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      Trump bids to release Epstein grand jury files – what secrets might they hold?

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      As Donald Trump reels from political fallout related to his justice department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, the US president has directed his loyal attorney general, Pam Bondi, to “release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to court approval”.It is an effort at damage control for a White House now engulfed in endless speculation – especially among Trump’s previously devoted Maga base – about the extent of Trump’s relationship with the late, disgraced sex trafficker and wealthy financier who killed himself in jail in 2019.Justice department attorneys quickly filed paperwork in Manhattan and south Florida federal courts requesting unsealing of grand jury testimony for Epstein. Justice department officials have also asked a New York judge to release grand jury transcripts for Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s sometimes girlfriend and longtime confidante who in 2021 was convicted of sex trafficking for luring teenage girls into his orbit.A grand jury is a panel that decides whether evidence presented by prosecutors shows “probable cause” that someone committed a crime, and whether they should be tried. Should the grand jury, which is not the trial jury, find that there is sufficient evidence, an indictment will be issued.But veteran US attorneys, including those who have represented Epstein victims, told the Guardian that any release of grand jury transcripts around Epstein and Maxwell might not provide much insight into Epstein’s crimes and whether others were involved in abusing minors – or in covering up his years of predation of young girls and women.The lawyers, however, insist that meaningful information does exist in yet-to-be released Epstein files held by federal law enforcement authorities from multiple investigations into Epstein. Whether the political will – and legal ability – exists to release any or all of those files remains to be seen.“Grand juries serve two functions: to indict and to investigate. The transcripts may contain testimony of victims or cooperating witnesses if the grand jury was investigating Epstein,” Neama Rahmani, founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, and a former federal prosecutor, said of grand jury processes.The grand jury transcripts could include graphic and explicit evidence, but they could also include more pro forma information about the actions of Epstein and Maxwell, who is serving jail time in Florida.“If they were indicting Epstein, we can expect to see law enforcement witnesses summarizing the evidence of probable cause to support the charges. That would probably be less interesting, and similar to the factual allegations in the Epstein indictment,” Rahmani said.He added: “There is likely much more salacious evidence out there than the grand jury transcripts.“The FBI interview summaries and internal Department of Justice memoranda probably contain the juiciest details. The grand jury transcripts are just a small part of the picture. If Bondi was serious about transparency, she would make public the complete Epstein files, subject to redactions to protect the privacy rights of the victims.”Top lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented multiple Epstein victims, said government files should be made public with several exceptions, such as redaction of victims’ names and identifying information, attorney-client communications and material depicting abuse.“I think there is information that the government could release, such as texts, emails and other electronic communications of Jeffrey Epstein and anyone with whom he communicated. In addition, any communications on behalf of Mr Epstein made by his employees who may have played a part in recruiting or dealing with victims at the request of Mr Epstein and/or Ms Maxwell could be released,” Allred said.“All evidence in the file of the United States attorney for the southern district of New York which was gathered for the prosecution of Mr Epstein, with the exceptions which I have listed previously, could be released.”Allred believes “all files, both federal and state that reflect the investigation and potential prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein in Florida should also be made public”.Thorough investigations of Epstein were conducted in New York and Florida, Allred pointed out, and those investigations would be in those files.Spencer T Kuvin, chief legal officer of GoldLaw and an attorney for Epstein victims, voiced similar sentiments.“The real documents that the public needs to see are the documents maintained by the FBI and Department of Justice. They have thousands of hours of videotapes and investigative memos and documents regarding the data that was seized at his homes,” he said.Kuvin said that unsealing grand jury testimony was a “good first step” but limits information to four victims over whom Epstein was charged in New York. “I am aware that the FBI had interviewed over 40 girls during their investigations. Where are those interviews, where are those reports?“The abusers should be disclosed to the public so that we may all know who they are,” Kuvin also said, insisting that victims’ privacy must be protected in such a process. He called on Trump to act.“This administration could end the dispute tomorrow by the president signing an executive order demanding the release of all the material in the custody of the FBI and DoJ,” Kuvin said. “Either Trump has the power to do this, or he must admit that he is not as powerful as he has professed to be to the public and his Maga followers.”Trump’s current political woes stem from his backtracking on previous vows to release the Epstein files. On the campaign trail, he vowed to declassify the files, but then attracted scathing criticism when his justice department released a memo claiming that there was no “incriminating” client list within the tranche of documents related to Epstein.The justice department’s claim that they did not find evidence implicating third parties has further fanned the flames of suspicion, especially as last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi had warned Trump that his name appears in the files.A smattering of reports highlighting Trump’s friendship with Epstein several decades ago – which reportedly ended following a real estate dispute, several years before the late financier admitted to a state-level charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida – has proved yet another political minefield.Even if federal authorities and Trump drag their feet in releasing these documents, it is possible that new civil litigation could eventually force them to do so raising the prospect of yet more political scandals heading Trump’s way.Maria Farmer, an Epstein survivor who in 1996 told authorities he and Maxwell were abusing minors including her sister, is suing the federal government over their handling of these claims. Farmer’s suit alleges that the FBI “chose to do absolutely nothing”.Farmer also claims that the FBI agent taking her call “hung up on her, and no one at the FBI attempted to follow up with her or pursue her valid and serious allegations, most of which continued for many years, if not decades, with wide-ranging tragic consequences.”If this litigation progresses, both sides would exchange evidence related to the claims in a process called discovery. While discovery is typically subject to a confidentiality agreement, and solidified by a court order, information from this exchange could come up in subsequent court papers that are public.“What this lawsuit could reveal is what the FBI and the department did and did not do, what they failed to do – they failed to do their job,” Farmer’s attorney, Jennifer Freeman, special counsel at Marsh Law Firm, told the Guardian.Freeman noted, for example, that she has a redacted set of pages from what appears to be a 2006 field interview with Farmer, during which an FBI agent went to her home and spoke with her. Freeman said she had some 20 pages of handwritten notes, “many of which are redacted”.She said: “That’s the kind of information we need. It’s redacted. I’ve been trying to get this information for years now, through Foia [Freedom of Information Act] requests, but we’ve been stymied every time.”Neither the White House nor Department of Justice commented. More

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      She fled Cuba for asylum – then was snatched from a US immigration courtroom

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      Jerome traveled a thousand miles from California to El Paso, Texas, so he could accompany Jenny to her immigration hearing. He and his wife had promised to take her after she had fled Cuba last December, after the government there had targeted her because she had reported on the country’s deplorable conditions for her college radio station.Everything should have been fine. Jenny, 25, had entered the United States legally under one of Joe Biden’s now-defunct programs, CBP One. By the end of the year, she could apply for a green card.But a few days before her hearing, Jerome started to feel like something was off. Jenny’s court date had been abruptly moved from May to June with no explanation. Arrests at immigration courthouses peppered the news.And when Jenny went before the court, the government attorney assigned to try to deport her asked the judge to dismiss her case, arguing vaguely that circumstances had changed.View image in fullscreenInstead, the judge noted that Jenny was pursuing an asylum claim and scheduled her for another court date in August 2026 – the best possible outcome.“She turned around and looked at me and smiled. And I smiled back, because she understood that she was free to go home,” Jerome said.But as Jenny left the courtroom and approached the elevator to leave, a crowd of government agents in masks converged on her and demanded she go with them. Just before she disappeared down a corridor with the phalanx of officers, she turned back to look at Jerome, her face stricken, silently pleading with him to do something.“I said, ‘She’s legal. She’s here legally. And you guys just don’t care, do you? Nobody cares about this. You guys just like pulling people away like this,’” Jerome recalled telling the agents. “And nobody said a word. They couldn’t even look me in the eye,” he told the Guardian.Footage of her apprehension was taken by those advocating for her and shared with the Guardian.Now Jenny is languishing in immigration custody. Her hearing for August 2026 has been replaced with a date for next month when the government attorney might once again attempt to dismiss her case, and her case been transferred from a judge who grants a majority of asylum applications to one with a less than 22% approval rate.“There’s no heart, there’s no compassion, there’s no empathy, there’s no anything. [It’s] ‘We’re just going to yank this woman away from you, and we don’t care,’” Jerome said. The Guardian is not using his or Jenny’s full name for their safety.Similar scenes have played out again and again at immigration courthouses across the country for weeks, as people following the federal government’s directions and attending their hearings are being scooped up and sent to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention.The unusual tactics are happening while Donald Trump and his deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, push for Ice to make at least 3,000 daily arrests – a tenfold increase from during Biden’s last year in office. Ice agents have suddenly become regulars at immigration court, where they can easily find soft targets.At first, the officers appeared to focus arrests on a subset of migrants who had been in the US for fewer than two years, which the Trump administration argues makes them susceptible to a fast-tracked deportation scheme called expedited removal. Ice officers seem to confer with their agency’s attorneys, who ask the judge to dismiss the migrants’ cases, as they did with Jenny. And, if judges agree, the migrants are detained on their way out of court so that officials can reprocess them through expedited removal, which allows the federal government to repatriate people with far less due process, sometimes without even seeing another judge.View image in fullscreenBut reporting by the Guardian has uncovered how Ice is casting a far wider net for its immigration court arrests and appears also to be targeting people such as Jenny whose cases are ongoing and have not been dismissed. The agency is also snatching up court attendees who have clearly been in the US for longer than two years – the maximum timeframe that according to US law determines whether someone can be placed in expedited removal – as well as those who have a pathway to remain in the country legally.After the migrants are apprehended, they’re stuffed into often overcrowded, likely privately run detention centers, sometimes far from their US-based homes and families. They’re put through high-stakes tests that will determine whether they have a future in the US, with limited access to attorneys. And as they endure inhospitable conditions in prisons and jails, the likelihood of them having both the will to keep fighting their case and the legal right to stay dwindles.“To see individuals who are law-abiding and who have received a follow-up court date only to be greeted by a group of large men in masks and whisked away to an unknown location in a building is jarring. It breaks my understanding and conception of the United States having a lawful due process,” said Emily Miller, who is part of a larger volunteer group in El Paso trying to protect migrants as best they can.One woman Miller saw apprehended had come to the US legally, submitted her asylum petition the day of her hearing, and was given a follow-up court date by the judge before Ice detained her.“My physical reaction was standing in the hallway shaking. My body just physically started shaking, out of shock and out of concern,” Miller said. “I have lived in other countries where I’ve been a stranger in a strange land and did not speak the language or had limited language abilities. And as a woman, to be greeted by masked men is something we are taught to fear because of violence that could happen to us.”Elsewhere in Texas, at the San Antonio immigration court earlier this month, a toddler dressed in pink and white overalls ran gleefully around the drab waiting room. Far more chairs than people lined the room’s perimeter, as if more attendees had been expected. A constantly multitasking employee at the front window bowed her head in frustration as the caller she was speaking to kept asking more questions. Self-help legal pamphlets hung on the wall – a reminder that the representation rate for people in immigration proceedings has plummeted in recent years, and the vast majority of migrants are navigating the deportation process with little to no expert help.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn one of the courtrooms, a family took their seats before the judge. Their seven-year-old boy pulled his shirt over his nose, his arms inside the arm holes. The government attorney sitting with a can of Dr Pepper on her desk promptly told the judge she had a motion to introduce, even as the family filed their asylum applications. She wanted to dismiss their cases, she said, as it was no longer in the government’s best interest to proceed.The judge said no. She scheduled the family for their final hearings just over a year later. And she warned them, carefully, that Ice might approach them as soon as they left her courtroom. What happened next, she said, was not in her control.Her last words to the family: “Good luck.”Men in bulletproof vests were hanging around in the hallway, but the family safely made it into the elevator and left the courthouse for the parking lot. Stephanie Spiro, associate director of protection-based relief at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), said that for the most part, Ice is leaving families with children alone (with notable exceptions). It’s “single adults” they’re after, people who often have loved ones in the US depending on them, but whose immigration cases involve them alone, she said.A few days later, two such adults – a man and a woman – separately went before a different immigration judge in San Antonio, whose courtroom had signs encouraging people to “self-deport”, the Trump administration’s phrase for leaving the country voluntarily before being removed.The government attorney that day moved to dismiss both the man’s and the woman’s cases, which the judge granted, dismissing the man’s case even before the government attorney had given a reason why.Using a Turkish interpreter, the judge then told the man it was likely that immigration authorities would try to put him into expedited removal – despite the fact that he had entered the US more than two years earlier.Soon after, the woman – who had been in the country for nearly four years – went before the court without a lawyer. The judge tried to explain to her what might happen if her case were dismissed, but as he finished, she admitted in Spanish: “I haven’t understood much of what you’ve told me.”View image in fullscreenThe woman went on to say that she was deep in the process of applying for a visa for victims of serious crimes in the US – a visa that provides a pathway to citizenship. But the judge was upset with her for not also filing an asylum application, and he threatened to order her repatriated. It was the government attorney who “saved” her, the judge said, by requesting the case be dismissed instead.As soon as the woman walked out of the courtroom, agents approached her and directed her out of the hallway, into a small room. Around the same time, outside the building, men wearing gaiters over their faces ushered a group of people into a white bus, presumably to be transported to detention.Spiro of the NIJC, meanwhile, works in Chicago and said she and fellow advocates have documented Ice officers in plainclothes coming to immigration court there with a list of whom they’re targeting – and court attendees are apprehended whether or not their case is dismissed.“People are getting detained regardless,” Spiro added. “And once they’re detained, it makes it just so much harder to put forth their claim.”Migrants picked up at the court in Chicago have been sent to Missouri, Florida and Texas – to detention spaces that still have capacity, but also to where judges are more likely to side with the Trump administration for speedier deportations. Many of them end up far from their loved ones, and a lag in Ice’s publicly accessible online detainee locator has meant some of them have at times essentially disappeared.As word of mouth has spread among immigrant communities in Chicago about these arrests, the once bustling court has gone eerily quiet, Spiro said. That, in turn, could have its own serious consequences, as no-shows for hearings are often ordered deported.“They don’t want to leave their house because of the detentions that are happening,” Spiro said of Chicago’s immigrants. “So to go to court, and to go anywhere – they don’t want to come to our office. To go anywhere where there’s federal agents and where they know Ice is trying to detain you is just terrifying beyond, you know, most people’s imagination.” More

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      Dear Keir Starmer, stop cosying up to Donald Trump – or he’ll drag Britain down with him | Simon Tisdall

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      Donald Trump’s victory in last November’s US presidential election presented Keir Starmer, Britain’s Labour prime minister, with a choice – and an opportunity. Either cosy up to a man whose obnoxious, hard-right, ultra-nationalist policies are inimical to UK security and foreign policy interests, economic prosperity and democratic values; or risk a rupture with the US, a longstanding but overbearing ally, and seize the moment to redefine Britain’s place in the world, primarily through reintegration in Europe.Starmer made the wrong call – and Britain has paid a heavy price ever since. The cost to national dignity and the public purse will be on painful show this weekend as Trump, pursued by the Epstein scandal and angry protesters, makes an expensively policed, ostensibly private visit to his golf courses in Scotland. On Monday, the prime minister will travel north to kiss the ring. More humiliations loom. In September, Trump will return for an unprecedented second state visit, at Starmer’s unctuous behest. At that point, the full, embarrassing extent of Britain’s thraldom will be there for all the world to see.Let’s be clear. Trump is no friend of Britain’s and is, in key respects, a dangerous foe. Efforts to curry favour with this narcissist will ultimately prove futile. Trump always reneges. His unedifying career is littered with broken promises and relationships, personal and political. His only loyalty is to himself. Right now, this wannabe dictator is busy making America not greater but weaker, poorer, less influential and more disliked. Don’t let him drag Britain down, too. It’s not too late to make the break.US leadership of the western democracies used to be taken for granted. Now it’s a problem. Politicians in both Britain’s main parties have difficulty accepting this shift. As so often, public opinion is ahead of them. Recent polling by the Pew Research Center found 62% of Britons have no confidence in Trump “to do the right thing regarding world affairs”. Most of those surveyed in 24 countries viewed him as dangerous, arrogant and dishonest. Thanks to him, the US’s international standing is in freefall.Giving Israel a free hand in Gaza is the most egregious example of how Trump’s policies conflict with UK interests. Starmer’s government has condemned the deliberate killing and starving of civilians. Among the 55% of Britons opposed to Israel’s actions, 82% believe they amount to genocide, a YouGov poll found last month. A majority backs additional sanctions. Trump’s support for forced relocations, opposition to a two-state solution and close collaboration with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli leader charged with war crimes, all contradict stated UK policy. Trump bears significant personal responsibility for what Starmer calls the “unspeakable and indefensible” horror in Gaza.Starmer warned dramatically last month that the UK was in growing danger of military attack following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Britain and other Nato states have steadfastly supported Kyiv. Not so Trump. Since taking office, he has toadied to Vladimir Putin, vilified Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suspended military supplies and questioned Nato’s future. Ignoring proliferation fears, Trump is simultaneously fuelling a nuclear arms race. Now the hapless Starmer has been panicked into buying US jets capable of carrying warheads and, it is claimed, has secretly allowed US-owned nukes back into the UK. This is not the Britain Labour voters want.Trump recently reversed himself on Ukraine, patched things up with Nato and criticised Putin. But he could change his mind again tomorrow. Oblivious to the glaring double standard, he congratulates himself meanwhile on “obliterating” Iran’s nuclear facilities – even though last month’s illegal US bombing was only partly successful. Britain rightly favours negotiations with Tehran. It wasn’t consulted.Trump’s tariff wars pose a direct threat to the UK economy, jobs and living standards. Despite Starmer’s deal mitigating their impact, 10% tariffs or higher remain on most US-bound exports. Trump’s bullying of Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama and others over sovereignty, migration and trade feeds uncertainty. His irrational hostility to the EU may gratify the likes of Nigel Farage (and Putin). But endless rows between important allies do not serve Britain’s interests.The advance of hard-right, nationalist-populist parties in Europe and, most recently, in Japan suggests the socially divisive, chauvinist agendas championed by Trump’s Maga movement have widening international appeal. That augurs ill for democracy in Britain and the world generally. For the same reason, Trump’s assaults on US constitutional rights, notably minority and gender rights, attacks on judges, universities and public institutions, and attempts to suppress independent media scrutiny are ominous. Such toxic behaviour is contagious. Trumpism is the new Covid. Britain needs inoculation.By slashing overseas aid, cutting public service broadcasters such as Voice of America, defunding and ostracising UN agencies, flouting international courts and pretending the climate emergency is illusory, Trump inflicts immense harm on the US’s reputation, global influence and soft-power armoury. He is wrecking the rules-based order that Britain views as fundamental. It’s a gift to China, Russia and authoritarians everywhere. As Pentagon spending rockets to $1tn annually, his crude message is unmistakeable: might makes right. Brute strength rules.Trump is a disaster for the west and all in the UK who respect progressive democratic values. His second term will evidently be more globally perilous, destructive and destabilising than his first. In support of universal principles established centuries before anyone heard of him, Britain should steer clear of this walking, talking catastrophe. Rather than hug Trump close, Starmer should keep him at arm’s length for fear of infection.Don’t go to Scotland to see him, Prime Minister. Don’t waste your breath. Instead, start planning for the post-special-relationship era. Make the break. It’s time.

      Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

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      Democrats request copy of Epstein ‘birthday book’ that reportedly contains Trump poem

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      House Democrats on Friday sent a letter to the attorneys representing the estate of Jeffrey Epstein requesting a copy of the so-called “birthday book” that reportedly contains a crude poem and doodle from Donald Trump in celebration of the late sex offender’s 50th birthday.In the letter, California congressmen Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia say the contents of the book may be “essential” to congressional oversight of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein controversy. In the letter, they ask for a “complete and unredacted” copy of the book by 10 August.“The public deserves to know the truth and the survivors and their families deserve justice,” said Khanna, who criticized Congress for leaving Washington early without voting on his bipartisan bill to release the Epstein files.The birthday book is a leather-bound album compiled by Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually traffic minors. It is reportedly filled with birthday greetings from dozens of Epstein’s friends and associates, including, according to the Wall Street Journal, messages from Trump, Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz, among other wealthy and powerful men.On Thursday, the New York Times published an image of Maxwell’s dedication in the book.Trump is suing the Journal over its initial report that he contributed a page with an imagined dialogue between “Donald” and “Jeffrey” and a sketch of a naked woman. In his federal lawsuit, Trump called the letter attributed to him “fake and nonexistent”.Khanna and Garcia sent the letter after a lawyer representing hundreds of Epstein’s victims said the estate was in possession of the birthday book. The lawyer, Brad Edwards, said in an interview with the MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell that he believed the estate would turn over the book upon request.“I know the executors are in possession of this book,” Edwards said in the interview.Lawyers for the estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.“The American people deserve to know who was involved in Epstein’s trafficking network and if they are in positions of power in our government,” Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, said.The Epstein files are at the center of an extraordinary rift between Trump and his Maga base, who have long-demanded the release of documents related to the child sex offender. The White House has failed to quell growing demands from his base for more transparency, while Democrats, out of power in Congress, press the issue to their advantage.Trump and Epstein’s friendship in the 1990s and early 2000s was well-known and well documented. The president has said that he cut ties with Epstein in 2004, and he has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.Earlier this week, the Journal first reported that Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, briefed Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in the files related to the investigation.In an attempt to confront the matter, Trump had instructed Bondi to seek the release of grand jury transcripts from an investigation into Epstein. In a setback, a judge in Florida rejected the Trump administration’s request, though a similar case is still pending in New York.In the letter to the Epstein’s estate, the Democrats write that the book is “relevant for ongoing congressional oversight of the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein investigation and prosecution, as well as the Trump administration’s decision to declassify and release only a handful of documents from the Epstein files while withholding others from the public”.Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, who is now the deputy attorney general, met with Maxwell in federal prison on Friday and plans to meet her again on Saturday. Maxwell is attempting to have her conviction overturned. More

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      Trump news at a glance: president dismisses continued Epstein and Maxwell furore as ‘not a big thing’

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      Donald Trump continued to face questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein as he landed in Scotland ahead of meeting British prime minister Keir Starmer and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.The US president denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files after landing on Friday evening local time. He was also asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell and suggestions he might offer her clemency.Trump: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”Here are the key US politics stories today:Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland The furore over Donald Trump’s ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued on Friday as new revelations about the pair’s relationship threatened to mire the president’s golfing trip to Scotland, where he arrived late on Friday.After landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport at about 8.30pm local time, the US president denied reports that he had been briefed about his name appearing in files pertaining to the case against the late Epstein. He also said he had not “really been following” the justice department’s interview with Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.Read the full storyVon der Leyen to meet Trump as EU and US close in on trade dealThe EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland.Trump landed in Scotland on Friday evening before the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said he was also planning to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Saturday.Read the full storyGhislaine Maxwell interviewed again The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, held a second in-person meeting on Friday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Blanche had confirmed the two met behind closed doors in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, at the federal prosecutor’s office within the federal courthouse in the state capital, and they met again on Friday.Read the full storyA teenage US citizen secretly recorded his brutal arrestKenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol. In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest.Video of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men. The video has put fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used by US law enforcement officials as the Trump administration sets ambitious enforcement targets to detain thousands of immigrants every day.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The White House has announced that it will release $5.5bn in frozen education funds back to US states. That announcement came on Friday after Donald Trump’s administration decided to abruptly withhold the congressionally approved funds a day before their 1 July release for the 2025-26 school year.

      South Park co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest response to anger from the White House over this season’s premiere, which showed a naked Trump in bed with Satan.

      Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president’s first term.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 24 July 2025. More

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      Trump says it’s ‘no time to be talking about pardons’ for Ghislaine Maxwell as he lands in Scotland ahead of UK and EU talks – live

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      Speaking to reporters at Prestwick airport, Trump denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files.Asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”He then deflects further, suggesting the media should talk about Clinton and the ex-president of Harvard, but “don’t talk about Trump”.Donald Trump has arrived at his Turnberry golf resort on the coast of Ayrshire, in south-west Scotland.His motorcade, escorted by Police Scotland vehicles and ambulance crews, drove past a small group of protesters, and at least one supporter.While Trump has spoken fondly of Scotland, where his mother was born and raised, the country has not always returned his warmth.During a previous visit, in 2018, Trump was greeted at his Turnberry resort by a Greenpeace activist who paraglided directly over his head trailing a banner that read: “Trump: Well Below Par”.Ahead of his visit, one local newspaper, the National, which supports independence for Scotland, ran a preview of the visit with the headline: “Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland – Republican leader, who was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, will visit golf courses”.In his remarks to reporters at Prestwick airport earlier, Donald Trump was asked about his scheduled talks with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, which the White House has used to portray his mainly golf-themed truip as a working visit.“Can you explain”, a reporter asked Trump on the tarmac outside Air Force One, “what is missing in the UK deal that you have to work out?”“Nothing”, Trump replied. “I think it’s more of a celebration than a workout. It’s a great deal for both, and we’re going to have a meeting on other things, other than the deal. The deal is concluded”.Trump previously suggested that the talks were to “refine” the US-UK trade deal. Starmer told Bloomberg News in an interview on Thursday that the UK is still pressing for “full implementation” of the deal with the US.The sticking point appears to be that while Trump agreed to cut US tariffs on steel imports from the UK that currently stand at 25%, the tariffs have not yet been lifted.In response to the House ethics committee’s report into Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s attendance of the Met Gala four years ago, her chief of staff Mike Casca said:“The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House. She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she’s done at each step in this process.”The House ethics committee has ordered progressive Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to pay nearly $3,000 to resolve an investigation into her attendance of the 2021 Met Gala in New York City.The inquiry began in 2022 following an allegation that Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts when she attended the annual gala wearing a white floor-length gown with “Tax the Rich” written on the back.In its bipartisan report released today, the ethics committee determined that despite making “significant attempts” to comply with congressional rules around accepting gifts, Ocasio-Cortez failed to do so “fully” by “impermissibly” accepting free admission to the gala for her partner, and did not pay full market price for some of what she wore to the event.The committee found that a former campaign staff member tried to lower the congresswoman’s costs for attending the gala and made late payments to vendors involved. While it faulted Ocasio-Cortez for not properly supervising the staffer, the committee “did not find evidence that she intended to seek to lower the cost of goods provided to her or to delay payment for those goods and other services received.”The committee determined that they will close the matter and Ocasio-Cortez will not face sanctions if she donates the $250 cost of her partner’s meal, and pays $2,733.28 to the designer from which she rented the dress and accessories.A former Department of Justice lawyer has provided evidence to a justice department watchdog corroborating explosive claims that Emil Bove and other top officials wilfully and knowingly defied court orders, according to Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit representing the person.A top department official and Donald Trump’s former defense attorney, Bove is currently being considered for a lifetime seat on the federal bench.Whistleblower Aid said it was not identifying its client. They said the person had turned over “ substantive, internal DoJ documents” to the justice department’s inspector general. The evidence, the organization said, corroborate allegations from Erez Reuveni, a fired DoJ employee, who has publicly said that Bove told DoJ lawyers to defy the courts.“What we’re seeing here is something I never thought would be possible on such a wide scale: federal prosecutors appointed by the Trump Administration intentionally presenting dubious if not outright false evidence to a court of jurisdiction in cases that impact a person’s fundamental rights not only under our constitution, but their natural rights as humans,” said Andrew Bakaj, chief counsel at Whistleblower Aid.“Our client and Mr Reuveni are true patriots – prioritizing their commitment to democracy over advancing their careers.”Trump also said a trade deal with the European Union would be a big agreement and repeated his view that there was a “good 50-50 chance” for it.“With the European Union, we have a good 50-50 chance,” he told reporters. “That would be the biggest deal of them all if we make it.”He is due to meet with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday to discuss trade.Speaking to reporters at Prestwick airport, Trump denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files.Asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”He then deflects further, suggesting the media should talk about Clinton and the ex-president of Harvard, but “don’t talk about Trump”.The US president was greeted by Scottish secretary Ian Murray as he walked off Air Force One at Prestwick airport.The pair could be seen shaking hands at the bottom of the aircraft stairs before Donald Trump walked across to a group of journalists to answer questions.Air Force One has just landed in Scotland. I’ll bring you any key lines here if Donald Trump speaks to the media.Disgraced former US representative George Santos reported to a federal prison in New Jersey earlier today to begin serving a seven-year sentence for the fraud charges that got him ousted from Congress.The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to the Associated Press that the New York Republican was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey.Santos pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges for deceiving donors and stealing people’s identities in order to fund his congressional campaign.Lawyers for Santos didn’t respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.The ever-online Santos, 37, hosted a farewell party for himself on X last night.“Well, darlings … The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” he wrote in a post afterwards. “From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried … most days.”In a Thursday interview with Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-owned news organization, Santos said he’ll serve his sentence in a minimum-security prison “camp” that he described as a “big upgrade” from the medium-security lockup he was initially assigned to.In April, a federal judge declined to give Santos a lighter two-year sentence that he sought, saying she was unconvinced he was truly remorseful. In the weeks before his sentencing, Santos said he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes, but he also complained frequently that he was a victim of a political witch hunt and prosecutorial overreach.Santos lied extensively about his life story both before and after entering the US Congress, where he was the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected to the body. He was ultimately convicted of defrauding donors.He has apparently been holding out hope that his unwavering support for Donald Trump might help him win a last-minute reprieve.The White House said this week that it “will not comment on the existence or nonexistence” of any clemency request.A senior justice department official has told NBC News that attorney general Pam Bondi is still healing from a torn cornea, but it has not prevented her from doing day-to-day work and meeting with staff.The update comes after Bondi abruptly canceled a scheduled appearance on Wednesday at CPAC’s anti-trafficking summit in Washington, citing recovery from a health issue.As all the political firestorm over the Epstein saga continues to dominate the news cycle and consume Washington, there has been much online chatter about Bondi’s whereabouts.She was last seen on Tuesday morning swearing in the new DEA administrator Terry Cole at the justice department.NewsNation reports that following the conclusion of the DOJ interviews, David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, said they were “very grateful” for the opportunity.Markus said:
      This was a thorough, comprehensive interview by the deputy attorney general. No person and no topic were off-limits. We are very grateful. The truth will come out.
      Some more detail on that from the Tallahassee Democrat.David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney declined to say whether Donald Trump was the focus of any of the Department of Justice’s questions during the interviewing sessions that have taken place behind closed doors at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee over the last two days.“I’m just not going to talk about the substance,” Markus said.Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche had asked Maxwell “every possible question”, Markus said. “He did a really good job and asked her a lot of things.” More

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      Trump deflects Epstein questions as he arrives in Scotland for trade talks

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      The furore over Donald Trump’s ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued on Friday as new revelations about the pair’s relationship threatened to mire the president’s golfing trip to Scotland, where he arrived late on Friday.After landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport at about 8.30pm local time on Friday, the US president denied reports that he had been briefed about his name appearing in files pertaining to the case against the late Epstein. He also claimed he had not “really been following” the justice department’s interview with Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons” for Maxwell, Trump said. “Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons.“You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”Trump’s name appeared on a contributor list for a book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, according to reporting from the New York Times, lending further weight to reports that the president participated in the leather-bound collection of messages, drawings and accolades – even though he denied that he contributed a signed and sexually suggestive note and drawing, as reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.Trump’s name is listed among Epstein’s friends and acquaintances who contributed birthday messages for the professionally bound book which reportedly had multiple volumes, the New York Times reported. The tome opens with a handwritten letter, also reviewed by the outlet, from the disgraced financier’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiring to sexually traffic children.Maxwell had a second meeting on Friday with the US deputy attorney general and Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, in Florida, where she is serving her prison term – following an initial face-to-face on Thursday.Trump was asked about Maxwell on Friday morning as he departed for Scotland with the shadow of the rumbling Epstein scandal hanging over the visit.Maxwell is appealing her conviction and the US president did not get into detail when asked about possible clemency for the disgraced British socialite and daughter of the late newspaper proprietor Robert Maxwell. Trump cited the ongoing investigation, while confirming he had the power of the presidential pardon, which can be used for federal or national level crimes but not state level.“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about,” Trump told reporters outside the White House as he prepared to depart Washington DC.When he arrived in Scotland, a large crowd was on hand, and some looking on reportedly applauded him.He was greeted by Scottish secretary of state, Ian Murray, as he walked off Air Force One. The pair were seen shaking hands at the bottom of the aircraft stairs before Trump walked across the tarmac to a group of journalists to answer questions.Trump planned to spend the weekend at one of his golf properties near Turnberry. Early next week, he will be visiting Aberdeen, where his family has one golf course and is getting ready to open a second course soon.Trump plans to meet with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to talk trade, amid his continual threats of imposing steep tariffs on US trading partners.But none of that could overshadow Epstein, whose birthday gift collection includes about five dozen contributions from public figures and unknown acquaintances, according to documents reviewed by the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and was assembled before Epstein’s first arrest in 2006.The birthday book controversy has deepened anger over the decision by Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, to backtrack on promises to release the Epstein investigative files.Trump has responded to the growing backlash from his usually loyal supporters – and Democrats – over the U-turn with mounting fury, claiming that news reports over the birthday book were fake news.Last week, Trump sued Journal’s billionaire owner, Rupert Murdoch, publisher Dow Jones and two Journal reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent Epstein a signed lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman as part of the birthday book.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” the Journal reported of the alleged drawing. The letter allegedly concluded: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”Trump followed the lawsuit, which seeks $10bn in damages, by barring Journal reporters from this weekend’s trip to Scotland.He also called for relevant grand jury testimony in the prosecution of Epstein to be publicly released, insisting that he had nothing to hide. On Wednesday, a district judge in Florida denied a request by Trump’s Department of Justice to unseal the transcripts.Congress was sent home early for summer recess by the House speaker and Trump loyalist, Mike Johnson, in an effort to quell Democratic party demands for a vote on the Epstein files.But Trump’s desire to play down his relationship with Epstein has been repeatedly thwarted by a steady drip of evidence – photos, videos, books and witnesses – that strongly suggest his name could appear in the files.Earlier this week, CNN published newly uncovered photos and videos that show Epstein at Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, and the pair at a Victoria’s Secret event in 1993, seemingly joking with Trump’s future wife, Melania Trump.The New York Times then reported that even before the birthday anthology, Trump had written another gushing note to Epstein in 1997. “To Jeff – You are the greatest!” reads an inscription in a copy of Trump’s book Trump: The Art of the Comeback that belonged to Epstein, which the Times said it had reviewed.And the Journal reported more details on the birthday book, which Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein recalls Maxwell putting together.The contents page was organized into categories, with Trump and Bill Clinton listed under the “Friends” group, according to the Journal. A message in Clinton’s distinctive handwriting reportedly read: “It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friend.”Also listed as a friend is the Labour politician and current UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, whose tribute, the Journal reported, included photos of whiskey and a tropical island, and referred to Epstein as “my best pal”.Clinton has previously said that he cut ties with Epstein more than a decade before his 2019 arrest and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes. In 2023, Mandelson told the Journal that he “very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein”.A House committee on Wednesday voted to subpoena the justice department for the Epstein investigation files, with three Republicans voting alongside Democratic members. Democratic representative Ro Khanna of California has said he will subpoena Epstein’s estate to hand over the book. More

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      Ghislaine Maxwell interviewed again by deputy US attorney general

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      The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, held a second in-person meeting on Friday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Blanche had confirmed the two met behind closed doors in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, at the federal prosecutor’s office within the federal courthouse in the state capital, and they met again on Friday.Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, on Friday afternoon said Blanche had finished his questioning for the day, NBC News first reported.Markus told reporters as he left the courthouse in downtown Tallahassee: “We started this morning right around 9 o’clock, and went to now lunchtime, and we’re finished after all day, yesterday and today. 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.”He added: “They asked about every single, every possible thing you could imagine. Everything.”The justice department has not said whether Blanche intends to question Maxwell further. Markus said he did not know whether the discussions would have any impact on her case. He had previously said Thursday’s meeting was “very productive”.Blanche had announced earlier in the week that he had contacted Maxwell’s lawyers to see if she might have “information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims”.Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee, after a jury convicted her of sex trafficking in 2021.An uproar continues to engulf Donald Trump and calls have intensified for his administration to release all details of the federal investigation into Epstein, while questions remain about whether Maxwell has any fresh light to shed on her former boyfriend’s crimes.Meanwhile, the US supreme court is due to wade into the controversy and decide whether to hear a bid by Maxwell to overturn her criminal conviction.Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a jail cell in New York while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Trump, dogged by questions about his ties to Epstein, headed to Scotland on Friday for a trip that will mix golf with politics mostly out of public view. Protests await the president in the UK over his extreme agenda while scandal nips at his heels in the US.Further talking to reporters after Friday’s meeting, Markus said: “We don’t know how it’s going to play out. We just know that this was the first opportunity she’s ever been given to answer questions about what happened, and so the truth will come out about what happened with Mr Epstein. And she’s the person who’s answering those questions.”Prosecutors and the judge who oversaw Maxwell’s 2021 trial have said that she made multiple false statements under oath and failed to take responsibility for her actions. She was convicted for sex trafficking and other crimes, and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.“People have questioned her honesty, which I think is just wrong,” Markus said.Asked if Maxwell had received an offer of clemency from the government, Markus said no offer had been made.Although the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, earlier this year had promised to release additional materials related to possible Epstein clients, the justice department reversed course this month and issued a memo concluding there was no basis to continue investigating and there was no evidence of a client list or blackmail.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSince then, the department has sought permission to unseal grand jury transcripts from its prior investigations into Epstein and Maxwell.On Wednesday, US district judge Robin Rosenberg denied one of those requests.Trump’s name, along with many other high-profile individuals, appeared multiple times on flight logs for Epstein’s private plane in the 1990s, while several media outlets have this month reported previously unpublicized and friendly communications from the US president to the high-profile financier.Meanwhile, the supreme court justices, now on their summer recess, are expected in late September to consider whether to take up the appeal by Maxwell against her conviction in 2021 by a jury in New York for helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.Maxwell’s lawyers have told the supreme court that her conviction was invalid because a non-prosecution and plea agreement that federal prosecutors had made with Epstein in Florida in 2007 also shielded his associates and should have barred her criminal prosecution in New York. Her lawyers have a Monday deadline for filing their final written brief in their appeal to the court.Some legal experts see merit in Maxwell’s claim, noting that it touches on an unsettled matter of US law that has divided some of the nation’s regional federal appeals courts.Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, said there was a chance that the supreme court would take up the case, and noted the disagreement among appeals courts. Such a split among circuit courts can be a factor when the nation’s top judicial body considers whether or not to hear a case.“The question of whether a plea agreement from one US attorney’s office binds other federal prosecution as a whole is a serious issue that has split the circuits,” Epner said.While uncommon, “there have been several cases presenting the issue over the years”, Epner added.The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting More