Initial takeaways of Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview transcripts
The transcripts are more than 300 pages, but here it goes …
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Blanche said, on record, that their conversation wasn’t “promising to do anything” for Maxwell. But that anything she said couldn’t be used against her, unless she provided false statements or there was a retrial in her case.
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According to Maxwell, Epstein didn’t have any video or photographic evidence of any high-profile individuals committing sexual offences. And to that point, Maxwell said she didn’t hear or witness any instances of Epstein blackmailing powerful people.
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Maxwell recruited a number of masseuses for Epstein but “never checked their age or credentials”. She added that, throughout her time with Epstein, she never heard any examples of “sexually inappropriate contact” between Epstein’s guests and in-house masseuses.
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Despite her claims that Epstein didn’t extort anyone, Maxwell does not believe that Epstein died by suicide. She chalked that up to “mismanagement” at the bureau of prisons.
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In the interview Maxwell said she does believe that Epstein “did a lot of, not all, but some of what he’s accused of”. But she maintains that “he became that man over a period of time”.
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Maxwell said that she “never” saw Donald Trump receive a massage. She also said that she “never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way,” adding that he was “a gentleman in all respects” whenever she saw the president.
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Maxwell also didn’t recall former president Bill Clinton receiving a massage while travelling with Epstein.
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One notable point is that Maxwell denied ever recruiting masseuses from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. “I’ve never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago for that, as far as I remember. I can’t ever recollect doing that,” she told Todd Blanche. A reminder that Trump claimed his falling out with Jeffrey Epstein stemmed from the convicted sex offender’s efforts to hire workers away from Trump’s Florida club.
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Maxwell did not remember whether Trump submitted a letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday album, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. She also couldn’t remember asking Trump to contribute.
Key events
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending for the day. Thanks for reading along with us. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
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The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections. The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote. To get final approval, the state legislature’s upper chamber will take a vote, which is forecasted to happen this weekend, the Texas Tribune reports. However, a Houston Democratic state senator has plans to delay the final passage. More here.
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The US Department of Justice has released the transcript and audio recording of an interview conducted by Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, with the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In a post on X, Blanche said the materials were being released “in the interest of transparency”, providing links to the transcript and to audio files. The release includes documentation from a two-day interview conducted on 24 and 25 July. The materials comprise redacted transcripts for both days, along with multiple audio recordings – seven separate parts plus test recordings for day one, and four parts plus test recordings for day two. More here.
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The FBI raided the home of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic John Bolton early on Friday morning and later also turned up at Bolton’s office. The federal search of Bolton’s house in the Washington DC area was understood to be part of an investigation involving the handling of classified documents, the Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. A government source confirmed the raid to the Guardian, but did not disclose further details. More here.
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Donald Trump has threatened to take his federal crackdown on crime and city cleanliness to New York and Chicago, as the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered that national guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington DC under federal control will now be armed. The US president talked to reporters in the Oval Office and said: “When ready, we will start in Chicago … Chicago is a mess.” He added that then the administration “will help with New York”, amid the controversial and aggressive federal efforts to control leading Democratic-voting cities, each of which has a Black mayor. More here.
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The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official. Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The firing is the latest upheaval in the US military and intelligence agencies, and comes a few months after details of the preliminary assessment leaked to the media. More here.
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Kilmar Ábrego García has been freed on Friday from criminal custody in Tennessee so he can rejoin his family in Maryland while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, after a court ordered his release. Magistrate judge Barbara Holmes issued an order allowing the father of two to leave custody for the first time since his return to the US in June, following his wrongful deportation to El Salvador earlier this year. In a statement following his release, Ábrego’s lawyer, Sean Hecker said: “Today, Kilmar Ábrego García is free. More here.
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Canada will drop its counter-tariffs on some American goods in the coming days, Mark Carney has said, as the country’s prime minister looks to end a protracted trade war with longtime ally the United States. From 1 September, the Canadian government will remove some levies on US goods that comply with the North American free-trade pact, a move meant to “match” how the White House treated Canadian goods. Levies on steel, aluminum and autos will remain in place. The announcement comes one day after Carney and Donald Trump spoke on the phone. More here.
The Trump administration on Friday ordered all construction to stop on Revolution Wind, a $4bn offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.
The project, developed by the Danish company Orsted, had secured all necessary permits under the Biden administration and was expected to power more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring.
“The project is 80% complete with all offshore foundations installed and 45 out of 65 wind turbines installed,” Orsted said in a statement. The company said it is “evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously”.
“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests in the United States,” Bureau of Ocean Energy Management acting director, Matthew Giacona, said in a letter.
He said that the company “may not resume activities” until the agency has completed a review of the project.
The transcript of the interview between deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and Ghislaine Maxwell show that he asked the convicted sex trafficker about her and Epstein’s interactions with a spate of prominent Democrats, including former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and billionaire Democratic donor George Soros.
Maxwell did not implicate any of those individuals in wrongdoing.
Maxwell said she worked with Bill Clinton on his philanthropic endeavors, and that he used Epstein’s plane for a trip to Africa. But she said Clinton never visited Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein was accused of abusing some girls.
Texas prepares for final approval of GOP’s redistricting plan as senator threatens filibuster
Sam Levine
The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections.
The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote.
To get final approval, the state legislature’s upper chamber will take a vote, which is forecasted to happen this weekend, the Texas Tribune reports. However, a Houston Democratic state senator has plans to delay the final passage.
Senator Carol Alvarado revealed her filibuster plans in a post on social media. “Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back,” Alvarado’s post read. “I’ve submitted my intention to filibuster the new congressional maps. Going to be a long night.”
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has the full story:
Vice-president JD Vance said the FBI raids on former national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office were part of a legal process, not a political one against the now harsh critic of Donald Trump.
“We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton. I will say we’re going to let that investigation proceed,” Vance said in an interview with MSNBC’s Meet the Press.
“What I can tell you is that, unlike the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI, our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics,” he added. “And so, if we think that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions will come.”
US health department moves to strip thousands of employees of collective bargaining rights
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has moved to strip thousands of federal health agency employees of their collective bargaining rights, according to a union that called the effort illegal.
HHS officials confirmed Friday that the department is ending its recognition of unions for a number of employees and reclaiming office space and equipment that had been used for union activities.
It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to put an end to collective bargaining with unions that represent federal employees. Previously affected agencies include the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In May, an appeals court said the administration could move forward with Donald Trump’s executive order that the president aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.
“This action ensures that HHS resources and personnel are fully focused on safeguarding the health and security of the American people,” department spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement.
Read the full story here:
It looks like more defense officials were fired, shortly after we reported today that defense secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed Lt Gen Jeffrey A Kruse, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The Associated Press is reporting that V Adm Nancy Lacore, who was chief of the Navy Reserve, as well as R Adm Milton Sands, a navy SEAL officer who oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command, were also fired.
The reasons for their firings, the latest in a series of steps targeting military leaders, were not clear Friday.
Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell said Hillary Clinton did not associate with Jeffrey Epstein, according to the recently-released transcripts of an interview conducted by Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, with Maxwell.
When Maxwell was asked if Epstein “knew or had any sort of visit, dealings or associated with Hillary Clinton,” Maxwell responded, “I would say no.”
“Did you ever see them together?,” asked Blanche. Maxwell responded “No.”
Maxwell was also asked whether Epstein ever did any business with the Clintons. She said he may have given money to their foundation.
“I think he did do that. And that, I believe, the money that he may have given could have been independent of me,” Maxwell said.
Lauren Aratani
The Guardian’s Lauren Aratani brings us her analysis of Donald Trump’s push for steeper rate cuts and the Fed’s reality:
Stocks soared on Friday following the strongest signal yet that US the Federal Reserve is gearing up to start cutting interest rates again this fall. But how long can this celebration last?
While Wall Street cheered the biggest headline from the speech by the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, at the annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming, Powell also delivered a reality check on where interest rates could settle in the longer term.
“We cannot say for certain where rates will settle out over the longer run, but their neutral level may now be higher than during the 2010s,” said Powell.
In other words: even if the Fed does start cutting interest rates again this year, they may not fall back to their pre-pandemic levels. It’s a signal, despite the short-term optimism on potential rate cuts, that the Fed’s long-term outlook is more unstable.
“Markets might be ahead of their skis on how aggressive the Fed is going to be in reducing interest rates, because the neutral rate might be higher than some believe,” Ryan Sweet, an economist at Oxford Economics, said.
Higher rates means borrowing money for loans, such as mortgages, will be more expensive. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was just under 3% in 2021, when interest rates were near zero.
Now the average mortgage rate is closer to 6.7%. Paired with home prices at near-record highs, elevated mortgages mean many Americans will continue to struggle to purchase a home.
Although Trump has been pushing the Fed for months to decrease rates to 1%, claiming that Powell is “hurting the housing industry very badly”, it seems unlikely that rates will return to such a level any time soon.
The Fed is trying to achieve a Goldilocks balance. Rates that are too high risk unemployment, while rates that are too low could mean higher inflation. Policymakers are searching for a “neutral” level, where everything is just right.
Read the full analysis here:
Trump says Intel has agreed to give US government a 10% stake
The US government has taken an unprecedented 10% stake in Intel in a deal with the struggling chipmaker and is planning more such moves, according to Donald Trump and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, the latest extraordinary intervention by the White House in corporate America.
Lutnick wrote on X: “BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies. Thanks to Intel CEO @LipBuTan1 for striking a deal that’s fair to Intel and fair to the American People.”
Trump met with Lip-Bu Tan on Friday and posed for a photo with Lutnick. The development follows a meeting between Tan and Trump earlier this month that was sparked by the US president’s demand for the Intel chief’s resignation over his ties to Chinese firms.
Here’s the full story:
The Internal Revenue Service has halted planned layoffs and is offering jobs back to some employees who previously took the so-called “fork in the road” that encouraged staffers to take a buyout as the agency scrambles to boost staffing ahead of tax season, Axios reports.
The so-called “department of government efficiency’s” (Doge) early days made headlines for targeting government workers with layoffs and pushing others to resign.
But the IRS is now reversing course, joining other federal agencies, either rehiring terminated workers or pulling back on “reduction in force” plans.
In February, the IRS laid off roughly 7,000 workers in Washington and around the country.
Donald Trump announced that he named Sergio Gor to be the next US ambassador to India and special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs, according to a post on Truth Social.
Gor is currently the director of the White House presidential personnel office, and is slated to remain in that position until his confirmation.
“For the most populous Region in the World, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my Agenda and help us, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on Friday.
Sam Levine
Carol Alvarado, a Texas Democratic senator from Houston, says she intends to filibuster tonight in the Texas senate to delay Republicans from passing a redrawn congressional map.
“Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back.
I’ve submitted my intention to filibuster the new congressional maps. Going to be a long night,” she wrote in a post on X, accompanied by a picture of sneakers.
Democrats have gone back and forth with Phil King, the bill’s GOP sponsor, since this morning, trying to get him to admit that he considered race in drawing the maps.
The local television station KVUE has more on the rules Alvarado will have to follow as she filibusters the new congressional map.
Alvarado will not be able to eat or drink and must stand at her desk the whole time without breaks for the bathroom, the outlet reported.
The national guard personnel deployed on the streets of Washington DC will now be armed, a defense official confirmed to The Guardian.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the nearly 2,000 of the national guard members to carry “service-issued weapons,” the official said.
“The Interim Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard retains the authority to make any necessary force posture adjustments in coordination with the D.C. Metropolitan Police and Federal law enforcement partners,” said the defense official.
The Pentagon and the US army had said last week that troops would not carry weapons.
