Tag Archives: Steven Cheung

HuffPost UK: Nobel Peace Prize Chief Hits Back After White House Condemns Decision Not To Give Trump Award

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A president’s communications director said they had “placed politics over peace”.

The head of the Nobel Committee has hit back after the White House condemned its decision not to award this year’s peace prize to Donald Trump.

Jorgen Watne Frydnes was forced to respond after the president’s top spin doctor said they had “placed politics over peace”.

Trump has been openly campaigning to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming to have stopped as many as eight wars since returning to the Oval Office in January.

However, Watne Frydnes announced on Friday morning that the committee had awarded this year’s peace prize to Venezuelan democracy campaigner María Corina Machado.

In a post on X, they said Machado “has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people”.

“The Venezuelan regime’s rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world,” the committee said. “We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation.”

Their remarks have been interpreted by some as an indirect criticism of Trump, who has been criticised over his legal pursuit of his political enemies and decision to send the national guard into cities run by Democratic politicians.

Writing on X after the Nobel announcement, White House director of communications Steven Cheung hit out at the committee.

He said: “President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.

“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”

On Sky News, Watne Frydnes said: “Our response is we hope as many people around the world should support the important work of Machado.

“This is work that we believe is desrrving and we hope that both political leaders, countries and people would support the mass movement that wants democracy in Venezuela and works for a free and fair transition from a brutal dictatorship to democracy.”

Asked about Trump’s campaign to win the award, he said: “We read the news as everyone else and this year there has been quite a lot of focus on that, but I must also say that in the long history of the Nobel peace prize, we have seen all kinds of campaigns, lobbying, pressure.

“Every year we receive thousands and thousands of letters, emails, people who want to express their opinion about who should receive the prize and also what actually leads to peace, so that’s something we’re quite used to.”

Nobel Peace Prize Chief Hits Back After White House Condemns Decision Not To Give Trump Award
A president’s communications director said they had “placed politics over peace”.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nobel-peace-prize-chief-hits-back-after-white-house-condemns-decision-not-to-give-trump-award_uk_68e8f9a3e4b0a0b11bf26315

Guardian: Tulsi Gabbard did not alert White House before revoking 37 security clearances

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Exclusive: White House only realized afterwards that clearances at the CIA and in Congress had been rescinded

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, did not inform the White House that her office was revoking the security clearances of 37 people – including top deputies to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe – before it happened last month, according to three people familiar with matter.

The move caused consternation because it resulted in the White House not having an opportunity to closely vet the list before it became public and there appeared to be no paper trail from the president directing the effort, the people said.

As a result, officials only realized after the fact that Gabbard had managed to pull the security clearances of career CIA officials, at least one of whom was a top adviser to Ratcliffe and had worked on some of the US’s most sensitive military operations, the people said.

The list also included two Democratic congressional staffers – Maher Bitar, the national security adviser to senator Adam Schiff, and Thomas West, an aide on the Senate foreign relations committee – prompting fears the administration would be thrust into a messy separation-of-powers issue.

Weeks later, several of Trump’s top advisers remain deeply frustrated with Gabbard and view the episode as a blunder that comes as Trump is skeptical of the intelligence community and has suggested dismantling the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI).

It also appears to have deepened existing animosity between Gabbard, whose most important job as the director of national intelligence is delivering the president’s daily briefing and overseeing the intelligence agencies, and the CIA, whose officers actually produce the brief.

Trump advisers inside and outside of the administration have complained that Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, did not explain to them how the list was compiled and the underlying evidence to warrant pulling the security clearances, the people said.

A senior intelligence official disputed this account and said Gabbard told Trump in the Oval Office that she had compiled names of officers who had worked on the intelligence assessments on Russia’s malign influence operations during the 2016 election who should be fired.

Trump replied to Gabbard that if those people had worked on the Russia intelligence assessments and they were still employed in the federal government, they should be removed, and Gabbard was merely executing the president’s agenda, the intelligence official said.

The intelligence official also claimed the list was emailed to the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles; the White House counsel, David Warrington; communications chiefs Steven Cheung and Taylor Budowich; the national security council; and the chiefs of staff at every major intelligence agency.

“The CIA just wants to blame ODNI all the time,” the official said.

A White House spokesperson did not address whether there had been advance notice or when the emails were sent but said in a statement: “Director Gabbard is doing a phenomenal job and the White House has worked closely with her on implementing the President’s objectives.

“The entire administration is aligned on ensuring those who have weaponized their clearances to manipulate intelligence, leak classified intelligence without authorization, and many other egregious acts are held to account,” the spokesperson said.

Rescinding security clearances was supposed to be part of an effort to correct what Trump’s advisers view as flaws in intelligence assessments and to punish Trump’s political enemies for allegedly mischaracterizing intelligence about Russian malign influence operations during the 2016 election.

Gabbard said in the memo announcing the revocations last month that her actions were at Trump’s direction and claimed that the people targeted were involved in the “politicization or weaponization of intelligence” to advance partisan agendas, or had leaked classified information.

“Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right,” Gabbard wrote. “Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold.”

It was also in keeping with an executive order and followed the administration pulling security clearances for dozens of Trump’s political adversaries including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as well as other figures from Trump’s first impeachment.

Gabbard is not expected to face significant ramifications over the episode, in large part because she has emerged relatively unscathed from other fraught moments, including when Trump in June publicly contradicted her assessment that Iran was far from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump said in response to a question about Gabbard’s testimony that Iran had decided not to make a nuclear bomb, shortly after she was notably absent from a key meeting at Camp David on the matter. “I think they were very close to having it.”

Gabbard also drew Trump’s ire when she posted a video in June warning of nuclear annihilation. Trump harangued Gabbard, saying it would scare people and that she appeared more engaged in self-promotion in order to set herself up for higher office, a person familiar with the matter said.

Tulsi Gabbard did not alert White House before revoking 37 security clearances
Exclusive: White House only realized afterwards that clearances at the CIA and in Congress had been rescinded

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/20/tulsi-gabbard-white-house-security-clearances

Daily Beast: U.S. Navy Wants to Hold a Massive Boat Parade to Cheer Up Trump

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The president wants all the ships.

The U.S. Navy is reportedly planning a lavish parade of its own after a multimillion-dollar military parade earlier this year left President Donald Trump feeling flat.

Trump hosted the military’s largest parade in decades in Washington, D.C., on June 14 to mark 250 years of the U.S. Army—and also, conveniently, his own 79th birthday.

As well as “No Kings” protests against Trump across the country to coincide with the military anniversary event that cost taxpayers $30 million, footage of “lackluster” soldiers marching out of step went viral. Photos suggested that the president rested his eyes at one point during his birthday party. Crowd figures were also less than impressive.

A new report in The Wall Street Journal has intel from the president’s administration that a do-over parade could be in the works—this time taking place at sea.

Trump told his aides that he was disappointed with the marching in the June event, according to the Journal, and was hoping the Navy could deliver a grander celebration.

The president is reportedly “hoping for a shimmering spectacle with seacraft,” the Journal noted.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the U.S. Navy for comment.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung claimed “over 250,000″ patriots turned up for the June 14 parade, but significant gaps in the crowd suggested attendance fell far short of predictions.

Meanwhile, ‘No Kings’ protests around the country on Trump’s birthday became one of the biggest-ever single-day protests in America, drawing over 4 million people in 820 locations.

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel aired footage of what looked like the president nodding off during his parade. “There’s Sleepy Don taking it all in,” he said. “And in fairness, that’s as close as he gets to be able to sleep with his wife, so he took the opportunity.”

Great! Now the self-obsessed narcissistic Child King wants a boat show. 🙁

U.S. Navy Wants to Hold a Massive Boat Parade to Cheer Up Trump
The president wants all the ships.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-navy-wants-to-hold-a-massive-boat-parade-to-cheer-up-trump

Raw Story: Aides left ‘helpless’ as they tried to stop ‘incoherent’ Trump rant to Putin: biographer

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Donald Trump displayed a breathtaking lack of understanding about the Cold War during his recent summit with Vladimir Putin — and left his own advisors “basically helpless” as he waved away their attempts to interject.

That’s according to the president’s biographer, who spoke to the Daily Beast on Wednesday.

On the podcast “Inside Trump’s Head,” Michael Wolff said that Trump’s version of Cold War history was so mangled that “it would appear that the U.S. and USSR are on the same side.”

Friday’s chaotic meeting in Alaska began with Trump launching into what Wolff described as “a combination of flattery” mixed with “things that he’s just pulled out of somewhere…observations, it’s both inconsequential and incoherent.”

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff attempted to redirect the conversation with an actual agenda, Trump simply “talked over them,” leaving the meeting rudderless after 20 minutes with “nothing clear about what anyone is doing there except that Putin is totally impassive.”

Putin eventually delivered what Wolff characterized as a “history lesson,” explaining “why [Russia] should conquer Ukraine.” Not to be outdone, Trump launched into his own historical dissertation on the Cold War that bore little resemblance to reality, Wolff said.

He said that Trump’s version of the long-running international crisis with the Soviets “didn’t seem much like a war at all.”

Trump aides’ attempts to stop him proved futile. “They sit there occasionally trying to interject, but you can’t really interject because Trump just talks all the time,” Wolff said.

He added that this worked “to Putin’s advantage” since Trump showed no interest in crucial details about territory or trade-offs.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed Wolff with the comment he usually gives the Beast, calling Wolff “a lying sack of s–t” with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Aides left ‘helpless’ as they tried to stop ‘incoherent’ Trump rant to Putin: biographer

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-putin-2673905305

Independent: Trump team weighs releasing Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with DOJ officials over Epstein case: report

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It was not previously known that such a recording existed, but a final decision in whether to release it or not has yet to be made

The Trump administration is considering publicly releasing an audio recording of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell and senior officials from the Department of Justice about Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new report.

It was not previously known that such a recording existed, and officials are currently discussing whether or not to release a transcript of the discussion between the British socialite and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Maxwell, 63, was the disgraced financier’s ex-girlfriend, and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse multiple girls. Her attorneys have taken an appeal of her conviction to the Supreme Court.

The interview between the socialite and the DOJ came following ongoing pressure on the administration to be more transparent over the Epstein case, following a July 6 memo which stated that convicted pedophile died by suicide in 2019 and there was no evidence to support the existence of a so-called “client list.” Such claims caused uproar among the MAGA faithful.

Sources told CNN that the audio recording was currently being transcribed and digitized, but that some parts that may reveal sensitive information – like the names of victims – would need to be redacted.

The outlet reported that as of Tuesday morning, a final decision on whether to release the recording and the transcript, had not been made.

CNN also reported that, per its sources, some within the administration were concerned that making details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back into the public spotlight, when many officials close to the president believe the story has largely died down.

When asked for comment by The Independent, the administration denied that any such decisions were being made about the transcript, and that Trump had already addressed the issue.

In a statement, Steven Cheung, White House Communications Director, said: “This is nothing more than CNN trying desperately to create news out of old news. He already addressed this issue in an interview with Newsmax, a real news outlet that routinely gets better ratings than CNN.”

Discussions about the recordings and transcript come after the DoJ admitted that the grand jury transcripts in Maxwell’s criminal case, contain mostly publicly available information.

Trump previously asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to make public “any and all pertinent” grand jury transcripts in both the Epstein and Maxwell cases, in order to stymie the ongoing furore.

A judge overseeing Maxwell’s case asked the government to provide more information to the court. The department provided a version of the transcripts that identifies which information is not publicly available. However, Bondi admitted in a Monday filing that “much” of the information in the transcripts was already made publicly available.

Trump weighs releasing Ghislaine Maxwell’s Epstein interview with DOJ: report
It was not previously known that such a recording existed, but a final decision in whether to release it or not has yet to be made

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/ghislaine-maxwell-doj-interview-epstein-b2802282.html

CNBC: Trump was told his name was in Jeffrey Epstein files before DOJ withheld documents: WSJ

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  • President Donald Trump was told in May by Attorney General Pam Bondi that his name appeared multiple times in Department of Justice documents about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, The Wall Street Journal reported.
  • Trump’s meeting with [Bimbo #3] Bondi at the White House as reported by the Journal occurred weeks before the DOJ said it would not release the Epstein files to the public, despite the attorney general’s earlier promises to do so.
  • Trump has directed [Bimbo #3] Bondi to seek the unsealing of transcripts for grand jury proceedings related to federal probes of Epstein and his convicted procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi told President Donald Trump at a meeting in May that his name appeared multiple times in Department of Justice documents about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The May date reported by the Journal was weeks before the DOJ‘s July 7 announcement that it would not release the Epstein files despite earlier promises by the attorney general, who leads the DOJ, and others in the president’s orbit that the material would be disclosed to the public.

The DOJ said Wednesday in a statement that Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche discussed the Epstein files with Trump as part of their “routine briefing” but did not specify the timing of the briefing.

The Journal reported that the president was also told at the meeting that “many other high-profile figures were also named” in the Epstein files and that the “files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past.” 

Being mentioned in the Epstein records is not a sign of wrongdoing, the Journal noted.

The DOJ’s decision not to release the Epstein files sparked backlash from Trump’s MAGA supporters, who have obsessed over conspiracies related to the Epstein case for years.

In the face of that criticism from his political base, Trump last week directed [Bimbo #3] Bondi to seek the unsealing of transcripts for grand jury proceedings related to federal probes of Epstein and his convicted procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Trump had been friends with Epstein for years, but the two men fell out long before Epstein killed himself in jail in August 2019, weeks after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges. Epstein also had many other wealthy, high-profile friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Reached for comment on the Journal’s new reporting, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told CNBC, “The fact is that The President kicked [Epstein] out of his [Mar-a-Lago] club for being a creep.”

“This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about,” Cheung said.

In a joint statement Wednesday on the Journal’s reporting, Bondi and Blanche said, “The DOJ and FBI reviewed the Epstein Files and reached the conclusion set out in the July 6 memo. Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts.”

“As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings,” Blanche and [Bimbo #3] Bondi said.

Trump was asked last week by an ABC News journalist if [Bimbo #3] Bondi had told him “your name appeared in the files.”

“No, no,” Trump replied. “She’s given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen.”

Trump went on to say he believed that “these files were made up by” former FBI director James Comey and by the administrations of former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The DOJ last week fired Manhattan federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of James Comey, whose past cases had included the federal prosecutions of Epstein and Maxwell.

The Journal last week published an article reporting that Trump in 2003 sent Epstein a “bawdy” letter to mark his 50th birthday, at Maxwell’s request.

The letter “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker,” the Journal reported.

“A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” according to the newspaper.

“The letter concludes: ‘Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,'” the Journal wrote.

Trump has angrily denied writing the letter.

“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said Thursday. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

On Friday, the president filed a defamation lawsuit related to the story against media mogul Rupert Murdoch; News Corp, which Murdoch’s family controls; News Corp’s CEO, Robert Thomson; the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Co.; and the two reporters who wrote the article, which was published Thursday evening. News Corp owns the Journal.

Trump’s lawsuit seeks at least $10 billion in damages.

A Dow Jones spokesperson told CNBC: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”

Trump was told his name was in Jeffrey Epstein files before DOJ withheld documents: WSJ
President Donald Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein for years before the two men had a falling-out.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/23/trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-wsj.html

Daily Mail: Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi sidelined by sudden medical condition after bombshell report claims AG told Trump he was in Epstein files

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Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi abruptly canceled her appearance at a high-profile anti-trafficking summit on Wednesday, citing a sudden medical emergency.

The attorney general – who has been under siege over the Epstein files – was scheduled to appear at CPAC’s Summit Against Human Trafficking when a speaker at the event made the stunning announcement. 

‘I do have a note from the attorney general, from Attorney General Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi, that I wanted to share,’ Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti said. 

He then read her statement aloud: ‘I’m sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today…’

‘Unfortunately, I am recovering from a recently torn cornea, which is preventing me from being with you. I truly wish I was able to join you and support all of the work being done on this critical issue.’ 

At the conclusion of the statement, Galeotti laughed nervously as scattered applause came from the audience. 

‘We appreciate the applause for her and not boos for me,’ he joked. ‘So I will do my best to fill those big shoes.’ 

Several people can be seen walking out of the conference after it was revealed the attorney general would not be speaking.

The Department of Justice did not provide any further information about [Bimbo #3] Bondi’s condition. 

Her injury came just hours after a bombshell report claimed she personally informed President Trump that his name appeared ‘multiple times’ in the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

[Bimbo #3] Bondi’s appearance at the CPAC summit was highly-anticipated given her central role in the administration’s long-promised disclosures about the billionaire pedophile. 

Adding to the intrigue, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that [Bimbo #3] Bondi had informed President Trump in May that his name appeared more frequently than expected in the trove of sealed Epstein files. 

[Bimbo #3] Bondi had warned Trump that while the documents included ‘unverified hearsay,’ they also contained child pornography and sensitive victim information. She also advised against further public releases, the WSJ said.

The Journal’s report directly contradicts Trump’s public statements about the drama surrounding the Epstein files. 

On July 15, when asked whether his name came up in a briefing with [Bimbo #3] Bondi about the Epstein records, Trump replied bluntly: ‘No, no.’ 

He described the meeting as ‘just a very quick briefing,’ and accused former FBI Director James Comey of ‘making up’ the contents of the files.

Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, slammed the Journal’s reporting as ‘fake news,’ responding to the Daily Mail in a statement.

‘The fact is that the President kicked [Epstein] out of his club for being a creep,’ Cheung said. ‘This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about.’

But the Journal’s reporting was backed by multiple senior officials, who said [Bimbo #3] Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche briefed Trump as part of a ‘routine meeting.’

The Journal also noted that [Bimbo #3] Bondi recommended withholding additional Epstein documents due to their inclusion of graphic material and potential privacy violations.

‘They turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein,’ [Bimbo #3] Bondi said at a July 8 cabinet meeting. ‘Never going to be released, never going to see the light of day.’

[Bimbo #3] Bondi’s explanation has done little to quell outrage particularly from Trump’s MAGA base, which has grown increasingly hostile towards over what they see as stall tactics and contradictions. 

Her promise earlier this year on Fox News that she had the Epstein ‘client list’ on her desk proved hollow, as the long-awaited ‘Phase I’ release offered no significant revelations. 

A leaked DOJ-FBI memo later revealed that no such ‘client list’ had ever been located in agency files.

The backlash has ignited conspiracies of a cover-up and infighting within pro-Trump circles. 

Calls to release everything have grown louder, and some prominent MAGA influencers have demanded [Bimbo #3] Bondi’s resignation. 

The administration’s failure to deliver on the campaign promise of transparency in the Epstein case is becoming a political flashpoint. 

Trump has had recent beef with the Wall Street Journal, threatening to sue the publication and its owner Rupert Murdoch for publishing last week a piece claiming he sent Epstein a 50th birthday card with a hand-drawn outline of a naked women. 

The paper claims that Trump wrote in the card’s note: ‘May every day be another wonderful secret.’ 

‘I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,’ Trump fired back when asked if he transmitted such a card. ‘It’s not my language. It’s not my words.’

Legal experts say such a defamation lawsuit would be difficult to win, but the threat underscores the president’s rising frustration with how the Epstein story is dominating headlines – and damaging his team’s credibility.

How convenient, and from someone who’d scarcely know the truth if it bit her!

Pam Bondi sidelined by sudden medical condition after bombshell report
The attorney general was scheduled to speak at CPAC’s Summit Against Human Trafficking when a speaker at the event made the stunning announcement.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14934851/Pam-Bondi-sidelined-sudden-medical-condition-bombshell-report-claims-AG-told-Trump-Epstein-files.html

Daily Beast: Epstein Victim Twice Urged FBI to Investigate Trump

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The disgraced financier’s former employee recalled an alleged incident in which Trump stared at her bare legs.

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s first accuser says she warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation on two occasions to look into Donald Trump’s conduct as an associate of the disgraced sex offender.

In an interview with The New York Times, Maria Farmer, who in 1996 was the first to report Epstein’s sexual offenses, recalled a 1995 encounter with Trump after she was summoned to see Epstein at his luxurious Manhattan offices.

Farmer, who was preparing to do some work for Epstein, said she was wearing running shorts when she turned up at the building to find Trump in a suit. Farmer told the Times that she started feeling scared as Trump allegedly stared at her bare legs, but Epstein came into the room and broke the tension. Farmer said Epstein reportedly said to Trump, “No, no. She’s not here for you.”

The incident left Farmer shaken, with her alleging that she could hear Trump tell Epstein in the other room that he thought she was a teenager, the Times reported.

The next year, Farmer told the FBI that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, and warned that the two had “committed multiple serious sex crimes” against her and other girls, including her then-15-year-old sister, Annie.

Although Farmer, now in her mid-fifties, said she has not seen Trump engage in any inappropriate behavior and has had no other uncomfortable encounters with the MAGA figurehead, the incident was enough for her to tell the FBI to look into the people in Epstein’s orbit, including Trump.

According to Farmer, she was alarmed by what she saw working at Epstein’s mansion, including his pursuit of young girls and using them to gain favor with prominent people, including the likes of Alan Dershowitz and former President Bill Clinton.

Farmer also spoke to the Sixth Precinct of the New York Police Department in 1996, police records show, the Times reported.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung denied Farmer’s claims in a statement, saying, “The president was never in his office.” He added, “The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”

Farmer filed a lawsuit against the federal government on May 29 on the grounds that it failed to protect her and other victims of Epstein and Maxwell. Farmer said she warned of Epstein’s associates again in a 2006 FBI interview, but nothing came of it, the Times reported.

Epstein was indicted in 2006, later pleading guilty to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor. Then in 2019, he was charged again and accused of trafficking dozens of girls as young as 14 years old. He was found dead in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, in what was said to have been a suicide.

As Trump looks to bury his alleged connections to Epstein in the press—filing a $10 billion lawsuit over a Wall Street Journal report on a lewd drawing he allegedly sent Epstein for his 50th birthday—Farmer’s testimony has picked up new steam as MAGA demands that the Trump administration unseal all Epstein files.

Previously, Trump referred to Epstein as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 New York magazine article, with one of Epstein’s exes also describing Trump as Epstein’s “bro.”

Yet in a lengthy Truth Social post on July 16, Trump ripped some of his followers for believing what he called the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years,” he wrote. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support any more!”

Epstein Victim Twice Named Trump to Law Enforcement
The disgraced financier’s former employee recalled an alleged incident in which Trump stared at her bare legs.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-victim-twice-named-trump-to-law-enforcement

Daily Beast: AOC Calls Trump ‘Rapist’ in Brutal Epstein Files Crisis Dig

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In 2023, Trump was found civilly liable of sexual abuse against writer E. Jean Carroll by a Manhattan jury, which awarded her $5 million…. During Trump’s appeal of the Carroll case, however, a judge clarified that the jury still found Trump to have raped Carroll as the word is used colloquially.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Donald Trump a “rapist” while jabbing him for the MAGA crisis over his handling of the files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” the New York congresswoman wrote on X Friday.

Trump and his administration have faced a loud and very public outcry, particularly from inside the MAGAsphere, after announcing that there was neither a client list in the Epstein files nor any evidence that Epstein was murdered, shutting down two popular conspiracy theories.

In another post Friday, Ocasio-Cortez shared a WIRED story reporting that what the Justice Department called the “full raw” surveillance footage from Epstein’s prison cell block the night he died was likely modified.

The DOJ’s release of the footage was intended to dispel theories that the footage contained revelations about Epstein’s death, which was officially ruled a suicide.

At the Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump shut down a reporter’s question about the Epstein files.

“Are you still talking about Jeffery Epstein?” Trump asked. “This guy’s been talked about for years.”

“We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable,” the president continued.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung sounded off on Ocasio-Cortez in a statement to the Daily Beast.

“AOC likes to play pretend like she’s from the block, but in reality she’s just a sad, miserable blockhead who is trying to overcompensate for her lack of self-confidence that has followed her for her entire life,” he said. “Instead, she should get some serious help for her obvious and severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her pea-sized brain.”

The president has often lashed out at AOC, who is one of his harshest critics in the House. Last month, he called her “stupid AOC” and the “dumbest member of Congress.”

In 2023, Trump was found civilly liable of sexual abuse against writer E. Jean Carroll by a Manhattan jury, which awarded her $5 million.

Under New York’s penal code, the legal definition of rape only encompasses nonconsensual penile penetration, which was not what happened in Carroll’s case.

Trump earned a $15 million payout from a defamation lawsuit he settled with ABC News in 2024 after anchor George Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump was found liable for “rape.”

During Trump’s appeal of the Carroll case, however, a judge clarified that the jury still found Trump to have raped Carroll as the word is used colloquially.

“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in July 2023.

It isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez has called Trump a “rapist.” She said during a rally in April of this year, “If Donald Trump wants to find the rapists and criminals in this country, he needs to look in a mirror.”

Trump’s relationship to Epstein has long faced scrutiny.

Although Trump was photographed alongside Epstein long before becoming president, he has denied that he flew on Epstein’s jet or visited his private island.

In 2024, the Daily Beast exclusively published audio tapes recorded in 2017 in which Epstein called himself Trump’s “closest friend.”

Epstein was awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died by suicide at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10, 2019.

AOC Calls Trump ‘Rapist’ in Brutal Epstein Files Crisis Dig
Trump is facing a MAGA civil war over his handling of the files on the notorious sex offender.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/aoc-calls-trump-rapist-in-brutal-epstein-files-crisis-dig

MSNBC: Maddow Blog | ‘No Kings’ protests, special election results leave no doubt about the backlash to Trump

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In elections and special elections throughout the country, results like these have become rather common lately. After last week’s special elections in multiple states, The Downballot reported, “Overall, in 29 special elections this year, Democratic candidates have run 16.4 points ahead of the 2024 presidential results on average.” G. Elliott Morris, the former director of data analytics at FiveThirtyEight, published a related analysis that pointed in the same direction.

‘No Kings’ protests, special election results leave no doubt about the backlash to Trump
Between activism, election results and protest turnout, the prevailing political winds suggest the backlash to the president is real.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/no-kings-protests-special-election-results-leave-no-doubt-backlash-tru-rcna213209