Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted co-conspirator of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, explicitly appealed to President Donald Trump for clemency on Tuesday.
In a response to the House Oversight Committees subpoena to force Maxwell to testify on August 11, her attorney David Oscar Markus enumerated certain conditions for her deposition. Or, he wrote, Maxwell could be given clemency.
Markuss letter, posted to X, says, if Ms. Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willingand eagerto testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C. Markus said Maxwell would welcome the opportunity to share the truth and address purported misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.
In other words, Maxwell has offered to give our TV president the televised spectacle of his dreams, testifying in public if he simply waves away at least part of her sentence.
The suggestion comes as Trumps allies increasingly regard Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, as a potential means for the administration to escape the persistent scandal surrounding his past ties to, and lack of transparency about, Epsteins case.
Trump, for his part, has conspicuously avoided answering whether hes considered granting Maxwell a pardon or clemency, while asserting that hes allowed to do so.
Meanwhile, Trumps deputy attorney general last week met behind closed doors with Maxwell twice, leading many critics and Democratic lawmakers to observe the plain potential for corruption in such sit-downs.
Markuss letter mentioned clemency as an alternative to a set of three conditions he asked the Oversight Committee to grant, lest Maxwell invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to testify: first, granting her immunity; second, sharing its questions in advance; and third, having her appear only after the resolution of two pending attempts at post-conviction relief (these being a Supreme Court petition and a forthcoming writ of habeas corpus).
Hovering over all of this are obvious concerns about Maxwells credibility. While House Speaker Mike Johnson said he supported the committees decision to subpoena, he also, of all people, sensibly observed : Could she be counted on to tell the truth? Is she a credible witness? I mean, this is a person whos been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable, conspiratorial acts, and acts against innocent young people. I mean, can we trust what shes going to say?
Americas business class is openly admitting to using the presidents tariffs as great cover for its rising prices.
A report published Tuesday by the Groundwork Collaborative found that executives were, in their own words, taking advantage of Donald Trumps unstable tariff policies to jack up the price tags on consumer goods. Analyzing earnings calls from major corporations in the first half of 2025, Groundwork found executives admitted that they intended to raise costs even if they were not affected by the administrations economic agenda.
The CEO of auto parts manufacturer Holley, Matthew Stevenson, reportedly said that the marketplace had showcased price increases well in excess of what we put out into the market. He noted that weve seen increases as high as 30 percent or more on some categories from some competitors.
Aaron Jagdfeld, the CEO of generator manufacturer Generac Power Systems, claimed on an earnings call that even if we have metals that werent impacted directly by tariffs, the indirect effect of tariffs is that it gives steel producers and the mills and other fabricators ... great cover for increased pricing in some cases.
In their first quarter, the worlds largest wholesale distributor of pool supplies, POOLCORP, reported to their shareholders that they expect that currently announced tariffs will positively impact net sales by approximately 1 [percent] based on vendor price increases to-date.
Thomas Robertson, the CFO of footwear company Rocky Brands, said that regardless of whether Trump relaxed his tariffs on China, his company intended to keep its high prices.
We certainly welcome a reduction in the Chinese tariffs, but well be announcing a price increase here regardless of any changes of the Chinese tariffs over the next week or two to go into effect in June, Robertson said, according to the Groundwork Collaborative .
In the end, it will be America that pays the price for Trumps chaotic trade blitz. Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank likely would have lowered its key interest rate if Trump hadnt announced his tariff plan. Trumps tariffs are slated to go into effect for more than 80 countries on August 1.
But at least 71 percent of consumer goods in the U.S. are already grappling with the new trade policy, according to a report published Monday by the Tax Foundation that suggested that everything from manufacturing to food imports could be squeezed by Trumps agenda.
Public perception of Israel has plummeted to a new low in the United States, particularly among Democrats. And yet the party continues to cut the country a blank check to carry out its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, lagging sorely behind its voter base on the issue.
A new poll from Gallup, conducted in July, shows that only 32 percent of Americans approve of Israels military action taken in Gaza, down 10 percentage points since last September. Among Democrats, only 8 percent support Israels actions, the lowest approval rating to date. Compare that to 25 percent of independents and a robust 71 percent of Republicans.
The poll also saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receive a negative rating from the majority of Americans for the first time since 1997, with only 29 percent of the country viewing him positively.
These numbers reflect a new reality in U.S.-Israel relations, and the Democratic Party must act accordingly if it wants to be successful. As New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani showed, mindless capitulation to Israel is no longer a prerequisite for Democratic voters. If party leadership was actually in touch with its base, itd be baking aid to Gaza and funding cuts to the Israeli military into the foundation of its campaigns. Only time will tell if theyll wake up and capitalize.
Republicans across the country are working hard to pass bills banning something that the fringe corners of the internet told them to be afraid of: weather modification.
Weather modification refers to geoengineering processes such as solar radiation modification and cloud-seeding that are used to counter the effects of global warming and drought, respectively. These processes have been woven into right-wing conspiracy theories that the government is able to control the weather, and MAGA lawmakersfearful that the Democrats could rule the heavens and summon a deluge to wipe them outhave started to take action.
Republican lawmakers in nearly 20 states have introduced legislation to prevent weather modification. Some of the laws allude to chemtrails, a conspiracy theory that planes arent leaving contrails of condensation in the atmosphere but are spreading chemicals on an unsuspecting public. In two states, Florida and Tennessee , those bills have passed and been signed into law.
In July, right-wing concerns about weather modification reached a new fever pitch.
Earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin announced an effort to compile everything we know about contrails and geoengineering and release it to the public.
Days later, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tim Burchett introduced the Clear Skies Act , a bill that would levy steep penalties for anyone who knowingly conducts weather modification, including geoengineering, cloud seeding, solar radiation modification, and the release of aerosol to influence temperature, precipitation, or the intensity of sunlight.
After Hurricane Helene struck the southeast United States in October, Greene boosted the right-wing conspiracy theory that the Biden administration had used weather manipulation to target Republican areas ahead of the U.S. general election. Yes they can control the weather, Greene wrote in a post on X at the time. Its ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it cant be done.
The theory of weather control is not only outrageously anti-science but based on an explicitly antisemitic conspiracy theory though thats something Greene has never shied away from in the past. In fact, she added to the conspiracy theory with her now-infamous Jewish space lasers comment .
Greene isnt actually worried about manmade impact on the environment; after all, shes got no problems with fossil fuels . Rather, shes latched onto conspiracy theories about how weather can be controlled by those in power. Meanwhile, Greene said she saw a kind of funny hypocrisy from the environmentalists who oppose pollution but not weather manipulation.
In interviews, Greene and Burchett said that the impetus for their legislation was concerns of constituents. Burchett admitted that the issue was in the realm of the conspiracy theorists but had taken on a little bit more mainstream.
You have one group that says its real, and the other group says, Youre a lunatic, that it doesnt exist, he said .
If it doesnt exist, Burchett added , then you dont have anything to worry about.
While weather modification does exist, it cant be weaponized as Greene has implied. Several states have programs for cloud seedinga decades-old technology that helps to induce rainincluding California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and North Dakota.
As the horrors induced by Israel in Gaza elicit increasing international outcry, French President Emmanual Macron announced last week that France will recognize the state of Palestine. The U.K. on Tuesday decided it will also recognize Palestinian statehood, unless Israel takes certain steps to improve conditions in Gaza.
Frances decision has been criticized by U.S. officials. But its what international law demands, said United Nations Secretary-General Ant�nio Guterres on Monday: Statehood for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has a more hysterical take.
Huckabee told Fox News Tuesday that the very foolish move would embolden Hamas (an extremely arguable assumption) and therefore be like letting the Nazis have a victory after World War II.
The former Arkansas governor and Fox News host is a frequent purveyor of outrageous Nazi analogies.
Recently, hes trotted out such comparisons most often in relation to Hamas . In May, he made the mind-boggling suggestion that Hamass October 7, 2023, attack was in ways worse than the Holocaust, telling NPR that Israel had people murdered in the most vicious, horrible way that weve seen, andI wanted to say, since the Holocaust, but, in all candor, as awful as the crimes were in the Holocaust, they werent worse, and, in some cases, they werent as malicious.
Huckabees penchant for frivolous Nazi comparisons goes back years. In 2015, he likened Obamas Iran nuclear deal to marching the Israelis to the door of the oven. Search earlier still, and youll find out that plenty more has brought Nazism to Huckabees mindbe it abortions, gay marriage, or gun control.
The current leaders of the FBI have no idea what theyre doing, according to outgoing employees.
The federal investigative agency is undergoing a radical deprofessionalization, with a growing emphasis on ideological loyalty to the Trump administration over a responsibility to serve the public, reported The Atlantic Tuesday. No longer is competence a key priority for new recruits.
Michael Feinberg, who left the bureau in June after 15 years, claimed he was denied a promotion after he decided to maintain ties with his former colleague Peter Strzok. Strzok was fired from the FBI during Donald Trumps first term for sending text messages that allegedly disparaged the MAGA leader, landing him on FBI Director Kash Patels notorious enemies list .
Moving up in the agency, according to Feinberg, was practically a done deal. Feinberg, who had been serving as the acting assistant special agent in charge at the FBIs Norfolk field office, was already preparing to move to the FBIs headquarters in Washington in anticipation of the promotion. But the newly installed Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans put a pin on that on May 31. Over a series of phone calls, Evans revealed that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino had left Feinberg with two options: get demoted or resign, he recalled in a personal essay published earlier this month to LawFare . Feinberg chose the latterfive years before he was eligible for retirement and a pension.
Furthermore, she told me, I would be asked to submit to a polygraph exam probing the nature of my friendship with Pete, and (as I was quietly informed by another, friendlier senior employee) what could only be described as a latter-day struggle session, Feinberg wrote. I would be expected to grovel, beg forgiveness, and pledge loyalty as part of the FBIs cultural revolution brought about by Patel and Bonginos accession to the highest echelons of American law enforcement and intelligence.
Feinberg is not the typecast, anti-Trump type so loathed by MAGA circles. He graduated from Northwestern Law School in 2004, where he was the vice president of the schools Federalist Society chapter. He considers himself a conservative, aligning with the political theory of philosopher Edmund Burke, according to The Atlantic. He joined the FBI in 2009 to help protect both United States interests in the world and the rule of law on the domestic front, he told the magazine.
They get a kick out of playing dress-up and acting tough, Feinberg told The Atlantic. But they actually have no idea what theyre doing.
It looks like the White House official social media is being used as unofficial advertising space for the Trump familys newest golf course.
To close out his four-day taxpayer-funded trip to Scotland, the president attended the grand opening ceremony of the Trump International Golf Links near Aberdeen, alongside his sons Eric and Don Jr.
The White Houses official X account shared a link Tuesday to live coverage of the event, similarly to how it might share information about a presidential press conference or Cabinet meeting.
We started with a beautiful piece of land, but weve made it much more beautiful, Donald Trump said of the golf course built on top of dunes on Scotlands eastern coast.
Well play it very quickly, and then I got back to D.C. and we put out fires all over the world. We stopped a war. But weve stopped about five wars, so thats much more important than playing golf, Trump said, referring to Mondays tentative ceasefire agreement between Cambodia and Thailand, made amid pressure from the United States.
The White House X account also shared a post directly from Trump International, Scotland, showing the president arriving Monday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
We welcome President Trump and his family as they return to their cherished Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire to open the New Course, the post read. The President hosted the Prime Minister and special guests at MacLeod House this evening prior to tomorrows grand opening ceremony.
Trump has sidestepped precedent by refusing to sever ties to companies and other financial assets, instead vesting control of his assets to a family-managed trust. This allows the presidents supporters to pay directly into his familys coffers by booking their vacations and retreats at any of his familys many resorts, private clubs, and hotels.
Standing between his two sons Tuesday, Trump cut the red ribbon, though the new course doesnt actually open for another two weeks, according to the website .
Debt creditors are on the prowl for federal officials.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt owes $326,370.50 in the aftermath of her failed 2022 congressional campaign, according to a new disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Her campaign committee, Karoline for Congress, didnt raise any money during April, May, or June of this year, failing to pay off a dime of her mountainous debt, according to the disclosure. The majority of the debt is the result of accepting illegal campaign contributions that exceeded federal limits, the bulk of which she has not yet returned, reported OpenSecrets .
The campaign committee reported in June that it had spent the illicit funds a long time ago and currently had no cash on hand.
Some of the individuals owed refunds include former New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson, as well as the late New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Robert Clegg Jr. Karoline for Congress also owes more than $46,000 to Missouri-based consultant Axiom Strategies, $41,000 to Missouri-based polling firm Remington Research Group, and nearly $13,000 to Washington-based fundraising firm Fundraising Inc. Other donors, however, did scrape by before the committee stopped dishing out refunds. They, conveniently, included Leavitts parents, according to NOTUS .
The committee is currently under audit by the FEC. The excessive donations went unreported for years, but in January, the group amended 17 prior campaign finance reportseach one it had ever madeto account for the unlawful discrepancy, NOTUS reported at the time.
An unidentified source close to Leavitt told OpenSecrets that Leavitt doesnt personally owe anyone money, and underscored that Karoline for Congress is working with the FEC through the audit and that process is ongoing, hence the outstanding debt.
End Citizens United, a Democratic-aligned PAC, sued Karoline for Congress over the illegal donations in November 2022, but little has changed since then. The FEC has lacked the minimum four commissioners necessary to initiate investigations since May. Donald Trump has the sole authority to nominate the commissionerswho must then be confirmed by the Senatebut so far the president has not nominated a single individual to the regulatory agency, despite recommendations from congressional leaders.
Cases like this send a clear message: If you break campaign finance laws, nothing will happen to you, End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller told OpenSecrets. Its open season for corrupt leaders who want to game the system and get away with it.
The right-wing commentariat is using Mondays deadly mass shooting in Manhattan, in which a gunman shot and killed four people, to discredit the candidacy of mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani.
The attacks ran the gamut, from mischaracterizations of the Democratic nominees agenda to plain bigotry. Curiously, many attempts to use Mondays tragedy against Mamdani also treat the Democratic nominee as if he were the current mayor and as if the violence did not occur under public safety policies already in place.
Several prominent conservatives have attempted to scapegoat Mamdani in light of a defund the police stance he does not espouse. Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines posted on X: Do you not realize how terrifying it is this is happening in a city where the mayoral candidate wants to defund the police? Pro-Trump podcaster Benny Johnson wrote : REMINDER: Communist Zohran Mamdani wants to defund the police. No cops rushing injust social workers trying to reason with gunmen.
These attempts to pin the shooting on Mamdani misrepresent the candidates agenda and public comments on public safety. Johnson, for instance, pointed to Mamdanis (now much-screenshotted) 2020 tweet in support of defunding the police, whereas Mamdani stated clearly during the Democratic primary, I will not defund the police and says he supports maintaining the current size of the police force.
Mamdani proposes creating a Department of Community Safety, separate from the New York Police Department, which he says will reduce strain on police officers and free up NYPD resources to increase clearance rates for major crimes.
As news of the shooting broke, Fox News columnist David Marcus also leveled a criticism that misses the mark, considering Mamdani is not the current occupant of Gracie Mansion. Marcus took to X to write, Can somebody in Uganda please wake Zohran up? A cop is dead. (Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, announced last weekin a video humorously preempting right-wing smearsthat he would be traveling to the country in a personal capacity and plans to return this week.)
Others resorted to bigoted comments about Mamdanis background. For instance, Laura Loomer, the MAGA social media personality (who wields considerable influence over the administration of President Donald Trump), baselessly asserted Monday that the gunman was a Mamdani supporter, writing, [Mamdani] is inspiring a generation of pro-Islamic cop killers. This is why you dont elect Muslim immigrants to office.
Mamdani, for his part, posted a statement promptly Monday evening, thanking first responders and writing, Im heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer in critical condition in my thoughts.
On Tuesday morning, Mamdani posted a heartfelt message mourning the loss of the NYPD Officer Didarul Islam.
On Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Forces surrounded, beat, and choked American labor leader Chris Smalls as they unlawfully boarded the Handala, the most recent aid ship trying to reach Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Smalls was the only Black person on the flotilla and was punished much more severely than any of the other 20 members detained.
When he reached the Israeli prison, U.S. human rights defender Chris Smalls was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced Tuesday morning. They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back. When his lawyer met with him, Chris was surrounded by six members of Israels special police unit. This level of force was not used against other abducted activists. We condemn this violence against Chris and demand accountability for the assault and discriminatory treatment he faced.
Pretty hard to believe that the particularly heinous and brutal treatment Christian Smalls was subjected to by Israeli authorities was not a function of racism given it was not inflicted on other Handala detainees, University of New Brunswick professor Nathan Kalman-Lamb wrote on Bluesky. And the US media dgaf.
Smalls entered the public eye in 2022 after successfully founding a labor union at a Staten Island Amazon factory, garnering national praise and even a White House invitation from President Biden. Now he remains beaten and battered in IDF custody.
The IDF targeting the one Black man on the aid ship is sadly unsurprising, as is the lack of uproar from U.S. politicians and large media outlets. Yet another U.S. citizen assaulted and detained by the IDF, yet not a peep from either side of the aisle because Smalls is a Black American leftist who was standing up to Israels campaign of mass starvation and trying to deliver baby food and flour to suffering Palestinians in Gaza.
Im thinking of Chris Smalls. And about how, because hes Black, no Greta Thunberg, no celebrity, no darling of the liberal class, he might not make it out alive, author Camonghne Felix wrote on X. Blackness, when vulnerable and on its knees, is a white supremacist fantasy.
While smaller unions have spoken up to condemn Smallss arrest, Teamsterswhich worked with Smalls on the Amazon Labor Unionhas yet to make a statement on his violent detainment, failing spectacularly to meet the moment.*
While Smalls and other flotilla members remain in IDF custody, the coalition plans to send another aid ship very soon, yet another direct challenge to the Israeli government.
We are calling on others around the world, definitely our countries, to live up to their obligation of enforcing international law, of protecting human rights, but also other institutions that are founded to do the same, said Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American attorney and Handala member who was released from IDF custody due to her Israeli citizenship. We should not be waiting for Israel to give permission for food or other humanitarian aid to enter & we need to be breaking, challenging and breaking the blockade.
And our governments not only have not been doing anything about it & the U.S. government did not make contact with any of the seven American citizens on board, but the [others], like France, Spain, Italy, contacted their citizens on board and told them that they are ready to provide consular services when Israel kidnaps us, which we found to be completely obnoxious, she added. They were legitimizing Israeli piracy on the high seas. And that is unacceptable to us. And that is the kind of impunity that our governments, all governments, really, have been allowing Israel to just violate international law.
*This piece has been updated to correct a description of Teamsters.
