Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell urges supreme court to overturn her conviction – live | US politics

• In a rare break with Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump told Israel to allow “every ounce of food” into Gaza as he acknowledged for the first time that there is “real starvation” in the devastated Palestinian territory. During a visit to Scotland, the US president contradicted the Israeli prime minister, who claimed it was a “bold-faced lie” to say Israel was causing starvation in Gaza. Trump is under growing pressure to intervene in the humanitarian crisis, with dozens of Palestinian people having died of hunger in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by the UN and other humanitarian organisations to Israel’s blockade of almost all aid into the territory. The US president told reporters that Israel bore “a lot of responsibility” for the crisis”. Here is our report.

• Trump also criticised Hamas for not releasing the remaining hostages and said they were “very difficult to deal with”, while suggesting he had asked the Israeli government to change its approach. “I told Israel, I told Bibi, that you have to now maybe do it a different way,” he said.

• Trump also announced that he would cut his deadline for Vladimir Putin to move on Ukraine from 50 days to “10 or 12” saying: “There’s no reason in waiting. It’s 50 days. I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.” His final decision on the exact deadline is expected to be made “tonight or tomorrow,” the US president said. Trump went further, adding that he was “not so interested” in talking to the Russian president any more, after being disappointed by the outcome of their previous talks. Our report is here.

• Away from foreign affairs, Trump couldn’t escape questions about Jeffrey Epstein, even from across the pond. Asked about his denials that his name appears in the Epstein files and whether the attorney general would have to tell him if it did, Trump claimed (unbelievably) that he hadn’t been “overly interested” in the whole affair and, as usual, blamed the Democrats.

• Asked if he would consider giving Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and Epstein’s close confidante, a pardon, Trump said: “Nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”

• He also told reporters that he “never had the privilege” of visiting Epstein’s island, saying he turned down an invitation from the convicted sex offender in what the president called a moment of good judgment. “I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down,” Trump told reporters in Scotland. “In one of my very good moments, I turned it down.”

• He also revealed the reason for his falling out with Epstein, telling reporters in Scotland: “For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. He did something that was inappropriate. He hired help and I said ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me and I said ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ And he did it again and I threw him out of the place … and that was it. I’m glad I did.”

• Trump also today asked a US court to order a swift deposition for billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the president’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its 17 July article asserting that Trump’s name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Epstein. Trump’s lawsuit called the alleged birthday greeting “fake” and said the Journal published its article to harm the president’s reputation. In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers said Trump told Murdoch before the WSJ’s article was published that the birthday letter to Epstein referenced in the story was fake, and Murdoch told Trump he would “take care of it”. “Murdoch’s direct involvement further underscores Defendants’ actual malice,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, referring to the legal standard Trump must clear to prevail in his lawsuit. His lawyers asked US district judge Darrin Gayles in Miami to compel Murdoch, 94, to testify within 15 days. Gayles ordered Murdoch to respond by 4 August.

• Ghislaine Maxwell urged the supreme court to take up her pending appeal and overturn her conviction, claiming that she was covered by an agreement Epstein made with federal authorities that shielded her from prosecution. “This case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did,” Maxwell’s attorneys told the justices in a new brief. Maxwell has serving a 20-year in federal prison since 2022 for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse teenage girls. She has recently had meetings with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche for interviews amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration’s mishandling of the Epstein case. Those talks were not mentioned in the latest supreme court filing.

• Speaking of those meetings, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, Dick Durbin, and senator Sheldon Whitehouse today called for the release of the transcripts and recordings of the Department of Justice’s meetings last week with Maxwell.

• And in another headache for the Department of Justice, it is facing a federal lawsuit for refusing to release a legal memorandum that reportedly cleared the way for Trump’s acceptance of a $400m luxury jet from Qatar’s government. The Freedom of the Press Foundation, represented by the watchdog group American Oversight, filed the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) lawsuit in Washington DC’s federal district court after the justice department failed to produce the document despite granting expedited processing more than two months ago. The president’s “deal to take a $400m luxury jet from a foreign government deserves full public scrutiny – not a stiff-arm from the Department of Justice”, American Oversight’s executive director, Chioma Chukwu, said in a press release. “This is precisely the kind of corrupt arrangement that public records laws are designed to expose.” Here’s our story.

• Elsewhere, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and ordered that it keep getting Medicaid funds. The judge ruled that Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

Earlier today, Donald Trump asked a US court to order a swift deposition for billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the president’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its 17 July article asserting that Trump’s name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump promptly sued the Journal, its owners, including Murdoch, and the reporters who wrote the story, on 18 July over the story, which said Trump’s letter included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.

Trump’s lawsuit called the alleged birthday greeting “fake” and said the Journal published its article to harm the president’s reputation. In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s lawyers said Trump told Murdoch before the article was published that the letter referenced in the story was fake, and Murdoch told Trump he would “take care of it”.

“Murdoch’s direct involvement further underscores Defendants’ actual malice,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, referring to the legal standard Trump must clear to prevail in his lawsuit.

His lawyers asked US district judge Darrin Gayles in Miami to compel Murdoch, 94, to testify within 15 days. Gayles ordered Murdoch to respond by 4 August.

Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, declined to comment. Dow Jones has said the Journal stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend against the lawsuit. Neither Dow Jones owner News Corp nor a spokesperson for Murdoch immediately responded to requests for comment.

The article was published amid growing criticism from Trump’s conservative supporters and congressional Democrats over the administration’s decision not to release additional documents from the justice department’s investigation into Epstein.

Trump and Epstein were friends for years before what Trump has called a falling out.

Legal experts say the president faces a high bar in proving the Journal defamed him, let alone collecting the $10bn in damages he is seeking. The “actual malice” standard means Trump must prove not only that the article was false, but also that the Journal knew or should have known it was false.

Donald Trump has said he “never had the privilege” of visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s island, saying he turned down an invitation from the convicted sex offender in what the president called a moment of good judgment.

Trump’s remarks were his latest effort to distance himself from the political furore over his administration’s mishandling of files related to Epstein’s case and renewed questions over his past relationship with the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.

“I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down,” Trump told reporters in Scotland. “In one of my very good moments, I turned it down.”

Epstein owned a private island in the US Virgin Islands where he entertained prominent people from politics, business and entertainment. Prosecutors have alleged he used the compound to conceal the sex trafficking and abuse of underage victims.

Trump, who socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, also offered new insight into why their relationship ended. The president said he cut ties after Epstein attempted to recruit staff who worked for Trump.

“He hired help. And I said: ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that work for me,” Trump said. “He did it again. And I threw him out of the place persona non grata.”

Last week, White House communications director Steven Cheung said Trump had cut ties with Epstein because he regarded him as a “creep”.

The White House has been under growing pressure from Trump’s supporters and political opponents to release more information about the justice department’s investigation into Epstein.

After attorney general Pam Bondi earlier this year promised to release additional materials related to possible Epstein clients and the circumstances surrounding his death, the justice department reversed course this month and issued a memo concluding there was no basis to continue investigating and no evidence of a client list.

Those findings sparked an angry outcry from some of Trump’s supporters who have long believed the government was covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful – theories which Trump and his allies have long fuelled.

Trump’s efforts to deflect attention from the case have so far faltered. On Monday, the president again called the story “a hoax”.

“It’s a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion,” Trump claimed once again.

Trump flew with Epstein aboard his plane at least six times, according to logs for flights spanning from 1991 through 2005. None of those trips were to Epstein’s private island.

Trump has denied ever being on the plane and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, Dick Durbin, and senator Sheldon Whitehouse have called for the release of the transcripts and recordings of the Department of Justice’s meetings last week with Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Trump administration is trying to look like it’s doing something amid unrelenting bipartisan uproar over its mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, while Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking and other crimes, is seeking to have her conviction overturned.

In a letter to deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who met with Maxwell on 24 and 25 July, the senators said:

It seems likely this meeting is another tactic to distract from DOJ’s failure to fulfill Attorney General [Pam] Bondi’s commitment that the American people would see ‘the full Epstein files,’ especially in light of credible reports that FBI officials were told to ‘flag’ any Epstein files in which President Trump was mentioned and that Attorney General Bondi told the President that his name appeared in the files …

Given her documented record of lying and her desire to secure early release, there are serious concerns that Ms. Maxwell may provide false information or selectively withhold information, in return for a pardon or sentence commutation; indeed, President Trump noted to reporters on Friday that he is ‘allowed to’ pardon Ms. Maxwell, and Ms. Maxwell’s defense attorney said, ‘We hope he exercises that power.’ Your false claim that the meeting is the ‘first time’ DOJ has reached out to Ms. Maxwell also raises questions about the Trump Administration’s motives.

The Senators further pushed for the justice department to provide full transparency to Epstein and Maxwell’s victims and survivors with respect to any decisions it makes regarding Maxwell’s appeal to the supreme court; and demanded that the justice department would not offer a pardon or commutation of sentence to her in exchange for information or advocate for a pardon or commutation of sentence on her behalf to the White House in exchange for her cooperation.

The letter goes on:

Rather than engaging in this elaborate ruse, DOJ should simply release the Epstein files, as Attorney General Bondi promised to do.

On Monday afternoon, about 100 protesters gathered in Balmedie, the closest village to Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course, waving Palestinian flags and chanting:

You are not welcome here.

Kay Collin, a retired modern studies teacher, said she had made the trip from Edinburgh because “watching what is happening in Gaza, if it was happening to my grandchildren I would hope other people would stand up for them”.

While many people cited the starvation crisis in Gaza as the most urgent reason for their protest, Trump’s policies on immigration, transgender rights and cuts to international aid, and there were placards and chants accusing him of misogyny and bullying behaviour.

Jenna Harpin, a mother of four from Portsoy, said she was “disgusted” at how much money was being spent by the Scottish and UK governments on hosting Trump’s visit, especially as a time when local councils were making cuts to vital services.

The protesters marched through the village as the police presence swelled in anticipation of Trump’s arrival. Local access had been significantly restricted with lines of police officers blocking off the beach and snipers spotted on the dunes.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and close confidante of Jeffrey Epstein, has urged the supreme court to take up her pending appeal and overturn her conviction, claiming that she was covered by an agreement Epstein made with federal authorities that shielded her from prosecution, Axios is reporting.

“This case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did,” Maxwell’s attorneys told the justices in a new brief.

Maxwell has serving a 20-year in federal prison since 2022 for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse teenage girls.

She has recently had meetings with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche for interviews amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration’s mishandling of the Epstein case.

Those talks were not mentioned in the latest supreme court filing.

“President Trump built his legacy in part on the power of a deal – and surely he would agree that when the United States gives its word, it must stand by it,” Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a statement. “We are appealing not only to the supreme court but to the president himself to recognize how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted.”

Asked earlier today if he would consider giving Maxwell a pardon, Donald Trump said:

Nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.

He has previously not ruled it out, asserting that he has the power and authority to issue one.

Donald Trump told Israel to allow “every ounce of food” into Gaza as he acknowledged for the first time that there is “real starvation” in the region.

During a visit to Scotland, the US president contradicted Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli prime minister claimed it was a “bold-faced lie” to say Israel was causing hunger in Gaza.

Trump is under growing pressure to intervene in the humanitarian crisis, with dozens of Palestinian people having died of hunger in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by the UN and other humanitarian organisations to Israel’s blockade of almost all aid into the territory.

Starmer privately pressed Trump on Gaza during the trip, government sources said.

The US president told reporters that Israel bore “a lot of responsibility” for the crisis in a rebuke to Netanyahu, who claimed earlier on Monday that there was “no starvation in Gaza”.

Asked whether he agreed with this assessment, Trump said:

I don’t know. Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.

He later added:

We can save a lot of people, I mean some of those kids, that’s real starvation, I see it and you can’t fake that. So we’re going to be even more involved.

Asked what he would ask Netanyahu for next time they spoke, Trump said:

We’re giving money and we’re giving food, but we’re over here … I want him to make sure they get the food. I want to make sure they get the food, every ounce of food.

Trump criticised Hamas for not releasing the remaining hostages and said they were “very difficult to deal with”, while suggesting he had asked the Israeli government to change its approach. “I told Israel, I told Bibi, that you have to now maybe do it a different way,” he said.

Israel announced over the weekend that it would suspend fighting in three areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day and open secure routes for aid delivery, while the UK confirmed it was working with Jordan to carry out airdrops into the territory.

Starmer is due to convene an emergency cabinet meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza this week. Ministers will be presented with a peace plan which the UK is working up alongside France and Germany.

The prime minister is under pressure from senior cabinet ministers and more than 220 MPs to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, after Emmanuel Macron announced that France would do so at the UN general assembly in September. Trump dismissed the idea on Monday but suggested he had no objection to the UK or other allies doing so.

Trump also said the US and its allies would set up “walk-in” food centres without barriers in the region, though he gave little detail about how these would operate.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) lawsuit against the Department of Justice failing to release a legal memorandum that reportedly justified the Trump administration’s acceptance of a $400m jet gifted by the Qatar government.

CBS News reported today that preparations were under way to refit the jet to be used as Air Force One, with floor plans or schematics having been seen by senior US officials. The renovation is set to cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

The Trump administration’s decision to accept the jet as a gift from the Qatari royal family has been heavily criticised, and raises serious legal, ethical and constitutional concerns.

The May 2025 memorandum, reportedly signed by attorney general Pam Bondi, who previously lobbied on behalf of the Qatari government, purportedly concluded that the Trump administration’s acceptance of the jet was legally permissible. The administration accepted the jet just days later.

The circumstances surrounding the jet deal, including reports that the transaction may have been initiated by the Trump administration and that it followed a lucrative Trump private business arrangement in Qatar, have only heightened calls for transparency.

“President Trump’s deal to take a $400m luxury jet from a foreign government deserves full public scrutiny – not a stiff-arm from the Department of Justice,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, which is representing FPF in its litigation.

This is precisely the kind of corrupt arrangement that public records laws are designed to expose. The DoJ cannot sit on its hands and expect the American people to wait years for the truth while serious questions about corruption, self-dealing, and foreign influence go unanswered.

JD Vance is in his home state today to continue promoting the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-border bill. He’s in Canton, Ohio, to talk about the bill’s “benefits for hard-working American families and businesses”, according to his office. The visit marks Vance’s second trip this month to sell Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill as he becomes its chief promoter on the road.

In West Pittston, Pennsylvania, this month, Vance told attendees at an industrial machine shop that they should be able to keep more of their pay in their pockets. The White House sees the new law as a clear political boon, sending Vance to promote it in swing congressional districts.

Talks between Canada and the US on a trade deal are at an intense phase, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney told reporters on Monday, reiterating that an agreement without any tariffs at all was unlikely.

The two sides are working towards an agreement by 1 August, the date Trump is threatening to impose a 35% tariff on some Canadian imports.

“The negotiations are at an intense phase. It’s a complex negotiation … we will only sign a deal that’s the right deal,” Carney said. “There is a landing zone that’s possible, but we have to get there, and we’ll see what happens,” he told a televised press conference in the Atlantic province of Prince Edward Island.

The US struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods.

“It’s improbable that there will be deals without any tariffs at all,” he said when asked whether Canada would escape being hit. “But there is a question about the level, there are questions about the size of tariffs.”

Dominique Lee, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said in a statement:

“We’re encouraged by today’s ruling, which protects access to care for Medicaid patients in Massachusetts while this case moves forward. At a time when reproductive health care access is under constant attack, this decision is a powerful reminder that patients, not politics, should guide health care. In Massachusetts and beyond, we will keep fighting to ensure everyone can turn to the provider they trust, no matter their insurance or ZIP code.”

Shireen Ghorbani, interim president of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, also released a statement:

“We are grateful that now all Planned Parenthood patients with Medicaid can come to their local health centers for the high-quality, essential care they need. Generations have relied on Planned Parenthood as experts in sexual and reproductive health care and as a welcoming and trusted provider in their communities. We will continue this fight in the courts to protect our patients’ freedom to get the care they need.”

The judge’s ruling on Planned Parenthood replaces a previous edict handed down by US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.

“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in the order today. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”

A judge has blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and orders that it keep getting Medicaid funds.

A federal judge ruled today that Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

Planned Parenthood had sued the Trump administration earlier this month over the provision in Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill that would strip funding from health centers operated by the reproductive healthcare and abortion provider.

“The true design of the Defund Provision is simply to express disapproval of, attack, and punish Planned Parenthood, which plays a particularly prominent role in the public debate over abortion,” Planned Parenthood said in its lawsuit.

Donald Trump has asked a US judge to order a swift deposition for billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the president’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its 17 July article about Trump’s relationship with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reports Reuters.

US immigration officers made false and misleading statements in their reports about several Los Angeles protesters they arrested during the massive demonstrations that rocked the city in June, according to federal law enforcement files obtained by the Guardian.

The officers’ testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice amid the unrest. The justice department has charged at least 26 people with “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers’ inaccurate reports, court records show.

The justice department has also dismissed at least three felony assault cases it brought against Angelenos accused of interfering with arrests during recent immigration raids, the documents show.

The rapid felony dismissals are a major embarrassment for the Trump-appointed US attorney for southern California, Bill Essayli, and appeared to be the result of an unusual series of missteps by the justice department, former federal prosecutors said.

The Guardian’s review of records found:

• Out of nine “assault” and “impeding” felony cases the justice department filed immediately after the start of the protests and promoted by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecutors dismissed seven of them soon after filing the charges.

• In reports that led to the detention and prosecution of at least five demonstrators, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents made false statements about the sequence of events and misrepresented incidents captured on video.

• One DHS agent accused a protester of shoving an officer, when footage appeared to show the opposite: the officer forcefully pushed the protester.

• One indictment named the wrong defendant, a stunning error that has jeopardized one of the government’s most high-profile cases.

Asked about his denials that his name appears in the Epstein files and whether the attorney general would have to tell him if it did, Donald Trump said he hadn’t been “overly interested” in the whole affair and, as usual, blamed the Democrats.

I haven’t been overly interested.

You know, it’s a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion. I can say this. Those files were run by the worst scum on earth … The whole thing is a hoax. They ran the files.

He suggested that his enemies could have put material in the files that was fake, and added that if the Democrats had had damaging material to use against him, they would have used it before the election.

Referring to the Wall Street Journal’s report that he drew a picture of a nude woman as part of a lewd birthday letter for Jeffrey Epstein when they were close friends, Trump said:

I don’t do drawings. I’m not a drawing person. I don’t do drawings. Sometimes you would say, would you draw a building? And I’ll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff. But I’m not a drawing person. I don’t do drawings of women, that I can tell you.

He also claimed his poll ratings had increased by 4.5 points since this “ridiculous Epstein stuff” has been in the news “because people don’t buy it”. (He is of course ignoring the fact that much of the criticism and pressure has come from his own furious support base and even the likes of House speaker Mike Johnson have called for the release of the files).

Asked if he would consider giving Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon, Donald Trump said:

Nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.

Asked what the “various plans” are that he earlier referred to for securing the remaining hostages, which he said he had been discussing with Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump said “there are a couple of alternatives, some of them are very strong”.

“The most sensible alternative is talking and negotiation,” he said.

He then added that talking would be more difficult now as there weren’t as many hostages left because Hamas had been using them as a shield.

I said … the number’s going to be at a point where you’re not going to be able to get them back, unless you’re going to be very energetic, or to put it a different way, unless you’re going to be very ruthless, violent.