Ex-prosecutor on releasing Epstein grand jury transcripts: ‘It's not going to be much'
'It's not going to be much,' Sarah Krissoff, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, told The Associated Press in a weekend interview. She estimated the testimony could be just 60 pages 'because the Southern District of New York's practice is to put as little information as possible into the grand jury.'
'They basically spoon feed the indictment to the grand jury. That's what we're going to see,' she said. 'I just think it's not going to be that interesting. … I don't think it's going to be anything new.'
The Justice Department asked a federal court on Friday to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecutions of Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislane Maxwell, who is serving out a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of helping Epstein carry out a sex trafficking scheme.
Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges when he died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019. He had pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in state court a decade earlier as part of a plea deal broadly criticized as too lenient.
The Trump administration has faced growing pressure to release information related to the Epstein case. President Trump has publicly expressed his frustration at the attention the case has received in recent days from the media, Democrats and many in his own base.
The president on Thursday directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release 'pertinent grand jury testimony,' in an attempt to calm criticism about the administration's handling of the case. However, the testimony is only a fraction of the available material many allies want released.
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New York Times
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- New York Times
After Maxwell Interview, Concerns Mount Over Possibility of Pardon
The yellowjacket buzz of a plane circling above the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday roused the perspiring platoon of reporters staking out a meeting between a top Justice Department official and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is imprisoned on charges of sex trafficking. The plane's banner read, 'Trump and Bondi are protecting predators.' The accusation summed up concerns on the ground as Todd Blanche, Attorney General Pam Bondi's top deputy, concluded a second extraordinary day of interviews with Ms. Maxwell, who once served as a fixer for the financier Jeffrey Epstein. Her lawyer said that she spent the morning answering questions about 100 people, though it was unclear whether they included victims, associates or others implicated in her sex-trafficking case. Ms. Maxwell has made it clear she wants her 20-year sentence thrown out or reduced or a pardon. President Trump, asked whether he would consider pardoning her, said, 'I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I haven't thought about.' He made the remarks before he headed off to Scotland, wishing her well. Pressed for details of the interview with Ms. Maxwell after he landed in Scotland, he added, 'I don't know anything about the conversation.' He continued, 'Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons.' Mr. Blanche has described his trip as a neutral fact-finding mission, saying he would share details of the discussion 'at the appropriate time' — yet he has also declared that the federal criminal investigation into targets beyond Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein remains closed. By that standard, new interviews would appear to serve a function beyond the purposes of traditional law enforcement, unless new evidence of criminality has been discovered, current and former officials said. The department offered Ms. Maxwell conditional immunity to discuss the case, but the protection did not apply if she lied in her interviews, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to discuss details of the case publicly. In total, the interview lasted about eight to 10 hours. The Blanche-Maxwell discussion has stoked concerns from critics of Mr. Trump, a onetime friend of Mr. Epstein's, that he may grant Ms. Maxwell a reprieve. Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader, accused Mr. Blanche, without evidence, of offering Ms. Maxwell 'some kind of a corrupt deal so that she can exonerate Donald Trump.' Teresa Helm, who was abused by Mr. Epstein and testified against Ms. Maxwell, was blunt about the consequences of such a deal in an interview with MSNBC on Friday. 'It would mean the complete crumbling of this justice system that should first and foremost stand for, fight for and protect survivors,' she said, adding that the government had accused Ms. Maxwell of perjury on top of other charges. 'She should stay in prison,' said Lisa Lloyd, 65, the lone protester at the courthouse. 'This is wrong. Anyone who is concerned with justice should be appalled by this.' A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. Some conservative news outlets friendly to Mr. Trump have begun to soften their tone about Ms. Maxwell — whom they previously described as a child sex predator — suggesting she might now be trusted to tell the truth about the case. This week, a host on Newsmax who has praised Mr. Trump went so far as to suggest that Ms. Maxwell 'just might be a victim' who was not given a fair legal hearing. The Friday session with Ms. Maxwell began around 9 a.m. and ended in the early afternoon when one of her lawyers, David Markus, approached reporters to declare that she had honestly 'answered every single question asked of her over the last day and a half.' Mr. Markus, who has a friendly relationship with Mr. Blanche, said Justice Department officials 'asked about every possible thing imaginable.' Ms. Maxwell was pressed about 'maybe a hundred different people,' he added, without saying who. 'She didn't hold anything back.' No offers of clemency have been made, and Mr. Markus said that he was not asking for a quid pro quo for his client's answering the questions. 'We haven't spoken to the president or anybody about a pardon just yet,' Mr. Markus said. 'The president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power.' Ms. Maxwell has appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing that she should not have been charged in the sex trafficking case because of a nonprosecution agreement that federal attorneys in Florida reached in 2007. The agreement promised that potential co-conspirators would not be prosecuted, but Ms. Maxwell argues it should have also protected her from prosecution in New York. Congress has subpoenaed her to testify in August. Ms. Maxwell has not decided whether she will participate, Mr. Markus said. In a post on social media late Thursday, Mr. Blanche said that the department would 'share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.' In May, Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche, both of whom previously served as lawyers for Mr. Trump, informed Mr. Trump that his name was among those of high-profile figures that appeared in the Epstein files, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. It was part of a broader briefing on the re-examination of the Epstein case by F.B.I. agents and prosecutors. In Scotland, Mr. Trump denied those reports, saying, 'No, I was never, never briefed.' It is not clear how significant the references to Mr. Trump were. But the briefing sheds light on private West Wing discussions at a moment when the president's team is desperately trying to quell the rebellion of Trump supporters who feel that he and some of his senior appointees led them astray with campaign claims that they would make the files available. Mr. Trump's top two F.B.I. appointees were among those who were adamant before taking on their government roles that there was more to uncover in the files. And earlier this year, Ms. Bondi described the files as significant material to wade through. Mr. Trump already appeared in documents related to the investigation that have been made public. He was a friend of Mr. Epstein's until they had what Mr. Trump has described as a falling-out in the early 2000s. At the White House in February, Ms. Bondi distributed a series of binders about the Epstein files that included the phone numbers of some of the president's family members, including his daughter. 'As part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,' Ms. Bondi and Mr. Blanche wrote in a statement in response to questions about the briefing, which took place in May. 'Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.'
New York Times
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Bipartisan Pair of House Members to Meet With Sheinbaum in Mexico
A bipartisan pair of congressmen is set to travel to Mexico next week to meet with President Claudia Sheinbaum and other top government officials as President Trump stokes tension between the United States and its southern neighbor. Representatives Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, are planning one of the first formal trips by members of Congress to meet with Ms. Sheinbaum. With Mr. Trump's tariffs driving up prices and his immigration crackdown affecting the region, Mr. Khanna and Mr. Bacon said they hoped to use their visit to figure out how policymakers in Washington could pursue a more constructive approach. 'This is one of our closest allies — one of the nations that most impacts life here in terms of the economy, in terms of the culture, in terms of immigration,' Mr. Khanna said in an interview ahead of the trip. 'And Trump, I think, has really put strains on that relationship with these tariffs.' Mr. Bacon said he was hoping the trip would help him 'understand our neighbors better.' 'I know what we feel about the border,' Mr. Bacon said. 'I think it's going to be fascinating to hear the Mexican leadership perspective on trade, border, cyber, national security.' Mexico has been at the center of the president's trade war and his often whipsawing pronouncements about slapping financial penalties on nations that do not bow to his wishes. Mr. Trump has imposed a 25 percent tariff on a wide range of Mexican goods, and just last week threatened to increase the penalty to 30 percent on Aug. 1 if the country failed to stop drug cartels and the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Mr. Bacon, who represents a swing district that includes Omaha and recently announced he would not seek re-election, is among the few Republicans who has pressed for more congressional oversight of tariff decisions, including those that would apply to Mexico. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
a few seconds ago
- New York Times
The White House Will Release $5.5 Billion for Schools
The Trump administration announced today that it would release $5.5 billion in frozen education funds, after an unexpected delay sent school districts around the country scrounging for the lost dollars before the new school year begins. President Trump faced growing pressure over the delay from within his own party, including from 10 Senate Republicans who signed a public letter urging him to release the funds. The money was part of nearly $7 billion in education funding that had been approved by Congress and was set to be released on July 1. It included funds to help train and recruit teachers, particularly in low-income areas. It also included money for arts and music education in low-income districts, help for children learning English and support for children of migrant farmworkers. In other Trump administration news: The president left today for Scotland, where he will spend five days playing golf and meeting with European leaders. Trump has encouraged people to move on from the Epstein case. That could be tough, in part because of the conservative crusade against child trafficking. Israel will allow aid to parachute into Gaza The Israeli military said today that it would allow foreign nations to fly over Gaza and drop humanitarian aid into the enclave, where a growing number of residents are starving. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
