Trump administration must submit more information in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, judge orders
The New York federal court handling the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell case said it would like to “expeditiously” resolve the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury testimony, but it could not do so due to a number of missing submissions.
“The Court cannot rule on the motion without additional submissions,” the federal judge, Paul Engelmayer, wrote.
The justice department did not submit to the court the Epstein-related grand jury transcripts it wants to unseal, the judge said, and requested that the justice department submit the transcripts by next Tuesday under seal, so that the court can decide on the request to unseal them.
The government had also not “adequately” addressed the “factors” that district courts weigh in considering applications for disclosure, including “why disclosure is being sought in the particular case” and “what specific information is being sought for disclosure”, he wrote.
The government must file a memorandum of law no later than 29 July, the judge went on. He also ordered the government to submit under seal: an index of Maxwell grand jury transcript materials, a complete set of the transcripts, and a set with proposed redactions.
Engelmayer ordered Maxwell and the victims to file their positions on the proposed disclosure by 5 August.
Key events
Trump announces Philippines will pay a 19% tariff
Donald Trump has said that the Philippines will pay a 19% tariff rate following the conclusion of a trade deal with the United States.
“It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos’s visit to the White House.
“The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff. In addition, we will work together Militarily,” Trump wrote, referring to Marcos as “a very good, and tough, negotiator”.
US appeals court won’t lift limits on Associated Press access to White House
On this subject, a US appeals court has declined to lift restrictions imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on White House access by Associated Press journalists after the news organization declined to refer to the body of water long called the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America as he prefers.
The full US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit kept in place a 6 June decision by a divided three-judge panel that the administration could legally restrict access to the AP to news events in the Oval Office and other locations controlled by the White House including Air Force One.
The DC circuit order denied the AP’s request that it review the matter, setting up a possible appeal to the US supreme court.
In a lawsuit filed in February, the AP argued that the limitations on its access imposed by the administration violated the constitution’s first amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech.
Trump in January signed an executive order officially directing federal agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The AP sued after the White House restricted its access over its decision not to use “Gulf of America” in its news reports.
The AP stylebook states that the Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. AP said that as a global news agency it will refer to the body of water by its longstanding name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.
Reuters and the AP both issued statements denouncing the access restrictions, which put wire services in a larger rotation with about 30 other newspaper and print outlets. Other media customers, including local news outlets with no presence in Washington, rely on real-time reports by the wire services of presidential statements, as do global financial markets.
The Trump administration has said the president has absolute discretion over media access to the White House.
The AP won a key order in the trial court when US district judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, decided that if the White House opens its doors to some journalists it cannot exclude others based on their viewpoints, citing the First Amendment.
The DC circuit panel in its 2-1 ruling in June paused McFadden’s order. The two judges in the majority, Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas, were appointed by Trump during his first term in office. The dissenting judge, Cornelia Pillard, is an appointee of Democratic former president Barack Obama.
‘Simple retribution’: NY Times defends WSJ after White House ban from press pool
Joseph Gedeon
Further to my last post, the New York Times is defending the Wall Street Journal after the Trump administration decided to bar the global outlet from the White House press pool following its investigative coverage of ties between Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the public statement, a Times spokesperson said the White House’s actions represented “simple retribution by a president against a news organization for doing reporting that he doesn’t like”, warning that “such actions deprive Americans of information about how their government operates”.
“The White House’s refusal to allow one of the nation’s leading news organizations to cover the highest office in the country is an attack on core constitutional principles underpinning free speech and a free press,” the spokesperson said.
“Americans regardless of party deserve to know and understand the actions of the president, and reporters play a vital role in advancing that public interest.”
White House faces backlash after barring WSJ from Scotland trip press pool over Epstein story
The White House is facing backlash after banning the Wall Street Journal from the press pool set to cover Donald Trump’s upcoming trip to his golf courses in Scotland.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the change was made “due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct”, referring to the newspaper’s recent article alleging the US president sent Jeffrey Epstein a 50th birthday letter that included a drawing of a naked woman. The US president promptly sued the paper for $10bn. The WSJ has stood by its reporting.
“This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment,” said Weijia Jiang, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, in a statement to the Guardian. She added:
Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media.
We strongly urge the White House to restore the Wall Street Journal to its previous position in the pool and aboard Air Force One for the President’s upcoming trip to Scotland. The WHCA stands ready to work with the administration to find a quick resolution.
Jiang said the administration had yet to clarify whether the ban was temporary, or if it was permanently barring Wall Street Journal reporters from the press pool.
Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement to CNN:
It’s unconstitutional — not to mention thin-skinned and vindictive — for a president to rescind access to punish a news outlet for publishing a story he tried to kill.
But hopefully the Journal reporters who were planning to join Trump for his golf trip are relieved that they can spend their newfound free time investigating more important stories, from Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein to his unprecedented efforts to bully the press.
It marks the second time the Trump administration has punitively barred a publication from the press pool in this way. Earlier this year the White House banned the Associated Press from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other exclusive access after the outlet declined to use Trump’s new moniker for the Gulf of Mexico. A decision for the administration to control the press pool came shortly after.
Trump administration must submit more information in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, judge orders
The New York federal court handling the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell case said it would like to “expeditiously” resolve the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury testimony, but it could not do so due to a number of missing submissions.
“The Court cannot rule on the motion without additional submissions,” the federal judge, Paul Engelmayer, wrote.
The justice department did not submit to the court the Epstein-related grand jury transcripts it wants to unseal, the judge said, and requested that the justice department submit the transcripts by next Tuesday under seal, so that the court can decide on the request to unseal them.
The government had also not “adequately” addressed the “factors” that district courts weigh in considering applications for disclosure, including “why disclosure is being sought in the particular case” and “what specific information is being sought for disclosure”, he wrote.
The government must file a memorandum of law no later than 29 July, the judge went on. He also ordered the government to submit under seal: an index of Maxwell grand jury transcript materials, a complete set of the transcripts, and a set with proposed redactions.
Engelmayer ordered Maxwell and the victims to file their positions on the proposed disclosure by 5 August.
Trump once again pushed the false claim that the Biden administration and “his group of thugs” allowed 21 million immigrants into the US, following a question about the customs officer who was shot in New York over the weekend. Trump, without proof, said that many immigrants under the Biden administration came from “jails, gangs, drug dealers, mental institutions.”
Trump said that the Biden administration allowed the millions of immigrants into the US for two reasons: for electoral advantage and also because “they hate our country”.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr said that the US is assisting the country in building up its defense system.
“This is an ongoing process and, again, I will stress the point because we feel it is necessary,” Marcos said.
Trump said that, during his first administration, the US went into the Philippines and helped “wipe out terrorists”.
Trump said that former president Barack Obama led a “gang”, including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, FBI director James Comey, James Clapper and John Brennan, that orchestrated false allegations of Trump and Russia colluding.
This follows a release of documents by director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, alleging that the Obama administration led the groundwork to accuse Trump of colluding with Russia.
Trump again echoed theories that Democrats, including former president Barack Obama, tried to “rig the election” from 2016 “up to” 2020. He claimed there should be “very severe consequences”.
Trump lashes out at Powell again
Trump called Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell a “numbskull” during a meeting at the White House, saying he was refusing to cut interest rates “probably for political reasons”. Trump said that Powell did not cut interest rates enough.
“I think he’s done a bad job. But he’s going to be out pretty soon anyway, in eight months he’ll be out,” Trump said.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr said that he was “very happy” to be meeting with Trump to “reaffirm the very strong ties between the Philippines and the United States.”
The United States is the Philippines’ only treaty partner, Marcos Jr said, emphasizing that the “strongest, closest” ally to the Philippines is the US.
Trump: ‘very close’ to finishing trade deal with Philippines
Trump said on Tuesday that the US and the Philippines are “very close” to finishing a trade deal.
“We do a lot of business with you,” Trump told the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “I was surprised to see the kind of numbers – they’re very big and they’re going to get bigger under what we’re doing and what we’re proposing.”
Trump said during a White House meeting that Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. comes from a “great family” with a “great family legacy.”
Marcos Jr’s father, Ferdinand Marcos, was a right-wing dictator in the Philippines, having ruled under martial law for a period during his two-decade presidency. His rule, violently targeting political dissidents, led to extreme poverty for much of the Philippine population. Marcos was overthrown in 1986.
