Cuts to food stamps are about to hit in America
B Y DAYBREAK in Santa Fe, the line of cars already snakes down the street. Families in sedans, builders in trucks and one off-duty taxi queue up to get frozen chicken, a sack of potatoes and a gallon of milk. Everyone in line at the Food Depot, a food bank, gets served, but one couple in their 50s arrived at 5:20am just to be sure. They receive money for food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme ( SNAP ), a federal welfare programme. It lasts them five days.
The Epstein uproar has revealed an unexpected danger—for the president—of a Justice Department that seems partisan
Fed up with the traditional joints, these businesswomen are shooting their shot
What happens when a president sues a press baron?
The cost of replacing ageing ICBMs is soaring as a new arms race looms
A vast right-wing conspiracy comes for the president
The college drop-out fighting to preserve Donald Trump's youth vote
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell coming clean on Epstein case would be ‘a great service to the country'
Speaker Mike Johnson called on Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, to come clean and told Americans that he "hoped" she could be trusted as he faces the growing uproar around the White House's handling of the investigation. Johnson appeared Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, where moderator Kristen Welker asked him point-blank if the convicted sex-trafficker girlfriend of Epstein could be trusted to accurately testify about the crimes she and Epstein committed. Epstein was awaiting prosecution for sex trafficking underage girls after a previous conviction on similar charges when he died in federal custody. Maxwell has been thrust back into the spotlight as the MAGA base has grown frustrated with President Donald Trump and his administration's shutting down of the so-called Epstein files release. Last week, a top Department of Justice official met with Maxwell about the case. "Well, I mean, look; it's a good question. I hope so," Johnson told Welker in response. "I hope that she would want to come clean." "I hope she's telling the truth. She is convicted, she's serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking. Her character is in some if she wants to come clean now, that would be a great service to the country. We want to know every bit of information that she has." The House Oversight Committee voted this week to issue a subpoena for Maxwell after the Justice Department announced its own plans to speak with her. Agency officials did so for nine hours between Thursday and Friday, after making a statement seeming to confirm that her testimony hadn't been aggressively sought before. Some have called Maxwell to testify and suggested she should be given a pardon for sharing what she knows about the Epstein case. She was convicted of sexual abuse against minors and sex trafficking for helping Epstein carry out crimes. Johnson touted the Oversight subpoena favorably Sunday, casting it as evidence that GOP leadership supported efforts aimed at transparency. The Trump administration turned speculation about Epstein's death and the so-called 'Client List' of his co-conspirators into a raging wildfire in early July. The Justice Department and FBI published a joint memo explaining that future releases from the files would not take place, and that the list of Epstein's accomplices was not found. Epstein was rumored to have cultivated personal relationships with many powerful men and institutions. Critics of the president have alleged that a cover-up is in the works regarding the Epstein files. Democrats have hammered the president for his reversal, and a pair of scoops from the Wall Street Journal have reported on the president's connections to Epstein, to Trump's fury. The newspaper reported the contents of a message allegedly penned by Trump to Epstein as part of a 50th birthday celebration in 2003, including allusions to a shared 'secret' between them. Trump firmly denied authoring the note, and sued the Journal and its reporters in response. A second article from the Journal days later reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that he was mentioned in the Epstein investigation multiple times, thought it was not clear in what context. The White House called that story 'fake' and has repeatedly insinuated that Democrats including Joe Biden tampered with evidence while Trump was out of office. Being mentioned in the files does not mean wrongdoing, and hundreds of names are reportedly included. The lead GOP co-sponsor behind a House resolution that would force the Justice Department to release the entirety of its collected evidence related to Epstein said Sunday that his push was to help the convicted pedophile's victims and would only grow stronger in the coming weeks. Earlier on the same network, Rep. Thomas Massie appeared alongside the resolution's lead Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Ro Khanna, as the two promoted a resolution that would force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release 'all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials' related to the Epstein and Maxwell investigations. Massie told Welker that 'the release of the Epstein files is emblematic of what Trump ran for' and explained that the president's MAGA base expected results. 'There seems to be a class of people beyond the law, beyond the judicial all thought that when Trump was elected, he would be the bull in the china shop and break that all up,' said Massie. Massie went on to say that the Trump administration had lost his trust on the issue after publicly supporting transparency around the investigation, then doing an abrupt about-face. The administration is now calling on its supporters to move on from the issue and focus on hashing out issues with the 2016 'Russiagate' investigation instead of Epstein. Top administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, also spent months calling for the very releases the Justice Department says it won't authorize. 'People who were allegedly working on this weren't sincere in their efforts,' Massie said. 'Somebody should ask Speaker Mike Johnson, why did he recess Congress early so that he didn't have to deal with the Epstein issue?' 'Politics is the art of the doable. There's enough public pressure right now that we can get 218 votes and force this to a vote on the floor,' said Massie. He also firmly rejected a DOJ memo explaining the administration's position against further releases of information from the Epstein files, despite the very public promises of Bondi and others to do the opposite. In the memo, agency officials said that explicit imagery involving children was 'intertwined' throughout the files collected by the Justice Department. Some have said the files should not be released to protect sex-abuse victims of both Maxwell and Epstein. 'That's a straw man [argument],' Massie responded on Sunday, after Welker read part of the memo. 'Ro [Khanna] and I carefully crafted this legislation so that the victims' names would be redacted, and that no child pornography will be released.'
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Thomas Massie says Epstein files need to be released ‘for the victims' and demands a vote to release info
The lead GOP co-sponsor behind a resolution that would force the Justice Department to release the entirety of its collected evidence related to Jeffrey Epstein said Sunday that his push was to help the convicted pedophile's victims and would only grow stronger in the coming weeks. On NBC's Meet the Press, Rep. Thomas Massie appeared alongside the resolution's lead Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Ro Khanna, as the two promoted a resolution that would force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release 'all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials' related to the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell investigations. The issue has become divisive among the Trump-aligned right, especially on podcasting and new media platforms, as Donald Trump angrily insists that his supporters must move on from the investigation and has sought to distract MAGAworld with new allegations about Barack Obama and the investigation into his own 2016 run for the White House. Massie told moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday that 'the release of the Epstein files is emblematic of what Trump ran for' and explained that the president's MAGA base expected results. 'There seems to be a class of people beyond the law, beyond the judicial all thought that when Trump was elected, he would be the bull in the china shop and break that all up,' said Massie.
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ghislaine Maxwell is talking – but what can she tell and can she be believed?
Early one afternoon in April 2016, Ghislaine Maxwell got so angry that she struck a table. Maxwell, who was facing a defamation lawsuit from the late Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre Roberts, was being deposed by attorneys and seemed to grow incensed during questioning. 'I am going to put on the record, Ms Maxwell very inappropriately and very harshly pounded our law firm table in an inappropriate manner,' said Roberts's attorney Sigrid McCawley. 'I ask she take a deep breath, and calm down. I know this is a difficult position, but physical assault or threats is not appropriate – so no pounding, no stomping, no, that's not appropriate.' 'Can we be clear, I didn't threaten anybody,' retorted the British socialite, who in 2021 was convicted of sex trafficking in relation to Epstein. Maxwell's attorney, Jeffrey Pagliuca, came to her defense: 'Stop, you made your record, there is no dent in the table. I don't see any chips.' The heated deposition would ultimately prove damaging for Maxwell. When she was charged in 2020 for inviting unsuspecting teen girls into Epstein's predatory orbit, she also faced two perjury counts for allegedly providing false information 'under oath' during litigation. Although prosecutors said they would drop these perjury counts if she didn't get a retrial in her sex-trafficking case, Maxwell's statements about Epstein – and whether they can be trusted – are once again at the forefront of national news. Twice this week, Maxwell met with the deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, as Donald Trump continues to contend with the political uproar over his justice department's handling of files related to Epstein, who died in jail six years ago as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein, whom prosecutors said abused girls as young as 14, had for years counted numerous powerful men among his associates – including Trump and Prince Andrew, whom Roberts accused of sexual misconduct in relation to Epstein and who has denied any wrongdoing. Trump for weeks has faced political fallout over a justice department memo claiming there was no Epstein client list, and its decision not to release extensive case documents despite Trump's campaign promise to do so. Meanwhile, Congress – specifically the House's oversight committee – has also subpoenaed Maxwell to testify. As the controversy continues to swirl, report after report has shed light on Trump's friendship with Epstein, which reportedly ended several years before the financier was arrested on prostitution charges in Florida. But it is Maxwell – again – who finds herself at the center of a political and media firestorm, as Trump seeks to assure his Maga base that he is telling the truth when he says he had little contact with Epstein and was unaware of his crimes. What exactly Maxwell's meeting with the Department of Justice, or her testifying to Congress, will uncover remains unclear. It's also unknown whether Maxwell's sit-down will do anything to help her: she is serving a 20-year sentence for enabling Epstein's abuse. After the second meeting with Blanche on Friday, Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, told reporters: 'Ghislaine answered every single question asked of her over the last day and a half. She answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability. She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question.' The attorney Alan Dershowitz, who represented Epstein in Florida criminal proceedings where he pleaded guilty to state charges including soliciting a minor for prostitution, said Maxwell was still key to understanding what exactly transpired. 'Maxwell knew Epstein intimately for many, many years. She was his girlfriend, she was his chief assistant,' said Dershowitz, speaking before Maxwell's meeting with the justice department. 'She would be the one who arranged the travel for people when I had to come down to argue cases for him or appear in front of the state attorney or the US attorney. 'She knows where all the bodies are buried.' He noted that prosecutors often exchange time in prison for information, including in organized crime cases. 'If they really want to get to the bottom of all this, they should make a deal with her – and the deal is an obvious one,' he said, describing it as a 'win-win for everybody' if she was freed, granted immunity and testified to Congress. While Maxwell does have intimate knowledge of Epstein, Dershowitz said this did not mean any meeting or testimony would implicate others. She could, for example, tell Blanche there were other accusers but that she believes them to be liars. Whether her evidence implicates people or appears to clear them, neither might be trustworthy by itself, he said. 'Whatever the inculpatory material is has to be checked and has to be verified. You can't just put out accusations.' Roberts and Dershowitz sued each other over Epstein-related allegations; in 2022, she dropped her suit, and both agreed not to sue again. Dershowitz has denied all allegations of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. There are various ways Maxwell could receive a reprieve. Prosecutors could ask the judge to reduce her sentence for assisting with the prosecution of others, or Trump could commute her sentence or grant a pardon. 'I suspect it's really just window dressing or distraction to try to avoid having to release any significant Epstein-related documents,' said the defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman. 'Maxwell had the opportunity to speak with the feds when she was under indictment and apparently chose not to because she claimed she was innocent. 'What is she going to be providing now, at this point?' Indeed, it remains unclear what Maxwell might tell authorities that could lift the veil on Epstein. Before her trial, her attorneys said so much time had passed that key witnesses had died and key evidence was inaccessible. Prosecutors also said in court that they had not offered Maxwell a plea deal – and that her team did not request one. Kevin Faga, a veteran defense attorney, said that if Maxwell wound up signing a cooperation agreement, then prosecutors could request a resentencing. While it's up to the judge, Faga said, 'in my experience, judges pay a lot of attention to these types of requests from the government' because they believe there's a public interest in providing assistance 'so that other wrongdoers can be prosecuted and punished'. In other words, if Maxwell were to simply tell authorities that prosecutors got the case wrong, that would probably not help her. 'Cooperation doesn't work that way,' Faga said. 'That's not providing substantial assistance to the government.' There's also the matter of Maxwell's problematic deposition – striking that table. 'If the government previously charged her with perjury, then it makes her a very questionable witness,' Faga said, 'and a witness that the government may deem just too unreliable to accept cooperation from.'
