Dept

WASHINGTON — Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend and accomplice, repeatedly denied in her interview with the Justice Department having witnessed any sexually inappropriate interactions with Donald Trump, according to records released Friday meant to distance the president from the sex-trafficking case.

The Trump administration issued transcripts from interviews that Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche conducted with Maxwell last month as the administration was scrambling to present itself as transparent amid a fierce backlash over its refusal to disclose a trove of records from the case.

The records show Maxwell repeatedly showering Trump with praise and denying under questioning from Blanche that she had observed Trump engaged in any form of sexual behavior. The administration was presumably eager to make such denials public at a time when Trump has faced questions about his former longtime friendship with Epstein and as his administration has endured continued scrutiny over its handling of evidence from the case.

The transcript release represents the latest Trump administration effort to repair self-inflicted political wounds after failing to deliver on expectations that its own officials had created through conspiracy theories and bold pronouncements that never came to pass. By making public two days’ worth of interviews, officials appear to be hoping to at least temporarily keep at bay sustained anger from Trump’s base as they send Congress evidence they had previously kept from view.

After her interview with Blanche, Maxwell was moved from the low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas to continue serving a 20-year sentence for her 2021 conviction for luring underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Her trial featured sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14 told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s homes.

She was convicted of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

Victims of Epstein and Maxwell and victims’ family members, among others, have expressed outrage at her prison relocation and the Trump administration’s handling of the case.

Neither Maxwell’s lawyers nor the federal Bureau of Prisons has explained the reason for the move, but one of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, said in a social media post Friday that Maxwell was “innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted.”

Maxwell is widely believed to be seeking a presidential pardon, which Trump has not ruled out.

‘Never inappropriate’

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript. “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

Maxwell recalled knowing about Trump and possibly meeting him for the first time in 1990, when her newspaper magnate father, Robert Maxwell, was the owner of the New York Daily News. She said she had been to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., sometimes alone, but hadn’t seen Trump since the mid-2000s.

Asked if she ever heard Epstein or anyone else say Trump “had done anything inappropriate with masseuses” or anyone else in their orbit, Maxwell replied, “Absolutely never, in any context.”

Maxwell was interviewed over the course of two days last month by Blanche — one of Trump’s personal lawyers before joining the Justice Department — at a Florida courthouse. She was given limited immunity, allowing her to speak freely without fear of prosecution for anything she said except in the event of a false statement.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department on Friday began sending to the House Oversight Committee records from the investigation that the panel says it intends to make public after removing victims’ information.

The case had long captured public attention in part because of Epstein’s social connections over the years to prominent figures, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, former President Clinton and Trump, who has said he had a falling-out with Epstein years ago and well before the financier came under investigation.

Maxwell told Blanche that Clinton was initially her friend, not Epstein’s, and that she never saw him receive a massage — nor did she believe he ever did. The only times they were together, she said, were the two dozen or so times they traveled on Epstein’s plane.

“That would’ve been the only time that I think that President Clinton could have even received a massage,” Maxwell said. “And he didn’t, because I was there.”

She also spoke glowingly of Britain’s Prince Andrew and dismissed as “rubbish” the late Virginia Giuffre’s claim that she was paid to have a relationship with Andrew and that he had sex with her at Maxwell’s London home.

Maxwell sought to distance herself from Epstein’s conduct, repeatedly denying allegations made during her trial about her role. Though she acknowledged that at one point Epstein began preferring younger women, she claimed she never understood that to “encompass children.” Prosecutors presented evidence at trial showing she and Epstein both knew some victims were underage.

“I did see from when I met him, he was involved, or — involved or friends with or whatever, however you want to characterize it — with women who were in their 20s,” she told Blanche. “And then the slide to, you know, 18 or younger looking women. But I never considered that this would encompass criminal behavior.”

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls, and was found dead a month later in a New York jail cell in what investigators determined was suicide.

A story that’s consumed the Justice Department

The saga has consumed the Trump administration following a two-page announcement from the FBI and Justice Department last month that Epstein had killed himself despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, that a “client list” that Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi had intimated was on her desk did not actually exist, and that no additional documents from the high-profile investigation were suitable to be released.

The announcement produced outrage from conspiracy theorists, online sleuths and Trump supporters who had been hoping to see proof of a government cover-up during previous administrations. That expectation was driven in part by comments from officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who on podcasts before taking their current positions had repeatedly promoted the idea that damaging details about prominent people were being withheld.

Patel, for instance, said in at least one podcast interview before becoming director that Epstein’s “black book” was under the “direct control of the director of the FBI.”

The administration made a stumble in February when far-right influencers were invited to the White House in February and provided by Bondi with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain.

After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI and raised expectations of forthcoming releases.

But after a weeks-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

Faced with fury from his base, Trump sought to quickly turn the page, shutting down questioning of Bondi about Epstein at a White House Cabinet meeting and deriding as “weaklings” his own supporters who he said were falling for the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax.”

The Justice Department has responded to a subpoena from House lawmakers by pledging to turn over information.

Tucker, Sisak and Richer write for the Associated Press. AP writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report.

June 13 (UPI) — The State Department was pressing ahead Friday with a reorganization that will see more than 3,400 layoffs of U.S.-based staff in bureaus that cover Asia and the Middle East and across seven divisions, including the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which will be letting go 51 employees.

The planned cuts, which were communicated to lawmakers and staff Thursday, provide the first detailed breakdown of the scope of the administration’s bid to tackle “bureaucratic overgrowth,” merge desks to eliminate redundancy and re-think the briefs of bureaus, Government Executive said.

With a 69% cut, Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs will see the largest workforce reduction with 386 staff laid off and 145 leaving by mutual agreement. Economic Growth Energy and Environment will shed 297 employees, 198 of them layoffs.

Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and Arms Control and International Security will each lose around 22% of their teams, equivalent to 168 and 245 employees, respectively, while Political Affairs will lose 274 staff, 112 of them via layoffs.

The largest cuts are reserved for the department’s Management division, where 897 staff will be laid off, with unit manpower being reduced by a further 796 via resignations on a deferred basis.

Rubio’s so-called “S Family” office will see its staff complement slashed by 240, or 12%, but all but 51 have opted to resign voluntarily, officials said.

The department, which said it planned to complete the changes by July 1, stressed that some staff members will be reassigned, and that the disappearance of any individual’s office from the organizational chart did not mean they were being let go.

It also vowed the human resources team would assist foreign service officers whose next assignment had been axed to find a new position.

In a document prepared for Congress, the State Department said reduction in force, or layoffs, had been carefully designed in line with all applicable laws in a way that would not affect the department’s functions.

“Reductions will principally affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities,” the department said.

However, a number of offices that had become “prone to ideological capture and radicalism will cease to exist, including the Civilian Security, Human Rights and Democracy division, while the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Population, Refugees and Migration offices will be brought into the undersecretary Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs’ jurisdiction.

A foreign service officer told Government Executive that the changes would leave the division with overall responsibility for humanitarian and foreign assistance totally hollowed out.

Labor strongly opposed the plans, with the American Foreign Service Association — the union that represents staff members — saying it rejected the workforce changes “firmly and unequivocally,” coming at a time when the effectiveness of American diplomacy was already at risk from “an already stretched thin and under-resourced” State Department.

Geoffrey Pyatt, a former assistant secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to Greece and Ukraine, added his voice to the dissenters.

“Inevitably, a lot of the people who will be laid off will be experienced diplomats with hard-earned skills in language and area knowledge,” he told the Financial Times.

Rubio announced his sweeping reorganization of the service, including returements, in April, saying the department had become too big, expensive and bureaucratic in recent decades and needed to drastically slimmed down in line with President Donald Trump‘s priorities.

The U.S. Justice Department ratcheted up its efforts to block transgender athletes from competing in school sports in California by warning school districts Monday that they will face legal trouble if they don’t break from the state and bar such athletes from competition within days.

The new warning followed similar threats by the Trump administration to the state and the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs youth sports and requires transgender athletes be allowed to compete. It also comes after AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old transgender junior from Jurupa Valley High School, won multiple medals at the state high school track and field championships on Saturday, despite a directive from President Trump that she not be allowed to compete.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon — a conservative California lawyer who focused on challenging LGBTQ+-friendly state laws before being appointed by Trump to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — wrote in a Monday letter to school districts that continuing to comply with CIF rules allowing transgender athletes to compete “would deprive girls of athletic opportunities and benefits based solely on their biological sex,” in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

To “avoid legal liability” for such violations, Dhillon wrote, each district must “certify in writing” by June 9 that it is no longer complying with the federation’s rules and barring transgender athletes from competition.

Dhillon said on the social media platform X that her office put “1600+ California schools on blast for violating equal protection in girls’ sports.”

Dhillon’s letter made no mention of the CIF’s rule change last week — after Trump threatened to revoke federal funding from California if Hernandez competed in the state championships. The change allowed any cisgender girl bumped from qualifying for event finals by a transgender athlete to compete anyway. It also ensured cisgender girls were awarded medals in every race, regardless of how Hernandez placed.

The policy was intended as a compromise, but it drew little support from those on the conservative right demanding a full ban on transgender athletes.

In addition to Trump’s funding threat, Dhillon’s office last week announced it was launching an investigation into the state, the interscholastic federation and the Jurupa Unified School District, where Hernandez competes.

A spokesperson for California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office said officials there were “very concerned with the Trump Administration’s ongoing threats to California schools and remain committed to defending and upholding California laws and all additional laws which ensure the rights of students — including transgender students — to be free from discrimination and harassment.”

The office was “reviewing the letter and closely monitoring the Trump Administration’s actions in this space,” the spokesperson said.

Elizabeth Sanders, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education, said the agency had no comment on Dhillon’s letter Monday but was “preparing to send guidance” out to districts Tuesday. She said California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also had no response Monday.

The Los Angeles Unified School District declined to comment. Other local districts around L.A. did not respond to requests for comment.

LGBTQ+ advocates criticized Dhillon’s letter, calling it the latest proof that the Trump administration is not actually concerned with protecting cisgender athletes but with targeting transgender kids to score political points.

Shannon Minter, vice president of legal at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, helped draft the interscholastic federation’s original rules allowing transgender athletes to compete, and also supports the new rule — which he said ensures that both transgender and cisgender athletes get to compete.

At last weekend’s meet, for example, Hernandez’s competing did not push any cisgender girls out of competition.

Hernandez took gold in both the girls’ triple jump and girls’ high jump, and placed second in the girls’ long jump — but wasn’t alone in any of those spots.

For the triple jump, she stood on the podium alongside a cisgender girl who was also given gold. For the high jump, she shared the podium with two cisgender girls with whom she tied. For the long jump, she shared the second-place podium spot with a cisgender girl who also was awarded silver.

The new rule addressed “the concerns people had about taking opportunities away from non-transgender girls, and it makes sure that cannot happen — it literally eliminates that concern altogether,” Minter said.

By ignoring the new rules, he said, Dhillon’s letter “shows what we already knew, which is that this administration isn’t concerned at all about protecting athletic opportunities for girls, this is just about bias against transgender people — pure and simple.”

Critics of transgender youth participating in sports, meanwhile, cheered Dhillon’s letter as a major victory.

Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the conservative California Family Council, said it was “huge.” Lorey was kicked out of the state championships Saturday after handing out fliers urging people to sign a petition calling on the interscholastic federation to change its policies.

“Here we gooooo!” Lorey wrote on X. “As a born & raised Californian who played soccer through college — I am beyond grateful.”

At least a handful of California school districts with conservative elected leaders would be eager to comply with the new directive.

On April 17, the Chino Valley Unified school board unanimously approved a resolution titled “Supporting Title IX and Fairness in Girls’ Interscholastic Sports.” The resolution stated that “biological differences between male and female athletes can create inherent advantage in competitive sports, particularly in categories designated specifically for girls.”

The school system called on state governing bodies to uphold protections for girls in sports under Title IX, a 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.

In April, the school system also filed a Title IX complaint with the federal Justice Department against Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Department of Education, Thurmond and the California Interscholastic Federation.

The complaint said Chino Valley was “now caught between conflicting state and federal directives” and was requesting “urgent federal intervention.”

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board, wrote on X that Dhillon’s letter was “a historic win” for parents, their daughters, the nation and “truth.”

“We will not bend. We will not compromise. We will protect our daughters at all costs,” wrote Shaw, who is running for state superintendent of public instruction. “The tide is turning. The silence is broken. And we are just getting started.”

Shaw also suggested that the support from the Trump administration could encourage her school system to take more aggressive action.

“I’m bringing this matter forward at our next board meeting,” Shaw said. “We will not comply with insanity. We will not be bullied into silence. We will not betray our girls to please radicals.”

Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, could not be reached Monday, but has previously said that it was heartbreaking to see her child being attacked “simply for being who they are,” and despite following all California laws and policies for competing.

She begged Trump to reconsider his efforts to oust transgender girls from sports.

“My child is a transgender student-athlete, a hardworking, disciplined, and passionate young person who just wants to play sports, continue to build friendships, and grow into their fullest potential like any other child,” she said.

May 29 (UPI) — The Trump administration announced plans Thursday to overhaul the Department of State, saying the federal agency has grown too big and costly while producing too few results.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that he has submitted the reorganization plan to Congress — a report that includes feedback from lawmakers, government bureaus and employees.

He first announced plans for the reorganization in April, calling his department “bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition.”

The report submitted to Congress, obtained by Politico, would reduce the State Department’s domestic workforce by 3,448 jobs, including recent reductions in positions and voluntary exits under the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program.

It also calls for the elimination of most offices under the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which champions American values abroad, including the rule of law and individual rights.

Positions to be created under the plan align with the Trump administration’s conservative reshaping of the federal government, including a deputy assistant secretary of state for Democracy and Western values, as well as a so-called Natural Rights Office that will “ground the department’s values-based diplomacy in traditional Western conceptions of core freedoms,” according to an international state Department notification to lawmakers states cited by Politico.

“Over the past quarter century, the domestic operations of the State Department have grown exponentially, resulting in more bureaucracy, higher costs and fewer results for the American people,” Rubio said Wednesday.

“The reorganization plan will result in a more agile Department, better equipped to promote America’s interests and keep Americans safe across the world.”

It was unclear how Congress would react to the proposal, but House and Senate Democrats on the foreign relations committees quickly rejected the plan as being detrimental to U.S. interests abroad.

They said it “hands over” Afghan allies who worked with the U.S. military to the Taliban, guts programs to protect people who protect democracy, fires thousands of employees without cause and moves foreign assistance programs to entities with no experience with managing them.

“We welcome reforms where needed but they must be done with a scalpel, not a chainsaw,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

“Taken together, these moves significantly undercut America’s role in the world and open the door for adversaries to threaten our safety and prosperity,” she said.

The overhaul comes as the Trump administration seeks to reshape and downsize the federal government in an effort to consolidate more power under President Donald Trump.

Netflix’s new drama Dept Q stars Leah Byrne as cadet Rose – however, some fans may recognise the Scottish actress for her role in an episode of BBC One’s Call the Midwife

Netflix’s brand new crime drama Dept Q arrived today on the streamer, starring Downton Abbey’s Matthew Goode as a detective attempting to track down the mysterious criminal who shot him in the face. After returning back to his Edinburgh police station for the first time since the attack, Carl (Goode) is tasked with setting up Department Q – a cold case unit – while he covertly tries to investigate the crime himself.

In his new team, Carl is joined by Rose – a cadet who is keen to prove herself to Carl – played by Scottish actress Leah Byrne. The actress has just a few credits under her belt, including small roles in BBC drama Nightsleeper and Channel 4’s Deadwater Fell.

However, before taking on the role of Rose, Leah appeared in a 2019 episode of Call the Midwife as Maggie Nickle – an expectant mother. With a brunette head of hair, Leah couldn’t look more different in the BBC role.

Meanwhile, in Dept. Q, Leah sports a ginger perm as rookie detective Rose. Leah isn’t the only unrecognisable star in Dept Q. Matthew Goode takes on a scruffy look and a beard for his role as DCI Carl Morck.

Speaking about the Netflix drama ahead of its release, Matthew said of Carl: “He’s so aggressive and rude. I loved his sense of humour. He’s a complex character, and you get to see him warts and all.”

He added that he was hooked on the character from the moment he was sent the script. “Scott could have cast anybody,” Matthew said. “When someone trusts you like that, you take it seriously. There was pressure but, as Billie Jean King said, ‘Pressure is a privilege.’”

Matthew opened up about one scene, where he needed to drive an old Ford Sierra with dodgy brakes. “Every time Scott told me to drive fast, I’d be thinking, ‘I hope it stops and I don’t plough into anyone,’” says Matthew. “Occasionally, I’d turn the car off and walk away, then I’d hear it start again and have to give it a kick.”

The series also stars The Queen’s Gambit actress Chloe Pirrie as Merritt – an ambitious lawyer whose disappearance is investigated by Carl.

“Merritt’s main strength is she doesn’t feel the need to please people,” Chloe said. “She’s loyal, someone you’d want on your side, but she’s also isolated herself. She uses people and doesn’t think that highly of them. She’s similar to Carl in that way.”

Dept Q is now streaming on Netflix.

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