Melania Trump stood at a podium in the same room Donald Trump used to address the nation on the war in Iran last week to make an announcement: she “never had a relationship” with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
It was unclear which specific accusations spurred Trump to respond publicly. The first lady went on to say that she and the president were invited to the same parties as Epstein “from time to time” as “overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach”.
That claim is undermined by the fact that the most well-known images of the two couples together were taken at Trump’s own club, Mar-a-Lago, on 12 February 2000.
Adding to the swirl of confusion over the reasoning behind the first lady’s statement are reports the president has been telling reporters he had no idea his wife would give them. A spokesperson for the first lady initially told the New York Times the president knew his wife planned to make a statement. That report was later updated to note that the spokesperson “later said it was not clear if Mr. Trump was aware of the topic of her remarks”.
Melania Trump says she did not have relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
US congressional leaders seized on the first lady’s call for Congress to take sworn testimony in a public hearing from Epstein victims.
“We agree with First Lady Melania Trump’s call for a public hearing with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein,” said Robert Garcia of California, ranking member of the House committee on oversight. “We encourage Chairman Comer to respond to the first lady’s request and schedule a public hearing immediately.”
US judge rules Pentagon has violated his order in press access case
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon has not complied with a March order that undid much of a restrictive new press pass policy implemented by the Department of Defense, and ordered the return of credentials to seven New York Times reporters.
Exclusive: US defense official overseeing AI reaped millions selling xAI stock after Pentagon entered agreement with company
A high-profile US Department of Defense official who oversees the agency’s artificial intelligence efforts made a profit of up to $24m selling a private investment he held in Elon Musk’s AI company earlier this year, according to government ethics records released this month. The value of his stake totaled a maximum of a million dollars when he joined the department.
George Clooney calls Donald Trump’s ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ threat to Iran a war crime
The long-running war of words between George Clooney and the White House has ignited again after the Oscar-winning actor criticized Trump’s threat to Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight”.
On Wednesday, in a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy, Clooney said the US president had committed a war crime with his threat.
Republicans block Democrats’ push to curb Trump’s war powers over Iran
An attempt by House Democrats to pass a long-shotresolution on Thursday curtailing Trump’s war powers over Iran failed after the Republican pro forma speaker, Chris Smith, did not recognize lawmakers from the opposite party on the floor.
What else happened today:
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A California man shot by US immigration agents said officials have falsely accused him of being a gang member and that officers fired on him without justification during a traffic stop.
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California authorities have filed felony charges against 21 people, who they say orchestrated a hospice fraud scheme that cost the state $267m, the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced on Thursday.
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The Democratic National Committee’s resolutions committee voted on Thursday to kill a measure targeting the pro-Israel lobby group Aipac and deferred two further resolutions on Middle East policy to a working group that critics say exists mainly to avoid difficult decisions.
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Cuba’s foreign minister has accused the United States of “extorting” Latin American countries by putting pressure on them to cancel decades-old deals with Havana for the supply of doctors.
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The US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed weakened rules governing the safe disposal of ash produced by burning coal. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Thursday 9 April.
