Critics Say Trump's Distracting From Epstein Scandal: Here's How
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said 'it's time' for the Justice Department 'to go after people' and accused former President Barack Obama of treason, among a series of moves widely viewed as efforts to distract from the Epstein backlash.
President Donald Trump calls on a reporter during a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand ... More Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office at the White House on July 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by) Getty Images
Key Facts
Trump said 'I don't follow it too much' when asked Tuesday about the Epstein backlash, and claimed he 'didn't know' about the Justice Department's announcement earlier in the day that it would seek an interview with Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump said the public should instead focus on findings from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released Friday claiming Democrats includingObama staged a 'yearslong coup' to manufacture Russian interference in the 2016 election she claims didn't exist, contradicting bipartisan findings.
Among other apparent Epstein deflection efforts: On Monday, the Justice Department released files related to its probe into the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and said it had amended findings in its probe of Hillary Clinton's private email server.
Trump on Sunday went on a Truth Social posting spree that did not mention the Epstein documents controversy, but touched on several issues that appeal to his base, including artificial intelligence images and videos of Obama being arrested and a threat to block construction of the Washington Commanders football stadium in Washington, D.C., if the team doesn't change its name back to the Redskins.
The Justice Department has announced a series of moves in recent days stopping short of Trump supporters' demands to release the Epstein documents: Earlier Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced his office was seeking an interview with Maxwell, and the GOP-led House Oversight Committee also voted to advance a subpoena to depose Maxwell.
Last week, Trump instructed the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony in its Epstein probe as he sought to quell the backlash to the agency's decision announced earlier this month not to release any additional documents on its Epstein investigation.
Chief Critics
King's daughter, Bernice King, called out Trump for releasing files related to his administration's investigation into her father's death in a tweet that said 'Now, do the Epstein files.' Some Republicans in Congress have also accused Trump of a diversion attempt. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Monday, without mentioning Trump, warned 'the base will turn and there's no going back' in a tweet that also said 'dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else.' Greene, along with several other Republican co-sponsors, is also charging ahead with an effort to compel Congress to vote on whether to release the Epstein files, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to call an early recess to avoid voting on the motion. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., accused Republican House leadership of 'stalling' on the bill, tweeting 'the American people deserve action, not excuses.'
Key Background
Trump's personal life has been the latest casualty of the fallout surrounding his administration's handling of the Epstein files, with a series of new reports about his ties to the convicted sex offender. The Wall Street Journal last week revealed Trump allegedly sent Epstein a sexually suggestive birthday card in 2003 that referenced a 'wonderful secret,' prompting Trump to sue the paper and deny he wrote the letter. The New York Times unearthed new details about accusations Epstein accuser Maria Farmer made against Trump to the FBI, alleging she had a disturbing encounter with Trump in Epstein's Manhattan office in 1995.
Further Reading
Here's Every Known Link Between Trump And Epstein: From 'Little Black Book' To Plane Rides (Forbes)
Marjorie Taylor Greene Issues Warning To Trump Over Epstein — Here's What Other Republicans Are Saying (Forbes)
Republicans Take Steps To Depose Ghislaine Maxwell (Forbes)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler will run for reelection, not for New York governor
NEW YORK — Republican Rep. Mike Lawler Wednesday announced he'll skip the New York governor's race and will instead run for reelection in his Westchester County-based swing congressional district. 'After months of deliberating over this and really working through it, I've decided the right thing to do for me and my family and my district is to run for reelection,' Lawler said. The two-term moderate Republican said he wants to help the GOP by running to hold onto the suburban swing district, which is considered one of the most competitive battlegrounds in the entire nation. 'I'm proud to run for reelection on my record and win next November and keep the House Republican majority,' Lawler added. Democrats mocked Lawler for chickening out of the governor's race, with Hochul tweeting that he 'doesn't have the spine to face me.' A crowded field of Democrats has already lined up for the chance to take on Lawler, whose NY-17 district is one of just three in the nation that elected a Republican to the House but backed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. The challengers include Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson and Army veteran Cait Conley. Lawler was a key vote to pass Trump's unpopular Big Beautiful Bill, which included draconian cuts to health spending to fund outsized tax cuts for the rich. He claimed a side win in the bill by convincing Republicans to raise the cap on deducting SALT, or state and local taxes, to $40,000 from $10,000. Democrats say he welched on promises to eliminate it altogether. Lawler burst onto the political scene by toppling ex-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in the 2022 midterms in a race that featured a round of internal Democratic bickering following a redistricting battle that changed the district somewhat. In 2024, he easily turned aside a comeback effort from Democratic ex-Rep. Mondaire Jones, who held the seat previously. Lawler's decision is a boost to the no-holds-barred effort by President Trump and his Republican allies to hold onto their narrow House majority in the forthcoming midterm elections. The GOP holds a 219-212 edge, with four vacancies, three of which are in strongly Democratic districts. The party in power typically loses House seats in the first midterm elections after a president takes office, which would suggest a grim prognosis for the GOP, especially with Trump's approval ratings dipping into the low 40% range. But Trump is pushing Republicans to unilaterally redraw congressional district lines in states they control, most notably Texas and Ohio, which could yield close to 10 additional Republican seats. Democrats might counter by doing the same in blue states, potentially even New York, although the process looks legally trickier for them. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, could now be a frontrunner for the GOP gubernatorial primary race. Republicans will also be keen to defend her far upstate district, but it should be an easier lift as it voted for Trump by a margin of about 20 points in 2024.
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump releases AI 'action plan' that offers a split with Biden
President Trump released an AI "action plan" on Wednesday that outlines the administration's vision for achieving global dominance in artificial intelligence. The report marks a split from Biden administration policies, which favored restrictions against exports of AI chips and steps to ensure AI was not used to spread misinformation. However, the new rules do come with limitations for AI developers that build "ideological biases" into their systems, which have yet to be defined by the administration. 'There is a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence, and we want the United States to win that race," said David Sacks, chair of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, during a briefing on the report. Sacks said the report builds on President Trump's executive order on AI issued during the first week of his second term in office by taking away "unnecessary barriers" to AI adoption put in place by the Biden administration. Keys to the action plan include removing federal regulations that the administration believes hinders AI, promoting the build out of AI data centers, and exporting American-made AI around the world. More details of the plan are expected to come in an executive order or orders issued by the president on Wednesday afternoon. And Trump is also expected to discuss the plan during a speech at a Wednesday event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast. Those executive orders, according to Axios and the Wall Street Journal, would promote the exports of chips and AI technology to countries considered friendly to the US. There may also be an order that targets "woke AI," according to The Wall Street Journal. It would target AI developers that the administration believes create liberally biased algorithms and block them from serving as federal contractors. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment. Asked who decides if an AI system is biased, a senior White House official said during a briefing that "what we're recommending here is that federal procurement guidelines be updated to ensure that government only, the federal government only contracts with LLM developers who ensure that their systems are objective and and free from top-down ideological bias. And you know, DEI is really the main one." Two constitutional law scholars who talked with Yahoo Finance said it is doubtful the "woke AI" measure will withstand legal scrutiny. "If you sanction software that is liberal, but not software that is conservative, the challenge will be that the executive order is content-based discrimination," said UC San Francisco School of Law professor Rory Little. "I don't even know how you tell if software is liberal or conservative," Little said, adding that the First Amendment protects intellectual property as forms of speech that the government may not single out for punishment. But the order's constitutional viability may not matter in the short term for companies like Amazon (AMZN), Anthropic ( Google (GOOG), OpenAI ( Microsoft (MSFT), and Perplexity ( all of which are vying to supply AI systems to the government. Even if the order is met with legal challenges, AI developers might not have time to wait out a court solution. "A lot of people are trying to make deals with the Trump administration, so they view these executive orders not as law, but as the opening bid in a negotiation," Little said. "If you're an AI company, like Google, you're probably going to do your best to negotiate something that permits whatever you want to do to go forward," he added. "And you could care less what atmospheric politics might look like, so long as you're making money on your software." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday at a Federal Reserve banking conference in Washington, D.C., that his company now has lots of government work. "We are increasingly working with the government to roll out our services to lots of government employees," Altman said. If such an AI order is issued and then challenged, a court fight is likely to resemble those in multiple ongoing lawsuits against two other DEI-focused executive orders issued by Trump during his first days back in office. Those earlier orders directed all federal contractors to certify that they do not operate DEI programs in violation of anti-discrimination laws. They also shuttered government offices and employment positions focused on DEI. David Coale, a partner with the law firm Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, said the executive orders get into an area called the "unconstitutional conditions" doctrine, which prohibits the government from conditioning a grant on the exercise of constitutional rights. "This [type of] proposal goes too far," Coale said, explaining that tying the eligibility to an AI's liberal bias presents "serious First Amendment issues." Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Skydance Commits To CBS News Ombudsman, Pledges No DEI Policies As Company Seeks FCC Greenlight Of Paramount Merger
As the FCC reviews its proposed acquisition of Paramount Global, Skydance has committed to create an ombudsman position to review complaints of bias at CBS News. In a pair of filings on Wednesday, Skydance also said that it would end any diversity, equity and inclusion policies that were in place at Paramount. More from Deadline Patrick Soon-Shiong Says He Plans To Take Los Angeles Times Public; Shares Will Be Offered Through Regulation A Financing - Update Donald Trump And Paramount Close Out Lawsuit After $16M Settlement; POTUS Says They "Anticipate" $20M In PSAs From New Owners Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back At Donald Trump After POTUS Hinted ABC Late-Night Show Would Be Canceled Next: "I'm Hearing You're Next" The ombudsman role will be in place for a period of two years, and will report to the president of the new Paramount company. Skydance said that the ombudsman will 'promote transparency and accountability.' Skydance's general counsel, Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, noted that the FCC, in evaluating Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, found that an ombudsman was a 'mechanism effective in preventing editorial bias in the operation of the NBC broadcast network.' More to come. Best of Deadline 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series
