Tuesday, February 03, 2026
Newly released Jeffrey Epstein files: 10 key takeaways so far | Jeffrey Epstein | The Guardian
Newly released Jeffrey Epstein files: 10 key takeaways so far:
"1. Epstein lawyers discussed possibility of cooperation days before his death
Less than two weeks before Epstein died in jail in 2019, the files show that his attorneys met with Manhattan federal prosecutors and discussed Epstein’s potential cooperation.
An FBI document titled “Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline” states: “On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s cooperation.”
Another document titled “Jeffrey Epstein Significant Case Notification”, which closely resembles the FBI memo but is not attributed to a specific agency, notes that “defense counsel did not make a specific proposal, and they did not indicate what the nature of Epstein’s cooperation might be, if any.
“It was suggested that defense counsel contact SDNY [southern district of New York] if Epstein was prepared to accept responsibility for his conduct and/or they had a specific proposal for a resolution of this case,” it added.
2. FBI received allegations about Trump
One document in the newly released tranche is a summary that FBI officials appear to have compiled last summer, of more than a dozen tips received by the agency involving Trump and Epstein.
It is unclear why the investigators put together the summary, and it does not say when the tips, which include unsubstantiated claims of sexual abuse, were received. The document also does not include any corroborating evidence or indication that the tips were verified.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. In response to a request for comment from the New York Times, the White House referred to a statement from the justice department on Friday, which stated that the new tranche of documents “may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos”.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the justice department statement added. “To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
3. Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known
Emails show Musk and Epstein exchanging cordial messages, and on two separate occasions, in 2012 and 2013, the two making plans for Musk to visit Epstein’s private island. The communications suggest that the trips did not occur due to logistical issues.
Musk told Vanity Fair in 2019 that Epstein was “obviously a creep” and claimed that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island” but that he had “declined”.
A representative for Musk and his artificial intelligence company, xAI, did not return a request for comment about the emails. On Friday night, Musk repeated his previousclaim on social media, and stated that he had “very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island”.
4. Howard Lutnick made plans to visit Epstein’s island
The files show that Lutnick, now serving as US secretary of commerce under Trump, arranged to visit Jeffrey Epstein’s island in 2012.
Last year Lutnick said in an interview that he had been neighbors with Epstein in New York, and that he had cut ties with Epstein around 2005, calling him “disgusting”.
A spokesperson for the commerce department told the Wall Street Journal that Lutnick had limited interactions with Epstein and had never been accused of wrongdoing.
5. Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace
Emails suggest that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace following Epstein’s release from house arrest in 2010.
In 2008, as part of a negotiated deal, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor, and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. He was released in July 2009, and began serving a house arrest sentence, which ended in August 2010.
In a September 2010 email exchange between Epstein and “the Duke” – believed to be Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York – Epstein said he was in London and requested “private time”.
Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have replied: “We could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy.” Two days later, he followed up by saying: “Delighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever and I’ll be here free from 1600ish.”
It is unclear if the meeting took place. But three months later, the pair were pictured walking together in New York’s Central Park. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously claimed he had travelled to the US to end his friendship with Epstein in light of his conviction.
The documents also show that days after Epstein’s house arrest ended, Epstein offered to arrange for Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a “clevere [sic], beautiful and trustworthy” 26-year-old Russian woman. Mountbatten-Windsor apparently responded that he would be “delighted” to meet the woman. In that email exchange, he also asked Epstein if it was “good to be free?”
Additional files include photos showing Andrew appearing to be crouching over an unidentified woman who is lying on the floor.
6. Richard Branson and Epstein exchanged emails
The files show an email exchange from 2013 between Branson, the British billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group, and Epstein.
In an email on 11 September 2013, Branson wrote to Epstein, “It was really nice seeing you yesterday” and added: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”
A representative for Virgin group told the Guardian that Branson had sent the email shortly after hosting Epstein at a group business meeting on the private island Branson owns in the British Virgin Islands.
The spokesperson said that Epstein arrived at the meeting with three adult women, who the spokesperson said Epstein referred to as his “harem”, who did not attend the meeting.
“Any contact Richard and Joan Branson had with Epstein took place on only a few occasions more than 12 years ago, and was limited to group or business settings, such as a charity tennis event,” the representative said in a statement to the Guardian over the weekend.
“Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims,” the statement added.
7. Files show emails between head of LA Olympics committee and Ghislaine Maxwell
Emails from 2003 between Casey Wasserman, head of the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, and Ghislaine Maxwell – who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes – appeared in the files.
The exchanges include a message from Wasserman telling Maxwell: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
In an April 2003 email, sent to Wasserman, who was married at the time, Maxwell offered to give him a massage that can “drive a man wild”.
Wasserman said on Saturday he “deeply regrets” his “correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell,” which he said took place “long before her horrific crimes came to light”.
“I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” he added. “As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”
8. New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch exchanged emails with Epstein
Tisch was mentioned several hundred times in files released on Friday, and in some emails exchanges from 2013 it appears that Epstein connected Tisch to several women.
In a statement, Tisch said that he and Epstein had “a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments”.
“I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island,” he added. “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
9. Files shed new light on relationship between Epstein and Peter Mandelson
Bank records appear to show three separate payments of $25,000 from Epstein’s JP Morgan bank accounts referencing Mandelson, and separate documents appear to indicate that Epstein sent thousands of pounds to Mandelson’s husband after Epstein’s release from prison in 2009.
Contacted about the bank statements, Mandelson said: “I have no record and no recollection of receiving these sums and do not know if the documents are authentic.”
The files also include an image of Mandelson in his underwear standing next to a woman whose face is redacted. In response, Mandelson has said that he “cannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were”.
Mandelson was fired in September over his links to Epstein. On Sunday, he resignedfrom the Labour party.
In a statement, Mandelson reiterated that he had been wrong to believe Epstein and continue his association with him, adding: “I deeply regret doing so and apologise unequivocally to the women and girls who suffered.”
10. Hollywood film-maker Brett Ratner appears in image with Epstein and two women
A newly released photo from the files shows Ratner, who directed the recently released Melania Trump documentary, sitting on a sofa hugging a woman, next to Epstein, who is sitting with another woman. Both women’s faces have been redacted.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the undated photo appears to have been taken in Epstein’s New York townhouse.
Ratner reportedly told the Journal in 2023 he did not know Epstein and had never met him. On Saturday, a spokeswoman for Ratner declined to comment to the Journal."
‘They Couldn’t Break Me’: A Protester, the White House and a Doctored Photo - The New York Times
‘They Couldn’t Break Me’: A Protester, the White House and a Doctored Photo
"President Trump and the White House regularly circulate imagery that has been manipulated by A.I. But the photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong was different.
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent. She reported from Washington.
When Nekima Levy Armstrong was transported from the federal courthouse in St. Paul, Minn., to the Sherburne County Jail with three layers of shackles on her body — around her wrists, waist and feet — it was the closest, she said, that she had ever felt to slavery.
Still, she walked calmly, her face resolute, her head held high.
But if you saw a photograph that the White House disseminated of Ms. Levy Armstrong, who was arrested for protesting at a church service, you would not know it.
The White House posted a manipulated photo of her arrest to its official social media account, depicting Ms. Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, as hysterical — tears streaming down her face, her hair disheveled, appearing to cry out in despair. “ARRESTED” was emblazoned across the photo, along with a misleading description of Ms. Levy Armstrong as a “far-left agitator” who was “orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.”
While President Trump and the White House regularly circulate imagery altered by artificial intelligence, including demeaning and racist deepfakes, it is usually so over the top that the goal seems more about cartoonish mockery than outright deceit.
The photograph of Ms. Levy Armstrong was different. It has the hallmarks of brazen disinformation from the top level of government: smearing and humiliating one citizen in order to influence public opinion, while sending a warning to other critics to beware of crossing the administration. And it adds a new, social media-era dimension to Mr. Trump’s long record of distortions and lies in the service of his policies and political standing.
Ms. Levy Armstrong, a 49-year-old mother of four, said she learned about the photo while she was in jail, during a phone call with her husband. When she saw it for herself after she was released the next day, she said, she was “disgusted.”
The exaggerated features and the darkened skin, she said, reminded her of when the bodies of enslaved people were left disfigured to deter uprisings on plantations, or during Jim Crow when racist propaganda would depict Black people as caricatures. She said she remained “cool, calm and collected” during both her arrest and the transport to jail.
“They couldn’t break me by arresting me,” Ms. Levy Armstrong said, “so they doctored an image to show the world a false iteration of that time to make me look weak.”
“Reducing my image to some scared crying woman was just so degrading, and it just shows how far the office of the president has fallen,” Ms. Levy Armstrong said. “The presidency, the White House is supposed to symbolize the world’s greatest superpower, but instead they acted like a $2 tabloid.”
When asked about the doctored image, which The New York Times independently confirmed had been manipulated, the White House was unapologetic. Kaelan Dorr, the deputy communications director, brushed it off last week as a “meme.”
Sign up for the Race/Related Newsletter Join a deep and provocative exploration of race, identity and society with New York Times journalists.
“Enforcement of the law will continue,” Mr. Dorr wrote on social media, reposting the doctored photograph. “The memes will continue.”
‘A Trophy for MAGA’
The Justice Department sought to prosecute Ms. Levy Armstrong under a law that bars using or threatening force and physical obstruction to interfere with or intimidate someone worshiping at a religious institution. But she now faces charges of “conspiracy against rights,” which had been used to protect Black people from harassment by the Ku Klux Klan.
Six other protesters and two journalists, including Don Lemon, also face charges for their roles in the protests, alarming First Amendment experts. Attorney General Pam Bondi has pointed to the cases as evidence that the administration does “not tolerate attacks on places of worship.”
Ms. Levy Armstrong, who is an ordained pastor, said that she led the protest on Jan. 18 at Cities Church to stand up for immigrants’ right to worship without fear of arrest. A leader at the church, David Easterwood, is the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office for enforcement and removal operations in St. Paul. Mr. Easterwood, who was not present at the time of the protest, has been named in a lawsuit challenging aggressive enforcement tactics.
Protesters interrupted the church service with chants of “ICE out” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.” When the pastor yelled, “Shame!” at her from the pulpit, Ms. Levy Armstrong began to lead a chant of “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old woman who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in early January.
Videos posted on social media show the protest bringing the service to a halt and congregants moving to leave, as the chants continue and worship music begins to play.
The protest lasted about 20 minutes, Ms. Levy Armstrong said.
Four days later, on Jan. 22, federal officers arrested Ms. Levy Armstrong at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, just minutes from the federal courthouse. While her husband filmed the encounter, she asked the agents to treat her with “dignity and respect.”
She asked one of the agents why he was filming the arrest.
“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” the agent assured her.
“We don’t want to create a false narrative,” the agent added.
She said she responded that she did not want to be a “trophy for MAGA.”
But soon after her arrest, an image of Ms. Levy Armstrong was on Twitter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, posted an arrest picture of Ms. Levy Armstrong, apparently without digital manipulation. But within hours, the doctored photo that the White House posted had ricocheted around the country. It has been viewed more than six million times.
In a social media post 48 hours before her arrest, Mr. Trump called the church protesters “agitators and insurrectionists” who should be “thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.”
Legal experts said that the fake image could hurt the Justice Department’s case against Ms. Levy Armstrong. Her lawyers could use it to accuse the Trump administration of making what are known as improper extrajudicial statements.
In a court filing, Ms. Levy Armstrong’s lawyer pointed to the doctored photo as an example of political persecution and what he called an effort to “defame her” as part of the government’s “fascist offensive against the American people.”
But even if the case is not airtight legally, the social media campaign is a potent signal to protesters that they will pay a very public price for standing up to the administration.
‘We Don’t Know What to Believe’
Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who researches digital forensics, deepfake imagery and misinformation, said that the White House response was a troubling escalation in its use of artificial intelligence.
“I think reasonable people can say that this one was really different, because the photo was real, and it was A.I.-modified to change her facial expression, and it was not labeled such, and it wasn’t at all obvious from the context that it was a meme, as the White House wanted to say,” he said.
Mr. Farid, who is also the co-founder and chief science officer at GetReal Security, a firm that identifies A.I. misinformation, added that posting fake content alongside official business not only risked eroding the public trust — it could also backfire.
“If you are so seamlessly intermixing real and fake, why should I believe anything you do?” he asked. “Where are we as an electorate when we don’t know what to believe anymore?”
Some scholars said the doctored photo was the latest example of a history of racialized propaganda that has been weaponized against Black people, especially in eras in which they are challenging the government.
“It goes back to the images of slavery, but also of Jim Crow abuse by law enforcement, and that abuse with impunity to send a message to the Black community as a whole that we are going to not only assault but humiliate Black people who join in protest effort across the country,” said Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
‘A Wake-Up Call’
Ms. Levy Armstrong, who spent more than a decade as a law professor, has had prominent roles in protests over the last decade.
She went to Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 as a legal observer after the shooting death of Mike Brown, and went on to help organize Black Lives Matter protests after his death. She also led protests against police killings of Black men by the police, including Philando Castile, Jamar Clark and George Floyd.
She has been arrested before for leading demonstrations, including in 2015 when she and others were accused of shutting down an interstate after the killing of Mr. Clark.
Ms. Levy Armstrong served as president of the Minneapolis chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. from 2015 to 2016, and in 2017 ran for mayor of Minneapolis on a platform of police accountability and racial equity. She lost to the current mayor, Jacob Frey.
Born in Jackson, Miss., Ms. Levy Armstrong moved to South Central Los Angeles when she was 8 and knew early on that she wanted to be a lawyer after witnessing the injustices faced by the Black community, including the beating of Rodney King.
When she was 14, Ms. Levy Armstrong was accepted to boarding school at the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., and went on to attend the University of Southern California, where she studied African American history. She got her law degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and taught for 13 years at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, where she was a full and tenured law professor.
“I’ve been in it — 10 toes down, in the fight for justice,” she said.
Now, she sees a silver lining in the White House’s release of the doctored photo.
“It was a wake-up call for the nation in terms of really understanding political persecution,” she said, “and that people are being targeted and penalized for speaking out against the tyranny and fascism of the federal government.”
Trump Live Updates: House Passes Bill to End Government Shutdown, Sending It to Trump - The New York Times
What We’re Covering Today
"The House on Tuesday passed a spending package to end the partial government shutdown and keep the Department of Homeland Security running while Democrats and President Trump negotiate over restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The vote was 217 to 214 to send the measure to Mr. Trump’s desk, where he was expected to quickly sign the agreement to reopen major parts of the government since funding lapsed on Saturday But under the deal, the money for the Department of Homeland Security lasts just through the end of next week."
Opinion | Trump Could Interfere With the Midterm Elections. Here’s How to Help. - The New York Times
Trump Could Interfere With the Midterm Elections. You Can Help Defend Them.
"The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
Election integrity in the United States can be a fraught subject. Merely raising the prospect that a future election might be compromised makes many democracy experts uncomfortable. It can undermine faith in our reliable, well-run election system and amplify the false claims about fraud that often come from President Trump. Even people who respect the sanctity of elections sometimes malign them. Many Democrats, for example, have wrongly suggested that voter-identification laws undermine the system by causing large declines in turnout.
In truth, American elections have never been more reliable or accessible. For every election, thousands of principled election officials painstakingly update voter rolls, mail information to households, train poll workers, oversee voting and transport ballots with a documented chain of custody. Voter fraud is extremely rare, and voter turnout in the past two presidential elections reached higher levels than in any other over the previous century.
Yet it would be naïve to assume that the status quo is guaranteed to continue. The sanctity of the 2026 elections is indeed under threat. And the reason is Mr. Trump.
Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning.
He has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to interfere with elections to benefit himself and his party. He has broken the law to do so and broken longstanding bipartisan traditions. Since he entered politics a decade ago, he has suggested that election outcomes are fair only if his side wins. In 2020, after he lost the presidential election, he attempted to direct a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the result. As it was failing (thanks to the honesty of election administrators from both parties), he encouraged protesters to march to Congress when it was meeting to certify his defeat — and later celebrated their violent attack.
Since he returned to the presidency last year, he has if anything shown a willingness to go further. He has pushed for extreme gerrymandering of congressional districts, outside the normal 10-year cycle, to help Republicans hold the House even if most voters want them out. His Justice Department is building an unprecedented database of voter information that experts fear the administration may use to cast unfair doubt on voters’ eligibility. He signed a legally dubious executive order that could force states to reject some mail-in ballots. He recently told The Times that he regretted not sending the National Guard to seize voting machines after the 2020 presidential election.
The threat took on a new urgency this week, when F.B.I. agents searched an election center in Atlanta related to Mr. Trump’s baseless accusations of fraud in 2020. Chillingly, his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, accompanied agents on the search. As an article in The Times explained, the search “could be used to justify a forced takeover of the elections operation” in Georgia’s most populous county, which skews heavily Democratic. It is a reminder of Mr. Trump’s willingness to use the tools of state power — prosecutors, national security officials, National Guard members and F.B.I. and immigration agents — in the service of his political interests.
To look at this pattern and conclude that the 2026 midterm elections are safe is to leave American democracy exposed. In a divided country where many elections are close and congressional control could come down to a handful of races, a local disruption affecting turnout or vote counting could have national consequences. If you are somebody who has previously dismissed talk of election interference as overwrought, we understand where you are coming from. Yet we urge you not to assume that the past will repeat itself.
We are relieved to see that an array of civic-minded Americans — including Democrats, independents and Republicans — are responding to the threat and already taking steps to protect the integrity of the 2026 elections. They need help in this nonpartisan endeavor. They have far fewer resources at their disposal than the president does. Much as the editorial board makes annual recommendations of high-impact charities to support, we want to suggest several ways that you can help safeguard democracy ahead of the midterms. We ask you to consider them.
Our first set of recommendations involves actions rather than donations:
Work the polls. In 2024, nearly half of the country’s election precincts said they struggled to recruit poll workers. Shortages lead to longer voting lines and overworked election administrators. We particularly encourage young and middle-aged people to sign up: In the last three general elections, fewer than a quarter of volunteers were 40 or younger. (In many states, you can become a poll worker at 16 or 17.) The positions, which are nonpartisan, are paid. You can find out how to apply with the recruitment look-up tool at this link.
Watch the polls. In most states, political parties appoint poll watchers who observe elections to ensure fairness. In some places, nonpartisan groups can also select poll watchers. To find out how to volunteer, start by contacting the Democratic or Republican committee in your county.
Don’t spread dubious information. It’s surprisingly easy for misleading stories to travel through trusted friends or relatives. Heather Gerken, president of the Ford Foundation, notes that influential disinformation often arrives via a well-meaning peer rather than a random bot. People from both political sides are susceptible to this — whether it was Democratic conspiracy theories in 2004 about fraud in Ohio or the recent Republican conspiracy theories about 2020. Double-checking information before hitting “share” can keep election conversations grounded in reality.
You can also support organizations that are helping to protect election officials and safeguard the process. All the ones we recommend here are nonpartisan.
The Election Official Legal Defense Network pairs election officials with pro bono attorneys who can advise them on how to respond to threats and lawsuits, which have increased in recent years. The network was founded in 2021 by a former White House lawyer for Barack Obama and a former election lawyer for George W. Bush. You can donate here.
The Campaign Legal Center, founded in 2002 by a Republican lawyer who served as chairman of the Federal Election Commission, works to ensure that election rules remain fair. The group is fighting the Trump administration’s demands for voter data and an executive order that would force states to change voter ID requirements and ballot deadlines. There will probably be more litigation ahead of the midterms, especially after a recent Supreme Court decision made it easier for any candidate to challenge election rules. You can donate here.
The Carter Center, founded in 1982 by Jimmy Carter, has brought its global election monitoring program to the United States. This year, the Carter Center plans to have nonpartisan observers watch elections in Georgia, Michigan, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico. The center will also host civic education events and offer resources for voters and election officials across the country. You can donate to the Carter Center’s democracy program here.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan began his first Inaugural Address by observing that the orderly transfer of authority was “a commonplace occurrence” to most Americans but was “nothing less than a miracle” to much of the world. Our elections remain both commonplace and miraculous. This country should be proud that it can feel so routine for a citizen to drop a ballot in the mailbox or walk down the street to cast a vote. In 2026, we should guard that tradition.
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom."
Monday, February 02, 2026
Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein investigation | Jeffrey Epstein | The Guardian
Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein investigation
"Decision to give testimony comes days before House was expected to vote to hold pair in contempt of Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed on Monday to testify in a House investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, days before the chamber was expected to vote to hold them in contempt of Congress.
The concession follows a tense back-and-forth between the Clintons and the Republican James Comer, chair of the House oversight committee, who on Monday said that he would insist both Clintons sit for a sworn deposition before the committee in order to fulfill the panel’s subpoenas.
“They negotiated in good faith. You did not,” Angel Ureña, a spokesman for the Clintons, replied to Comer, in a post on social media. “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former president and former secretary of state will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
The House was headed towards potential votes this week on criminal contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons. If passed, the charges threatened the Clintons with substantial fines and even incarceration if they were convicted.
“The Clintons do not get to dictate the terms of lawful subpoenas,” Comer said.
For months, the Clintons had refused to appear before the Republican-led panel, arguing that the subpoenas were legally “invalid” and “unenforceable” and accusing Comer of targeting them as part of Donald Trump’s retribution campaign against his political enemies.
A committee letter to the Clintons’ attorneys indicates the pair had offered for Bill Clinton to conduct a transcribed interview on “matters related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein” and for Hillary Clinton to submit a sworn declaration.
The Republican-controlled oversight panel had advanced criminal contempt of Congress charges last month, in response to the Clintons’ refusal to testify in Congress.
On 12 January, attorneys for the Clintons had issued a letter to Comer on why they would not be testifying. They called the subpoenas “invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers”.
The demand for testimony “runs afoul of the clearly defined limitations on Congress’s investigative power propounded by the supreme court of the United States”, they wrote, adding: “It is clear the subpoenas themselves – and any subsequent attempt to enforce them – are nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed.”
Nine of the committee’s 21 Democrats joined Republicans in support of the charges against Bill Clinton as they argued for full transparency in the Epstein investigation. Three Democrats also supported the charges against Hillary Clinton.
Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein has re-emerged as a focal point for Republicans amid the push for a reckoning over Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail cell as he faced sex-trafficking charges.
Clinton, like a bevy of other high-powered men, including Trump, had a well-documented social relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.
On Friday, more than 3m files related to Jeffrey Epstein were released by the Department of Justice, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The files included a series of emails between the billionaire Elon Musk and Epstein, indicating a friendlier relationship than was previously known.
Following the drop of the latest batch of files, Democrats have promised to fight what they are calling a “full-blown cover-up” of the Epstein files after the Trump administration on Sunday effectively declared its investigation into the disgraced late financier and sex trafficker was closed.
Many senior Democrats, as well as the Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, say that millions more pages of information are being withheld by the justice department.
After Bill and Hillary Clinton were subpoenaed in August by the House oversight committee, their attorney had tried to argue against the validity of the subpoena. However, as Comer threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings, they started negotiating towards a compromise.
Still, the Clintons remained highly critical of Comer’s decision, saying that he was bringing politics into the investigation while failing to hold the Trump administration accountable for delays in producing the Department of Justice’s case files on Epstein.
The Associated Press contributed reporting"
Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein investigation | Jeffrey Epstein | The Guardian
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)