WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Thursday posted an election conspiracy video that depicted former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys, drawing condemnation from prominent Democrats.
Near the end of a one-minute-long video posted on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the Obamas are shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.
The song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays in the background when the Obamas appear.
The video repeats false allegations that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the 2020 election from Trump.
As of early Friday morning, the video had been liked several thousand times on the president’s social media platform.
The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate and a prominent Trump critic, slammed the post.
“Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now,” Newsom’s press office account posted on X.
Ben Rhodes, a former top national security advisor and close confidant to Barack Obama, also condemned the imagery.
“Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history,” he wrote on X.
Obama is the only Black president in American history and backed Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in the 2024 presidential election.
AI IMAGERY
In the first year of his second term in the White House, Trump ramped up his use of hyper-realistic but fabricated visuals on Truth Social and other platforms, often glorifying himself while lampooning his critics.
He has used the provocative posts to rally his conservative base.
Last year, Trump posted a video generated by artificial intelligence showing Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and appearing behind bars in an orange jumpsuit.
Later, he posted an AI clip of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — who is Black — wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero.
Jeffries called the image racist.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has drawn criticism from his opponents for leading a crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
One of Trump’s first acts was to terminate all federal government DEI programs, including related policies in the military.
The drive to rid the armed forces of what Trump has derided as “woke” initiatives has also seen the removal from some military academy bookshelves of scores of books that cover the US’s history of discrimination.
US federal anti-discrimination programs were born of the 1960s civil rights struggle, mainly led by Black Americans, for equality and justice after hundreds of years of slavery, whose abolition in 1865 saw other institutional forms of racism enforced.
The newly released Epstein Files have allegations of underage girls being auctioned at Mar-a-Lago, brought in by Jeffrey Epstein, in “Calendar girl parties”.
The report stems from 2020 complaints received through the National Threat Operations Centre, related to the Epstein investigation.
The complaint alleges that Trump used to test girls on their “genital tightness” by inserting a finger into their private parts, in the presence of many other guests, like Elon Musk, Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Allan Dershowitz, and Bob Shapiro.
“We were taken in rooms, forced to give oral sex to Donald J Trump, forced to allow them to penetrate us. I was 13 years old when Donald J Trump raped me,” the report further alleges. The FBI has categorised the report as “false”.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Friday that thousands of new documents related to the case of convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein were being released.
Screenshot of EFTA01660679 Photograph: (DOJ)
Allegations of murder against Trump
An FBI agent reported that he spoke to a woman code-named “caller”.
The woman and her friend, “victim-1′ went out one night and ended up at Trump Plaza.
Apparently, “Victim-1” really wanted to meet the infamous Donald Trump.
The “caller” then says that an unknown man approached her friend and offered to introduce her to Trump. He then offered her a drink, and later she woke up naked and sore with $300 in a bed.
“Victim 1 didn’t remember how she got to the room. She remembered seeing ‘a flash’ of Trump’s face. Victim 1 called the Caller and told her she thought she had been raped”.
The darker part is that Victim 1 was never seen again. Years later, her remains were found, and the Victim is identified as deceased in the agent report. These reports get darker and darker. A girl says that she witnessed a sex trafficking ring at the Trump Golf Course in Los Angeles, “Complainant reported Ghislaine Maxwell as the madam and broker for sex parties, clients of whom included Epstein. Robin Leach and Donald Trump.
Complainant reported participating in orgies and that some girls went missing, rumoured to have been murdered and buried at the facility.” She also claimed that she was later warned by Trump’s Head of Security that if she ever mentioned to anyone about this, she would “end up as fertiliser for the back nine holes like the other cunts”.
The FBI received an anonymous tip involving Trump, Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and another man. The anonymous tipster alleged that she overheard a private conversation between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump during a trip shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
A sheikh in a country whose name is redacted offered his virgin daughter to him.
The claim was entirely based on the caller’s recollection of a conversation and would require corroboration and investigation.
The caller claimed that Trump allegedly spoke about visiting a country, but indicates uncertainty, “possibly Israel”. According to the tipster, Epstein allegedly responded positively, making sexually explicit remarks about young women.
“There was an incident after 09/11/2001, Epstein, Trump, Ghislaine, Joe and Palm Beach, FL, for the weekend. was waiting on the plane for others reading magazines, overhearing Epstein and Trump’s conversation, overheard Trump talking about how he just came from visiting a country (possibly Israel), where they have sheikhs, claiming the sheikh gave his virgin daughter to him.” read the complaint.
The woman said that she was introduced to Epstein in 2004 by Caroly Dougherty and described the recruiter as being associated with Epstein. Epstein allegedly made unwanted remarks at her and attempted to unzip her pants. After which she withdrew from the interaction.
The witness became friends with Ghislaine Maxwell and observed that Maxwell was actively involved in recruiting young women for Epstein.
The witness made multiple visits to Epstein’s private island with her then-boyfriend, who was friends with Epstein. During these visits, she observed various high-profile individuals and overheard Epstein discussing plans for massage rooms and a “harem.”
“Epstein had two types of women he would keep around, including young women he would pay and the high-end girlfriends,” said Epstein.
Washington (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump is discussing options including military action to take control of Greenland, the White House said Tuesday, upping tensions that Denmark warns could destroy the NATO alliance.
Trump has stepped up his designs on the mineral-rich, self-governing Danish territory in the arctic since the US military seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro last weekend.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority” for Trump to deter US adversaries like Russia and China.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal,” she said in a statement to AFP.
The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that Trump’s preferred option is to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding the threats did not signal an imminent invasion.
Denmark has warned any move to take Greenland by force would mean “everything would stop,” including NATO and 80 years of close transatlantic security links.
Any US military action against Greenland would effectively collapse NATO, since the alliance’s Article Five pledges that member states will defend any of their number that come under attack.
Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt wrote on social media that they’d sought a meeting with Rubio throughout 2025 but “it has so far not been possible.”
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Rubio should “clear up certain misunderstandings.”
And Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted that the island was not for sale, and only its 57,000 people should decide its future.
Allies have rallied around Denmark and Greenland while simultaneously trying not to antagonize Trump.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain joined Denmark in a statement on Tuesday saying they would defend the “universal principles” of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both sought to play down the row as they attended Ukraine peace talks in Paris alongside Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“I cannot imagine a scenario in which the United States of America would be placed in a position to violate Danish sovereignty,” Macron said.
The United States has 150 military personnel stationed at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.
Greenland residents have rejected Trump’s threats.
“This is not something we appreciate,” Christian Keldsen, director of the Greenland Business Assocation, told AFP in the capital Nuuk. “It is not acceptable in the civilized world.”
Trump has been floating the idea of annexing Greenland since his first term. In the last year, Copenhagen has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner ($14 billion).
Big and strong
Still steaming over Trump’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, US legislators spoke out against the idea of military action against Greenland on Tuesday.
In social media posts, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, vowed to introduce a resolution “to block Trump from invading Greenland,” saying the 79-year-old Republican simply “wants a giant island with his name on it. He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong.”
In a sharp departure from the party’s typical partisanship, Republicans also pushed back against Trump’s military-backed expansionism.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told reporters Tuesday night that he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for Washington to take military action on Greenland, Politico reported.
Republican Senator Jerry Moran of the midwestern state of Kansas, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told HuffPost “it’s none of our business” and warned that the move would lead to “the demise of NATO.”
Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon put it even more bluntly in a post on X: “This is really dumb. Greenland and Denmark are our allies.”
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States needs Greenland for national security reasons, citing what he described as an increased Russian and Chinese presence around the strategically located island country.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Greenland is “so strategic” and claimed that it is currently surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.
“We need Greenland, from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said when asked about any potential US action against Greenland.
Trump also argued that US control over Greenland would serve broader Western interests, adding the European Union “needs us to have it” from a security standpoint.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark and has previously rejected proposals suggesting any transfer of sovereignty.
Visa denial of KAA chief exposes widening cocaine pipeline through Nairobi as Washington escalates war on cartels. Emergency Sunday meeting called as Sh3 billion tender scandal deepens crisis
The dramatic denial of a United States visa to Kenya Airports Authority CEO Dr. Mohamud M. Gedi has thrust Jomo Kenyatta International Airport into the spotlight, exposing what American intelligence officials suspect is a compromised gateway in East Africa’s escalating narcotics war.
Aviation and Aerospace Principal Secretary Teresia Mbaika moved with unusual urgency Sunday, summoning Gedi to her office on October 12, 2025, a weekend meeting that signals the gravity of the crisis engulfing Kenya’s flagship airport.
The weekend summons, highly irregular in government protocol, has sparked speculation that Gedi may be forced out as authorities scramble to contain the diplomatic and security fallout.
“There is panic as some officials fear this may trigger changes at KAA. We are waiting to see,” a source within the ministry revealed, confirming that Mbaika was shocked by revelations surrounding the visa denial.
The refusal, issued under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ahead of critical aviation security talks in Montreal, cited administrative processing but sources close to the matter point to graver concerns: suspected links to terrorism financing, procurement corruption, and facilitation of drug trafficking networks operating through Kenya’s flagship airport.
The Sh3 Billion Question
The visa denial comes as investigators examine suspicious procurement deals orchestrated under Gedi’s watch.
The acting managing director has already awarded two major tenders valued at Sh3 billion to a company linked to a sitting governor, raising red flags about conflict of interest and possible kickback schemes.
One contract alone, involving repairs at Wilson Airport, is valued at Sh1.5 billion.
Critics describe these as “hipped development projects” designed to siphon public funds while delivering little actual infrastructure improvement.
These procurement irregularities have fueled speculation that corruption at KAA extends beyond simple graft to potentially facilitating criminal enterprises that require blind eyes at strategic checkpoints. The overlap between financial malfeasance and security lapses presents a troubling picture of institutional compromise at the highest levels.
A Pipeline Exposed
The timing could not be more damning. Just weeks before Gedi’s visa application was rejected, 20 kilograms of cocaine traced back to JKIA were intercepted at London’s Heathrow Airport.
KAA Managing Director and CEO Mohamud Gedi during a past event. PHOTO/@KenyaAirports/X
A Kenyan suspect now faces prosecution in Britain, marking the latest seizure in a disturbing pattern that has transformed the airport into a critical node in the transatlantic cocaine trade.
JKIA has increasingly featured in international drug busts that reveal sophisticated trafficking networks. In March 2025, Spanish authorities arrested two Kenyan nationals at Madrid-Barajas Airport carrying 15 kilograms of cocaine that originated from Nairobi. Investigators traced the shipment to handlers within JKIA’s cargo section.
Last December, Italian police dismantled a smuggling ring in Milan that had moved an estimated 200 kilograms of cocaine through JKIA over an 18-month period, concealed in coffee shipments and safari tour packages.
Three airport employees were arrested in Nairobi in connection with the operation.
These incidents underscore what American and European drug enforcement agencies have privately warned Kenyan authorities about for years: JKIA’s security infrastructure has been penetrated by criminal syndicates, and corrupt insiders are allegedly facilitating the flow of South American cocaine destined for European markets.
The implications for Kenya’s aviation standing are severe. The US Transportation Security Administration had scheduled the September meeting specifically to finalize the One Stop Security program, which would allow passengers transiting through JKIA to skip additional screening at American airports. That designation now hangs in the balance.
Trump’s Expanded Drug War
The visa denial aligns with President Donald Trump’s intensified campaign against international drug trafficking, which has expanded significantly since his inauguration in January 2025.
The administration has not only maintained pressure on traditional targets like Venezuela but has also turned its attention to African transit routes.
Trump’s Treasury Department recently sanctioned Venezuelan officials and entities linked to cocaine production, while the State Department has publicly called out African airports as emerging vulnerabilities in the global supply chain.
Kenya, with its strategic position and direct flights to major Western cities, has become a priority concern.
This represents a continuation of America’s long engagement in Kenya’s anti-narcotics efforts.
In 2010, the US extradited suspected drug baron Ibrahim Akasha and three others who were later convicted in New York federal court.
The Akasha brothers’ trial exposed a sprawling criminal empire that corrupted law enforcement and political figures across East Africa.
The Akasha case demonstrated Washington’s willingness to pursue extradition and prosecution of Kenyan nationals involved in narcotics trafficking. Their convictions in 2018 sent shockwaves through Kenya’s criminal underworld and political elite, revealing the depth of drug money’s penetration into legitimate institutions.
Naming Names
Kenya’s Parliament has not shied from confronting the issue. In 2019, then Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i publicly named several individuals suspected of drug trafficking, though prosecutions rarely followed.
MPs have repeatedly demanded investigations into how narcotics move through JKIA with apparent ease, pointing to what they describe as a protection racket involving airport officials, customs agents, and elements within security services.
Parliamentary committees have documented cases of suspected drug barons operating with impunity, protected by networks of compromised officials.
The National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security has called for lifestyle audits of senior airport personnel, noting the inexplicable wealth accumulation among individuals earning modest government salaries.
The latest scandal involving Gedi adds a troubling dimension: the head of the institution responsible for airport security now faces American allegations of complicity. While no formal charges have been filed, the visa denial under provisions typically reserved for national security threats sends an unambiguous message from Washington.
Montreal Without Gedi
The visa denial was communicated ahead of a scheduled bilateral meeting between Kenyan officials and Acting TSA Administrator Ms. Ha Nguyen McNeill, held on September 25, 2025, during the 41st ICAO Assembly in Montreal. The meeting proceeded as planned, but Gedi’s conspicuous absence spoke volumes.
A letter from TSA Attaché for East and South Africa, Mr. Edwin Falcon Jr., confirmed that while the visa application was submitted with full documentation, it was refused for “additional administrative processing.” Under U.S. law, visa applicants must demonstrate full eligibility, and the burden of proof lies with the applicant under INA 291.
Sources familiar with the case indicated that Gedi’s application may have been flagged due to concerns involving national security and integrity-related issues, including suspected ties to terrorist networks, corruption in aviation procurement, and illicit narcotics activities.
The TSA meeting in Montreal covered critical security matters: finalizing agreements for the One Stop Security program, advancing a pilot to permanent transition of security protocols, US support for African nations’ integration into international aviation safety frameworks, enhancing security infrastructure at JKIA and Moi International Airport through equipment upgrades, expanding training workshops to strengthen Kenya’s aviation security capabilities, and planning a biometric study tour at Frankfurt International Airport.
American officials were diplomatic in their public statements, expressing confidence that Gedi’s absence would not hinder the goals of the meeting and emphasizing continued collaboration. But privately, sources indicate that Washington has made clear that Kenya’s aviation privileges depend on demonstrable action against the corruption and criminality that have infected its airports.
What Happens Next
Kenya’s Ministry of Transport has remained conspicuously silent beyond scheduling the emergency Sunday meeting. KAA has issued no formal statement, and Gedi, while confirming the incident, said the move came as a surprise.
The institutional paralysis speaks volumes about the sensitivity of the matter and the potential legal and diplomatic ramifications.
For JKIA, the path forward requires more than statements of concern.
International aviation authorities are watching closely to see whether Kenya will conduct genuine investigations, remove compromised officials, and implement the security protocols that Western partners have demanded.
The stakes extend beyond one man’s visa.
Kenya’s reputation as a stable aviation hub, its access to lucrative Western routes, and its broader relationship with the United States all depend on how seriously Nairobi takes this crisis.
As President Trump escalates his administration’s war on narcotics trafficking, countries that serve as transit points face a stark choice: clean house or face isolation.
For Kenya, that reckoning has arrived at 30,000 feet. The emergency Sunday meeting between Mbaika and Gedi may well determine whether JKIA can salvage its international standing or whether this scandal marks the beginning of Kenya’s aviation isolation.
US President Donald Trump has said Sir Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, wants to join the international body overseeing Gaza under an American plan to end the war.
Sir Tony became the first named member of a new “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump, to be tasked with temporarily supervising Gaza’s governance if Hamas accept the plan. “Leaders from other countries” on the board will be named later, Trump said.
The board is part of a 20-point plan aimed at ending the nearly two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas – including a process of demilitarising and redeveloping Gaza.
Sir Tony said the plans were “the best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering”.
A Palestinian source familiar with the ceasefire negotiations told the BBC that Hamas officials had been given the White House’s 20-point proposal.
Earlier, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group remained open to studying any proposal that could end the war in Gaza, but stressed that any agreement must safeguard Palestinian interests, ensure a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and bring the war to an end.
Sir Tony, who was UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and who took the UK into the Iraq War in 2003, has been part of high-level talks with the US and other parties about the future of Gaza.
After leaving office, he served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers (the US, EU, Russia and the UN). He focused on bringing economic development to Palestine and creating the conditions for a two state-solution.
In August, he joined a White House meeting with Trump to discuss plans for the territory, which US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff described as “very comprehensive” – though little else was disclosed about the meeting.
Under the plan, unveiled by Trump on Monday evening, the war would “immediately end” once both sides agreed to it.
It would also see all 20 living Israeli hostages and the remains of more than two dozen who are believed to be dead returned within 72 hours.
Israel would then release 250 life-sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans detained since the war began on 7 October 2023.
“Full aid” would immediately be sent to Gaza, the plan says. A multinational stabilisation force would deploy to support security and train local police. Israeli forces would withdraw in stages.
According to the text of the plan, “Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza.
“This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the ‘Board of Peace,’ which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”
Hamas, the plan states, would have no role in governance, “directly, indirectly, or in any form”.
Trump said that if Hamas rejected the deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have his “full backing” to “do what you would have to do”.
The plan also leaves the door open to an eventual Palestinian state, but only if the Palestinian Authority carries out sweeping reforms.
The president also hit out at countries for “foolishly” recognising Palestine statehood – as the UK, Australia, Canada and France did last week.
Responding to the announcement, Sir Tony said: “President Trump has put down a bold and intelligent plan which, if agreed, can end the war, bring immediate relief to Gaza, the chance of a brighter and better future for its people, whilst ensuring Israel’s absolute and enduring security and the release of all hostages.
“It offers us the best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering and I thank President Trump for his leadership, determination and commitment.
“In particular, his willingness to chair the Board of Peace to oversee the new Gaza is a huge signal of support and confidence in the future of Gaza, of the possibility of Israelis and Palestinians finding a path to peace and of the potential for a broader regional and global alliance to counter the forces of extremism and promote peace and prosperity between nations.”
The plan announced on Monday marks a shift from earlier ideas floated by the Trump administration. In February, Trump declared the US would take over the Gaza Strip and build a “riviera of the Middle East”
The idea would have involved the forced displacement of Palestinians in the territory and be in violation of international law, a step Sir Tony’s office vowed not to support.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 66,055 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A UN-backed body recently confirmed that famine was taking place in Gaza City. Earlier this month, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza – which Israel strongly rejects.
Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Wednesday on allegations of obstruction and making a false statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 related to Comey’s testimony about Russian interference during the 2016 US presidential election, in which Trump won his first term in office.
The move from the US Justice Department (DOJ) comes just days after President Donald Trump issued a public demand for the DOJ to act “now” to bring charges against Comey and other political foes of the president.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”
The indictment against Comey comes in the wake of Trump ousting the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Seibert, who according to sources from media reports had expressed doubts internally about bringing charges against Comey, as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James, after Trump appointed Seibert to lead the office.
After Seibert’s ouster, the president immediately installed Lindsey Halligan to lead the office. Halligan, a White House aide and Trump’s former defense attorney, was appointed to the position despite having no prior prosecutorial experience.
The president hailed the indictment of Comey.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI,” Trump posted on his Truth Social media platform.
“Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”
Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in Virginia informed Halligan that they could not establish probable cause to charge Comey, according to a report by ABC News.
Despite the lack of clear evidence and ethical concerns about bringing a case without clear probable cause, Halligan still sought an indictment from the grand jury.
“Today, your FBI took another step in its promise of full accountability,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “For far too long, previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud institutions and severely eroding public trust.”
“Every day, we continue to fight to earn that trust back, and under my leadership, this FBI will confront the problem head-on,” Patel continued.
“Nowhere was this politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose.”
“Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account – no matter their perch. No one is above the law.”
The current charges against Comey are the most dramatic so far in what critics have described as a campaign of retribution by Trump to use the powers of the federal government to enact revenge against his political enemies.
Comey was fired by Trump during his first term in office over the investigation into the president’s 2016 campaign and its ties to Russia. Comey has been a vocal critic of what he says are Trump’s efforts to politicize the justice system.
The tables are now turned after Comey’s indictment, with that same argument about politicizing the justice system likely to be central to his defense in the criminal case, according to legal experts.
The outcome of Comey’s trial will likely also be a test for both the Justice Department and the federal judiciary.
If convicted, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a statement that Comey faces up to five years in prison, but added that “actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.”
US President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to stop Israel from annexing the West Bank as he presses to end the Gaza war, ahead of a high-stakes visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu will address the United Nations on Friday and later meet Trump in Washington as Israeli ministers muse of annexing the West Bank in response to recognition of a Palestinian state by France, Britain and several other Western powers.
But Trump, who has offered crucial support to Netanyahu as Israel comes under mounting global pressure, made clear he would not back annexation, which far-right Israelis see as a way to kill any real prospect of an independent Palestine.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “No, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.”
Trump voiced optimism about ending nearly two years of devastating war, echoing the confidence expressed a day earlier on the sidelines of the United Nations by his roving envoy, Steve Witkoff.
“We’re getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza and maybe even peace,” said Trump, who also spoke to Netanyahu by telephone on Thursday.
Trump met Tuesday at the United Nations with the leaders of key Arab and Muslim nations who warned him of consequences if Israel moved ahead.
“I think the president of the US understands very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters.
Saudi Arabia has mulled recognition of Israel in what would be a massive symbolic step, as the kingdom is home to Islam’s two holiest sites.
The United Arab Emirates, whose 2020 normalisation with Israel is seen as a top achievement by both Netanyahu and Trump, has publicly warned Israel against annexation.
Netanyahu nonetheless has defied Trump in recent months with attacks in Iran, Qatar and Syria amid US diplomacy.
Abbas says no role for Hamas
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in his own address to the United Nations on Thursday sought to allay concerns as he called for all countries to recognize Palestinian statehood.
The veteran 89-year-old president of the Palestinian Authority was forced to address the General Assembly by video after the United States took the unusual step of denying him a visa to come to New York.
Abbas made clear he was different from Hamas, which took control of Gaza in 2007.
“Hamas will not have a role to play in governance. Hamas and other factions will have to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian National Authority,” Abbas said in a speech that received loud applause by delegates watching the video.
He distanced himself from the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 — the deadliest day ever for Israel, in which 1,219 people died, mostly civilians — as well as frequent accusations by Israel’s supporters that the Palestinians are denying the rights of Jews.
“Despite all that our people have suffered, we reject what Hamas carried out on October 7 — actions that targeted Israeli civilians and took them hostage — because these actions do not represent the Palestinian people, nor do they represent their just struggle for freedom and independence,” Abbas said.
“We reject confusing the solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the issue of antisemitism, which is something that we reject based on our values and principles,” he said.
Abbas nonetheless called the nearly two-year Israeli assault in Gaza “one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy of the 20th and 21st century” — by implication putting it alongside the Holocaust against the Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 65,500 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Vladimir Putin “will keep driving the war forward wider and deeper” if he is not stopped, Ukraine’s President Zelensky has warned.
Speaking at the UN’s General Assembly in New York, Zelensky said more countries would be met with Russian aggression unless allies displayed a united front and ramped up support.
He said all nations were threatened by a global arms race, as military technology advances, adding that “weapons decide who survives” and calling for global rules on AI.
His comments come after US President Donald Trump shifted his position on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying for the first time that Ukraine could win back all of its land.
Zelensky criticised international institutions, suggesting they are “too weak” to offer Ukraine safety guarantees, adding – in apparent reference to Nato – that being part of a long-standing military alliance “doesn’t automatically mean you are safe”.
“We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history,” he said.
He argued that “stopping Russia now” was cheaper than “wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead”.
Zelensky called for international rules around AI and its role in weaponry, and said the development of autonomous drones and unmanned planes represented a far greater risk than traditional warfare.
The Ukrainian leader also warned that Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova – which lies between Ukraine and EU-member Romania – to Russian influence. He said the West had missed a chance to save Georgia and Belarus from Putin’s orbit.
On Thursday the pro-EU president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, accused the Kremlin of “pouring hundreds of millions of euros” into Moldova in an attempt to instigate violence and spread fear.
Voters in the former Soviet republic go to the polls on Sunday, amid what a BBC investigation found to be a barrage of disinformation spread by a network with ties to Moscow.
Last week, Estonia and Poland requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russia violated its airspace in separate incidents. Romania, another Nato member, also said Russian drones breached its airspace.
Earlier on Tuesday, following his speech to the UN, Trump said Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes breaching their airspace, following the recent incursions by Russian fighter jets and drones.
Zelensky praised Donald Trump and said he had a “good meeting” with the US president.
On Tuesday, he told reporters he understood the US was willing to give Ukraine security guarantees after the war is finished.
Pressed on what this would look like, he said he did not have specific details but broached the possibility of more weapons, air defences and drones.
Trump’s suggestion on Tuesday that Kyiv could win, with support from the EU and Nato, marked an apparent U-turn after his previous comments that Ukraine would have to accept “land swaps” as a condition of peace.
The US president also described Russia as a “paper tiger” that had been “fighting aimlessly in Ukraine.”
Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov responded: “Russia is in no way a tiger. It’s more associated with a bear. And there is no such thing as a paper bear.”
Peskov told reporters the US president had made the comments “apparently under the influence of the vision put forward by Zelensky”.
“This vision is in absolute contrast with our understanding of the current state of affairs.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, marking the highest-level US encounter with Russia since Trump invited Putin to Alaska last month.
According to a brief statement from the US State Department, Rubio reiterated Trump’s “call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war”.
The Kremlin did not immediately comment on the meeting.
US President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday hours before Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show was due to be back on the air in the United States, insulting the host, and threatening to “test ABC” over the move.
Kimmel’s show returns Tuesday night after a week-long hiatus following government pressure on broadcasters that critics said amounted to a chill on free speech.
However, two powerful companies that own dozens of ABC affiliates have said they will continue their boycott, giving viewers “other programming relevant to their respective markets.”
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to insult Kimmel and accuse broadcaster ABC of “playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
The 79-year-old Republican added: “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million dollars.”
ABC agreed in December to donate $15 million to Trump’s eventual presidential library to settle a defamation suit instead of fighting it out in court.
A separate $16 million settlement was paid by CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, to settle a different lawsuit over an interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.
All eyes will be on Kimmel’s popular opening monologue Tuesday night, in which the comedian is expected to address his suspension, which came after comments he made in the wake of the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
“I don’t want him to apologize as soon as he comes in,” 18-year-old Paul Dorner told AFP as he waited for a seat in the show’s audience.
“I would love for him to just put up a fight and stand up for what he thinks.”
Rogelio Nunez, 38, said he had traveled from San Diego for the taping in the heart of Hollywood.
“We need to make sure that we’re not being censored,” he said.
“So besides just coming for entertainment, I think it’s important to protect our rights.”
– ‘The MAGA gang’ –
Kimmel, who frequently skewers Trump and his inner circle, raised the ire of conservatives last week when he said “the MAGA gang” was trying to exploit Kirk’s college campus murder for their own political gain.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr appeared to threaten the licenses of ABC affiliates broadcasting the show unless they demanded Kimmel’s removal — something Trump himself has frequently called for.
Two companies that own dozens of those affiliates — Nexstar and Sinclair — then announced they would be removing the show from their schedules, prompting Disney to suspend the show nationwide.
Sinclair — which last week demanded Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family and make a donation to his right-wing activist group Turning Point USA — said Monday its affiliates would not be broadcasting the show when it resumed.
On Tuesday, Nexstar followed suit.
“We made a decision last week to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’… We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve,” the company said.
Kimmel’s abrupt disappearance from the airwaves sparked fury in liberal circles, with opponents saying he had been targeted because he is critical of Trump.
Opponents saw it as the latest step in creeping government control of free speech, which is an article of faith for many Americans, as well as a right enshrined in the country’s constitution.
Some on the political right were also uneasy, including those who regularly count themselves as Trump allies, like conservative senator Ted Cruz, and firebrand broadcaster Tucker Carlson.
Trump often complains about negative coverage of him, going so far last week as to call it “illegal,” and has sued several media organizations.
Disney’s ABC has already settled a lawsuit filed by the president, pledging a multi-million dollar sum in a move that observers said appeared to be an attempt to get the often-vengeful 79-year-old off its back.
The company faced backlash after suspending Kimmel, with a rash of consumer cancellations and a wave of reproach from creators and Hollywood insiders over what many saw as a spineless response to government bullying.
By Monday Disney had backtracked, saying the suspension had been an effort to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country” and calling Kimmel’s comments “ill-timed and thus insensitive.”
But it said it was bringing the show back after days of “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy.”
Actor Glen Powell and singer Sarah McLachlan were expected to appear on Tuesday night’s show.
Kimmel has made no public comment about the episode, but on Tuesday posted a photo on Instagram of himself with late producer Norman Lear — who was known for his advocacy of free speech — with the caption: “Missing this guy today.”
Sept 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job” in the world during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, doubling down on his skepticism of global environmental initiatives and multilateral institutions.
Scientists say climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse. They point to rising temperatures, stronger storms, and melting ice as clear signs.
Groups like the UN have warned that waiting too long to act could cause serious damage to the planet and people.
Trump spoke for several minutes out of his near-hour speech on climate change during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, criticizing the European Union for reducing its carbon footprint, which he claimed has taken a toll on its economy, and warning countries that have invested heavily in renewable energy that their economies will suffer.
“It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump told the General Assembly. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.”
He added: “They were made by stupid people that have cost their country’s fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success.”
SECOND US WITHDRAWAL FROM CLIMATE PACT
Once Trump took office in January, the U.S. submitted its withdrawal for a second time from the Paris Agreement, a 2015 pact agreed by 195 countries to strive to keep global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 C, leaving it in the company of only Yemen, Iran and Libya.
His administration is carrying out an “energy dominance” agenda that focuses on producing and exporting oil, gas and coal, as well as nuclear, while sidelining renewable energy, which has become cost-competitive.
“We have the most oil of any nation anywhere, oil and gas in the world, and if you add coal, we have the most of any nation in the world,” he said.
His remarks come a day before UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hosts a climate summit at the UN that will focus on countries’ new climate action plans.
Guterres has tried to keep the world focused on continuing a global transition away from fossil fuels towards clean energy.
“Just follow the money,” Guterres said in June, adding that $2 trillion flowed into clean energy last year, $800 billion more than fossil fuels and up almost 70% in a decade.
US President Donald Trump on Friday ordered an annual $100,000 fee be added to H-1B skilled worker visas, creating potentially major repercussions for the tech industry where such permits are prolific.
The new measure, which could likely face legal challenges, was announced alongside the introduction of a $1 million “gold card” residency program that Trump had previewed months earlier.
“The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump told reporters as he signed the orders in the Oval Office.
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialized skills — such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers — to work in the United States, initially for three years, but extendable to six years.
The United States awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year on a lottery system, with India accounting for around three-quarters of the recipients.
Large technology firms rely on Indian workers who either relocate to the United States or come and go between the two countries.
Tech entrepreneurs — including Trump’s former ally Elon Musk — have warned against targeting H-1B visas, saying that the United States does not have enough homegrown talent to fill important tech sector job vacancies.
“All the big companies are on board,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who joined Trump in the Oval Office.
Trump has had the H-1B program in his sights since his first term in office, but faced court challenges to his earlier approach, which targeted the types of jobs that qualify.
The current iteration has become the latest move in the major immigration crackdown of his second term.
According to Trump’s order, the fee will be required for those seeking to enter the country beginning Sunday, with the Homeland Security secretary able to exempt individuals, entire companies, or entire industries.
The order expires in a year, though Trump can extend it.
The number of H-1B visa applications has risen sharply in recent years, with a peak in approvals in 2022 under Democratic president Joe Biden.
In contrast, the peak in rejections was recorded in 2018, during Trump’s first term in the White House.
The United States approved approximately 400,000 H-1B visas in 2024, two-thirds of which were renewals.
Trump also signed an order creating a new expedited pathway to US residency for people who pay $1 million, or for corporate sponsors to pay $2 million.
“I think it’s going to be tremendously successful,” Trump added.
US President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines Friday in an extraordinary escalation of what had been an online war of words with a Russian official over Ukraine and tariffs.
Trump and Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, have been sparring on social media for days.
Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform abruptly took that spat into the very real — and rarely publicized — sphere of nuclear forces.
“Based on the highly provocative statements,” Trump said he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”
“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,” the 79-year-old Republican posted.
The nuclear sabre rattling came against the backdrop of a deadline set by Trump for the end of next week for Russia to take steps to ending the Ukraine war or face unspecified new sanctions.
Despite the pressure from Washington, Russia’s onslaught against its pro-Western neighbor continues to unfold at full-bore.
An AFP analysis Friday showed that Russian forces had fired a record number of drones at Ukraine in July.
Russian attacks have killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians since June. A combined missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Thursday killed 31 people, including five children, said rescuers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his nearly three-and-a-half year invasion were “unchanged”.
Those demands include that Ukraine abandon territory and end ambitions to join NATO.
– Insults, nuclear rhetoric –
Trump did not say in his post whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military.
The United States and Russia control the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weaponry, and Washington keeps nuclear-armed submarines on permanent patrol as part of its so-called nuclear triad of land, sea and air-launched weapons.
Trump also did not refer specifically to what Medvedev had said to prompt his order.
Medvedev had criticised Trump on his Telegram account Thursday and alluded to the “fabled ‘Dead Hand’” — a reference to a highly secret automated system put in place during the Cold War to control the country’s nuclear weapons.
This came after Trump had lashed out at what he called the “dead economies” of Russia and India.
Medvedev had also harshly criticized Trump’s threat of new sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s continuing invasion of Ukraine.
Accusing Trump of “playing the ultimatum game,” he posted Monday on X that Trump “should remember” that Russia is a formidable force.
Trump responded by calling Medvedev “the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President.”
Medvedev should “watch his words,” Trump posted at midnight in Washington on Wednesday. “He’s entering very dangerous territory!”
Medvedev is currently deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and a vocal proponent of Putin’s war in Ukraine — and generally antagonistic to relations with the West.
He served as president between 2008-2012, effectively acting as a placeholder for Putin, who was able to circumvent constitutional term limits and remain in de facto power.
The one-time reformer has rebranded over the years as an avid online troller, touting often extreme versions of official Kremlin nationalist messaging. His influence within the Russian political system remains limited.
– Flowers for the children –
Residents mourned the 31 people killed in the attack on Kyiv, including five children (Sergei SUPINSKY) Sergei SUPINSKY/AFP/AFP
In Kyiv, residents held a day of mourning for the 31 killed on Thursday, most of whom were in a nine-storey apartment block torn open by a missile.
Rescue workers pulled bodies from the debris Friday.
Iryna Drozd, a 28-year-old mother of three, was laying flowers at the site to commemorate the five children killed.
The youngest, whose body was found early Friday, was two years old.
“These are flowers because children died. We brought flowers because we have children. Our children live across the street from here,” she told AFP.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said only Putin could end the war and renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders.
“The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia’s readiness,” he wrote on X.
US President Donald Trump has said he fell out with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he “stole” young women who worked at his Mar-a-Lago beach club spa.
The president made the remarks as he returned from Scotland, where he faced more questions over his relationship with the disgraced financier.
“He took people, I say ‘don’t do it anymore’, you know they work for me… beyond that, he took some others,” Trump said. “Once he did that, that was the end of him.”
It comes as the legal team for Epstein’s conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, indicated she would only testify before Congress on what she knows about the case if she is granted strict legal protections.
Amid public pressure for more disclosures in the Epstein case, a House of Representatives committee subpoenaed Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, to testify before lawmakers on 11 August.
In a letter obtained by the BBC’s US partner CBS, her legal team said she would only do so if granted immunity or pardoned, and provided with questions in advance.
Questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein followed him on to Air Force One on Tuesday, where he was asked to expand on comments he made the previous day in Scotland where he said: “He [Epstein] stole people that worked for me.”
Asked if the employees were young women, Trump responded: “the answer is yes”, and added that they were hired “out of the spa” he ran.
Trump said that one of them was Virginia Giuffre, who had said she began working at Mar-a-Lago in the summer of 2000, when she was 16.
According to court documents unsealed in 2019, Giuffre alleged she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell to give massages to Epstein while she was working at the spa.
Giuffre accused Prince Andrew and Epstein of sexual abuse, allegations they both denied. She died by suicide earlier this year in Australia.
Trump remark’s aboard Air Force One are his latest on how he and Epstein’s relationship ended.
Last week, the White House said Trump kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club “for being a creep”.
Pressed on whether there was a discrepancy between the reasons, Trump said: “You know, it’s sort of a little bit of the same thing.”
Trump and Epstein fell out in the early 2000s, after having been friends for more than a decade.
It also comes amid mounting pressure on Trump officials to release files related to Epstein and growing frustration with the administration’s handling of the issue, including its failure to deliver a rumoured “client list”.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump during a May briefing that his name was among hundreds that appeared in justice department documents related to Epstein. Being named in such files is no confirmation of wrongdoing.
The two were spotted together at parties throughout their friendship. At least two women who had attended those events later came forward with sexual assault allegations against Trump.
One of them was Jill Harth, who accused Trump in a 1997 lawsuit of forcibly kissing her and fondling her at a Mar-a-Lago event for young women where Epstein was also in attendance, the New York Times reported. Trump denied the allegations and the lawsuit was dropped.
Another woman, model Stacey Williams, accused Trump of groping her after she was brought to Trump Tower in Manhattan by Epstein to greet Trump. The president has also denied her allegations.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had written a “bawdy” letter to Epstein in 2003 for his birthday.
It reportedly contained a joking reference that “enigmas never age” and allegedly ended with the words: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence
Trump and Epstein reportedly fell out in 2004 over a sought-after Palm Beach oceanfront property that had fallen into foreclosure. Trump ultimately outbid Epstein for the home.
In 2006, Epstein was indicted in Florida for solicitation of prostitution and later pleaded guilty to the charges. He was then arrested in 2019 over federal charges of sex trafficking, and died by suicide in prison before his trial.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of helping Epstein sexually exploit and abuse young girls over the course of a decade.
She was subpoenaed by House Oversight chairman James Comer last week to testify before Congress.
Her lawyers made an appeal for clemency from President Trump, writing that if she “were to receive clemency, she would be willing – and eager – to testify openly and honestly”.
Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Comer said the Kentucky congressman “will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony”.
Comer told CNN last week that there were not “many Republicans that want to give immunity to someone that may have been sex trafficking children”.
Asked whether he would give clemency to Maxwell, Trump told reporters last week that doing so was within his powers, but that he had “not thought” about it.
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’ssuper powers as a public figure have long included the ability to redirect, evade and deny.
But the Republican’s well-worn methods of changing the subject when a tough topic stings politically are not working as his White House fends off persistent unrest from his usually loyal base about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
Trump has scolded reporters, claimed ignorance and offered distractions in an effort to quash questions about Epstein and the suspicions still swirling around the disgraced financier’s case years after his 2019 death in prison. The demand for answers has only grown.
“For a president and an administration that’s very good at controlling a narrative, this is one that’s been harder,” said Republican strategist Erin Maguire, a former Trump campaign spokeswoman.
Unlike political crises that dogged Trump’s first term, including two impeachments and a probe into alleged campaign collusion with Russia, the people propelling the push for more transparency on Epstein have largely been his supporters, not his political foes.
Trump has fed his base with conspiracy theories for years, including the false “birther” claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump’s advisers fanned conspiracies about Epstein, too, only to declare them moot upon entering office.
That has not gone over well with the president’s right-leaning base, which has long believed the government was covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful.
“Donald Trump’s been running a Ponzi scheme based on propaganda for the better part of a decade and it’s finally catching up to him,” said Geoff Duncan, a Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia and Trump critic. “The far right element is just dug in. They’re hell bent on getting this information out.”
The White House has dismissed reporting about Trump’s ties to Epstein as “fake news,” though it has acknowledged his name appears in documents related to the Epstein case. Trump and Epstein were friends for years before falling out.
“The only people who can’t seem to shake this story from their one-track minds are the media and Democrats,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields.
Before leaving for a trip to Scotland on Friday, the president again urged people to turn their attention elsewhere.
“People should really focus on how well the country is doing,” Trump told reporters, lamenting that scrutiny was not being given to others in Epstein’s orbit. “They don’t talk about them, they talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy.”
THE ART OF DISTRACTION
Trump in recent weeks has employed a typical diversion playbook.
He chastised a reporter for asking about Epstein in the White House Cabinet Room. He claimed in the Oval Office that he was not paying close attention to the issue. And, with help from Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, he explosively accused Obama of treason for how he treated intelligence in 2016 about Russian interference in the U.S. election.
On Thursday Trump took his distraction tour to the Federal Reserve, where he tussled with Chair Jerome Powell about construction costs and pressed for lower interest rates.
That, said Republican strategist Brad Todd, was more effective than focusing on Obama in 2016, which voters had already litigated by putting Trump back in office.
“The Tulsi Gabbard look backward, I think, is not the way for them to pivot,” Todd said, noting that Trump’s trip to the Fed highlighted the issue of economic affordability and taking on a Washington institution. “If I was him I’d go to the Fed every day until rates are cut.”
Democrats have seized on Trump’s efforts to move on, sensing a political weakness for the president and divisions in the Republican Party that they can exploit while their own political stock is low in the wake of last year’s drubbing at the polls.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed most Americans think Trump’s administration is hiding information about Epstein, creating an opportunity for Democrats to press.
Trump’s supporters and many Democrats are eager to see a release of government files related to Epstein and his case, which the Justice Department initially promised to deliver.
“Yesterday was another example of the Trump folks trying to throw as much stuff against the wall to avoid the Epstein files,” Mark Warner, a Democratic U.S. senator from Virginia, said in a post on X on Thursday about Gabbard’s accusations against Obama.
Trump allies see the administration’s efforts to change topic as a normal part of an all-out-there strategy.
“They are always going at 100 miles an hour. Every department, every cabinet secretary, everybody is out there at full speed blanketing the area with news,” Republican strategist Maguire said.
Trump has weathered tougher periods before, and his conservative base, despite its frustration over the files, is largely pleased with Trump’s work on immigration and the economy. In a July Reuters/Ipsos poll, 56% of Republican respondents favored the administration’s immigration workplace raids, while 24% were opposed and 20% unsure.
Pollster Frank Luntz noted that Trump had faced felony convictions and other criminal charges but still won re-election last year.
“We’ve been in this very same situation several times before and he has escaped every time,” Luntz said.
The words “Epstein files” have been haunting the Trump administration for weeks as it grapples with a growing crisis stemming from the sex crimes of late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Pressure has been growing from President Donald Trump’s own supporters and from voices within his own Republican Party for more transparency on what the investigations into Epstein uncovered.
Reports have emerged that Trump himself was told in May by his attorney general that his name appeared in files related to the investigations.
He was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, and being named is not evidence of any criminal activity, nor has Trump ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.
The president said while campaigning for the 2024 election that he would be open to making public more information.
But he changed his position earlier this month, saying the case was closed and even criticising his own supporters who have continued to press him on it.
What are the Epstein files?
In 2008, Epstein reached a plea deal with prosecutors after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home.
Photos of girls were found throughout the house, and he was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender and escaped a heavy jail sentence as a result of the deal.
Eleven years later, he was charged with running a network of underage girls for sex. He died in prison while awaiting trial, and his death was ruled a suicide.
These two criminal investigations amassed a vast trove of documents including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, and items confiscated from raids of his various properties.
There was also a separate investigation into his British co-conspirator and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to traffic girls for sex.
Both Epstein and Maxwell were also the subject of civil cases.
What has already been released on Epstein?
At various stages over the years, some materials have been put into the public domain relating to both Epstein and Maxwell.
One batch, in January 2024, contained 1,400 pages of records, including depositions with both. A trove of documents in the Maxwell case was also made public, in which several high-profile figures were named. But they contained no new revelations about Epstein or his associates.
In February this year, weeks after Trump took office, the Department of Justice and the FBI released what they described at the time as the “first phase of the declassified Epstein files”.
A group of right-wing influencers were invited to the White House but they were left disappointed when they realised that the 341 pages handed to them were mostly material that was already out there.
it included flight logs from Epstein’s plane and a redacted version of his contacts book containing the names of famous people he knew.
In July, the Department of Justice and FBI said in a memo that no more material would be released.
Who is named in the Epstein files?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump himself is named in unreleased documents that relate to Epstein, and was told as much by Attorney General Pam Bondi in May. The paper noted that being named in the files was not evidence of wrongdoing.
The White House gave mixed messages in response. Spokesman Steven Cheung pushed back, calling the story “fake”, although an unnamed official speaking to Reuters said the administration did not dispute that Trump’s name was included.
Although the contents of any unreleased documents remain unknown, the existing materials in the public domain mention a number of high-profile figures who were connected Epstein.
Again, this does not imply any wrongdoing by those individuals.
Dozens of names were mentioned in a release of court documents in 2024. Prince Andrew, former US President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson were among the associates, friends and alleged victims named in the 900 pages that were unsealed.
Both the former US president and the British royal deny any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Jackson died in 2009.
The release of documents related to the case of Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for child sex trafficking.
Is there an Epstein client list?
It has been suggested that unreleased Epstein files could contain a so-called client list that might implicate high-profile associates besides Maxwell in his criminal operation.
In their memo in July, the DoJ and FBI stated that no such list existed. However, conspiracy theories persist.
The purported list has sometimes been conflated with the wider Epstein files, and remarks by Bondi have fuelled the confusion.
The statement by Bondi’s justice department that there was no client list appeared to contradict her comments earlier in the year. When asked by Fox News interviewer about the rumoured list in February, she responded: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Bondi’s spokesman later clarified that she had been referring to overall files in the Epstein issue.
Jeffrey Epstein and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell
Why are people so interested in Epstein?
Die-hard members of Trump’s MAGA movement have long believed officials are hiding key truths about Epstein’s life and death.
Some of them have theorised that a child-molesting cabal has been operating at the highest levels of US society, protected by the state. The theory spread through cryptic messages posted by a pseudonymous character called Q.
In one of the conspiracy theories pushed by some MAGA influencers, Epstein was an agent of the Israeli government.
There are several unanswered questions about Epstein shared by the wider population too – particularly why he was given such a lenient sentence in Florida, whether he and Maxwell were really acting alone and how he was allowed to take his own life in prison.
Trump and his team hyped up the theories when they were running for office but now they are in power they have found themselves unable to convince their supporter base that there are no more questions to answer.
It has been suggested that unreleased Epstein files could contain a so-called client list that might implicate high-profile associates besides Maxwell in his criminal operation.
In their memo in July, the DoJ and FBI stated that no such list existed.
However, conspiracy theories persist.
The purported list has sometimes been conflated with the wider Epstein files, and remarks by Bondi have fuelled the confusion.
The statement by Bondi’s justice department that there was no client list appeared to contradict her comments earlier in the year. When asked by Fox News interviewer about the rumoured list in February, she responded: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Bondi’s spokesman later clarified that she had been referring to overall files in the Epstein issue.
What do we know about Trump/Epstein relationship?
Trump and Epstein appear to have been friends for a number of years, keeping a similar social circle.
Previously released files show that Trump’s details were in Epstein’s so-called black book of contacts. Flight logs also showed Trump flying on Epstein’s plane on several occasions.
They were pictured together at elite events in the 1990s, and photos recently published by CNN purport to show Epstein in attendance at Trump’s wedding to then-wife Marla Maples.
In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy”. Epstein would later remark: “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.”
According to Trump, they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was saying that he had not been “a fan of his.”
The White House has recently suggested that their fallout was connected to Epstein’s behaviour, and that “the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep”.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, has suggested that the breakdown in their relationship was due to their rivalry over some real estate in Florida.
The White House has pushed back against reports that President Donald Trump is among hundreds of names that appear in justice department documents relating to the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The claims were “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media”, a White House spokesman said.
It comes as a US judge denied the justice department’s bid to unseal Florida court files on Epstein.
The Trump administration has been under mounting pressure to disclose more information about the well-connected sex offender. While campaigning last year, Trump had promised to release such files.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s name appeared multiple times with many others, including other high-profile figures, in records held by the justice department.
Being named in these documents is not evidence of any criminal activity, nor has Trump ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in a routine briefing at the White House in February that the files contained hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialised with Epstein in the past.
Bondi also told the president that the Epstein records included child pornography and victim information that should not be disclosed, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Jeffrey Epstein.
The story was later matched by other US media outlets, but has not been independently verified by the BBC.
Trump was once friendly with Epstein before they fell out in 2004 – two years before Epstein was first arrested.
Last week, the president was asked by a reporter whether the attorney general had told him his name was in the files.
“No, no,” Trump said.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, called the report “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media”.
The attorney general said: “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “The criminal leakers and Fake News media tries tirelessly to undermine President Trump with smears and lies, and this story is no different.”
But an unnamed White House official told Reuters news agency they were not denying that Trump’s name appears in the documents.
The official pointed to Epstein files disclosed months earlier by the justice department that had included Trump.
Those files, distributed to conservative influencers in February, included the phone numbers of some of Trump’s family members, including his daughter.
Trump had directed Bondi to seek the release of all grand jury materials, prompting the justice department to ask courts in Florida and New York to unseal files related to cases in both those jurisdictions.
But Judge Robin Rosenberg ruled on Wednesday that releasing papers from Epstein’s Florida case would violate state guidelines governing grand jury secrecy.
“The court’s hands are tied,” the Obama appointee ruled in her 12-page order.
The transcripts in question stem from Florida’s investigation into Epstein in 2006 that led to him being charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Judge Rosenberg also declined to transfer the issue to New York, where two judges are separately deciding whether to unseal transcripts related to Epstein’s 2019 sex-trafficking probe. That request is still pending.
The ruling comes as interest has switched back to Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex-trafficker who is serving 20 years in prison for helping Epstein abuse young girls.
Donald Trump with his then-girlfriend (now wife) Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida in 2000
A senior justice department official is planning to meet the former British socialite to discuss her knowledge of the case, her attorney confirmed to the BBC.
Republicans on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee have sent a legal summons for Maxwell to appear before the body remotely from prison on 11 August.
Her attorney, David Oscar Markus, told the BBC that if she chooses to testify, rather than invoke her constitutional right to remain silent, “she would testify truthfully, as she always has said she would”.
“As for the congressional subpoena, Ms Maxwell is taking this one step at a time,” he added.
“She looks forward to her meeting with the Department of Justice, and that discussion will help inform how she proceeds.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that Maxwell cannot be trusted to provide accurate testimony.
The Louisiana Republican said: “I mean, this is a person who’s been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable, conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people.”
Bondi said earlier this month the US justice department had uncovered no “incriminating client list” on Epstein.
She also said he did take his own life in a New York jail in 2019 – despite conspiracies over his death.
Bondi had previously suggested she would make major disclosures in the case, saying she had “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs”.
The attorney general’s reversal prompted fury from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters, who called for her to resign.
Democrats have seized on the Republican infighting to accuse the Trump administration of a cover-up.
On Tuesday, Speaker Johnson closed down congressional voting for summer break one day early, in an attempt to stall legislative efforts to force the release of documents related to Epstein.
But Republican rebels in a House Oversight Subcommittee voted on Wednesday afternoon to force the justice department to release the files.
Three Republicans – Nancy Mace, Scott Perry and Brian Jack – joined five Democrats in voting for the subpoena. Two Republicans voted against.
But James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, must sign it off in order for the legal summons to proceed.
Donald Trump has accused Barack Obama of “treason”, claiming he plotted to sabotage his first presidency by linking him to alleged Russian election meddling.
“They tried to steal the election,” Trump said at the White House as he claimed Obama had sought to undermine his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
A spokesman for Obama issued a rare retort, calling Trump’s attack “a weak attempt at distraction”.
Trump was referring to a report from US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last week that accused Obama and his national security team of a “years-long coup against President Trump” – findings that Democrats have branded false.
Trump’s comments on Tuesday came as he faced questions from reporters about late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.
The president’s administration has been under pressure to release more information about the well-connected convicted paedophile.
“The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump told reporters.
“It’s time to go after people, Obama’s been caught directly,” he added.
“He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of,” Trump said.
His comments came as he hosted Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in the Oval Office.
Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said: “Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response.
“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
Obama and Trump pictured in January at the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter
Friday’s report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified emails between Obama aides, and argued they had suppressed intelligence findings that Russia had failed in probing attempts to hack US election databases.
A declassified copy of the president’s daily briefing prepared by US security service chiefs for Obama weeks after Trump beat Clinton and dated 8 December 2016 said: “We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.”
But the FBI dissented from the findings it had initially co-authored, and a meeting was held at the White House a day later with top officials, according to the report.
Afterwards an aide to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper emailed intelligence chiefs asking them to create a new assessment “per the president’s request” detailing the “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election”.
Gabbard argued the emails showed evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy” to harm Trump, and she threatened to refer Obama administration officials to the justice department for prosecution.
But Obama’s spokesman said in his statement on Tuesday: “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.”
The US intelligence community published an assessment in January 2017 concluding that Russia had sought to damage Clinton’s campaign and boost Trump in the vote three months earlier.
US officials found this effort had included Russian bot farms on social media and hacking of Democratic emails, but they ultimately concluded the impact was probably limited and did not actually change the election result.
A 2020 bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee also found that Russia had tried to help Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a senator at the time, was among the Republicans who co-signed that report.
The first two years of Trump’s first presidency were overshadowed by an investigation from his own justice department into whether he had conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 outcome.
The resulting Mueller report found a lack of evidence that Trump or his campaign co-ordinated with the Kremlin, and no-one was ever charged with such crimes.
A subsequent special counsel inquiry, the Durham report, found the original FBI probe had lacked “analytical rigor” and relied on “raw, unanalysed and uncorroborated intelligence”.
President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to distract from the growing furor over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal by pushing extraordinary claims that Barack Obama tried to mount a coup.
The accusations, delivered in the Oval Office, followed a surprise announcement that Trump’s Department of Justice would question an imprisoned, key former assistant to Epstein.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X that disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Epstein’s alleged pedophile scheme, would be queried for new information.
“No lead is off-limits,” Blanche said.
However, the show of transparency appeared to be part of a concerted effort by the White House and Trump’s allies to quell speculation about the convicted sex offender, who was long rumored to be a pedophile pimp to the powerful and who committed suicide in his prison cell in 2019.
While meeting with the Philippines’ president in the White House, Trump dismissed the Epstein case as “a witch hunt.”
“The witch hunt that you should be talking about is, they caught President Obama, absolutely cold,” he said, launching into a meandering series of unsubstantiated accusations around Obama trying to “steal” the 2016 election, when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
“Obama was leading a coup,” Trump said.
An Obama spokesman called the claim “outrageous.”
The coup accusation centers on claims that fly in the face of multiple high-level official probes by the US government. However, it resonates with Trump’s far-right base — in part thanks to blanket coverage by the popular Fox News network.
Trump’s attacks on Obama are “part of a larger strategy of distraction, but they also serve another function: to cast the president as a victim of Democratic treachery,” said Todd Belt, at GW University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
Obama’s spokesman echoed this, saying Trump engaged in a “ridiculous and weak attempt at distraction.”
In another ploy to bury the Epstein controversy, Speaker Mike Johnson, a key Trump Republican loyalist, said he would shut down the House of Representatives until September.
This was to avoid what he called “political games” over attempts by mostly Democrats to force votes on exposing more about the Epstein case.
– Entangled in conspiracy theory –
Epstein was awaiting trial on trafficking charges when he was found hanged in his New York cell.
Authorities declared it a suicide but the death super-charged fears, especially on the far-right, that a “deep state” cover-up is in place to prevent the names of Epstein’s clients from being made known.
Trump’s attempts to stop Epstein speculation clash with the fact that his own supporters are the ones who have most pushed conspiracy theories — and believed that Trump would resolve the mysteries.
They were outraged when Trump’s FBI and Justice Department said on July 7 that the death was confirmed a suicide and that Epstein never blackmailed prominent figures or even had a client list.
Trump tried numerous measures to placate his base, including ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to try to obtain release of grand jury testimony in Epstein’s aborted New York case.
But the issue flamed up again last week when The Wall Street Journal reported that it had seen a birthday greeting penned in 2003 by Trump to Epstein on his 50th birthday.
The letter reportedly featured a hand-drawn naked woman, with Trump’s signature forming her pubic hair, and reference to their shared “wonderful secret.”
Trump insists he did not send the letter and has filed a lawsuit against the Journal.
Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing but was close friends with Epstein for years and was photographed attending parties with him.
Among the other celebrities 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 committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.
Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate who has been convicted. She is appealing her sentence before the Supreme Court.
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer, confirmed on X that he was in discussions about her meeting with government representatives.
“We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case,” Markus added.
