Live updates: Trump team looking to Joe Rogan for help amid lingering Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell fallout, report says – UK Times

A dinner for senior officials at Vice President JD Vance’s residence, intended to discuss topics including the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, has been canceled after news of it leaked, a source familiar with the matter said.

“There was never a supposed meeting scheduled at the Vice President’s residence to discuss Epstein strategy,” said Vance’s spokesman William Martin.

In addition to Vance, the meeting was scheduled to include White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had recently met with Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Trump administration has struggled for weeks to manage the political fallout from the Epstein investigation, amid public pressure for more transparency regarding its handling of files related to the convicted sex offender’s case.

President Donald Trump had promised to release files related to the disgraced financier’s case if reelected. However, in July, the Justice Department stated that a previously announced Epstein client list did not exist, angering Trump’s supporters, who have called for additional details to be made public.

With reporting from Reuters

Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer from a Florida federal prison to a Texas prison camp, known for its relatively relaxed environment, reeks of “special preference,” experts say.

The disgraced British socialite, 63, who is serving 20 years for her part in a scheme to abuse and exploit girls with Jeffrey Epstein, met with the Justice Department last month as the Trump administration tries to tamp down speculation that it is withholding information on the late sex offender’s case.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking underage girls to her late accomplice, Epstein.

She was recently transferred to a low-security prison camp after the meeting with Blanche.

Madeline Sherratt takes a look at recent remarks that suggest he may well be…

While anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project has been circulating a video designed to stir things up:

In his letter to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nominee, committee chair James Comer wrote: “Your family appears to have had a close relationship with both Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.”

Joe Sommerlad looks at how they are connected.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard refused to rule out whether late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein served as an “intelligence asset,” during an awkward interview.

“Lastly, Epstein. Do you think there is any evidence that he could be, could’ve been, an intelligence asset, either for us or for foreign agencies?” Devine asked toward the end of the interview.

“Uh, I can tell you I haven’t seen anything, um, that’s come across my desk that reflects that,“ Gabbard responded.

The DNI continued: “Um, if that were to change and there was some credible information or intelligence, um, that that did come to light, um, you know, the president has made clear if there’s anything that’s credible out there ‘put it out there for the American people to see,’ and I would do exactly that.”

Gabbard then suggested that the “mainstream media” was trying to distract from President Donald Trump’s successes by dredging up the Epstein scandal.

There have long been reports and rumors suggesting that Epstein might have had links to the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.

The story was recently rejected by the former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, but is promoted by some conservative commentators, including former Fox News star Tucker Carlson.

A former victim of Epstein’s claimed he boasted about being a Mossad agent, though no evidence has ever confirmed this.

Here’s Mike Bedigan with more:

Bill and Hillary Clinton are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee in October as the panel investigates the cases involving pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and his convicted sex trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the committee, tweeted a list of testimony dates on Tuesday for upcoming witnesses — including the former president and secretary of state — who are compelled by subpoena to appear.

Several other top federal officials, including former Attorney General Merrick Garland, are also scheduled to testify.

Tonight’s Epstein strategy meeting hosted by Vice President JD Vance comes as the Trump administration considers releasing the contents of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview last month with Ghislaine Maxwell.

Two officials told CNN that the materials from the meeting with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice could be made public as early as this week.

There have also been internal discussions about Blanche holding a press conference or doing a high-profile interview, and one name that emerged as a possibility was podcaster Joe Rogan, three people familiar with the discussions told CNN. Those conversations are only preliminary at this stage, the network notes.

Rogan, who endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case and previously called their refusal to release more information about Epstein a “line in the sand.”

The podcaster criticized the administration’s handling of information regarding Epstein during a July 25 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring guest Mike Baker, a former CIA covert operations officer.

“This one’s a line in the sand, because this is one where there’s a lot of stuff about, you know, when we thought Trump was going to come in and a lot of things are going to be resolved, going to drain the swamp, going to figure everything out, and when you have this one hardcore line in the sand that everybody had been talking about forever, and then they’re trying to gaslight you on that,” said Rogan.

Trump supporters grew furious earlier this month when the administration released a memo rejecting conspiracy theories regarding the official ruling on Epstein’s death as being by suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019. The memo stated that there was no “client list” and that no more information about the case would be released.

The Epstein files have been the subject of a litany of conspiracy theories, mostly stemming from the right.

Here’s what the Epstein schism could mean for the MAGA base:

The disgraced British socialite and former girlfriend of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was quietly transferred this week from a stricter low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to a prison camp 100 miles outside Houston, Texas.

Maxwell’s new prison mainly houses inmates convicted of “white-collar” crimes and minor offenses, and they are said to be angry about her presence.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein who after his death was convicted of sex trafficking girls and young women as his accomplice, is opposing the government’s requests to unseal the grand jury transcripts in her criminal case.