Maxwell’s lawyer suggests Trump might be sympathetic to her case for a pardon
After Donald Trump reminded everyone on Friday that he is “allowed to” pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of his who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, Maxwell’s lawyer suggested that Trump might be sympathetic to the argument that her conviction was unjust.
“We haven’t spoken to the president, or anybody, about a pardon, just yet,” Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, told reporters after her meeting with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, Florida.
“Listen,” Markus added, “the president said this morning he has the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way.”
Maxwell was reportedly granted a form of limited immunity for the two days of interviews with Blanche, unnamed sources told the New York Times.
Markus also explained that Maxwell’s appeal to the supreme court was based the fact that “the government at the time promised her, promised Jeffrey Epstein, that any potential co-conspirators would not be prosecuted. And so she deserves that promise.”
Markus was referring to a non-prosecution agreement offered to Epstein in 2007, after his initial arrest on charges related to sex with a minor, by the then US attorney the southern district of Florida, Alex Acosta. That agreement, which allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser state crimes and serving just 13 months in jail, outraged the victims, who complained that the government had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act when it resolved the federal investigation of Epstein without consulting with them.
A 2020 review of the case, published after Trump lost the presidency, by the department of justice’s office of professional responsibility concluded: “Acosta exercised poor judgment by deciding to resolve the federal investigation through the non-prosecution agreement and when he failed to make certain that the state of Florida intended to and would notify victims identified through the federal investigation about the state plea hearing.”
Epstein was then indicted in federal court in Manhattan in 2019 and arrested before being found dead in jail, in what was ruled a suicide. Maxwell was arrested a year later and then convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2022.
Her lawyer suggested on Friday that Trump might be sympathetic to the argument that the original non-prosecution agreement should have been honored by the government.
“I don’t think that President Trump knows that the justice department took the position that that bargain should not, that promise should not be upheld,” Markus said. “President Trump is the ultimate deal-maker. He knows that a promise made on behalf of the government should bind the government.”
“So we’re hoping the supreme court agrees with us that when the US attorney’s office in the southern district of Florida promised that no potential co-conspirators would be prosecuted that that bound the southern district of New York as well,” Maxwell’s lawyer added.
While Trump said on Friday that pardoning Maxwell is “something I have not thought about”, and suggested later that “this is no time to be talking about pardons”, his allies in the conservative media have raised the possibility in recent days that Maxwell might “just might be a victim”.
When Maxwell was arrested in 2020, Trump acknowledged that he had “met her numerous times over the years”, and offered some words of sympathy. “I just wish her well, frankly,” the president said.
Key events
House Democrats demand Epstein birthday book that Trump reportedly signed
Lauren Gambino
California congressmen Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia on Friday sent a formal request to attorneys representing the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, demanding the release of a 2003 “birthday book” that reportedly contains a signed greeting from Donald Trump to the late sex offender.
The lawmakers are seeking a “complete and unredacted” copy of the book, which was compiled in 2003 by Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime associate who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually traffic minors. They have asked for the document to be handed over no later than 10 August.
“The public deserves to know the truth and the survivors and their families deserve justice,” said Khanna, who criticized Congress for leaving town without voting on his bipartisan bill to release the Epstein files.
Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal for reporting that he contributed a bawdy message and signed drawing to the album, calling the document, said to have been reviewed by federal prosecutors, “fake”.
On Thursday, the New York Times published an image of Maxwell’s dedication of the leather-bound album of birthday wishes to Epstein on his 50th birthday from dozens of his friends and associates.
Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, echoed the call for transparency. “The American people deserve to know who was involved in Epstein’s trafficking network and if they are in positions of power in our government,” he said.
The lawmakers’ request comes as Democrats clamor for the release of files from the federal investigations into Epstein – accusing Republicans of attempting to shield Trump from disclosures about his close and well-documented relationship with Epstein, which appeared to end in 2004. House Republicans broke early for an August recess amid uproar over the Epstein controversy.
Lauren Gambino
In an interview with the Guardian, Angelica Salas, the president of the Los Angeles-based immigrant rights group CHIRLA, said Senator Alex Padilla’s new bill offered Congress a “simple” way to move past decades of failed negotiations over comprehensive immigration reform.
She said the old political calculation that had shaped past attempts at an immigration overhaul – increased enforcement in exchange for pathways to legalization – was no longer relevant after Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act turned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) into the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.
“The balance now is completely on the side of enforcement,” she said. “So it’s enough. It’s time to do this.”
After decades of pushing for changes to state laws and city ordinances, Salas said there was little more California or Los Angeles could do to protect immigrants without an act of Congress.
“We have done everything we can to protect our community,” she said. “And what has happened because of those protections, the federal government has come in to crush us. So we continue to ask more of our elected officials at the state and local level … but that’s not the solution. The solution is finally to have people legalized in this country, and that’s only an act of Congress.”
The proposed legislation, Salas stressed, was simple and would include all immigrants, as opposed to past piecemeal attempts to shield Dreamers or farmworkers. The veteran immigrant rights advocate, herself a naturalized citizen from Mexico, said she was realistic about the hurdles this legislation would face in a Republican-controlled Congress that answers to Trump. But she believes a shift in public sentiment will help.
“I ask everybody in this country, so what do you choose? Do you choose what you see on TV where you have men and women being pummeled to the ground, treated as less than human,” Salas said during her public remarks. “Or do you want to update your own law so people can come out of these shadows, out of this fear and into the formal recognition that they deserve? If you can trust them with your child, if you can trust them with your mother and your father, for us to take care of them, if you trust us to feed you, can’t you trust us of the American family?”
Lauren Gambino
During a press conference in Los Angeles on Friday, Senator Alex Padilla grew emotional as he thanked the immigrant rights community for their advocacy and their support during what he described as “ long, hard summer for all of us”.
In June, as tensions peaked over Trump’s decision to send national guard troops and active-duty marines to LA to quell widespread protests sparked by immigration raids across the city, the Democratic senator was forcibly removed and placed in handcuffs after he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary.
“Your support over the last six weeks has been so much to me and to my family,” he said, his voice catching with emotion. Padilla was joined by Angelica Salas, the executive director of the immigrant rights organization, CHIRLA, as well as David Huerta, the California labor leader who was arrested while observing the protests and held in detention before being released on bond.
Among the speakers were Alejandro Barranco, a Marine veteran whose father, Narcisco, was detained by federal immigration officers while working a landscaping job he had held for more than 30 years; and Hazibi Johnson, whose brother was arrested and detained by Ice agents in June.
Barranco, who was deployed to Kabul in 2021 to assist with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, described his father’s arrest in June and detention, during which he said his father was “locked in a facility with nearly 100 others, no showers, no change of clothes, one toilet”. After being transferred to another facility, he was “forced to go 14 hours without any water, and became ill from the filthy conditions”.
His father has been released on bond. But Barranco said: “The trauma that day will never leave him – or us.”
Johsnon, whose brother Fermando, a small business owner, was arrested and detained in June, said his absence has shaken her family, especially her eight-year-old son who now panics when he sees black SUVs on the road.
“This is what injustice does. It ripples out far beyond the person being detained. It touches children, elders, entire families and communities,” she said. “The fear doesn’t disappear when someone is released. It lingers in the every day lives for those who love them.”
The press conference was held at the SEIU local 721 office in downtown LA, just a block from where masked Ice agents raided a Home Depot as part of the first wave of enforcement operations to target day laborers in the city.
Salas cited an analysis, based on data from the LA Rapid Response Network, that found recent immigration enforcement activities in Los Angeles county between 6 June to 20 July targeted areas where, on average, 80% of the residents were Latino.
“We can show a pattern of racial profiling, of blatant denial of constitutional rights, and a clear message to immigrants and US citizens alike that anyone at any moment could be a target,” she said. Yet Salas said the community remained “defiant”.
“Our families are more than tears and fear, we are loving human beings who fight to keep our families together,” she said. “We dream of a better tomorrow for future generations, and we believe in an America that is a multiracial democracy where we are all welcome.”
Lauren Gambino
Senator Alex Padilla on Friday unveiled legislation that would amend existing law to allow millions of immigrants to seek legal residency in the US – a long-shot effort by the California Democrat to confront what he called the Trump administration’s “extreme cruelty”.
During a press conference at the local SEIU headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, Padilla said he was “not naive” about the odds of passing a sweeping immigration bill with a Republican-controlled legislature and Donald Trump in the White House. But he said public opinion was shifting sharply against the president’s mass deportation agenda and even some Republicans in Congress were starting to speak out about the impact raids and enforcement operations have had on communities and key industries in their states.
“The United States of America is not the United States of America without immigrants,” he said, drawing loud cheers from the coalition of labor and immigrant rights advocates in the audience.
The bill, which will be formally introduced in the Senate on Monday, proposes a “simple update” to the Immigration Act of 1929 to allow legal residency for immigrants who have lived continuously in the US for seven years and have no criminal record, Padilla said. Advocates said the bill, if passed, could immediately open a path to legalization for as many as 8 million immigrants, including Dreamers, farmworkers and TPS holders.
Padilla emphasized that the last time the law was updated was under Republican president Ronald Reagan, who he quoted as having argued that expanding legalization was a “matter of basic fairness” when he signed the amendment into law in 1986.
“It creates an opportunity for people to have lived in shadows for too long, to be able to take steps forward, first towards legalization, as a step towards residency and potentially eventually citizenship,” Padilla said. “This is nothing new. It’s not a new bureaucracy, it’s not a new agency, it’s not a new program. It’s simply updating the cut off date.”
California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren introduced companion legislation in the House.
Maxwell’s lawyer suggests Trump might be sympathetic to her case for a pardon
After Donald Trump reminded everyone on Friday that he is “allowed to” pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of his who was convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, Maxwell’s lawyer suggested that Trump might be sympathetic to the argument that her conviction was unjust.
“We haven’t spoken to the president, or anybody, about a pardon, just yet,” Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, told reporters after her meeting with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, Florida.
“Listen,” Markus added, “the president said this morning he has the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way.”
Maxwell was reportedly granted a form of limited immunity for the two days of interviews with Blanche, unnamed sources told the New York Times.
Markus also explained that Maxwell’s appeal to the supreme court was based the fact that “the government at the time promised her, promised Jeffrey Epstein, that any potential co-conspirators would not be prosecuted. And so she deserves that promise.”
Markus was referring to a non-prosecution agreement offered to Epstein in 2007, after his initial arrest on charges related to sex with a minor, by the then US attorney the southern district of Florida, Alex Acosta. That agreement, which allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser state crimes and serving just 13 months in jail, outraged the victims, who complained that the government had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act when it resolved the federal investigation of Epstein without consulting with them.
A 2020 review of the case, published after Trump lost the presidency, by the department of justice’s office of professional responsibility concluded: “Acosta exercised poor judgment by deciding to resolve the federal investigation through the non-prosecution agreement and when he failed to make certain that the state of Florida intended to and would notify victims identified through the federal investigation about the state plea hearing.”
Epstein was then indicted in federal court in Manhattan in 2019 and arrested before being found dead in jail, in what was ruled a suicide. Maxwell was arrested a year later and then convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2022.
Her lawyer suggested on Friday that Trump might be sympathetic to the argument that the original non-prosecution agreement should have been honored by the government.
“I don’t think that President Trump knows that the justice department took the position that that bargain should not, that promise should not be upheld,” Markus said. “President Trump is the ultimate deal-maker. He knows that a promise made on behalf of the government should bind the government.”
“So we’re hoping the supreme court agrees with us that when the US attorney’s office in the southern district of Florida promised that no potential co-conspirators would be prosecuted that that bound the southern district of New York as well,” Maxwell’s lawyer added.
While Trump said on Friday that pardoning Maxwell is “something I have not thought about”, and suggested later that “this is no time to be talking about pardons”, his allies in the conservative media have raised the possibility in recent days that Maxwell might “just might be a victim”.
When Maxwell was arrested in 2020, Trump acknowledged that he had “met her numerous times over the years”, and offered some words of sympathy. “I just wish her well, frankly,” the president said.
Fema offers $608m to states to construct immigrant detention centers
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) is preparing to send $608m to states to construct immigrant detention centers as part of the Trump administration’s push to expand capacity to hold migrants.
The funds from Fema’s “detention support grant program” cover the cost to states and local governments building temporary facilities, according to an agency grant description. The agency has been accepting applications for funding since 9 July and states have until 8 August to apply for the funds, according to the grant description posted online.
The Trump administration has been encouraging states to build their own facilities to detain migrants. This program provides a way for the administration to help states pay for it.
The funds will be distributed by Fema in partnership with US Customs and Border Protection, according to the agency.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said on Friday that the state would apply for Fema reimbursement to pay for its new Everglades immigrant detention center it calls “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The facility will cost an estimated $450m annually, according to homeland security officials.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, has said her department will tap Fema’s $650m shelter and services program to fund Florida’s facility. Congress during the Biden administration directed the department, which includes Fema, to distribute the money to state and local governments to cover the cost of sheltering migrants.
That funding stream was separate from money Congress set aside for Fema to cover disaster relief. “Secretary Noem has been very clear that the funding for Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for other states and local governments to assist with detention,” a Fema spokesperson told Reuters.
The grant program began accepting applications just days after lawyers for the department argued in court that the federal government could not be sued over Alligator Alcatraz because no funds from Fema had been used to pay for it and “DHS has not implemented, authorized, directed, or funded Florida’s temporary detention center.”
News of the new Fema grants for detention facilities came as Maryland’s Democratic governor, Wes Moore, vowed to take Donald Trump to court after the president denied the governor’s request for Fema disaster assistance relief following massive floods in May, calling it “not warranted”.
“It’s an insult to Marylanders and the community still suffering in the aftermath of this storm,” Moore said in a video response to the decision he posted on social media.
In recent weeks, Trump has boasted of approving Fema funds to flood victims in Texas and other Republican-run states that voted for him in the 2024 election.
Trump drives past protesters outside his golf resort in Scotland
Donald Trump has arrived at his Turnberry golf resort on the coast of Ayrshire, in south-west Scotland.
His motorcade, escorted by Police Scotland vehicles and ambulance crews, drove past a small group of protesters, and at least one supporter.
While Trump has spoken fondly of Scotland, where his mother was born and raised, the country has not always returned his warmth.
During a previous visit, in 2018, Trump was greeted at his Turnberry resort by a Greenpeace activist who paraglided directly over his head trailing a banner that read: “Trump: Well Below Par”.
Ahead of his visit, one local newspaper, the National, which supports independence for Scotland, ran a preview of the visit with the headline: “Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland – Republican leader, who was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, will visit golf courses”.
Trump says ‘nothing’ remains to work out in trade deal with UK, as Starmer presses for ‘full implentation’
In his remarks to reporters at Prestwick airport earlier, Donald Trump was asked about his scheduled talks with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, which the White House has used to portray his mainly golf-themed trip as a working visit.
“Can you explain,” a reporter asked Trump on the tarmac outside Air Force One, “what is missing in the UK deal that you have to work out?”
“Nothing,” Trump replied. “I think it’s more of a celebration than a workout. It’s a great deal for both, and we’re going to have a meeting on other things, other than the deal. The deal is concluded.”
Trump previously suggested that the talks were to “refine” the US-UK trade deal. Starmer told Bloomberg News in an interview on Thursday that the UK is still pressing for “full implementation” of the deal with the US.
The sticking point appears to be that while Trump agreed to cut US tariffs on steel imports from the UK that currently stand at 25%, the tariffs have not yet been lifted.
Chris Stein
In response to the House ethics committee’s report into Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s attendance of the Met Gala four years ago, her chief of staff, Mike Casca, said:
“The Congresswoman appreciates the Committee finding that she made efforts to ensure her compliance with House Rules and sought to act consistently with her ethical requirements as a Member of the House. She accepts the ruling and will remedy the remaining amounts, as she’s done at each step in this process.”
Chris Stein
The House ethics committee has ordered progressive Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to pay nearly $3,000 to resolve an investigation into her attendance of the 2021 Met Gala in New York City.
The inquiry began in 2022 following an allegation that Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts when she attended the annual gala wearing a white floor-length gown with “Tax the Rich” written on the back.
In its bipartisan report released today, the ethics committee determined that despite making “significant attempts” to comply with congressional rules around accepting gifts, Ocasio-Cortez failed to do so “fully” by “impermissibly” accepting free admission to the gala for her partner, and did not pay full market price for some of what she wore to the event.
The committee found that a former campaign staff member tried to lower the congresswoman’s costs for attending the gala and made late payments to vendors involved. While it faulted Ocasio-Cortez for not properly supervising the staffer, the committee “did not find evidence that she intended to seek to lower the cost of goods provided to her or to delay payment for those goods and other services received”.
The committee determined that they will close the matter and Ocasio-Cortez will not face sanctions if she donates the $250 cost of her partner’s meal, and pays $2,733.28 to the designer from which she rented the dress and accessories.
Former justice department lawyer provides corroborative evidence that Emil Bove wilfully defied court orders
Sam Levine
A former Department of Justice lawyer has provided evidence to a justice department watchdog corroborating explosive claims that Emil Bove and other top officials wilfully and knowingly defied court orders, according to Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit representing the person.
A top department official and Donald Trump’s former defense attorney, Bove is currently being considered for a lifetime seat on the federal bench.
Whistleblower Aid said it was not identifying its client. They said the person had turned over “ substantive, internal DoJ documents” to the justice department’s inspector general. The evidence, the organization said, corroborate allegations from Erez Reuveni, a fired DoJ employee, who has publicly said that Bove told DoJ lawyers to defy the courts.
“What we’re seeing here is something I never thought would be possible on such a wide scale: federal prosecutors appointed by the Trump Administration intentionally presenting dubious if not outright false evidence to a court of jurisdiction in cases that impact a person’s fundamental rights not only under our constitution, but their natural rights as humans,” said Andrew Bakaj, chief counsel at Whistleblower Aid.
“Our client and Mr Reuveni are true patriots – prioritizing their commitment to democracy over advancing their careers.”
Trump says ‘good 50-50 chance’ of EU trade deal – the ‘biggest of them all’
Trump also said a trade deal with the European Union would be a big agreement and repeated his view that there was a “good 50-50 chance” for it.
“With the European Union, we have a good 50-50 chance,” he told reporters. “That would be the biggest deal of them all if we make it.”
He is due to meet with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday to discuss trade.
‘This is no time to be talking about pardons,’ says Trump when pressed about Maxwell
Speaking to reporters at Prestwick airport, Trump denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files.
Asked about the justice department’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about the conversation, I haven’t really been following it.”
“A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons” he went on. “You’re making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”
He then deflects further, suggesting the media should talk about Clinton and the ex-president of Harvard, but “don’t talk about Trump”.
Trump greeted by Scottish secretary
The US president was greeted by Scottish secretary Ian Murray as he walked off Air Force One at Prestwick airport.
The pair could be seen shaking hands at the bottom of the aircraft stairs before Donald Trump walked across to a group of journalists to answer questions.
Air Force One has just landed in Scotland. I’ll bring you any key lines here if Donald Trump speaks to the media.
Disgraced former US representative George Santos reports to New Jersey federal prison to serve seven-year fraud sentence
Disgraced former US representative George Santos reported to a federal prison in New Jersey earlier today to begin serving a seven-year sentence for the fraud charges that got him ousted from Congress.
The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to the Associated Press that the New York Republican was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey.
Santos pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges for deceiving donors and stealing people’s identities in order to fund his congressional campaign.
Lawyers for Santos didn’t respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.
The ever-online Santos, 37, hosted a farewell party for himself on X last night.
“Well, darlings … The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” he wrote in a post afterwards. “From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried … most days.”
In a Thursday interview with Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-owned news organization, Santos said he’ll serve his sentence in a minimum-security prison “camp” that he described as a “big upgrade” from the medium-security lockup he was initially assigned to.
In April, a federal judge declined to give Santos a lighter two-year sentence that he sought, saying she was unconvinced he was truly remorseful. In the weeks before his sentencing, Santos said he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes, but he also complained frequently that he was a victim of a political witch hunt and prosecutorial overreach.
Santos lied extensively about his life story both before and after entering the US Congress, where he was the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected to the body. He was ultimately convicted of defrauding donors.
He has apparently been holding out hope that his unwavering support for Donald Trump might help him win a last-minute reprieve.
The White House said this week that it “will not comment on the existence or nonexistence” of any clemency request.
A senior justice department official has told NBC News that attorney general Pam Bondi is still healing from a torn cornea, but it has not prevented her from doing day-to-day work and meeting with staff.
The update comes after Bondi abruptly canceled a scheduled appearance on Wednesday at CPAC’s anti-trafficking summit in Washington, citing recovery from a health issue.
As all the political firestorm over the Epstein saga continues to dominate the news cycle and consume Washington, there has been much online chatter about Bondi’s whereabouts.
She was last seen on Tuesday morning swearing in the new DEA administrator Terry Cole at the justice department.
NewsNation reports that following the conclusion of the DOJ interviews, David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, said they were “very grateful” for the opportunity.
Markus said:
This was a thorough, comprehensive interview by the deputy attorney general. No person and no topic were off-limits. We are very grateful. The truth will come out.
Some more detail on that from the Tallahassee Democrat.
David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney declined to say whether Donald Trump was the focus of any of the Department of Justice’s questions during the interviewing sessions that have taken place behind closed doors at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee over the last two days.
“I’m just not going to talk about the substance,” Markus said.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche had asked Maxwell “every possible question”, Markus said. “He did a really good job and asked her a lot of things.”
