Trump cites ongoing investigation when requested about Maxwell clemency as he departs for Scotland – stay

Donald Trump has mentioned Hamas “did not want to make a deal” on a ceasefire and hostage launch in Gaza.

Chatting with reporters on the White Home earlier, the president’s feedback echoed these of his Center East peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, who mentioned yesterday the Trump crew had pulled its negotiators for consultations following Hamas’s newest proposal.

In the meantime, Israeli media report that Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Hamas for the impasse, saying in a press release: “Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal. Together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home.”

AP reported earlier that ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas are anticipated to renew subsequent week. Hamas official Bassem Naim mentioned at the moment that an Israeli delegation was attributable to depart for consultations early subsequent week.

Chatting with reporters exterior the White Home earlier, Donald Trump didn’t reply when requested about potential clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, saying it’s an ongoing investigation.

His deputy legal professional normal Todd Blanche mentioned final evening that he plans to proceed his dialog with Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confederate and convicted intercourse trafficker in federal jail at the moment, having spent a number of hours interviewing her yesterday.

Maxwell is searching for to have her conviction overturned.

Donald Trump is heading to Scotland this morning to go to his luxurious golf resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire, and open a 3rd in honor of his Scottish-born mom.

Throughout what is going to largely be a five-day vacation, Trump can also be anticipated to satisfy with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, who will go to the president in Scotland to “refine” the commerce framework reached with the US.

As my colleagues reported yesterday, Scottish protest organisers anticipate a wave of resistance to Trump’s go to from Ayrshire to Aberdeenshire this weekend as Scots take to the streets to precise “widespread anger” at what they termed the US president’s more and more excessive insurance policies.

Deputy legal professional normal Todd Blanche mentioned final evening that he plans to proceed his dialog with Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confederate and convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell at the moment.

The 2 spoke for a number of hours yesterday in federal jail, the place Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence, because the administration seeks to probe her for added details about Epstein’s case.

After the assembly, Blanche mentioned that yesterday that he meant to spend extra time interviewing her in federal jail on Friday.

“The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,” he added.

“We want to thank the deputy attorney general for being so professional with all of us and for taking the time to meet with us,” Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus advised reporters after Thursday’s interview.

Based on Markus, Blanche “spent the full day and asked a lot of questions, and Ms Maxwell answered every single one”.

Maxwell is searching for to have her conviction overturned.

Blanche’s conferences with Maxwell come because the Trump administration tries to include outrage over its determination to not launch recordsdata from the federal investigation of the late intercourse offender, who socialized with Trump for greater than a decade.

Donald Trump displayed the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Sitting within the Oval Workplace, he was requested by a reporter in regards to the justice division’s hunt for proof in regards to the intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein. “I don’t really follow that too much,” he mentioned. “It’s sort of a witch-hunt.”

And then the pivot: “The witch-hunt you should be talking about is that they caught President Obama absolutely cold.” Trump was claiming a plot by Barack Obama to rig the 2016 election, accusing his predecessor of “treason”. For good measure he warned: “Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people.”

Why this and why now? It isn’t a lot of a thriller. Trump, who as soon as claimed that he might shoot somebody on New York’s Fifth Avenue and never lose any voters, has shot himself within the foot. His help base is in open revolt over his failure to launch recordsdata regarding the convicted intercourse offender Epstein and a rumoured checklist of his elite shoppers.

The president’s answer is to achieve for a really acquainted playbook: distract, distract, distract.

It labored for him throughout his largest disaster within the 2016 election marketing campaign. On the identical day that an Entry Hollywood tape emerged during which Trump was recorded making lewd feedback about girls, his marketing campaign seized on the WikiLeaks launch of 1000’s of emails hacked from the account of Hillary Clinton’s marketing campaign chairman, John Podesta. Trump survived and went on to win the election.

Since then, at any time when he lands in hassle, his followers have been keen to assist him flip the web page. However the Epstein saga cuts into Trump’s core political id because the slayer of the deep state. He’s as soon as once more throwing out quite a few shiny objects however they’re dropping their shine.

Gwenda Blair, a Trump biographer, observes:

It’s the distraction machine that has labored previously breaking down – making an attempt the outdated favourites and never getting a lot traction. What’s occurred is like huge whiplash, which occurs whenever you’re in some kind of transferring car and it’s going ahead, typically at a reasonably excessive velocity, and also you all of a sudden crash into one thing and your neck jerks again typically with very dire penalties.

Democratic members of Congress are urgent the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) to disclose details about immigration officers’ apply of sporting masks and concealing their identities, based on a letter considered by the Guardian.

The letter marks one other step in pushes by US lawmakers to require immigration officers to establish themselves throughout arrest operations, particularly when brokers are masked, a apply that has sparked outrage amongst civil rights teams.

Congressman Robert Garcia, the highest Democrat on the highly effective committee on oversight and authorities reform, together with consultant Summer season Lee, wrote to DHS secretary Kristi Noem urgent for “memoranda, directives, guidance, communications” concerning immigration officers’ use of masks and unmarked automobiles for immigration operations.

For each individual inside the USA, the Fourth Modification ensures safety from unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fifth Modification ensures a proper to due course of below the regulation.

In direct violation of those rules, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has allowed its brokers – primarily from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) – to conceal their identities and use unmarked automobiles whereas conducting immigration enforcement actions.

In current months, because the Trump administration has escalated immigration enforcement operations, arrests, detention and deportations, the DHS and Ice have been relentlessly criticized for his or her brokers’ use of masks and unmarked automobiles.

The 2 Democrats point out numerous examples, from the previous few months below the Trump administration, during which immigration officers have hidden their identities whereas conducting immigration arrests and operations. In addition they point out a current instance, initially reported by the Intercept, during which two immigration judges in New York hid the identities of presidency attorneys pushing to deport individuals.

This causes a harmful erosion of public belief, due course of, and transparency in regulation enforcement. These techniques contradict longstanding democratic rules equivalent to the general public’s proper to accountability from those that implement the regulation and pave the way in which for elevated crime, making our communities much less secure.

The Federal Reserve has mentioned that it was “grateful” for Donald Trump’s encouragement to finish its renovation venture and that it “looked forward” to seeing the venture by way of to completion.

“We remain committed to continuing to be careful stewards of these resources as we see the project through to completion,” it mentioned in a press release, a day after the president made a uncommon go to to the US central financial institution in Washington. “The Federal Reserve was honored to welcome the President yesterday for a visit to our historic headquarters.”

The go to was notably tense as Trump tried and didn’t ambush Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, throughout an on-camera change over the price of the renovation. Within the clip beneath you possibly can watch Powell publicly fact-check the president over the venture’s price ticket.

The White Home has used the rising value of the venture, which the Fed now estimates at $2.5bn, as a cudgel in Trump’s ongoing criticism of Powell. Trump mentioned the 2 males additionally spoke privately about rates of interest, which the president says ought to be lowered instantly to spice up the economic system.

The Fed, which has asserted many occasions that it takes impartial financial choices, is extensively anticipated to depart its benchmark rate of interest within the 4.25%-4.50% vary on the conclusion of a two-day coverage assembly subsequent week.

Following his tour, Trump known as the renovation “luxurious” however mentioned he was not inclined to take the unprecedented step of firing Powell. “Because to do that is a big move and I just don’t think it’s necessary,” Trump mentioned. “And I believe that he’s going do the right thing. I believe that the chairman is going to do the right thing.”

Columbia College’s cope with the Trump administration after months of negotiations has drawn each condemnation and reward from college, college students and alumni – an indication that the tip of negotiations will hardly restore concord on a campus profoundly divided because the starting of Israel’s battle in Gaza.

David Pozen, a professor at Columbia Regulation College, slammed the deal as giving “legal form to an extortion scheme”, he wrote.

“The means being used to push through these reforms are as unprincipled as they are unprecedented. Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself,” Pozen continued.

Not all Columbia associates had been as crucial. The Stand Columbia Society, a bunch of alumni, college students and school which have for months championed a number of the identical reforms demanded by the Trump administration, welcomed the announcement.

“The Stand Columbia Society believes this agreement represents an excellent outcome that restores research funding, facilitates real structural reforms, and preserves core principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy,” they wrote. “We have been steadfast and consistent on what is the right thing to do, and today, both Columbia’s leaders and the federal government deserve credit for achieving this result.”

The Trump administration’s purpose of fining different universities comes after a significant deal was struck this week with Columbia College. The deal, based on the Wall Road Journal, is seen as a precedent for what the White Home expects in future offers.

From our Wednesday evening report:

Underneath the settlement, Columbia can pay a $200m settlement over three years to the federal authorities, the college mentioned. It is going to additionally pay $21m to settle investigations introduced by the US Equal Employment Alternative Fee.

“This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” the appearing college president, Claire Shipman, mentioned.

The administration pulled the funding due to what it described because the college’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus in the course of the Israel-Gaza battle that started in October 2023.

You possibly can learn the complete report right here:

Good morning and welcome to the US politics weblog.

We’re beginning at the moment with a new report from the Wall Road Journal saying that the Trump administration is searching for fines from different universities after Columbia agreed to pay greater than $220m this week.

The White Home goals to high quality a number of universities it accuses of failing to cease antisemitism on campus, together with from Harvard College, in change for entry to federal funding, based on the Journal’s reporting.

The Trump administration is in talks with a number of universities, together with Cornell, Duke, Northwestern and Brown – however Harvard is seen as a key goal.

Follow us at the moment as we deliver you all the newest strains from Washington and past.