Trump live updates: Democrats reiterate calls for release of Epstein files after Trump promises ‘pertinent’ documents – UK Times

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were “best friends” who were “up to no good,” a model who dated the disgraced financier claims, as the president tries to distance himself from the Epstein case.

They were “best friends,” Stacey Williams, who dated Epstein for several months in the 90s, told CNN on Friday evening. Last October in an interview with The Guardian, Williams publicly accused Trump of groping her in Trump Tower in 1993 in front of Epstein. He has denied these allegations.

“That was his bro, that was his wingman,” she said of Trump to Epstein.

Throughout the four or five months she dated the financier, Trump’s name came up a lot, Williams recalled to CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “The only friend that he would mention every time we saw each other or had a phone conversation was Donald,” she said. “They were very close and they were up to no good.”

JD Vance took a quick day trip to Montana Tuesday afternoon to speak to right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who is the chief of both Fox News and its sister corporation News Corp., which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.

According to the Associated Press, the vice president’s secret meeting also included several executives from Fox News, the conservative cable giant that has largely carried Donald Trump’s water and helped staff up the president’s current administration.

A source familiar with the trip also confirmed to The Independent that the vice president spoke to both Murdochs and a group of executives from the right-wing network at the Murdoch family ranch near Dillon, Montana.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump posted a defense of his missile attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. His post comes after a NBC News report on Thursday citing current and former US officials who said the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities isn’t as bad as Trump and his people have suggested.

“All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED,” Trump wrote. “It would take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations, prior to those sites being obliterated, should they decide to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Republican Senator Roger Marshall spoke to Fox News Digital and accused the Democrats and the “legacy media” of not caring about Jeffrey Epstein information until it could be used to bludgeon President Donald Trump.

He then went on to suggest that, beyond the alleged hypocrisy, “there may be a lot more going on than meets the eye.”

It is this kind of conspiracy pandering by politicians that creates situations like the one Trump is in right now; the president promised to reveal information that may only exist in the imaginations of conspiracy theorists, and now he’s paying the price.

Marshall at least hedged his bets by insisting that he had no special information, but then proceeded to speculate that Trump’s inability — or refusal — to deliver on Epstein information may somehow be related to national security.

“I think something else is going on that may be affecting national security,” he told the network. “I think President Trump deserves a little bit of grace here. But hopefully, at the end of the day, everything will be released. I’m all for the transparency.”

In his latest Truth Social post, Donald Trump said he had asked the the justice department to release all grand jury testimony in Jeffrey Epstein’s case.

But he added that: “Nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request”

He wrote: “I have asked the Justice Department to release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval. With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!”

In January 2024, a court unsealed nearly 1,000 pages of documents collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre died by suicide on April 26 at her home in Neergabby, Australia.

Being named in these documents does not indicate any wrongdoing related to Epstein or anyone else. The list includes many of Epstein’s accusers and alleged victims, as well as people with only tangential connections to Epstein who were pulled into the lawsuit against Maxwell.

While judges, court staff, and legal representatives are excluded, here are some of the names that do appear in the legal records connected to Epstein:

President Donald Trump has strongly pushed back against the bombshell Wall Street Journal report that alleged he drew a “bawdy” sketch in a birthday message to celebrate convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday.

In a Truth Social tirade late Thursday, the president declared, “I don’t draw pictures.”

Unfortunately for Trump, as James Liddell reports, that’s not quite true…

The Brooklyn-born Epstein, a former high school math teacher who later founded consulting and financial management firms, cultivated a wide circle of rich and famous friends and associates.

He was known for socializing with politicians and royalty, including Trump, Democratic President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Britain’s Prince Andrew. Some friends and clients flew on his private plane and visited his private Caribbean island.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge after federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with sex trafficking of minors. He served 13 months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. That punishment is now widely considered too lenient.

In July 2019, the Justice Department charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors, including sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls, in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty.

Epstein died on August 10, 2019, at age 66 by hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell, an autopsy concluded. He was never tried on the 2019 charges.