Epstein | Pakistan

Peter Mandelson, Britain’s ambassador to the United States, was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday after a trove of emails revealed the depth of his ties with the late convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Known for his behind-the-scenes manoeuvring during a career lasting over three decades, Mandelson was forced from Britain’s most desirable diplomatic post after some of his letters and emails to Epstein were revealed this week. Starmer, struggling in opinion polls after numerous setbacks, had strongly backed his ambassador on Wednesday as a state visit by US President Donald Trump, with whom Mandelson had developed strong ties, looms next week. Trump has also faced questions about his links with Epstein, with the White House denying that an alleged birthday letter from him to the late financier is authentic. Mandelson called Epstein ‘my best pal’ Mandelson, who was key to the Labour Party’s success when Tony Blair was prime minister, had come under scrutiny after US lawmakers released do...

A Republican-led US House of Representatives committee on Tuesday said it released more than 33,000 pages of files on the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as party leadership looked to end a push by a bipartisan pair of lawmakers to force a vote on the matter. The case of Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, has caused a political headache for Republican President Donald Trump, after many of his supporters embraced a slew of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein. A July Reuters/Ipsos poll found that majorities of Americans and of Trump’s Republicans believe the government is hiding details on the case. The files released on Tuesday largely included court documents and other previously released information. “Nearly everything Republicans just supposedly ‘released’ … has already been released,” said Democratic US Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts in a post on X. Republican US Representative Thomas Massie and Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, ...

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, told a top Justice Department official in July that she was not aware of any “client list” belonging to the late financier and never saw United States President Donald Trump behave inappropriately, according to a transcript of an interview released on Friday. “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript of her two-day interview last month with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “The president was never inappropriate with anybody.” During the interview, the imprisoned 63-year-old former British socialite also said she did not witness any sexual abuse by Epstein, her longtime boyfriend, and did not implicate any other prominent individuals in wrongdoing. “He kept a lot to himself and he didn’t like to share,” Maxwell said of Epstein. “He was not a sharer. Well, at least not with me.” The Justice Department’s release of t...

United States President Donald Trump’s administration, seeking to ease an uproar plaguing his presidency, urged two judges to release testimony to a grand jury that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges. In late-night court filings on Tuesday, US federal prosecutors said unsealing the materials would be appropriate given the “abundant public interest” in the case of Epstein, the late financier, and Maxwell, an imprisoned British socialite. The Republican Trump had promised to make public Epstein-related files if reelected and accused Democrats of covering up the truth. But this month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said a previously touted Epstein client list did not in fact exist, angering Trump’s supporters. DOJ first sought court permission on July 18 to make public transcripts of the confidential testimony given by witnesses years ago in the two cases, but Manhattan-based US District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer asked the government to flesh out the legal ...

United States President Donald Trump’s superpowers as a public figure have long included the ability to redirect, evade and deny. But the Republican’s well-worn methods of changing the subject when a tough topic stings politically are not working as his White House fends off persistent unrest from his usually loyal base about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. Trump has scolded reporters, claimed ignorance and offered distractions in an effort to quash questions about Epstein and the suspicions still swirling around the disgraced financier’s case years after his 2019 death in prison. The demand for answers has only grown. “For a president and an administration that’s very good at controlling a narrative, this is one that’s been harder,” said Republican strategist Erin Maguire, a former Trump campaign spokeswoman. Unlike political crises that dogged Trump’s first term, including two impeachments and a probe into alleged campaign collusion with Russia, the people propelling the push for ...

United States President Donald Trump sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion on Friday over the publication of a bombshell article on his friendship with the infamous alleged sex trafficker of underage girls, Jeffrey Epstein. The defamation lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, saw the 79-year-old Republican hitting back at a scandal threatening to cause serious political damage. “We have just filed a powerhouse lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, fake news ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is The Wall Street Journal,” Trump posted on Truth Social late on Friday. The Journal reported on Thursday that in 2003, the then-real estate magnate wrote a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret”. The lawsuit, which also names two reporters, the Dow Jones corporation and Murdoch’s parent company News Corp as defendants, claims that no such letter exists and tha...

US President Donald Trump threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal on Thursday over a story about an alleged off-colour letter he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, amid lingering political fallout over his administration’s handling of the late financier’s sex trafficking case. The Journal story says the letter featuring a sketch of a naked woman and Trump’s signature was part of a collection of notes for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. The newspaper says it reviewed the letter but did not print an image. Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker “was told directly by (White House press secretary) Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. “Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway,” he said. “President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. (Rupert) Murdoch, shortly. The press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist.” The Republic...

For years, United States President Donald Trump and his Republican allies benefited from conspiracy theories that fuelled the conservative MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement and targeted his political enemies. Now the persisting furore over files related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has forced Trump into an unfamiliar role: trying to shut a conspiracy theory down. Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, was facing federal charges of sex trafficking minors when he died by suicide in jail in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed after his death. The saga burst back into the news last week after the Trump administration reversed course on its pledge to release documents it had suggested would reveal major revelations about Epstein and his alleged clientele. That reversal has enraged some of Trump’s most loyal followers. To contain the fallout, Trump and White House officials are weighing a range of options, including unsealing new documents, appointing a ...

United States President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) base is up in arms after his administration effectively shut down conspiracy theories related to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that had become an obsession for the US president’s diehard supporters. Trump’s Justice Department and the FBI said in a memo made public on Sunday that there was no evidence that the disgraced financier kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful figures. They also dismissed the claim that Epstein was murdered in jail, confirming his death by suicide, and said they would not be releasing any more information on the probe. It marked the first time Trump’s officials had publicly scotched the stories, pushed by numerous right-wing figures, notably including the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) top two officials, before Trump hired them. The backlash was swift and brutal from his “Make America Great Again” movement — who have long held as an article of faith that “Deep State” elites were protecti...