Closing summary
We’re going to wrap up this live coverage now but you can read all the latest key lines around the Epstein case in our full report. Here’s a recap of the day’s events – thanks for reading.
Donald Trump’s administration will ask a court to allow the release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking case after some of the president’s supporters reacted in fury to a report concluding there was no evidence to support long-running theories about the late financier’s case.
The president said he had directed attorney general Pam Bondi to seek the release. He also said on Truth Social he had authorised the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, which are under seal, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Bondi said on X shortly after that the justice department was ready to ask the court on Friday to unseal the grand jury transcripts.
The moves followed a story in the Wall Street Journal that reported Trump had contributed a letter – described as “bawdy” and featuring a drawing of a naked woman’s silhouette around a typewritten personal message to Epstein – to the birthday album compiled by Epstein associate Ghislane Maxwell.
Trump denied to the Journal that he was the author of the birthday tribute and, after the story was published, said on Truth Social he intended to file a lawsuit, decrying the reporting as fake and condemning it as what he called “the Epstein Hoax”. The president said in the post that he had personally told Rupert Murdoch and the Journal’s editor-in-chief that the letter was fake and that he would sue if a story about the letter was published.
Vice-president JD Vance called the report on the letter “complete and utter bullshit” on social media. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the letter was fake and “is like the Steele Dossier”, the collection of unverified rumours about Trump and the Russian government’s effort to elect him in 2016.
The US House of Representatives has passed Trump’s $9bn funding cut to public media and foreign aid, sending it to the White House to be signed into law. The Republican-controlled chamber voted 216 to 213 early on Friday in favour of the funding cut package, altered by the Senate this week to exclude cuts of about $400m in funds for the global Pepfar HIV/AIDS prevention program, Reuters reports.
An evaluation of swelling in Trump’s lower legs has revealed chronic venous insufficiency, “a common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70”, Karoline Leavitt said, reading from a doctor’s letter. “Recent photos of the president have shown minor bruising on the back of his hand,” the press secretary added. “This is consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen.”
Critics have slammed an agreement between Medicaid officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) – which allows agents to examine a database of Americans’ personal information, including home addresses, social security numbers and ethnicities – as a privacy betrayal carrying serious civil rights and health risks.
Republican senators advanced through the judiciary committee Emil Bove’s nomination to serve as a judge on a federal appeals court, after Democrats walked out of the session in protest against the GOP’s refusal to call a whistleblower who alleged the nominee advocated for ignoring court orders.
Trump’s huge spending boost for the Pentagon will produce an additional 26 megatons of planet-heating gases – on par with the annual carbon equivalent (CO2e) emissions generated by 68 gas power plants or the entire country of Croatia, new research reveals.
A new US assessment has found that US strikes in June destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, NBC News reported, citing current and former US officials. Trump rejected a military plan for further comprehensive strikes on Iran’s nuclear program which would have lasted several weeks, the report added.
Two months after Trump floated the idea of reopening Alcatraz as a federal prison, Pam Bondi and interior secretary Doug Burgum have visited the tourist site. California Democrat and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi called the plan “lunacy”.
Updated
US media reported on Thursday that a federal prosecutor who handled Jeffrey Epstein’s case, and who is the daughter of a prominent Trump critic, was abruptly fired.
Maurene Comey, whose father is former FBI director James Comey, was dismissed on Wednesday from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan. There was no specific reason given for her termination, the AP reported.
Comey also prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate who has been criminally charged in connection with his activities.
Maxwell is the person who compiled the leather-bound book of letters for Epstein in 2003, the Journal reported.
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