Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump tried and failed to ambush Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, during an on-camera exchange as the president inspected the renovation of the central bank’s historic headquarters in Washington.
The US supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that would have significantly limited the power of the Voting Rights Act and only allowed the Justice Department to file claims under the landmark civil rights law.
Trump’s hand-picked chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, announced that “the FCC approved Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount”.
Deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who was Trump’s criminal defense lawyer just last year, wrote that after meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former socialite who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, he intends to spend more time interviewing her on Friday.
A leather-bound book of birthday greetings presented to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 included messages from about 20 associates listed as “Friends”, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As Trump continues to insist that a letter and drawing attributed to him by the Wall Street Journal in leather-bound book of birthday greetings presented to Epstein in 2003 is “fake”, the New York Times reports that Trump’s name appears in a list of contributors to the book it has reviewed.
Greg Kelly, a host on the partisan, pro-Trump network Newsmax told his viewers on Wednesday night that Maxwell “just might be a victim”.
Newsmax host says Ghislaine Maxwell 'just might be a victim' and could deserve a commutation
Greg Kelly, a host on the partisan, pro-Trump network Newsmax told his viewers on Wednesday night that Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, “just might be a victim”.
“There was a rush to judgment”, Kelly said. “All right, granted, she hung out with Jeffrey Epstein, and I know that’s apparently not good, but she’s in jail. For how long now? 20 years.”
Kelly then introduced comments from Alan Dershowitz, who told another Newsmax host that Maxwell should not be in jail.
Dershowitz, Kelly did not note, was an associate of Epstein’s who, according to a Wall Street Journal report, contributed to a leather-bound album of birthday greetings assembled by Maxwell in 2003.
“She deserves to be out”, Kelly told his viewers. “And maybe she never deserved to be in there in the first place. Now, how could you say such a thing? I mean, these are perverts. These are child molesters. We’ve heard that from whom? From the media, from prosecutors. Prosecutors prosecuted President Trump over nothing. I don’t know, but I’m skeptical of everything and everybody these days. And you should be too.”
He went on to suggest that the fact that Maxwell was prosecuted by James Comey’s daughter was, in itself, enough for a commutation of her sentence.
Trump called Epstein 'THE GREATEST' in handwritten note – report
As Donald Trump continues to insist that a letter and drawing attributed to him by the Wall Street Journal in leather-bound book of birthday greetings presented to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 is “fake”, the New York Times reports that Trump’s name appears in a list of contributors to the book it has reviewed.
The Times also published what it described as an image of the handwritten introduction to the book from Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who was later convicted of conspiring with him to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls.
The Times also published an image of a signed note to Epstein, “To Jeff – You are the greatest!” as an inscription in a copy of Trump’s book Trump: the Art of the Comeback that belonged to Epstein. The note, written in Trump’s distinctive handwriting and black Sharpie, was dated “Oct 97”, the month Trump’s book was first published.
Trump wrote that book with Kate Bohner, a former investment banker and CNBC journalist who now runs a bespoke communications firm that lists “crisis management” as one of its specialities.
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Epstein birthday book included messages from Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and dozens of others – report
A leather-bound book of birthday greetings presented to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 included messages from about 20 associates listed as “Friends”, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal, which is being sued by Trump over its initial report that he contributed a page with an imagined dialogue between “Donald” and “Jeffrey” and a sketch of a naked woman, about 60 people contributed to the birthday book, which had a table of contents that listed the contributions, organized into groups, including “Friends”, “Business”, “Science”, “Brooklyn” and “Family”.
Mark Epstein, the late sex offender’s brother, told the Journal that he recalled the book, which included a note from him, being assembled by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who was later convicted of conspiring with him to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls.
Mark Epstein told the Guardian in an interview on Thursday that if he had the opportunity he would ask Maxwell “what she and Jeffrey might have known what the dirt was on Donald Trump”.
“Because Jeffrey said, he said he had dirt on Trump,” Mark Epstein added. “I don’t know what it was, but years ago he said he had dirt on Trump.”
In his federal lawsuit, Trump called the letter attributed to him “fake and nonexistent”.
“Several digital copies of the album have been created” the Journal reports. “Pages have been reviewed by justice department officials who investigated Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people familiar with the matter. The album is part of Epstein’s estate.”
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 trying to have her conviction overturned.
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Deputy attorney general says he met with Ghislaine Maxwell and will meet her again
Deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who was Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer just last year, wrote on social media that after meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former socialite who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, he intends to spend more time interviewing her in federal prison on Friday.
“The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,” Blanche added.
“We want to thank the deputy attorney general for being so professional with all of us and for taking the time to meet with us,” Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus told reporters after Thursday’s interview.
According to Markus, Blanche “spent the full day and asked a lot of questions, and Ms Maxwell answered every single one”.
Maxwell is seeking to have her conviction overturned.
Blanche’s meetings with Maxwell come as the Trump administration tries to contain outrage over its decision to not release files from the federal investigation of the late sex offender, who socialized with Trump for more than a decade.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a former federal prosecutor, called Blanche’s meeting with Maxwell “very weird”, and asked “is he really going as [deputy attorney general] or is he going de facto as Trump’s personal criminal attorney, Tom Hagen style?”
Tom Hagen was the family lawyer in the fictional Godfather series. In one memorable scene, he visited a former gangster in custody and convinced him to kill himself rather than testify against his former associates.
As Whitehouse pointed out earlier on Thursday, Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal for reporting that he contributed a bawdy birthday message to Epstein in 2003 for a leather-bound book of birthday greetings from his associates that Maxwell reportedly assembled.
“Maxwell is a likely witness in Trump’s lawsuit against the WSJ if she put the book together and obtained the Trump letter,” Whitehouse posted.
Just last year, after Blanche defended Trump in court on criminal charges of making secret payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, he was a guest on Markus’s podcast.
In an account of his first meeting with Trump, Blanche said: “We clicked. You know, he’s an enigma.”
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Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, just responded to the news that “Trump’s government”, as she put it in a post, “approved Paramount’s merger with Skydance”.
“Sure looks like they paid Donald Trump $36 MILLION for this merger,” the senator added. “Bribery is illegal no matter who is president.”
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FCC approves sale of Paramount CBS to Skydance
Donald Trump’s hand-picked chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, just announced that “the FCC approved Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global and its subsidiaries, including the ultimate parent company of the CBS network of owned and operated broadcast television stations, by granting a series of applications that transfer FCC licenses and authorizations.”
According to Carr, Skydance, whose founder is David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump tech billionaire Larry Ellison, “has made written commitments” to ensure that the new company’s news and entertainment programming will address conservative grievances that CBS News reporting is biased against them and the new owners will stop all efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Skydance also agreed to appoint an ombudsman to “evaluate complaints of bias” who will report to the president of New Paramount and serve for at least two years.
“Approving this transaction will unleash the investment of $1.5 billion into Paramount, bolstering all aspects of its operations, including broadcast”, Carr added in his statement.
That is precisely the amount of money Paramount agreed to pay the creators of South Park earlier this week for global streaming rights over the next five years.
The first episode of the satirical animated series, broadcast on Wednesday and now streaming on the Paramount+ app, mocked Donald Trump as a whiny, would-be autocrat with small genitalia in bed with Satan. It also featured thinly veiled criticism of the company for paying Trump $16 million to drop his claim that the routine editing of CBS interview with Kamala Harris last year was unfair to him, and for canceling Trump critic Stephen Colbert’s late-night show.
The South Park episode ended by ridiculing reports that the new Paramount owners had agreed to give Trump $20 million of public service announcement and advertising for free. The episode concluded with a mock public service announcement, ostensibly in favor of Trump, that pictured him naked with a miniature, talking penis. “Trump, his penis is teeny-tiny”, a narrator intones, “but his love for us is large”.
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US supreme court blocks North Dakota redistricting Native Americans call discriminatory
The US supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that would have significantly limited the power of the Voting Rights Act and only allowed the Justice Department to file claims under the landmark civil rights law.
The decision arose from a dispute over state legislative districts in North Dakota. In 2022, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Tribe, as well as individual members, sued the state, alleging they had diminished their voting power by “cracking and packing” them into a limited number of districts.
The lawsuit alleged that the redrawn districts would dilute the voting strength of Native Americans in the state in violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, by giving them a chance to elect the candidate of their choice in just one district in northeastern North Dakota, instead of two.
A district court judge sided with the plaintiffs in 2023 and ordered new maps.
The US court of Appeals for the 8th circuit, which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, overturned that ruling earlier this year. It said private parties – including individual voters and voting rights groups cannot bring claims under Section 2 of the law, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices. Such a ruling would essentially gut the law since private parties bring the vast majority of cases under Section 2.
The justices indicated in an unsigned order that they are likely to take up a federal appeals court ruling that would eliminate the most common path people and civil rights groups use to sue under a key provision of the 60-year-old Voting Rights Act.
The case could be argued as early as 2026 and decided by next summer.
Three of the court’s conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito, said they would have allowed the ruling from the 8th circuit to remain in effect.
“We are relieved that Native voters in North Dakota retain the ability to protect ourselves from discrimination at the polls. Our fight for the rights of our citizens continues. The map enacted by the North Dakota legislature unlawfully dilutes the votes of Native voters, and it cannot be allowed to stand”, Jamie Azure, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said in a statement.
It was long considered a settled matter that Congress gave private parties the ability to bring claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which was passed in 1965. But in a concurring opinion in 2021, Gorsuch invited litigants to bring a case to the court challenging that presumption.
“Our cases have assumed – without deciding – that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 furnishes an implied cause of action under §2,” he wrote in 2021. “Lower courts have treated this as an open question … Because no party argues that the plaintiffs lack a cause of action here, and because the existence (or not) of a cause of action does not go to a court’s subject-matter jurisdiction … this Court need not and does not address that issue today.”
Shortly after that decision, a judge in Arkansas dismissed a Section 2 case, saying that private plaintiffs could not bring section 2 claims.
The Campaign Legal Center, which filed the suit with the Native American Rights Fund and other partners, welcomed the stay for “leaving in place fair maps for Native American voters while the cases progresses before the supreme court.”
“To make this decision permanent, Campaign Legal Center will be filing a cert petition to formally request that the supreme court hear this case during their next term,” the nonpartisan, legal nonprofit wrote.
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Trump calls Fed renovation 'very luxurious' but says he won't fire Powell
Donald Trump, standing in a hard hat outside the headquarters of the Federal Reserve, just completed his tour of the renovations he has repeatedly claimed are too expensive, as he seeks an excuse to fire the head of the US central bank, Jerome Powell.
Trump, accompanied by Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina, met assembled reporters by a podium set up for his remarks. Powell, who has repeatedly asserted his independence and resisted Trump’s demands to lower interest rates, was not present.
During the tour, Powell took issue with Trump’s claim that the renovation cost $3.1bn, a higher figure than had previously been claimed, and pointed out that the president had added in the cost of another building that was not part of the renovation and had been completed five years ago.
“I see a very luxurious situation taking place,” Trump said.
“Too expensive,” Scott chimed in. The senator and the president then said that Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates was making it difficult for Americans to afford mortgages on their homes, and suggested that the central banker’s renovation of the bank’s headquarters at the same time was inappropriate.
Pressed by a reporter on why Trump does not speed up the lowering of interest rates on mortgages by firing Powell, Trump said he was not inclined to take that unprecedented step. “Because to do that is a big move and I just don’t think it’s necessary,” Trump said.
“And I believe that he’s going do the right thing. I believe that the chairman is going to do the right thing,” Trump said.
He then repeated his apparently false claim that, on his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, “the king of Saudi Arabia” told him that the United States is now “the hottest country anywhere in the world, and I thought you were dead one year ago”. Trump met the crown prince of Saudi Arabia on his visit in May. There are no published accounts that he met with the 89-year-old king, Salman, who has withdrawn from public life since last year following health concerns.
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Trump and Powell clash on camera over Federal Reserve renovation cost
Donald Trump just attempted to ambush Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, during his site visit to inspect the renovation of the central bank’s historic headquarters in Washington.
When Trump paused before reporters to make a statement, he beckoned Powell over to stand next to him on camera. The president then claimed that the total cost of the renovations to the Federal Reserve buildings was $3.1bn, a higher figure than had previously been reported.
As Trump made this claim, Powell nodded his head no, to signal his disagreement.
“I’m not aware of that,” Powell said. “I haven’t heard that from anybody at the Fed.”
Trump insisted that this new figure “just came out” and removed papers from his coat, as apparent proof, and handed them to Powell.
“This came from us?” Powell asked.
After Trump said that the new figures had come from his people, Powell discovered why the figure for the renovation was suddenly much larger. “You included a third building,” he said.
Trump insisted that the third building was part of the total cost of the renovation he has accused Powell of mismanaging in an effort to find some cause to remove the independent Fed chairman who has refused to lower interest rates at the president’s request.
The third building Trump suddenly claimed is part of the renovation, Powell explained, “was built five years ago. It’s not new.”
Trump was flanked by his staunch ally, Republican senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who also suggested that the renovations had gone too far over budget.
Powell, asked if they expected any further cost overruns, replied, “Don’t expect them” but said that the independent central bank was “ready for them” if necessary.
Trump then called on a friendly reporter, who asked him what, as a builder, he “would do with a project manager who is over budget”.
“Generally speaking, ”Trump said, “I’d fire him.”
As Trump, Powell and Scott stepped away from the media to continue the tour, Trump said that there is something that Powell could do to assuage his concerns about the cost of the renovations. “I’d love him to lower interest rates,” he said.
Powell has asserted, repeatedly, that the president does not have the power to fire him, as the head of an independent agency, and that decisions on interest rates must be immune to political pressure.
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Powell will be present for Federal Reserve tour, Trump says
Donald Trump has said that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will be present when he and other officials tour the Fed’s headquarters in Washington this afternoon.
“Getting ready to head over to the Fed to look at their, now, $3.1 Billion Dollar (PLUS!) construction project,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump administration sues New York City to block laws it says impede immigration enforcement
The US government has sued New York City, seeking to block enforcement of several local laws its says are designed to impede its ability to enforce federal immigration laws, Reuters reports.
In a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, the Trump administration government said the city’s “sanctuary provisions” are unconstitutional, and preempted by laws giving it authority to regulate immigration.
Trump to sign order pushing cities and states to remove homeless people from streets
Donald Trump will today sign an executive order making it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the streets, USA Today reports.
Under the executive order, the president will direct attorney general Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” that limit local and state governments’ ability to move homeless people from streets and encampments into treatment centers, according to a White House summary of the order reviewed by USA Today.
Trump’s order, dubbed “Ending Vagrancy and Restoring Order”, will redirect federal funds to ensure the homeless people impacted are transferred to rehabilitation, treatment and other facilities, the White House said, though it was not immediately clear how much money would be allocated.
It will require Bondi to work with the secretaries of health and human services, housing and urban development and transportation to prioritize federal grants to states and cities that “enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement that Trump is “delivering on his commitment to Make America Safe Again and end homelessness across America”.
“By removing vagrant criminals from our streets and redirecting resources toward substance abuse programs, the Trump Administration will ensure that Americans feel safe in their own communities and that individuals suffering from addiction or mental health struggles are able to get the help they need,” she said.
White House does not support GOP senators' request for special counsel to investigate Obama administration over Russia probe - report
The White House does not support the request by Republican senators John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham for a special counsel to investigate what they call the “Russia collusion hoax,” NBC News is reporting, citing a source familiar with the matter.
“While we appreciate the shared goal of transparency and accountability, the president is confident in the Department of Justice to handle the investigation,” the source told NBC.
The Department of Justice announced last night that it was forming a “strike force” to to investigate (baseless) claims that the Obama administration carried out a “treasonous conspiracy” by using false intelligence to suggest Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump.
A special counsel appointed during Trump’s first term already investigated the origins of the Russia probe.
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Judge weighing disciplinary referral for DOJ lawyers in Venezuela deportations case
US district judge James Boasberg has said he may initiate disciplinary proceedings against justice department lawyers for their conduct in a lawsuit brought by Venezuelans challenging their removal to a Salvadoran prison in March.
Boasberg, a prominent Washington DC, judge who has drawn Donald Trump’s ire, said during a court hearing that a recent whistleblower complaint had strengthened the argument that Trump administration officials engaged in criminal contempt of court by failing to turn around deportation flights.
Boasberg also raised the prospect of referring DOJ lawyers to state bar associations, which have the authority to discipline unethical conduct by attorneys. He said:
I will certainly be assessing whether government counsel’s conduct and veracity to the court warrant a referral to state bars or our grievance committee, which determines lawyers’ fitness to practice in our court.
A justice department spokesperson declined to comment.
Boasberg has been hearing an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit brought on behalf of alleged Venezuelan gang members removed from the US under the rarely invoked 18th-century Alien Enemies Act. The detainees in the case were returned to Venezuela last week as part of a prisoner exchange, after spending four months in El Salvador’s Cecot prison.
The migrants’ lawyers have disputed the gang membership claims and said their clients were not given a chance to contest the government’s assertions.
Boasberg said in April that the Trump administration appeared to have acted “in bad faith” when it hurriedly assembled three deportation flights on 15 March at the same time that he was conducting emergency court proceedings to assess the legality of the effort.
In court filings, justice department lawyers have disputed that they disobeyed a court order, saying remarks Boasberg made from the bench were not legally binding.
In a 2-1 order, a federal appeals court in April temporarily paused Boasberg’s effort to further investigate whether the Trump administration engaged in criminal contempt.
Boasberg said during today’s hearing that the delay from the appeals court was frustrating for the plaintiffs, and that a whistleblower complaint from Erez Reuveni, a former DOJ attorney who was fired in April, strengthened the case for contempt.
Reuveni described three separate incidents when justice department leaders defied court orders related to the deportation of immigrants living in the country illegally.
Attorney general Pam Bondi, in a post on X, called Reuveni a “disgruntled employee” and a “leaker”.
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US will not attend Israel-Palestine two-state conference at UN, state department says
The United States will not attend an upcoming UN conference on an Israel-Palestine two-state solution, state department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters during a press briefing today.
The conference, which has already been rescheduled once, is due to take place next week at the United Nations.
The prospects for high-profile announcements on recognition of a Palestinian state had already been dealt a serious blow after it was reported that French president Emmanuel Macron was not expected to attend.
Venezuelans deported by Trump to El Salvador describe ‘horror movie’ mega-prison
Venezuelan men who were deported by the US to the notorious Cecot prison in El Salvador without due process are speaking out about treatment they described as “hell” and like a “horror movie”, after arriving back home.
A total of 252 Venezuelan nationals were repatriated in the last week in a prisoner swap deal between the US and Venezuelan governments, with many able to reunite with family after their ordeal in El Salvador.
Carlos Uzcátegui tightly hugged his sobbing wife and stepdaughter on Wednesday morning in western Venezuela after he had been away for a year.
He was among the migrants being reunited with loved ones after spending four months imprisoned in El Salvador, where the US government had transferred them without due process, sparking uproar over Donald Trump’s harsh anti-immigration agenda. The US had accused all the men, on sometimes apparently flimsy evidence, of being members of a foreign gang living in the US illegally.
“Every day, we asked God for the blessing of freeing us from there so that we could be here with family, with my loved ones,” Uzcátegui, 33, said. “Every day, I woke up looking at the bars, wishing I wasn’t there.
“They beat us, they kicked us. I even have quite a few bruises on my stomach,” he added before later showing a bruised left abdomen.
Arturo Suárez, whose reggaeton songs surfaced on social media after he was sent to El Salvador, arrived at his family’s home in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, on Tuesday. His sister hugged him after he emerged from a vehicle belonging to the country’s intelligence service.
“It is hell. We met a lot of innocent people,” Suárez told reporters, referring to the prison he was held in. “To all those who mistreated us, to all those who negotiated with our lives and our freedom, I have one thing to say, and scripture says it well: vengeance and justice is mine, and you are going to give an account to God [the] Father.”
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Democrat cuts foreign aid deal to help advance Mike Waltz UN ambassador nomination to Senate floor
Former national security adviser (of Signalgate infamy) Mike Waltz’s nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations is back on track after a Democrat cut a deal to advance him out of committee, Politico reports, marking just the latest development in a rollercoaster day for Donald Trump’s nominee.
Despite Republican senator Rand Paul voting no (derailing plans for a committee vote yesterday), ranking member Jeanne Shaheen sided with the other Republicans on the foreign relations committee to vote to advance Waltz, narrowly by 12-10. Having cleared that key hurdle, Waltz now goes to the Senate, where he will likely be confirmed.
There was no immediate indication of when the full Senate might consider the nomination. A spokesperson for the chamber’s majority leader John Thune, said there were no scheduling updates.
Thune has indicated he might delay the Senate’s annual August recess if Democrats do not allow Republicans to confirm Trump nominees more quickly. In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump urged the Senate to stay in Washington for votes on his nominees.
Politico notes: “The partisan swap reflected ideological divides around isolationism: Paul objected to Waltz’s vote to keep troops in Afghanistan, while Shaheen said in a statement that despite some concerns (including the aforementioned Signalgate, which in part cost him his job as national security adviser), she saw Waltz as a potential ‘moderating force’ against the likes of vice-president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Elbridge Colby. Some Democrats also worried about who might replace Waltz if his nomination failed.”
Shaheen said she had worked out a deal with committee Republicans and the state department to unlock $75m in lifesaving foreign aid for Haiti and Nigeria, Axios reports.
However, Shaheen said she may not necessarily vote for Waltz’s confirmation.
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Justice department forms ‘strike force’ to investigate Obama over 2016 election
The US justice department has formed a “strike force” to investigate claims that the Obama administration carried out a “treasonous conspiracy” by using false intelligence to suggest Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump.
Pam Bondi, the attorney general, announced the new force’s formation after the release of a trove of declassified documents from Barack Obama’s national security team by the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
Today, two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, both members of the judiciary committee, called on Bondi to appoint a special counsel into what they called “an unprecedented and clear abuse of power” by Obama’s administration.
“For the good of the country, we urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the US national security apparatus for a political outcome,” the senators said in a statement.
Gabbard has alleged that Obama and his senior officials concocted a “years long coup” against Trump – manifested in a special counsel investigation and FBI inquiries – by “manufacturing” intelligence in the weeks after Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton that was meant to show collusion between his campaign and Russia.
She has recommended that criminal charges be pressed, including against Obama himself. Trump has embraced her argument and has said Gabbard’s findings reveal “irrefutable proof” of treason.
Bondi set the scene for a justice department investigation after Gabbard presented what she claimed was evidence of a crime at a White House news conference on Wednesday.
“The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people. We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice,” Bondi said in a statement.
Fox News cited a source close to Bondi’s strike force as saying no serious lead is off the table. However, any moves to prosecute Obama are likely to be stymied by last year’s US supreme court ruling granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for acts committed in the course of their presidential duties.
The ruling was widely viewed as favoring Trump, who has faced criminal investigations for acts committed in his first presidency – including the retention of classified documents. Ironically, it may now form an obstacle to Trump’s stated desire to pursue “retribution” against his political opponents.
Obama’s office issued a rare statement on Tuesday, calling the allegations “outrageous” and “ridiculous”.
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US to bring Gaza ceasefire consultation team home from Doha
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the administration has decided to bring its consultation team home from the Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha.
In a post on X, Witkoff said:
We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith.
He went on to add:
We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza. It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way. We are resolute in seeking an end to this conflict and a permanent peace in Gaza.
For more on this, you can follow our live coverage of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza here:
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Donald Trump’s relentless public – and very personal – criticism of Jerome Powell and flirtation with firing him have previously upset financial markets and threatened a key underpinning of the global financial system - that central banks are independent and free from political meddling.
His visit, against the backdrop of his antipathy for Powell, contrasts with a handful of documented previous presidential visits, including most recently former president George W Bush’s swearing-in of former Fed chair Ben Bernanke.
Republican senator Mike Rounds told Reuters it’s critical that Powell maintains his independence, but saw no problem with Trump’s visit.
He said:
I think the more information the president can glean from this, probably the better off we are in terms of resolving any issues that are outstanding.
He noted that Powell had indicated “that they have had a significant amount of money, just in terms of foundation work and so forth, that was not anticipated to begin with,” and said of the Fed chair:
I think he has to maintain his independence. That’s critical for the markets. I think he’s done a good job of that.
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Reuters notes that Donald Trump’s visit to the Fed has come about as the president continues to struggle to deflect attention from the political crisis consuming Washington over his administration’s refusal to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing a campaign promise.
White House officials ramped up Trump’s pressure campaign on Fed chair Jerome Powell in recent weeks, accusing the Fed of mismanaging the renovation of two historic buildings in Washington and suggesting poor oversight and potential fraud.
The White House’s budget director, Russell Vought, has pegged the cost overrun at “$700m and counting,” and treasury secretary Scott Bessent called for an extensive review of the Fed’s non-monetary policy operations, citing operating losses at the central bank as a reason to question its spending on the renovation.
The Fed’s operating losses stem from the mechanics of managing the policy rate to fight inflation, which include paying banks to park their cash at the central bank. The Fed reported a comprehensive net loss of $114.6bn in 2023 and $77.5bn in 2024, a reversal from years of big profits it turned over to the Treasury when interest rates - and inflation - were low.
The Fed, in letters to Vought and lawmakers backed up by documents posted on its website, says the project - the first full rehab of the central bank’s two buildings in Washington since they were built nearly a century ago - ran into unexpected challenges including toxic materials abatement and higher-than-estimated materials and labor costs.
Fed working with White House to accommodate Trump's visit
The Federal Reserve is working with the White House to accommodate Donald Trump’s unexpected visit to the US central bank later today, amid escalating tensions between the administration and the independent overseer of the nation’s monetary policy.
“The Federal Reserve is working with the White House to accommodate their visit,” a Fed spokesperson said in comments reported by Reuters. Trump’s visit to the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, a rare appearance at the central bank by a US president, was made public by the White House late last night.
Trump has repeatedly demanded that Fed chair Jerome Powell slash US interest rates and has frequently raised the possibility of firing him, though Trump has said he does not intend to do so (he also cannot do so over a monetary dispute). On Tuesday, Trump called Powell a “numbskull”, as he has many times before.
Trump will visit the Fed less than a week before the central bank’s 19 policymakers gather for a two-day rate-setting meeting. They are widely expected to leave the central bank’s benchmark interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range where it has been since December.
The visit also is taking place as Trump battles to deflect attention from a political crisis over his administration’s refusal to release files related to convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein, reversing a campaign promise.
In a schedule released to the media on Wednesday night, the White House said Trump would visit the Fed at 4pm ETon Thursday. It did not say whether Trump would meet with Powell.
Market reaction to the visit was subdued. The yield on benchmark 10-year treasury bonds ticked higher after data showed new jobless claims dropped in the most recent week, signaling a stable labor market not in need of support from a Fed rate cut. Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher.
Hulk Hogan, the wrestling star turned vocal supporter of Donald Trump, has died at the age of 71, his manager confirmed.
Chris Volo told NBC Los Angeles that Hogan, given name Terry Gene Bollea, suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in Clearwater, Florida, and died surrounded by his family.
Instantly recognizable from his blonde horseshoe mustache and bandanas, Hogan was one of the most popular wrestling stars of the 1980s and considered one of the sport’s greatest of all time. Known for his ring theatrics and sizable physique, he helped transform professional wrestling into home entertainment, primarily through his partnership with Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Hogan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for a second time in 2020, as he became a more prominent figure in Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (Maga) political movement. He starred at the 2024 Republican national convention, ripping off his shirt, WWE-style, to reveal a Trump 2024 T-shirt.
“We lost a great friend today, the ‘Hulkster,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He continued:
Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week. He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive. To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!
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Senate Republicans sink Democratic attempt to force release of Epstein files
Senate Democrats’s attempt to force Republicans to vote for more disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein files failed Thursday morning, the Associated Press reports.
The vote marked the first time many Republicans in the the Senate had to take a stand on the matter, the AP reports, as they voted against forcing the release of the case files.
The vote unfolded with tense exchanges as the Senate judiciary committee prepared to advance a bill meant to address opioid trafficking.
Cory Booker, a Democratic senator, offered an amendment to the bill that would have kept it from going into effect until the Epstein files are released.
But Republican senator John Cornyn successfully stymied that effort by offering a separate amendment that nullified Booker’s. Instead, Cornyn said he trusted attorney general Pam Bondi to handle the matter.
Republicans on the committee all voted for Cornyn’s amendment, while Democrats voted against, saying, “No on concealing the Epstein files.”
Mike Johnson on Epstein case: 'It's not a hoax'
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, broke with president Donald Trump over in an interview with CBS News when he insisted the Jeffrey Epstein case is “not a hoax."
The speaker said he wants “full transparency'” in the case and called for the release of more information. Johnson’s interview with the US media outlet comes amid immense pressure on the Trump administration from Republicans and the Maga base over the Epstein files.
“We want everybody who is involved in any way with the Epstein evils, let’s call it what it was, to be brought to justice as quickly as possible,” Johnson said. “We want the full weight of the law on their heads.”
Johnson said he had “never seen the Epstein evidence, it was not in my lane.”
Bondi facing Democratic calls to testify about Epstein files
US attorney general Pam Bondi is facing Democratic calls to testify before Congress after it was reported that she told Trump his name was among many high-profile figures mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files, the Associated Press reports.
The justice department said early this month that it would not be release the Epstein files despite a clamor from online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and members of Trump’s base.
Senator Adam Schiff responded to the report by calling on Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel to appear before the Senate judiciary committee.
The justice department declined to comment on the report but issued a joint statement from Bondi and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who is currently meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida, saying that investigators had reviewed the records and “nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
It’s worth remembering also that the inclusion of a person’s name in Epstein’s files does not imply wrongdoing. Epstein was known to have been associated with multiple prominent figures, including Trump.
Meeting between Ghislaine Maxwell and DoJ official underway - report
The meeting between Ghislaine Maxwell and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche is currently taking place in downtown Tallahassee at the US attorney’s office, ABC reports.
According to the outlet, Blanche arrived at the courthouse at around 9am where Maxwell’s lawyers were also seen entering the building.
Speaking to ABC, Maxwell’s appellate lawyer David Markus said: “We’re looking forward to a productive day.”
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In today’s episode of Today in Focus, my colleague and Guardian Washington DC bureau chief David Smith reports on the Donald Trump’s troubles over the Jeffrey Epstein case, and how the president risks alienating his own base.
Trump has peddled many conspiracy theories in his time. From the baseless smear that Barack Obama was not a US citizen, to the claim that Trump did not lose the 2020 election, to ones even more far-fetched than that.
But, as David tells Nosheen Iqbal, there is one conspiracy theory Trump may come to regret.
For when Epstein - his estranged friend and child sex offender – died in prison awaiting trial in 2019, Trump suggested that perhaps he had not died by suicide at all … that something far more nefarious was going on in order to protect the rich and powerful whom Epstein had been partying with for decades.
In the years since, “Release the Epstein Files” has been a rallying call for the online right, not least among Trump’s Maga base. In particular, they have called for the publication of Epstein’s “client list” – a roll-call of the elite supposedly implicated in Epstein’s crimes.
Yet since coming to office, the president seems to have changed his tune, with his administration insisting in the last few weeks that no such list exists, and that there was nothing suspicious about Epstein’s death.
It has seemingly enraged some of the president’s own supporters, who have accused Trump of being part of a deep-state cover up – and questioned just how involved Trump was with Epstein after all.
You can listen to the episode here:
‘He can do anything to anyone’: South Park targets Paramount after signing $1.5bn deal and skewers Trump
South Park has kicked off its 27th season with a blistering episode taking aim at Donald Trump and its newly minted parent company, Paramount, just one day after signing a $1.5bn deal with the network.
The premiere episode, “Sermon on the Mount,” sees Trump in bed with series regular Satan and covers topics including Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount, the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, wokeness, Trump’s attacks on Canada and more.
Unlike other characters, Trump is depicted as an actual photo of the US president on an animated body. There is also an extended scene featuring a hyper-realistic, deepfake video of Trump, completely naked, walking in a desert. There are repeated suggestions that Trump’s genitalia are small.
The episode centers on the presence of Jesus in South Park’s schools, a story covered by a parody of 60 Minutes, in a clear satire of Paramount’s recent embroilment with Trump over the flagship CBS News show. The two hosts refer nervously to “the president, who is a great man” and who “is probably watching”.
When South Park’s parents protest to Trump that they don’t want Jesus in schools, and Trump threatens to sue them for $5bn, Jesus begs them to settle with the president. “I didn’t want to come back and be in the school, but I had to because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount,” Jesus says through gritted teeth.
“You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount. You really want to end up like Colbert? You guys got to stop being stupid... He also has the power to sue and take bribes and he can do anything to anyone. It’s the fucking president, dude... South Park is over.”
The townspeople eventually agree to pay Trump a much smaller $3.5m, but also must create “pro-Trump messaging” – leading to the aforementioned video of Trump wandering in a desert, stripping naked.
Trump says he wants Musk and his companies to thrive in US
Donald Trump has said he would not destroy Elon Musk’s companies by taking away federal subsidies and that he wants the billionaire tech-entrepreneur’s businesses to thrive.
“Everyone is stating that I will destroy Elon’s companies by taking away some, if not all, of the large scale subsidies he receives from the U.S. Government. This is not so!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “I want Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to THRIVE.”
It follows Musk’s warning to Tesla investors on Wednesday that US government cuts in support for electric vehicle makers could lead to a “few rough quarters” for the company.
Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win November’s presidential election and led the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”’s chaotic effort to slash the budget and cut the federal workforce.
The Tesla CEO left the Trump administration in late May to refocus on his tech empire, after his foray into US politics dramatically tarnished his global reputation.
Trump and Musk fell out in spectacular fashion shortly afterward when Musk openly denounced the president’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, leading to threats by Trump to cancel billions of dollars worth of federal government contracts with Musk’s companies.
Musk’s SpaceX had been considered a frontrunner to build out Trump’s $175bn Golden Dome missile defense shield and remains a natural choice for key elements of the project.
But sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this week that the administration is expanding its search for partners to build Golden Dome as tensions with Musk threaten SpaceX’s dominance in the program.
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White House tightens grip on Epstein messaging
“Donald Trump and his aides have settled on silence as a strategy to stamp out criticism” of the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, a senior administration official and Republicans familiar with the White House’s thinking have told NBC News.
With the story refusing to die, Trump appears to have switched gears away from a strategy that would usually see his administration officials robustly defending him to the media. Instead, he has signaled that he doesn’t want members of his administration talking about Epstein nonstop, a person close to the White House told NBC.
“And White House aides have made it clear that no one in the administration is allowed to talk about Epstein without high-level vetting, according to a senior administration official,” per NBC’s report.
‘Extortion scheme’: Columbia’s deal with White House met with mixed reactions
Columbia University’s long anticipated deal with the Trump administration after months of negotiations has drawn both condemnation and praise from faculty, students, and alumni – a sign that the end of negotiations will hardly restore harmony on a campus profoundly divided since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The deal will reinstate $400m in federal funds the administration cut from the university after it accused it of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. But it will cost Columbia some $220m in legal settlements, as well as a host of new measures that critics warn significantly restrict the university’s independence and will further repress pro-Palestinian speech.
The agreement – the government’s first with one of dozens of universities it has accused of enabling antisemitism and threatened with funding cuts and other measures – is likely to have major repercussions on academic freedom in the US and future relations between higher education institutions and an administration that has described them as “the enemy”.
David Pozen, a professor at Columbia Law School, slammed the deal as giving “legal form to an extortion scheme”, he wrote.
The means being used to push through these reforms are as unprincipled as they are unprecedented. Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself.
“Columbia is choosing to pander to a lawless administration to restore their federal funding – instead of protecting the rights of its students and faculty who are bravely speaking out against a genocide,” said Sabiya Ahamed, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal who has worked with several Columbia students facing disciplinary measures.
Columbia is abdicating its mission as a center of learning, and agreeing to operate like an arm of the state to censor and punish speech the Trump administration doesn’t like. With its newly announced policies, Columbia is threatening to bulldoze over the rights of all of its Palestinian and associated students to an even greater degree than before.
Trump visit to Scotland expected to be met with wave of protest
Scottish protest organisers anticipate a wave of resistance to Donald Trump from Ayrshire to Aberdeenshire this weekend as Scots take to the streets to express “widespread anger” at what they termed the US president’s increasingly extreme policies.
Trump t is expected to arrive in Scotland tomorrow for a five-day private visit to his luxury golf resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire.
While it is not a formal trip, Keir Starmer will hold talks in Scotland with Trump on Monday. No press conference is scheduled, but the media (not the Wall Street Journal) are expected to attend the start of the discussions.
The Stop Trump Coalition is organising events in Aberdeen in the city centre and outside the US consulate in Edinburgh on Saturday at midday – similar gatherings during Trump’s visit to Scotland in 2018 attracted thousands of protesters.
Along with the two main city gatherings, protests are expected around Turnberry and Menie, where Trump is expected to open a new 18-hole golf course named in honour of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who was born on the Isle of Lewis.
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Justice department meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell set for today
A senior justice department official is expected to meet today with Ghislaine Maxwell in Tallahassee, Florida, ABC News reported last night.
Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s close associate, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, among other crimes, in Tallahassee.
The justice department said on Tuesday that the meeting between deputy attorney general Todd Blanche and Maxwell would take place “in the coming days”.
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said in a statement posted by attorney general Pam Bondi on X on Tuesday.
Maxwell’s attorney confirmed that day that they were in discussions with the government about the visit, saying in a statement: “Ghislaine will always testify truthfully.”
Yesterday her brother Ian Maxwell told the New York Post that she is preparing “new evidence” ahead of the meeting. But there are substantial doubts about her veracity, Politico notes.
Among those voicing concern is House speaker Mike Johnson, who yesterday appeared to cast doubt on his own party’s movement toward subpoenaing Maxwell to testify. Referring to past justice department allegations that she is a pervasive liar, he asked: “Can she be counted on to tell the truth … can we trust what she’s going to say?”
Indeed since the DOJ announcement of the meeting, suggestions have arisen about her potential motives, given that Donald Trump has the power to pardon or commute her sentence.
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The Guardian has been keeping up with the changing abortion laws across the US since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.
You can see the latest state-by-state breakdown here:
Updated
Here’s more context from the Associated Press on its new poll about abortion:
The June 2022 supreme court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade and opened the door to state bans on abortion led to major policy changes.
Most states have either moved to protect abortion access or restrict it. Twelve are now enforcing bans on abortion at every stage of pregnancy, and four more do so after about six weeks’ gestation, which is often before women realize they’re pregnant.
In the aftermath of the ruling, AP-NORC polling suggested that support for legal abortion access might be increasing.
Last year, an AP-NORC poll conducted in June found that 7 in 10 US adults said it should be available in all or most cases, up slightly from 65% in May 2022, just before the decision that overruled the constitutional right to abortion, and 57% in June 2021.
The new poll is closer to Americans’ views before the supreme court ruled. Now, 64% of adults support legal abortion in most or all cases. More than half the adults in states with the most stringent bans are in that group.
Similarly, about half now say abortion should be available in their state when someone doesn’t want to continue their pregnancy for any reason — about the same as in June 2021 but down from about 6 in 10 who said that in 2024.
Adults in the strictest states are just as likely as others to say abortion should be available in their state to women who want to end pregnancies for any reason.
Democrats support abortion access far more than Republicans do. Support for legal abortion has dropped slightly among members of both parties since June 2024, but nearly 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 4 in 10 Republicans say abortion should be legal in at least most instances.
Most US adults support legal abortion three years after Roe overturn, new poll finds
Good morning, and welcome to the US politics blog.
Today we’re kicking off with the findings of a new poll: three years after the US supreme court opened the door to state abortion bans, most adults continue to say abortion should be legal — views that look similar to before the landmark ruling.
The new findings from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll show that about two-thirds of US adults think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
About half believe abortion should be available in their state if someone does not want to be pregnant for any reason. That level of support for abortion is down slightly from what an AP-NORC poll showed last year, when it seemed that support for legal abortion might be rising.
Other things to note in US politics today:
Last night Columbia University announced a deal to pay the Trump administration more than $220m, an agreement meant to bring a resolution to the threat of massive funding cuts to the school.
Donald Trump’s effort to repeal birthright citizenship has hit another a stumbling block, with a federal appeals court in San Francisco declaring the president’s attempt unconstitutional.
South Park kicked off its 27th season with a blistering episode taking aim at Trump.
Trump is expected to heap further pressure on Jerome Powell later today when he makes a visit to the Federal Reserve’s Washington offices.
Trump is also expected to sign more executive orders this afternoon. It’s unclear the subject matter, though yesterday he went after “woke” AI models.
Stick with us today as we bring you all the US politics news to come.
