Latest news with #GrandJury
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration delves into MAGA distractions in deviation from the so-called Epstein files
President Donald Trump and his administration have been delving into distractions for their Make America Great Again base in deviation from its handling of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges related to the trafficking and sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls. His life and death have been the center of conspiracy theories, notably among Trump's base, as the feds have been tight-lipped about the evidence collected. The Trump administration has been facing backlash after the Justice Department and FBI said in a memo released earlier this month there was no client list of Epstein's associates who may have partaken in his crimes and Epstein did indeed die by suicide. Trump announced last week he had requested Attorney General Pam Bondi to release certain Epstein files, 'subject to court approval.' 'Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!' he wrote on Truth Social. Trump and his administration have instead worked to focus on other issues, from civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination to the names of Washington and Cleveland sports teams, to one of his Democratic foes, former President Barack Obama. The White House denied these moves are a distraction, telling the Independent, 'It's absurdly rich for the media to speculate about attempts to distract the American people when that has been their modus operandi for decades.' On Sunday, Trump took to social media to attack Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, Samantha Power, former administrator of the U.S.A.I.D., and he also posted a bizarre AI-generated video of Obama being arrested and thrown in jail. Regarding the fake Obama video he posted, Trump appeared to have been referring to comments made by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures Obama had orchestrated a 'years-long coup' to keep Trump from the White House. On Friday, Gabbard announced she was referring Obama administration officials, including ex-FBI Director James Comey, to the Justice Department for prosecution over allegations they had 'manufactured' intelligence to substantiate the idea that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump won the election over Clinton and became president in 2017. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, rebuked Gabbard's claims. 'It's a day that ends with 'y' and Donald Trump desperately wants to change the subject, so Director Gabbard is rehashing decade-old false claims about the Obama Administration,' Himes said in a statement Monday. Himes said every 'legitimate' probe into the matter found 'no evidence of politicization and endorsed the findings of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment.' Trump has also called for the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians to revert their names to the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, respectively. He even went as far as to threaten the Commanders' new Washington, D.C. stadium deal, writing on Truth Social Sunday: "I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington.' On Monday, the Trump administration released more than 230,000 pages of federal documents related to Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination. Former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who has been critical of Trump, called out the irony. 'Trump releases MLK Jr files…. Didn't limit it to 'pertinent' and 'grand jury.' So do the same for Epstein,' he wrote on X late Monday. Also on Monday, the Justice Department announced it honored Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's request for information related to the FBI's handling of its probe into Clinton's emails. The FBI had investigated Clinton's use of a private email server for official communications during her time as secretary of state under Obama. No charges were filed against Clinton. When asked if the administration is trying to distract from the Epstein drama, Harrison Fields, special assistant to the president and principal deputy press secretary, told the Independent, 'It's absurdly rich for the media to speculate about attempts to distract the American people when that has been their modus operandi for decades, which is why no one believes the garbage being spewed at them. The only distractions are the media's continued obsession with non-stories and their refusal to report on what's actually happening: the execution of the most consequential six months of any administration and the success of the President's agenda.' House Democrats have also criticized their Republican colleagues for blocking efforts to force the release of the Epstein files. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told progressive political YouTuber Jack Cocchiarella Monday, 'For years Republicans promised to release the Epstein files…now they have the opportunity…and they refuse to do so,' adding, 'I have a simple question for the Speaker and Republican leaders and members of the House of Representatives on the GOP side: What are you hiding from the American People?" Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, wrote on X late Monday, 'Ummm so let me get this straight: Republicans have ground Congress to a halt and are considering adjourning the entire House for 6 weeks to avoid releasing the info they have on Epstein? What is going on here?' She was responding to an X post from Politico's Meredith Lee Hill, in which she wrote, citing unnamed sources, the House Rules Committee will likely not meet at all this week amid the Epstein drama and other issues. Congress will recess for August. Hill said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, 'confirms to me it's 'not likely' Rules return - meaning House would leave without advancing immigration and several other bills.' Most Americans think the Trump administration is covering up evidence in the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's federal case, according to a new poll. A poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov from July 11 to 14 found 67 percent of Americans believe the government is hiding evidence related to the late financier. Only 8 percent of respondents believe the government is not covering up evidence about Epstein, while 25 percent are unsure. When asked if the government should release all documents relating to the feds' Epstein case, 79 percent of respondents said it should. Only 5 percent said the government shouldn't release the files, and 17 percent were unsure.
New York Times
10 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's Name in the Epstein Files, and Rare Protests in Ukraine
Hosted by Tracy Mumford Produced by Will Jarvis and Ian Stewart Edited by Ian StewartJessica Metzger and Tracy Mumford Featuring Marc Santora Attorney General Told Trump His Name Appeared in Epstein Files, by Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush Judge Denies Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts in Florida, by Zach Montague and Seamus Hughes Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump, by Sharon Otterman Trump Plans to Give A.I. Developers a Free Hand, by David McCabe and Cecilia Kang Facing Outcry Over Corruption, Zelensky Says He Will Reverse Course, by Andrew E. Kramer How Many Steps Do You Really Need in a Day?, by Simar Bajaj Tune in, and tell us what you think at theheadlines@ For corrections, email nytnews@ For more audio journalism and storytelling, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Special thanks to Nikolay Nikolov.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Oversight Committee issues subpoena for Ghislaine Maxwell
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Wednesday issued a subpoena to Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted associate of Jeffrey Epstein, for a deposition to occur at Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Aug. 11. 'The facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr. Epstein's cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny,' Comer wrote in a statement Wednesday. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and other charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. MORE: GOP Sen. Thom Tillis says Epstein files could impact midterm prospects 'What we're talking about here is someone who's in federal prison on appeal, so our attorneys will have to communicate with her attorneys to see if there are terms, if she wants,' Comer said before the subpoena was issued. 'If there are no terms, we'll roll in there quick.' The situation will be similar to Comer's effort to interview Jason Galanis, a former business partner of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, during the GOP's impeachment inquiry of then-President Joe Biden. 'I did that with [Jason] Galanis, and the Democrats were real offended that we would want to interview anyone in prison. But now you know they're, they're all they want to interview someone in prison,' Comer said. The committee has shown a propensity to record video of the interviews and release content afterwards -- as it did with several former Biden officials who invoked their 5th Amendment rights earlier this summer -- so it's possible there could be handout video from the deposition. Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche will meet with Maxwell sometime in the "coming days." President Donald Trump last week said on his social media platform that he had ordered the Justice Department to "release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval." Comer has also signaled that the circumstances of a closed-door deposition at a federal prison could attract both Democrats and Republicans to attend the interview. 'There will be so many members of Congress that'll want to be in that prison,' Comer said. 'I would assume that there'll be a lot of members of the Oversight Committee on both -- in both parties that'll want to be there.' A Congressional subpoena is a formal legal order issued by a congressional committee or individual compelling their testimony.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
MIKEY SMITH: 15 unhinged Donald Trump moments as he threatens to have Barack Obama arrested
In six months of unprecedented behaviour for a sitting president, threatening to jail his predecessor is one of the most troubling. And he's gone so hard on this one it might be difficult to walk back... Donald Trump was supposed to be taking a breather. This was supposed to be a nice easy week, leading up to his holiday to Scotland. But his misplaced sense of vengeance had other ideas. Instead of letting things settle down, letting the trail go a bit has been taking every possible opportunity to go on the attack. And ironically, by trying so obviously hard to try and distract people from the Epstein just made more people ask about the Epstein story Here's how that happened, plus some more things Trump did in the last 24 hours. Everything is fine. 1-9. All the ways he's tried to distract attention away from the Epstein story So we're going to start with something different today. A list within a list. Instead of going over the ways Donald Trump has tried to deflect attention away from the Epstein files in a lot of detail, which is what he wants the media to do, we're just going to do a little list. Here's everything Donald Trump has done since Friday that he'd rather you were interested in than the Epstein story. 1. Ordered the release of evidence given to the Grand Jury on Epstein, subject to Court approval. Which is not what people are asking for, and will likely take months if not longer 2. Threatened the Washington Commanders American Football team with interfering in their new stadium deal if they don't return to their old, racist name 3. The same with the Cleveland Guardians, but without the threat 4. Went after California Senator Adam Schiff, who led Trump's first impeachment over long-dismissed claims of mortgage fraud from more than a decade ago 5. Launched a new, largely nonsense conspiracy theory, pushed out by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, claiming a fairly normal sequence of intelligence briefings about Russia trying to influence the American people to vote for him, which they did, was some kind of attempted coup. 6. Made repeated suggestions that those behind said briefings - including former President Barack Obama - should be arrested 7. Posted an AI video of Barack Obama being handcuffed and jailed 8. Posted a video of a girl in a bikini catching a snake. Nobody knows why. 9. Released the files! No, not really. But he did release some files about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr I think that's about everything. 10. He has NO IDEA why his old lawyer is going to chat to Ghislaine Maxwell This afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche tweeted that he wants to have a chat with Ghislaine Maxwell - who was convicted and jailed for helping Epstein abuse underage girls. If Maxwell "has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche said in a post on X, adding that President Donald Trump "has told us to release all credible evidence." A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed there were discussions with the government. Asked about it in the Oval Office, Trump said he didn't know anything about it, but it sounded like something they should do. He was also asked if he was concerned about the legitimacy of such questioning, given Todd Blanche ....used to be Trump's personal lawyer. He said he did not. 11. He accused Barack Obama, personally, of treason and urged the Feds to arrest him OK. We're going into this one a little bit. During a sit-down with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Trump was asked about Tulsi Gabbard having submitted a criminal referral about the daft conspiracy theory she's been shopping round the Fox hosts. So who should the Department of Justice target for arrest, Mr President? "It would be President Obama. And Biden was there with him ... the leader of the gang was Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. He's guilty" He went on: "Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader. "Hillary Clinton was right there with him and so was Sleepy Joe Biden, Comey, Clapper. "They tried to rig an election and they got caught. And then they did rig the election in 2020. "And then because I knew I won that election by a lot, I did it a third time and I won in a landslide." Ordinarily we'd take the "lock her/him up" stuff with a pinch of salt. But he's going so hard on this, it would be pretty hard to walk it back. 12. Bernie Sanders has weighed in on Epstein The Bern's response to Trump prevaricating over the Epstein files? "Mr President. Do it. "Do what you promised the American people you would do. And stop trying to deflect attention away from what you promised. Be transparent, the way you promised you would be. Tell the truth, like you promised. "Because hiding whatever he's hiding with the Epstein files is not the first time, to say the least, that he has lied to the American people." 13. He lashed out against a judge that ruled against him US District Judge Allison Burroughs appeared to side with Harvard in Trump's ongoing vendetta against the university. Trump branded her a "TOTAL DISASTER" and asked "how did this Trump-hating Judge get these cases?" It's worth noting if only to remind us all that the separation of powers usually prevents Presidents leaning on judges. "When she rules against us we will IMMEDIATELY appeal, Trump said. So we've got that to look forward to. Get Donald Trump updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the world attempts to keep up with Trump's antics, the Mirror has launched its very own US Politics WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news from across the pond. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. 14. Stephen Colbert told him to go f**k himself After Trump seemed to confirm his part in influencing CBS to fire Stephen Colbert, the veteran talk show host took a shot back... Colbert 1 Also in the intro of the show, Lin Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic played a Coldplay song while the camera revealed a series of his late-night TV host peers in the audience. At the end of the bit, the camera settled on an animated Donald Trump cuddling the logo of Paramount, the parent company of CBS. 15. Jimmy Kimmel is "NEXT", then Jimmy Fallon Trump took something of a victory lap this afternoon, basically confirming he got Colbert fired and gloating that he was going after the rest. "The word is, and it's a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes," he wrote on Truth Social. "And, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone. "These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. "It's really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!"
3 days ago
- Business
Trump admin updates: Trump wants Senate to cancel August recess to work on nominees
Trump also suggested the Senate cancel long weekends. 1:27 President Donald Trump continues to face backlash from his MAGA supporters over his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi "to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval" related to the case. On Friday, Trump signed the GENIUS Act -- the first major federal cryptocurrency bill -- into law. Latest headlines: Jul 20, 2025, 5:24 PM EDT Trump threatens NFL's Commanders over name change Jul 20, 2025, 4:12 PM EDT Trump rejects WSJ story on Bessent warning against firing Powell Jul 20, 2025, 1:45 PM EDT Lutnick confident US will make tariff deal with EU Here's how the news is developing. 16 Updates Jul 17, 2025, 9:01 AM EDT Attorney General Pam Bondi visiting Alcatraz: Officials Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are in California Thursday making a visit to the notorious former federal prison Alcatraz, officials confirmed to ABC News. It's unclear whether they will open up their visit to any media, but Bondi is being accompanied by a Fox News correspondent on the visit. The visit comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's directive to reopen Alcatraz as a prison 60 years after it was shuttered, a move Democrats have attacked as a massive waste of money and resources at a time where the federal Bureau of Prisons is already under major strain to maintain existing facilities. Jul 17, 2025, 4:58 AM EDT Senate narrowly approves $9 billion budget clawback for foreign aid and public broadcasting The Senate narrowly approved a White House request to claw back $9 billion from the federal budget, including funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting. The final vote on Thursday morning was 51-48. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted with Democrats against the rescissions bill. Sen. Tina Smith did not vote after being admitted to the hospital. The bill would rescind funding allocated for the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, related agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The bill now returns to the House with a deadline for final passage by Friday. -ABC News' Justin Gomez Trump says he's ending funding for California high-speed train In a post on his social media platform, Trump announced he is ending federal funding for California's High-Speed Rail project. 'The railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,' Trump wrote. "Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again," Trump continued. In a statement, Duffy said the Federal Railroad Administration terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent funding for 'California's High Speed Rail Boondoggle,' saying the $135 billion projected cost of the project could buy every San Francisco and Los Angeles resident nearly 200 round trip flights between the cities. 'This is California's fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check -- they come with a promise to deliver results,' Duffy said. 'It's time for this boondoggle to die. President Trump and I will always fight to ensure your tax dollars only go to projects that accomplish great, big, beautiful things.' -ABC News' Hannah Demissie and Sam Sweeney Jul 16, 2025, 4:42 PM EDT Mike Flynn pushes back against Trump on Epstein 'hoax' claims One of President Donald Trump's staunchest supporters pushed back against the president over his claims that the Epstein controversy was a "hoax." Michael Flynn wrote a lengthy post on X imploring the president to be more transparent and reveal more details. "All we want at this stage is for a modicum of trust to be reestablished between our federal government and the people it is designed to serve," Flynn wrote. "With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this. The roll out of this was terrible, no way around that. Americans want America to be successful, therefore, WE NEED YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL," he added. -ABC News' Will Steakin
