Latest news with #Donald Trump
CNA
13 minutes ago
- Politics
- CNA
Trump calls Epstein case a 'witch hunt', urges Maxwell cooperation with DOJ
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Jul 22) said it would be appropriate for prosecutors to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, calling the continued scrutiny of the late Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking case a 'witch hunt'. 'I think it's time to hear everything. It's a witch hunt against the wrong people. Let's get to the truth,' Trump said in the Oval Office, referencing public pressure from his supporters to unseal additional Epstein case records. The remarks came as the Justice Department confirmed it had asked Maxwell's legal team whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying he expected to meet with her 'in the coming days'. Maxwell, a British socialite and former associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls for abuse. 'President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence,' Blanche posted on X, formerly Twitter. 'If Ms Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and DOJ will hear what she has to say.' JULY 29 DEADLINE SET Two federal judges in New York on Tuesday gave the Justice Department until Jul 29 to provide detailed arguments justifying its request to unseal grand jury records tied to the Epstein and Maxwell cases. They also instructed parties in the case, including Maxwell, a representative for Epstein, and alleged victims, to submit their positions on the matter by Aug 5. In a statement, Maxwell's attorney David Oscar Markus confirmed they were in talks with prosecutors. 'Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.' Maxwell did not testify at her trial and is appealing her conviction to the US Supreme Court. BACKLASH OVER LIMITED RELEASE Attorney General Pam Bondi has come under fire from Trump supporters after walking back earlier promises to release extensive Epstein-related records, including names and flight logs. After only a partial release, the FBI and DOJ issued a memo stating there was 'no incriminating client list' and no evidence of blackmail tied to Epstein's activities, findings that Trump supporters have rejected. Trump allies have since demanded broader disclosure, with calls for Bondi to resign unless the department reopens the inquiry and grants Maxwell immunity to testify before Congress. In a recent interview with Fox News, attorney Alan Dershowitz, who once represented Epstein, said grand jury transcripts were unlikely to contain the names or documents Trump supporters are seeking. He urged the DOJ instead to release FBI interview reports with victims. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial. The official ruling was suicide, but the circumstances of his death have long fueled conspiracy theories, particularly on the American right.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
US Justice Department plans to interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell
By Chris Lefkow , AFP An undated trial evidence image obtained December 8, 2021, shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: AFP / US District Court for the southern district of New York The US Department of Justice is seeking to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, officials said on Tuesday (US time), as President Donald Trump struggles to quell a furore over the handling of the explosive case. The former British socialite is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors on behalf of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own pedophile trafficking case. "President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence" about the Epstein case, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X. The surprise announcement marked the Trump administration's latest effort to defuse spiralling anger among the Republican's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein's crimes and high-level connections. Blanche said an FBI review of the evidence against Epstein, a wealthy financier whose powerful friends once included Trump, had found nothing to suggest new leads. But if Maxwell "has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say", said Blanche, who was formerly Trump's personal lawyer. "No one is above the law - and no lead is off-limits." David Oscar Markus, Maxwell's lawyer, confirmed on X that he was in discussions with the government and said "Ghislaine will always testify truthfully". "We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case," Markus added. Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs. Trump's conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said on 7 July that Epstein had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a "client list ." Trump has tried a variety of measures to placate his base, including by ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to try to obtain release of grand jury testimony in Epstein's aborted New York case. At a White House meeting with the Philippine's president on Tuesday, Trump dismissed the entire Epstein scandal as "a witch hunt." US President Donald Trump Photo: ANNA MONEYMAKER However, the president's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement has long held as an article of faith that "Deep State" elites were protecting Epstein's associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood - although not Trump himself. While no evidence has emerged of any wrongdoing by Trump, the president had a close friendship with Epstein and he sued the Wall Street Journal last week after it published a story about a raunchy letter he purportedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday . The latest developments come just days after the federal prosecutor who handled Epstein's and Maxwell's sex trafficking cases was abruptly fired by the Trump Justice Department. Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, a prominent Trump critic, was dismissed on 16 July from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan. US Speaker Mike Johnson Photo: AFP / Drew Angerer The furore over Epstein has derailed business in the US House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson is sending lawmakers home early to derail demands by Democrats for a vote to release the "Epstein files." Epstein was found hanging dead in his New York prison cell while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida. The FBI and New York medical examiner ruled his death a suicide but the determination has done little to quell speculation in right-wing circles that he was murdered. Among those with connections to Epstein was Britain's Prince Andrew, who settled a US civil case in February 2022 brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17. Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April. Billionaire Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump on X last month of being in the "Epstein files" after the pair had a falling out, but he later deleted his posts. -AFP
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Copper-Laden Ships Race to Reach US Ahead of Trump's 50% Tariffs
(Bloomberg) -- At least four ships carrying copper are trying to reach US ports before August to get ahead of planned import tariffs on the metal. Why the Federal Reserve's Building Renovation Costs $2.5 Billion Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom Milan Corruption Probe Casts Shadow Over Property Boom Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US How San Jose's Mayor Is Working to Build an AI Capital The shipments represent the final scramble by merchants to cash in on a lucrative arbitrage trade that has upended the global copper market since US President Donald Trump first floated the idea of copper tariffs. The urgency to secure imports increased in the past two weeks after Trump announced the levy would be 50% starting Aug. 1. Bulk carrier Kiating left Australia's Townsville port last Wednesday carrying 8,000 metric tons of refined cargo and is destined to reach Hawaii by July 30, according to shipping data provider Kpler. The firm can't identify who owns the cargo, but it said two other recent US-bound shipments from the port contained copper from Glencore Plc's Mount Isa Mines. Port data show that the Kiating was originally scheduled to land in New Orleans, but changed its destination to Hawaii after Trump's announcement — cutting its likely voyage time by almost 20 days. Even so, the cargo owner will be in a race against time to register the metal with the local customs office once the vessel arrives. 'It's hard to say how efficient clearance will be in Hawaii, given that it's such an atypical destination for this cargo,' said Ben Ayre, lead dry-bulk shipping analyst at Kpler. In Latin America, three vessels brimming with Chilean copper are also rushing to get to US ports. Cargo ship Louise Auerbach is near Colombia's Buenaventura port and en route for a July 28 arrival at Tampa, Florida, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and people with knowledge of the voyage. The BBC Norway is in Panama and the BBC Campana is anchored off northern Chile's coast, according to the latest shipping data. The vessels are among the last batch of copper cargoes whose owners are betting they can clear US customs just before the tariff bites. For reference, the difference between arriving ahead of the levy and having to pay it would be more than $70 million on a typical bulk carrier cargo of 15,000 tons. The voyage from northern Chile to southern US takes 10 to 15 days. To boost the chances of landing before the tariffs, shippers can attempt to clear customs for the entire cargo at their first US port of call. They can also pay for preferential spots in the lineups, turning what can be days of waiting into just hours. With copper prices surging in the US, traders including Glencore, Mercuria Energy Group, Trafigura Group, Hartree Partners LP and IXM SA have shipped huge volumes to US ports since Trump ordered the Commerce Secretary in February to consider tariffs as part of an probe into the impact of foreign copper on the US. The tariff trade allowed those firms to capture profits that industry veterans say are the biggest they've ever seen. A 50% copper tariff is double what many analysts and traders expected, and prices in New York surged even more after Trump's July 8 tariff announcement, creating even bigger potential profits for traders who can get vessels to America in time. With copper trading at about $9,900 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, a 50% levy would mean US buyers need to pay a further $4,950 to customs authorities to import copper into the country. Nominally, traders stand to make nearly as much in profit if they can import the metal before the tariffs land in less than two weeks. Traders are still awaiting key details about the tariffs, particularly whether there will be a grace period for cargoes that are already on the water — as there have been when similar levies were imposed on aluminum and steel. --With assistance from Thomas Biesheuvel, Alaric Nightingale and Alex Newman. Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Thailand's Changing Cannabis Rules Leave Farmers in a Tough Spot How Starbucks' CEO Plans to Tame the Rush-Hour Free-for-All ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
New York Times
an hour ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Bypassing Habba, Judges in New Jersey Name New Top Federal Prosecutor
A panel of federal judges in New Jersey on Tuesday blocked Alina Habba from staying in the job as the state's interim U.S. attorney and instead invoked a rarely used power to select a candidate of their own to take over as the state's top federal prosecutor. The judges announced that they had appointed Desiree Leigh Grace, a seasoned prosecutor whom Ms. Habba named as her first assistant soon after she took over in March. The appointment is effective as of Tuesday, according to an order signed by the district's chief judge, Renée Marie Bumb. The unusual decision by the district court judges came hours before Ms. Habba's 120-day temporary term was set to expire and could be undone by President Trump, who selected Ms. Habba for the job and has assumed closer control of the Justice Department than any other president in the past half century. A similar showdown took place last week in a federal prosecutors' office in Albany, N.Y. There, after judges refused to extend the temporary term of John A. Sarcone III, another embattled top prosecutor appointed by Mr. Trump, the Justice Department named him 'special attorney' to Pam Bondi, the attorney general. The appointment gave Mr. Sarcone the powers of a U.S. attorney and is 'indefinite,' according to a letter from the Justice Department's human resources division that was obtained by The New York Times. Ms. Habba, Mr. Trump's former personal lawyer, had no experience as a prosecutor or in criminal law before the president appointed her to the temporary post. She had been nominated by Mr. Trump to remain in the job permanently, but her confirmation faced headwinds in the U.S. Senate after New Jersey's two Democratic senators said she had pursued 'frivolous and politically motivated' prosecutions and 'did not meet the standard' to become a U.S. attorney. Ms. Habba is one of several of Mr. Trump's former defense lawyers to serve in top Justice Department positions. And she has used the traditionally nonpartisan position to pursue several investigations into prominent Democrats. Less than two months into her tenure, Ms. Habba, 41, charged Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark and Representative LaMonica McIver, both Democrats, after a clash with federal immigration agents outside a detention center they were seeking to tour in Newark. Ten days later, Ms. Habba moved to drop the trespassing charge Mr. Baraka faced — a sequence of events that led a federal court judge to publicly criticize decision makers in the office. Mr. Baraka is now suing Ms. Habba for malicious prosecution. Todd Blanche, a deputy U.S. attorney general who was previously Mr. Trump's criminal defense lawyer, praised Ms. Habba on Sunday night in advance of a meeting by the New Jersey district court judges on Monday. Ms. Habba has the 'full confidence' of the president, Mr. Blanche wrote in a social media post. 'District judges should use their authority to keep her in place,' he added. It is not unheard-of for district court judges to appoint interim U.S. attorneys to the job permanently. That's what happened in 2018, during Mr. Trump's first term as president, when New Jersey judges named Craig Carpenito, then the interim U.S. attorney, as the state's top federal prosecutor. Across the river, in the Southern District of New York, judges voted unanimously in 2018 to install Geoffrey S. Berman as U.S. attorney. (Mr. Berman was later fired by Mr. Trump after he said he would stay in his job despite efforts by a former U.S. attorney general, William P. Barr, to remove him.) But it is far less common for federal judges to identify a candidate on their own, as is authorized by a federal statute, according to Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. Ms. Habba had met with the judges who held the power to extend her term to try to persuade them of her competence. But her efforts had largely fallen flat, according to several prominent lawyers in the state with knowledge of the discussions.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
US Justice Department plans to interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell
The US Department of Justice is seeking to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, officials said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump struggles to quell a furor over the handling of the explosive case. The former British socialite is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors on behalf of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own pedophile trafficking case. "President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence" about the Epstein case, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X. The surprise announcement marked the Trump administration's latest effort to defuse spiraling anger among the Republican's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein's crimes and high-level connections. Blanche said an FBI review of the evidence against Epstein -- a wealthy financier whose powerful friends once included Trump -- had found nothing to suggest new leads. But if Maxwell "has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," said Blanche, who was formerly Trump's personal lawyer. "No one is above the law -- and no lead is off-limits." David Oscar Markus, Maxwell's lawyer, confirmed on X that he was in discussions with the government and said "Ghislaine will always testify truthfully." "We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case," Markus added. Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs. Trump's conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said on July 7 that Epstein had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a "client list." Trump has tried a variety of measures to placate his base, including by ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to try to obtain release of grand jury testimony in Epstein's aborted New York case. At a White House meeting with the Philippine's president on Tuesday, Trump dismissed the entire Epstein scandal as "a witch hunt." - Epstein prosector fired - However, the president's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement has long held as an article of faith that "Deep State" elites were protecting Epstein's associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood -- although not Trump himself. While no evidence has emerged of any wrongdoing by Trump, the president had a close friendship with Epstein and he sued the Wall Street Journal last week after it published a story about a raunchy letter he purportedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday. The latest developments come just days after the federal prosecutor who handled Epstein's and Maxwell's sex trafficking cases was abruptly fired by the Trump Justice Department. Maurene Comey -- the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, a prominent Trump critic -- was dismissed on July 16 from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan. The furor over Epstein has derailed business in the US House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson is sending lawmakers home early to derail demands by Democrats for a vote to release the "Epstein files." Epstein was found hanging dead in his New York prison cell while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida. The FBI and New York medical examiner ruled his death a suicide but the determination has done little to quell speculation in right-wing circles that he was murdered. Among those with connections to Epstein was Britain's Prince Andrew, who settled a US civil case in February 2022 brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17. Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April. Billionaire Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump on X last month of being in the "Epstein files" after the pair had a falling out, but he later deleted his posts.
