last week met with Maxwell for two days to see if she had any information about others who had committed crimes. Maxwell's lawyer David Markus and Blanche have not provided detailed accounts of their discussions.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Senate votes to confirm Trump's defense lawyer Emil Bove to a U.S. appeals court
WASHINGTON — The Senate on a party-line vote on Tuesday confirmed Emil J. Bove, President Trump's defense lawyer and loyal ally atop the Justice Department, to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The vote was 49 to 50. Bove, 44, was a highly controversial judicial nominee, not because of his legal views, but because he led a purge of prosecutors and FBI agents who had worked on cases growing out of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Before this year, the Justice Department held to a tradition of keeping politics out of law enforcement. But Bove and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi saw their missions as carrying out the wishes of President Trump, including his plans for retribution against the prosecutors and investigators who brought charges against him or the 1,500 Trump allies who stormed the Capitol and fought with police. In the first weeks of Trump's second term, Bove served as the acting head of the Justice Department before Bondi was confirmed by the Senate. Bove also ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop bribery and corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. The move prompted several of them to resign over what they saw as an unethical deal to win the mayor's cooperation in the administration's plan to round up immigrants who are in the country illegally. Bove also played a key role in the new administration's clash with a federal judge over deporting Venezuelans to a brutal prison in El Salvador. A former Justice Department attorney-turned-whistleblower said Bove told government lawyers they should ignore orders from the judge who sought to halt the deportations. When Bove appeared before a Senate committee as a judicial nominee, he said he had been misunderstood and unfairly criticized. 'I am not an enforcer' or 'anybody's henchman,' he said. Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche, who partnered with Bove in defending Trump last year, said he had been smeared by unfair criticism. 'Emil is the most capable and principled lawyer I have ever known,' he wrote in a Fox News opinion column. Democrats said Bove did not deserve a promotion to the federal courts. Sen. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) described Bove as a partisan loyalist who served Trump as 'the instrument of his vengeance.' 'When Trump wanted to purge the department of prosecutors who had proved to juries beyond a reasonable doubt that the violent offenders who attacked police officers that day did so to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power, Emil Bove was there to punish not the criminals, but the prosecutors,' Schiff said in opposing the nomination. On Tuesday, Bove was called a 'diligent, capable and fair jurist' by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), according to the Associated Press. Bove is not likely to have much influence on the 3rd Circuit Court. Its 14 judges hear appeals from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Bove has no experience as a judge and has not written on legal or constitutional issues. However, if Justices Clarence Thomas or Samuel A. Alito were to retire in the next three years, Trump could nominate him to the Supreme Court. His nomination drew an unusually broad opposition from the legal community. In a July 15 letter to the Senate, 80 former and retired judges said confirming Bove to a life-term judgeship undercuts the rule of law and respect for the federal courts. They said his 'egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position.' More than 900 former Justice Department attorneys signed a letter to the Senate saying 'it is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land.' Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, became the first Republican to declare her opposition to his nomination. 'We have to have judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution and do so regardless of what their personal views may be,' she said in a statement. 'Mr. Bove's political profile and some of the actions he has taken in his leadership roles at the Department of Justice cause me to conclude he would not serve as as impartial jurist. Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans to vote against Bove.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Emil Bove appointed to appellate court despite whistleblowers
1 of 3 | Emil Bove, attorney for former President Donald Trump, sits in the courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Trump's trial is entering it's third week on charges he allegedly falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential campaign. Pool photo by Jeenah Moon/UPI | License Photo July 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly approved Emil Bove, who served as President Donald Trump's personal defense attorney, for a lifetime judicial appointment despite facing multiple whistleblower complaints. Bove was confirmed as a judge on the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals on a 50-49 vote, with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voting with Democrats against him. Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee was absent. The vote follows one of the most heated sets of Senate hearings on any of Trump's judicial nominees. Three whistleblowers alleged that Bove, a high-ranking Justice Department official, misled lawyers and pressed career prosecutors to ignore court orders to advance Trump's political goals. Bove has denied the allegations, calling them "partisan attacks." Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an X post that Bove was "a terrible choice for the federal bench." "Mr. Bove's primary qualification appears to be his blind loyalty to this president," Durbin wrote. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the committee, responded during a floor speech saying Democrats' attacks on Bove were unfair and he saw no evidence of misconduct. "Since the very beginning of this Congress, Democrats have engaged in a relentless obstruction campaign for nearly every one of President Trump's nominees," he said. The first whistleblower complaint was filed by Erez Reuveni, a now fired Department of Justice lawyer, who accused Bove of directing the Trump administration to disregard a court order to stop deporting migrants to a Salvadoran prison. A second complaint from an unnamed Department of Justice attorney backs up the first, claiming that Bove and other officials were "actively and deliberately undermining the rule of law." As the Senate neared its final vote on the nomination, a third whistleblower complaint accused Bove of misleading lawmakers when he denied pressing prosecutors to help broker the dismissal of the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, reports The Washington Post. Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated Bove's confirmation in a post on X. "This is a GREAT day for out country," she said, while thanking him for "his tireless work and support" at the Justice Department. "He will be missed -- and he will be an outstanding judge," she said.
