New York federal court documents containing previously hidden names of people associated in some way with the late notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein began being unsealed Wednesday evening. Many of the more than 150 people named in the civil court filings have previously been publicly disclosed as connected in some way with Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges. The documents were filed in connection with a Manhattan federal court lawsuit by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Epstein’s longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The fact that peoples’ names appear in the files does not necessarily mean they engaged in wrongdoing.
Only Epstein and Maxwell have been criminally charged in connection with his longstanding abuse of girls and young women at residences in New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and elsewhere. Preska has granted a 30-day extension barring the disclosure of two names, including a woman identified as Doe 107 to review her claim that she faces a risk of physical harm in her home country if her identity is publicly revealed. Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence on charges related to recruiting and grooming young women to be abused by Epstein.
Epstein for years had socialized with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as Britain’s Prince Andrew and many other rich and powerful people. Jeffrey Epstein once said that former President Bill Clinton “likes them young,” a victim of the dead sex offender testified in a deposition unsealed Wednesday — part of a trove of long-sealed court documents that began to be made public.
The files were ordered released by Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska last month and contain a gross accusation of inappropriate touching by the disgraced British royal. They were filed in a since-settled defamation lawsuit that Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre brought against the late sicko’s madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2015. Another Epstein victim, Johanna Sjoberg, said in a 2016 deposition that the Duke of York put his hand on her breast as she sat on his lap at the financier’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001. She also posed for a photo alongside Giuffre, whose breast was groped using a puppet of Andrew, Sjoberg testified.
➤TRUMP ASKS FOR SUPREME COURT RULING: Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn a decision removing him from Colorado’s 2024 presidential primary ballot, his campaign said. The Centennial State’s highest court deemed him an insurrectionist because of his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and therefore ineligible to hold public office.
The Supreme Court is widely expected to agree to hear the former president's appeal to provide clarity on his eligibility, which has divided state judges and officials. Trump’s lawyers say he was denied due process in the Colorado proceedings and is being penalized for constitutionally protected free speech. They argue the Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling sets a dangerous precedent that could embolden state election officials around the country to disqualify candidates for partisan reasons.
➤DISORDER IN THE COURT: A Las Vegas judge was pounced on and attacked by a man during a hearing after she denied him bail. Judge Mary Kay Holthus from the Clark County District Court was mid-sentencing when convicted criminal Deobra Redden when he launched at her.
Video footage shows the wild moment Redden leaped out from his seat and hopped into the judge's bench to tackle her. In the footage he can be heard repeatedly punching Holthus and screaming at her using explicit language, meanwhile, security officers attempted to restrain the crazed criminal.
➤BIDEN FACING REBELLION IN ADMINISTRATION: A senior official in the U.S. Education Department stepped down on Wednesday, citing President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict in Gaza, the latest sign of dissent in the administration as deaths continue to grow in the war. Also on Wednesday, 17 Biden re-election campaign staffers issued a warning in an anonymous letter that Biden could lose voters over the issue.
Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Education Department's Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, said: "I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government."
Habash, a Palestinian-American and an expert on student debt, was appointed early in Biden's presidency as part of a build-out of the Education Department's student loan expertise. The 17 anonymous Biden re-election campaign staffers, in their letter, published on Medium, urged Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
➤U-S ISSUES 'FINAL WARNING': The U.S. and key allies issued what officials described as a final warning to the Houthi Yemeni rebel group to cease its attacks on Red Sea shipping. The U.S. military has prepared options to strike, U.S. officials say. That many Houthi weapons systems are mobile makes it challenging to strike targets. The Israel-Hamas war prompted the rebels to launch missiles and drones at Israel and ships in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, the killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in a suspected Israeli strike yesterday marked the biggest hit to the Palestinian militant group’s top leadership in years, taking out a key player who was responsible for aligning it with Iran and its proxies. His death in Beirut will likely hinder Hamas’s diplomatic efforts with key partners but won’t substantially affect the war in Gaza, military analysts said.
➤TERROR ATTACK IN IRAN: Nearly 100 people were killed at an event honoring former Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Wednesday in what local authorities and a senior White House official are calling a “terrorist” attack. Thousands of Iranians had gathered at Soleimani’s gravesite in Kerman to mark the fourth anniversary of his death, carrying photos of the former head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, when authorities say two bombs went off.
The first explosion occurred just 700 meters from Soleimani’s grave, while the second was a kilometer away, Iranian national media reports. Graphic video shared online later showed the crowds running away as emergency crews responded, with bodies lying on the ground. The footage suggested that the second blast occurred some 15 minutes after the first — a tactic often used by terrorist groups to target emergency responders and increase the death toll.
➤LAWMAKERS VISIT SOUTHERN BORDER: House Speaker Mike Johnson led dozens of Republicans to the border in Texas on Wednesday, saying they got a first-hand look at the devastation of unprecedented illegal immigration and calling the situation “heartbreaking and infuriating.”
“One thing is absolutely clear: America is at a breaking point with record levels of illegal immigration,” said Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, who laid blame squarely at the feet of President Biden. The Republicans visited Eagle Pass, a border town that’s been the epicenter of the chaos. Just days ago, thousands of migrants had jumped the border and created a squatters’ camp demanding to be processed and released.
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