Sexual Assault

United States lawmakers have written to Andrew, Britain’s disgraced former prince, requesting that he sit for a formal interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a day after King Charles III formally stripped his younger brother of his royal titles.

Separately, a secluded desert ranch where Epstein once entertained guests is coming under renewed scrutiny in the US state of New Mexico, with two state legislators proposing a “truth commission” to uncover the full extent of the financier’s crimes there.

On Thursday, 16 Democratic Party members of Congress signed a letter addressed to “Mr Mountbatten Windsor”, as Andrew is now known, to participate in a “transcribed interview” with the US House of Representatives oversight committee’s investigation into Epstein.

“The committee is seeking to uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations,” the letter read.

“Well-documented allegations against you, along with your longstanding friendship with Mr Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation,” it added.

The letter asked Andrew to respond by November 20.

The US Congress has no power to compel testimony from foreigners, making it unlikely Andrew will give evidence.

The letter will be another unwelcome development for the disgraced former prince after a turbulent few weeks.

On October 30, Buckingham Palace said King Charles had “initiated a formal process” to revoke Andrew’s royal status after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with Epstein – who took his own life in prison in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

The rare move to strip a British prince or princess of their title – last taken in 1919 after Prince Ernest Augustus sided with Germany during World War I – also meant that Andrew was evicted from his lavish Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor and moved into “private accommodation”.

King Charles formally made the changes with an announcement published on Wednesday in The Gazette – the United Kingdom’s official public record – saying Andrew “shall no longer be entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of ‘Royal Highness’ and the titular dignity of ‘Prince’”.

Andrew surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier in October following new abuse allegations from his accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in her posthumous memoir, which hit shelves last month.

The Democrat lawmakers referenced Giuffre’s memoir in their letter, specifically claims that she feared “retaliation if she made allegations against” Andrew, and that he had asked his personal protection officer to “dig up dirt” on his accuser for a smear campaign in 2011.

“This fear of retaliation has been a persistent obstacle to many of those who were victimised in their fight for justice,” the letter said. “In addition to Mr. Epstein’s crimes, we are investigating any such efforts to silence, intimidate, or threaten victims.”

Giuffre, who alleges that Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Andrew on three occasions, twice when she was just 17, took her own life in Australia in April.

In 2022, Andrew paid Giuffre a multimillion-pound settlement to resolve a civil lawsuit she had levelled against him. Andrew denied the allegations, and he has not been charged with any crime.

On Thursday, Democratic lawmakers also turned the spotlight on Zorro Ranch, proposing to the House of Representatives’ Courts, Corrections and Justice Interim Committee that a commission be created to investigate alleged crimes against young girls at the New Mexico property, which Epstein purchased in 1993.

State Representative Andrea Romero said several survivors of Epstein’s abuse have signalled that sex trafficking activity extended to the secluded desert ranch with a hilltop mansion and private runway in Stanley, about 56 kilometres (35 miles) south of the state capital, Santa Fe.

“This commission will specifically seek the truth about what officials knew, how crimes were unreported or reported, and how the state can ensure that this essentially never happens again,” Romero told a panel of legislators.

“There’s no complete record of what occurred,” she said.

Representative Marianna Anaya, presenting to the committee alongside Romero, said state authorities missed several opportunities over decades to stop Epstein.

“Even after all these years, you know, there are still questions of New Mexico’s role as a state, our roles in terms of oversight and accountability for the survivors who are harmed,” she said.

New Mexico laws allowed Epstein to avoid registering locally as a sex offender long after he was required to register in Florida, where he was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.

Republican Representative Andrea Reeb said she believed New Mexicans “have a right to know what happened at this ranch” and she didn’t feel the commission was going to be a “big political thing”.

To move forward, approval will be needed from the state House when the legislature convenes in January.

Sheinbaum calls for nationwide review of sexual harassment laws, as attack shines light on Mexico’s poor record on women’s safety.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for sexual harassment to be made a crime nationwide after being groped on the street while greeting supporters near the presidential palace in Mexico City.

Sheinbaum, 63, said on Wednesday that she had pressed charges against the man and would review nationwide legislation on sexual harassment following the attack by a drunk man who put his arm around her shoulder, and with the other hand touched her hip and chest, while attempting to kiss her neck.

Mexico’s first woman president removed the man’s hands before a member of her staff stepped between them. The president’s security detail did not appear to be nearby at the moment of the attack, which was caught on camera.

The man was later arrested.

“My thinking is: If I don’t file a complaint, what becomes of other Mexican women? If this happens to the president, what will happen to all the women in our country?” Sheinbaum told her regular morning news conference on Wednesday.

In a post on social media, the president said the attack was “something that many women experience in the country and in the world”.

Presenté una denuncia por el episodio de acoso que viví ayer en la Ciudad de México. Debe quedar claro que, más allá de ser presidenta, esto es algo que viven muchas mujeres en el país y en el mundo; nadie puede vulnerar nuestro cuerpo y espacio personal.

Revisaremos la… pic.twitter.com/jcs6FweI6q

— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) November 5, 2025

Translation: I filed a complaint for the harassment episode that I experienced yesterday in Mexico City. It must be clear that, beyond being president, this is something that many women experience in the country and in the world; no one can violate our body and personal space. We will review the legislation so that this crime is punishable in all 32 states.

Sheinbaum explained that the incident occurred when she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to save time. She said they could walk the route in five minutes, rather than taking a 20-minute car ride.

She also called on states across Mexico to look at their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults and said Mexicans needed to hear a “loud and clear, no, women’s personal space must not be violated”.

Mexico’s 32 states and Mexico City, which is a federal entity, all have their own criminal codes, and not all states consider sexual harassment a crime.

“It should be a criminal offence, and we are going to launch a campaign,” Sheinbaum said, adding that she had suffered similar attacks in her youth.

The incident has put the focus on Mexico’s troubling record on women’s safety, with sexual harassment commonplace and rights groups warning of a femicide crisis, and the United Nations reporting that an average of 10 women are murdered every day in the country.

About 70 percent of Mexican women aged 15 and over will also experience at least one incident of sexual harassment in their lives, according to the UN.

The attack also focused criticism on Sheinbaum’s security detail and on her insistence on maintaining a degree of intimacy with the public, despite Mexican politicians regularly being a target of cartel violence.

But Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion that she would increase her security or change how she interacts with people following the incident.

At nationwide rallies in September to mark her first year in power, the president allowed supporters to embrace her and take selfies.

The United Kingdom’s King Charles III has stripped his brother, Andrew, of the title of prince and ordered him to leave his lavish residence near Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday. Observers say the Palace is finally taking decisive action over Andrew’s connections to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations that the two men sexually abused Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager.

Andrew, 65, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth and younger brother of King Charles, has faced growing scrutiny over his personal conduct and ties to Epstein. Earlier this month, he was pressured into giving up his title of Duke of York.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” Andrew said at the time. He also said he “vigorously den[ies] the accusations” against him.

Buckingham Palace hopes to be seen as taking a decisive step, drawing a line after years of compromising scandals. In 2022, Andrew was removed from numerous royal duties due to his connections to Epstein.

How did Andrew’s ties to Epstein come to light?

Born in 1960, Andrew was once one of the more popular members of the British royal family, known for his military service as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War in 1982.

For years, however, Andrew’s personal antics have generated embarrassing headlines, testing the patience of the royal family. In 2024, for instance, court documents revealed that a close adviser on Andrew’s business affairs was a suspected Chinese spy.

But it was Andrew’s persistent ties to Jeffrey Epstein that ultimately forced King Charles’s hand and led to Andrew stepping down from his royal duties in 2019. Epstein died by suicide in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In 2021, Virginia Giuffre – one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein – filed a lawsuit alleging rape and sexual abuse against then-Prince Andrew. She claimed she had been forced to have sex with him on multiple occasions when she was 17, a minor under US law.

Prince Andrew has always denied Giuffre’s allegations, even insisting that a now-infamous photograph that appeared to show them together had been doctored. But in 2022, he agreed to settle the lawsuit, costing him as much as $16m.

Virginia Giuffre died by suicide in April this year. She was 41 years old.

Earlier this month, British newspapers reported that Andrew had emailed Epstein in February 2011 – more than two months after the prince told the BBC he had severed all ties with his former associate.

The email was sent at a time of heightened media coverage of the Epstein scandal, with Andrew telling Epstein they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it”.

These disclosures ultimately prompted Buckingham Palace’s response on Thursday.

What has Buckingham Palace said?

In a statement released on Thursday night, Buckingham Palace said the King’s brother is now to be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

He will no longer be styled “Prince” or “His Royal Highness (HRH)” and he has lost his dukedom, earldom, barony, military ranks and royal patronages.

It also announced that he is to be evicted from his residence, the sprawling Royal Lodge that was once home to the Queen Mother, near Windsor Castle, west of London.

“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation,” the palace statement said.

“These censures are deemed necessary… Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” it added.

A palace source said the decision was taken by King Charles, but that he had the support of the wider family, including heir-to-the-throne Prince William, in a bid to limit reputational risks to the monarchy.

Elsewhere, culture secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC’s Question Time programme that the king’s latest decision was a “truly brave, important, and correct step”, sending a “powerful message” to survivors of sexual abuse.

Why has Andrew been evicted from Royal Lodge?

In recent weeks, the British press has been rife with speculation about Andrew’s finances after The Times newspaper reported on October 21 that he had not paid rent on his 30-room mansion – known as Royal Lodge – for two decades.

It was revealed that he had a lease on the property stipulating a “peppercorn rent”: In return for carrying out renovations and maintaining the mansion, Andrew was paying a rent of “one peppercorn” each year.

In a rare political intervention, a British parliamentary committee on Wednesday questioned whether Andrew should still be living in the house, which is owned by the monarch and located 5km (3 miles) south of Windsor Castle.

On October 28, the BBC also revealed that Prince Andrew had hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s associate, later jailed for sex trafficking – and Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced film producer convicted of rape, at Royal Lodge.

The three visited Andrew’s home in 2006 to celebrate his daughter’s 18th birthday, just two months after a United States arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein over the sexual assault of a minor.

Where will Andrew live now?

It is understood that Andrew will move to a property on the private Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, which will be privately funded by his brother, the king.

The wider Sandringham Estate covers approximately 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) with 240 hectares (600 acres) of gardens, and the Palace has not stipulated which property he will stay in.

It is also understood that Andrew’s move to Sandringham will take place “as soon as practicable”.

His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson – who still lives at Royal Lodge with him – will also move out of Royal Lodge and make her own living arrangements.

Have other royals in the UK been stripped of their titles in the past?

The stripping of Prince Andrew’s royal titles by King Charles III is unusual in modern British history.

Other royals have relinquished titles voluntarily – such as Princess Diana giving up HRH following her divorce from King Charles – and King Edward VIII, who abdicated from the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American woman who had been divorced twice.

Others have lost their privileges for political reasons – such as Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, for siding with Germany in World War I – but there has not been a case of a reigning monarch or immediate family being stripped of their status for scandal-related reasons.

In that sense, Andrew’s case is the most serious demotion of a senior British royal in recent memory.

A French court has rejected the appeal of a man found guilty of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged by her husband and increased his sentence to 10 years.

Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker, was convicted of sexually abusing Gisele Pelicot, 72, in a landmark case last December, with witnesses testifying in his appeal earlier this week that Dogan was “fully aware” Gisele Pelicot was asleep while he was assaulting her.

“The court and jury sentence Husamettin Dogan to 10 years in prison” along with “mandatory treatment for five years”, presiding judge Christian Pasta said on Thursday. Standing in the dock at the court in the southern city of Nimes, Dogan did not react to the verdict.

Pelicot returned to court this week to face the only man, out of 51, who appealed against his guilty verdict. She called for “victims to never be ashamed of what was forced upon them”.

Prior to Dogan’s sentencing, French prosecutor Dominique Sie called for his jail term to be increased to 12 years – the term prosecutors had initially sought – because of “Dogan’s stance, in all its rigidity, as he absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

“As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing,” Sie said.

Dogan claimed he was not a “rapist” and insisted he thought he was participating in consensual sexual activity.

Witnesses in Dogan’s appeal this week included Pelicot’s ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, who previously received a prison term of 20 years, the maximum sentence, for orchestrating the assaults in the former couple’s home in Mazan.

During the trial last year, Dominique Pelicot admitted that, for more than a decade, he drugged his then-wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her. He also filmed the assaults, which included at least 50 men.

In Tuesday’s hearing, he denied ever coercing or misleading Dogan. “I never forced anyone,” he said.

He also refuted Dogan’s assertion that his invitation was to participate in a sexual game. “I never said that,” he said.

Dogan visited the couple’s home on June 28, 2019, where he is accused of assaulting Gisele Pelicot for more than three hours. Dogan, however, has said he only realised that something was wrong when he heard the woman snoring.

Investigator Jeremie Bosse-Platiere also testified on Tuesday. He cited video footage of Gisele Pelicot’s assault to assert that Dogan was fully aware Gisele had not consented.

“Anyone who sees the videos understands this immediately,” Bosse-Platiere said.

The police commissioner described a video in which Gisele Pelicot was seen moving slightly, causing Dogan to immediately withdraw.

“We understand that he is worried that his victim might wake up and freeze in a waiting position,” said Bosse-Platiere.

“After 30 seconds, seeing that it was a reflex caused by pain or discomfort, he reintroduces his penis into her vagina.”

Investigators found a total of 107 photos and 14 videos from the night Dogan visited the couple’s home in the southern town of Mazan.

Gisele Pelicot appeared at the proceedings on Wednesday, telling the court that Dogan had raped her and must “take responsibility” for his actions.

Gisele’s decision to waive her right to anonymity during the initial trial was celebrated as a bold move for transparency, raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence in France and around the world.

She also attended the proceedings in person and faced her abusers in court. She was named a knight of the Legion of Honour, France’s top civic honour, in July.

Her case has resulted in greater momentum to reform France’s laws on rape and sexual assault.

Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly and Senate have pushed for an update to the definition of rape under the country’s penal code, in order to include a clear reference to the need for consent. A final bill is expected to pass in the coming months.

“There needs to be an evolution for you, and for society, from rape culture to a culture of consent,” French prosecutor Sie said on Thursday.

Husamettin Dogan is the only defendant to appeal his conviction for assaulting Pelicot, a French woman whose case drew international attention.

Witnesses have testified that defendant Husamettin Dogan was “fully aware” that Gisele Pelicot was asleep while he was assaulting her, as his appeal unfolds in a French court in the southern city of Nimes.

Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker, was one of 50 men convicted of sexually abusing Pelicot in a landmark case last December.

But he has since sought to overturn his conviction, claiming he was not a “rapist” and insisting he thought he was participating in a consensual sexual activity.

He is the only defendant from that case to appeal. He has been sentenced to nine years in prison, lower than the 12 years initially sought by prosecutors.

Tuesday marked the second day of his appeal, and prosecutors presented evidence to contradict his claims.

Witnesses included Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, who previously received a prison term of 20 years, the maximum sentence, for orchestrating the assaults in the former couple’s home in Mazan.

During trial last year, Dominique Pelicot admitted that, for more than a decade, he drugged his then-wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her. He also filmed the assaults, which included at least 50 men.

In Tuesday’s hearing, he denied ever coercing or misleading Dogan. “I never forced anyone,” he said. “They never needed me.”

He also refuted Dogan’s assertion that his invitation was to participate in a sexual game. “I never said that,” he said.

“I have no interest in speaking ill of anyone, except to tell the truth,” Dominique Pelicot added.

Dogan visited the couple’s home on June 28, 2019, where he is accused of assaulting Gisele Pelicot for more than three hours. Dogan, however, has said he only realised that something was wrong when he heard the woman snoring.

Investigator Jeremie Bosse-Platiere also testified on Tuesday. He cited video footage of Gisele Pelicot’s assault to assert that Dogan was fully aware Gisele had not consented.

“Anyone who sees the videos understands this immediately,” Bosse-Platiere said.

The police commissioner described a video in which Gisele Pelicot was seen moving slightly, causing Dogan to immediately withdraw.

“We understand that he is worried that his victim might wake up and freezes in a waiting position,” said Bosse-Platiere.

“After 30 seconds, seeing that it was a reflex caused by pain or discomfort, he reintroduces his penis into her vagina.”

Investigators found a total of 107 photos and 14 videos from the night Dogan visited the couple’s home in the southern town of Mazan.

Gisele Pelicot herself is set to take the stand on Wednesday morning, with the verdict expected later that day or Thursday.

Her decision to waive her right to anonymity during the initial trial was celebrated as a bold move for transparency, raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence in France and around the world.

She also attended the proceedings in person and faced her abusers in court. She was named a knight of the Legion of Honour, France’s top civic honour, in July.

Her case has resulted in greater momentum to reform France’s laws about rape and sexual assault.

Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly and Senate have pushed for an update to the definition of rape under the country’s penal code, in order to include a clear reference to the need for consent. A final bill is expected to pass in the coming months.

The famed hip-hop mogul told the court that his actions were ‘disgusting’ and ‘shameful’ in a plea for leniency.

Musician and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison for transporting people across state lines for sexual encounters.

His sentencing hearing on Friday capped a federal case that featured harrowing testimony and ended in a forceful reckoning for one of the most popular figures in hip-hop. Combs, 55, was also fined half a million dollars.

Since Combs has served a year in jail already, he is expected to be released in about three years. His lawyers wanted him freed immediately and said the time behind bars has already forced him to embrace remorse and sobriety.

He was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fuelled sexual encounters, a practice that happened over many years and in different locations. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.

“Why did it happen so long?” US District Judge Arun Subramanian asked as he handed down the sentence. “Because you had the power and the resources to keep it going, and because you weren’t caught.”

Combs showed no visible change of emotion as he learned his sentence, sitting in his chair and looking straight ahead as the judge spoke. He remained subdued afterwards and appeared dejected, with none of the enthusiasm and smiles that accompanied his interactions with lawyers and his family earlier in the day.

In a final word before sentencing, Combs told the judge his years of behaviour were “disgusting, shameful” and apologised to the people he had hurt physically and mentally. He said his acts of domestic violence were a burden he would have to carry for the rest of his life.

His defence lawyers played an 11-minute video in court portraying Combs’ family life, career and philanthropy. At one point during the video, Combs put a hand on his face and began to cry.

His nearly two-month trial in a federal court in Manhattan featured testimony from women who said Combs had beaten, threatened, sexually assaulted and blackmailed them. Prosecutor Christy Slavik told the judge that sparing Combs serious prison time would excuse years of violence.

“It’s a case about a man who did horrible things to real people to satisfy his own sexual gratification,” she said. “He didn’t need the money. His currency was control.”

Combs was convicted under the Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for prostitution. Defence lawyer Jason Driscoll argued the law was misapplied.

During testimony at the trial, former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura told jurors that Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” sex with strangers hundreds of times during their decade-long relationship. Jurors saw video of him dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway.

Another woman, identified as “Jane”, testified she was pressured into sex with male workers during drug-fuelled “hotel nights” while Combs watched and sometimes filmed.

The only accuser scheduled to speak Friday, a former assistant known as “Mia”, withdrew after defence objections. She has accused Combs of raping her in 2010 and asked the judge for a sentence that reflects “the ongoing danger my abuser poses”.

The United States Department of Justice has released transcripts of a recent interview between Ghislaine Maxwell, the former partner of child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, and one of its top officials.

Their meeting was arranged in July as the administration of President Donald Trump struggled to tamp down scrutiny over his past ties to Epstein.

In transcripts released on Friday, Maxwell praised Trump and insisted that she never saw him engage in any inappropriate behaviour.

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” said Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking convictions.

“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.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the second-in-command at the Justice Department, previously said he met with Maxwell to see if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims”.

But the release of the transcripts is likely to reignite questions about how the Justice Department has handled information about the Epstein case, which has become a source of speculation and conspiracy theories among Trump’s supporters.

On Friday, Blanche said that, excepting the names of the victims, “every word is included” in the released transcripts.

“Nothing removed. Nothing hidden,” he explained.

In the interview, Maxwell denied having any knowledge of a so-called “client list”, a subject of conspiracy theories on the US right.

She also complimented Trump for his behaviour and his “extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now”.

“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” Maxwell said, adding, “I like him, and I’ve always liked him.”

Following her meeting with Blanche, which took place in a courthouse over two days, Maxwell was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas.

The government has not explained the reason for the change.

But in the aftermath of the meeting, the family of one of Epstein’s highest-profile accusers, Virginia Giuffre, called on the Trump administration not to show Maxwell any leniency.

“She must remain in prison — anything less would go down in history as being one of the highest travesties of justice,” Giuffre’s relatives wrote in a statement. Giuffre died by suicide in April.

Epstein himself was found dead in his jail cell in 2019, and his death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Still, conspiracy theories have widely circulated in the US that his death could have been a cover-up, based on the belief that Epstein’s powerful associates may have taken part in his abuse.

Experts say the saga has become a stand-in for the suspicion that the rich and powerful face little accountability, and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base has long backed efforts to “drain the swamp”: a catchphrase used to advocate for the removal of corrupt forces in the government and leading industries.

Some of these suspicions have evolved into conspiracy theories about rings of paedophiles operating in the shadows of power.

In 2016, for instance, a suspect fired a gun into the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington, DC, based on the belief it was a hub for such a ring.

In the Epstein case, there was widespread speculation that the disgraced financier kept a “client list” as blackmail against powerful figures.

Several members of the Trump administration had previously been strong promoters of that conspiracy theory, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel.

But he has since backtracked after joining the White House for Trump’s second term, with the FBI and Department of Justice issuing a joint memo that no such list exists. That memo also reaffirmed that Epstein died by suicide and no further suspects in his abuses have come to light.

The memo, however, failed to dampen interest in the scandal, and many pointed out that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February that a client list was “on her desk” for review. Bondi has since said she misspoke and was referring to the Epstein files in general.

A Quinnipiac poll in July found that 63 percent of people in the US disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue.

A total of 22,000 cases registered in province in 2023; in first five months of 2024, figure had already reached 17,000.

Healthcare providers in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) treated more than 17,000 victims of sexual violence over just five months last year, according to a United Nations report.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, released on Thursday, said the cases were registered in the province of North Kivu between January and May last year, as fighting between Congolese forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels intensified.

“Many survivors sought care after violent sexual attacks, including penetration with objects, perpetrated by multiple perpetrators,” said the report, which charted crimes like rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.

The conflict, which has killed thousands this year alone and displaced millions, is still ongoing despite a Qatar-mediated agreement between DRC and M23 last month that was supposed to pave the way to a ceasefire, running parallel to United States efforts to broker peace between Kinshasa and Kigali.

Last year’s figure marked a continued surge in sexual violence as the Rwanda-backed M23 rampaged through the east, with a total of 22,000 cases registered throughout 2023. That figure was more than double the previous year’s tally.

In 2023, the spike in violence occurred as the conflict spilled over from North Kivu into South Kivu, forcing UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO to withdraw from the latter.

The report said that MONUSCO’s operations narrowed, “owing to military operations and widespread insecurity”. The mission had documented 823 cases of sexual violence in 2024, affecting 416 women, 391 girls, seven boys and nine men.

The UN said that 198 of last year’s cases were perpetrated by DRC “state actors”, including the army. It found that “M23 elements”, which “continued to receive instructions and support from the Rwanda Defence Force”, were implicated in 152 cases.

According to the report, survivors reported that they were exposed to the threat of sexual violence while searching for food in the fields and areas around displacement sites.

Many displaced women had resorted to prostitution to survive, “highlighting the nexus between food insecurity and sexual violence”.

Denis Mukwege, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work combating sexual violence in DRC, told The Times newspaper this year: “When you have people raping with complete immunity – and think they can go on and on without any consequence, nothing will change.”

Guterres’s report charted violations in 21 countries, with the highest numbers recorded in DRC, the Central African Republic, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan.

While women and girls made up 92 percent of victims, men and boys were also targeted.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres puts both countries ‘on notice’ over documented pattern of sexual violence.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has put Israel and Russia “on notice” that their armed forces and security personnel could be listed among parties “credibly suspected” of committing sexual violence in conflict zones.

The warning on Tuesday resulted from “significant concerns regarding patterns of certain forms of sexual violence that have been consistently documented by the United Nations”, Guterres wrote in a report seen by the Reuters news agency.

In his annual report to the UN Security Council on conflict-related sexual violence, Guterres said that Israel and Russia could be listed next year among the parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence”.

In his warning to Israel, Guterres said he was “gravely concerned about credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces” against Palestinians in several prisons, a detention centre and a military base.

“Cases documented by the United Nations indicate patterns of sexual violence such as genital violence, prolonged forced nudity and repeated strip searches conducted in an abusive and degrading manner,” Guterres wrote.

Because Israel has denied access to UN monitors, it has been “challenging to make a definitive determination” about patterns, trends and the systematic use of sexual violence by its forces, he said, urging Israel’s government “to take the necessary measures to ensure immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violence, and make and implement specific time-bound commitments.”

The UN chief said these should include investigations of credible allegations, clear orders and codes of conduct for military and security forces that prohibit sexual violence, and unimpeded access for UN monitors.

In March, UN-backed human rights experts accused Israel of “the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence”.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said it documented a range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys, and accused Israeli forces of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, dismissed the Secretary-General’s concerns as “baseless accusations” on Tuesday.

Danon, who circulated a letter he received from Guterres and his response to the UN chief, said the allegations “are steeped in biased publications”.

“The UN must focus on the shocking war crimes and sexual violence of Hamas and the release of all hostages,” the Israeli ambassador said.

Danon stressed that “Israel will not shy away from protecting its citizens and will continue to act in accordance with international law”.

In July 2024, the Israeli military said it had detained and was questioning nine soldiers over the alleged sexual abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the infamous Sde Teiman prison facility, which was set up to detain people arrested in Gaza.

Israeli media reported at the time that a Palestinian prisoner was taken to hospital after suffering severe injuries from what was an alleged gang rape by military guards at the prison.

In the case of Russia, Guterres wrote that he was “gravely concerned about credible information of violations by Russian armed and security forces and affiliated armed groups”, primarily against Ukrainian prisoners of war, in 50 official and 22 unofficial detention facilities in Ukraine and Russia.

“These cases comprised a significant number of documented incidents of genital violence, including electrocution, beatings and burns to the genitals, and forced stripping and prolonged nudity, used to humiliate and elicit confessions or information,” he said.

Russia’s mission to the UN in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Guterres said that Russian authorities have not engaged with his special envoy on the matter.

Report says Karim Khan ‘privately threatened’ by then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron with UK’s withdrawal from International Criminal Court.

New details have emerged about a series of intimidation campaigns, including threats to safety as well as possible sanctions, directed at the British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he pursues an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israeli officials in Gaza.

Karim Khan has also been subjected to intense pressure from top British and United States public officials for The Hague court to withdraw the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news website reported.

The latest report followed an earlier revelation by the London-based online publication in July that Khan and the ICC were threatened with being “destroyed” if they pursued the case against Israel.

According to the MEE report published on Friday, Khan was “privately threatened” by then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in April 2024 that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants against the Israeli leaders, which it did so in November.

In May 2024, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also “threatened” Khan with sanctions if he applied for the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the MEE reported.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Khan and four ICC judges.

Khan also received a security briefing warning him that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency “was active in The Hague and posed a potential threat” to him, the MEE reported.

Khan, who is currently on indefinite leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct, was also reportedly told by his female accuser in text messages that there were “games being played” and attempts to make her a “pawn in some game I don’t want to play”, according to the MEE.

The ICC investigations into Khan’s alleged behaviour were later closed after the female witness refused to cooperate with them, but a separate United Nations probe remains.

Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.

Two weeks before he was forced to go on leave in May 2025, Khan also reportedly met with Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the ICC, to discuss the Israel investigation, the MEE report said.

In a note of the meeting on file at the ICC, Kaufman reportedly told Khan that if the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were not dropped, “they will destroy you, and they will destroy the court.”

The report said some ICC lawyers have privately “expressed doubts” about the allegations against Khan, which emerged after the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued.

The ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed killed in an Israeli attack.

The Israeli defendants remain internationally wanted suspects, and ICC member states are under a legal obligation to arrest them.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 60,430 Palestinians and wounded 148,722.

In recent months, Israel has been accused of committing new war crimes after reports that Israeli forces intentionally shot and killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting to collect humanitarian aid from GHF food distribution points.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice in the abuse of underage girls by high-society sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been moved to a minimum security facility in Texas, the United States Bureau of Prisons said, triggering an angry reaction from some of the pair’s victims.

Maxwell, a former girlfriend of Epstein, was moved from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee – a low-security prison in Florida – to the minimum security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, the Bureau of Prisons said on Friday.

“We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp [FPC] Bryan in Bryan, Texas,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said, without providing an explanation for the transfer.

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss the reasons for the transfer.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes.

Two women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell, and the family of another accuser who recently took her own life, condemned Maxwell’s surprise prison transfer.

“It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received,” Annie and Maria Farmer and the family of Virginia Giuffre said in a statement.

“Without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas,” the victims said.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency,” they said.

“This move smacks of a cover-up. The victims deserve better,” they added.

‘Government cover-up in real time’

The Bryan prison camp in Texas is a minimum security institution, the lowest of five security levels in the US federal prison system. Such facilities have limited or no perimeter fencing, whereas low security facilities, such as FCI Tallahassee, have double-fenced perimeters and higher staff-to-inmate ratios than prison camps, according to the bureau.

Maxwell’s move comes after Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche — President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer – interviewed Maxwell for two days at a Florida courthouse last week in a highly unusual meeting between a convicted felon and a high-ranking Department of Justice official.

Blanche has declined so far to say what was discussed, but Maxwell’s lawyer, Markus, said she answered every question she was asked.

Maxwell has reportedly offered to testify before Congress about Epstein if given immunity and has also reportedly been seeking a pardon from the US president, who was once a close friend of Epstein, who took his own life in prison in 2019.

Tim Hogan, a senior Democratic National Committee adviser, denounced what he alleged was a “government cover-up in real time”.

“Donald Trump’s FBI, run by loyalist Kash Patel, redacted Trump’s name from the Epstein files – which have still not been released,” Hogan said.

“While Trump and his administration try to cover up the heinous crimes included in those files, they’re simultaneously doing favours for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell,” Hogan said.

MAGA base up in arms

Trump has faced weeks of mounting demands from Democrats and many of his conspiracy-minded supporters to be more transparent about the Epstein case after the Justice Department said last month that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the investigation into the high-profile sex trafficker.

Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base has also been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said recently that Epstein had not blackmailed any prominent figures, and that he did not keep a “client list”.

Trump also ignited further furore this week when he told reporters he fell out with Epstein after the sex offender “stole” female employees from a spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

One of those employees was Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave and took her own life at her home in Australia in April.

Giuffre’s family issued a statement this week appealing to Trump not to consider pardoning Maxwell, who they called a “monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life”.

In an interview on Friday night, Trump said that nobody had asked him to grant clemency to Maxwell, but he “had a right to do it”.

“I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it,” Trump said in an interview.

The family of Virginia Giuffre, a woman who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein of sex-trafficking and assault, has expressed surprise at recent statements from United States President Donald Trump, alleging that Epstein “stole” her from his spa.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the family called for more information to be released about the Epstein case.

“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” the family’s statement said.

“We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.”

Questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein have dogged the president in recent weeks, with critics calling on him to release further documents the US government may have.

Trump himself has weighed in on the controversy, most recently while returning from his trip to Scotland this week.

A fallout over employee poaching?

As he flew on Air Force One, Trump brought up Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most high-profile accusers.

Giuffre died by suicide in April at her farm in western Australia. Previously, as a teenager, she had worked as a spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where her father was also employed in maintenance.

Trump accused Epstein, a convicted sex offender, of poaching employees like Giuffre.

“People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,” Trump said. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.’”

He added that Epstein’s actions caused a rupture in their relationship: “Not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

His statements sparked a flurry of new media coverage. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has since defended Trump’s actions.

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said.

Upon taking office for a second term, Trump and his officials pledged to release government documents related to high-profile cases, including the assassinations of figures like civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and US President John F Kennedy.

Many of the files in question have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories.

In the case of Epstein, conspiracy theories have swirled about the circumstances of his 2019 jailhouse death and the potential influence he wielded over powerful acquaintances.

Figures in Trump’s current administration, like Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel and his deputy director Dan Bongino, openly speculated whether Epstein had a “black book” or “client list” that he used to coerce government and industry leaders.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fuelled those rumours when she appeared on Fox News in February and said such a list was “sitting on my desk right now”.

Family calls for Maxwell to ‘rot’

Thus far, the Trump administration’s document releases have failed to produce major revelations about the Epstein scandal.

In July, the FBI and the Department of Justice issued a joint statement also affirming that their review revealed no client list and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed figures of power.

That review, however, did little to abate speculation among those who have been following the Epstein conspiracy theories, including members of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base.

Reports have since emerged that the Justice Department briefed Trump about his name appearing in the Epstein files, and Democrats have sought to leverage the controversy to dent Trump’s popularity.

Trump, meanwhile, has called for federal grand jury records to be released, though experts point out that those are unlikely to contain the full scope of evidence in the Epstein case.

Justice Department officials also met last week with Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and former girlfriend of Epstein who is accused of sex-trafficking and grooming victims on his behalf.

Attorney General Bondi has said some Epstein materials cannot be released, as they contain sensitive information about victims.

Maxwell, meanwhile, has offered to testify before Congress in exchange for a pardon and has petitioned the Supreme Court to review her case. She is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

In Wednesday’s message, Giuffre’s relatives urged the government not to pardon Maxwell for her crimes.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life,” their statement read.

Trump says he cut off his relationship with Epstein because the sex offender poached workers from his Florida resort.

United States President Donald Trump has said that he ended his relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein because he “stole” young female workers from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Speaking to reporters on his way home from a trip to Scotland on Tuesday, Trump alleged that one such worker was the late Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein‘s highest-profile accusers.

“People were taken out of the [Mar-a-Lago] spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,” Trump said. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.’

“And then, not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

The US president, who had a close relationship with Epstein for years, has become increasingly defensive as he faces growing scrutiny over his administration’s refusal to release government records with information about Epstein’s abuses.

Officials including Attorney General Pam Bondi have said that releasing further documents would risk disseminating victim information and child pornography collected as evidence.

But Bondi’s comments have helped fuel the controversy. In a February interview with Fox News, Bondi said that Epstein’s supposed client list was “sitting on my desk right now”.

Conspiracy theorists have long maintained that Epstein kept a list or book of contacts in order to coerce powerful figures in arts and politics. They also have cast doubt on Epstein’s jailhouse suicide in 2019, calling it, without proof, a cover-up.

Current members of Trump’s administration, including FBI director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, had played up those theories in past media appearances.

But the Department of Justice and FBI later released a review concluding that there was no reason to believe such a list existed and that Epstein had died by suicide, as the government originally concluded.

That assertion was met with frustration from some corners of Trump’s own far-right base, who have speculated for years about Epstein’s ties with powerful figures and the circumstances of his death.

Giuffre has been a prominent figure in online conspiracy theories. She had accused Epstein of pressuring her to have sex with the powerful men in his orbit.

Until her death by suicide earlier this year, Giuffre maintained that she had been approached as a teenager by Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, while she was working at Mar-a-Lago.

Giuffre had been employed at the time as a spa attendant. Her father worked in maintenance at the resort.

Maxwell, according to Giuffre, offered her money to work as a masseuse for Epstein, who then sexually abused her. She described Maxwell and Epstein as grooming her to perform sex acts for other men. Giuffre alleged that “massage” was sometimes used as a code word for sex.

Giuffre ultimately filed a civil suit against Maxwell in New York. While Maxwell has denied Giuffre’s allegations, she settled the suit for an undisclosed sum.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in a Florida federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls.

If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, these organisations may be able to help.

A former labor relations employee at Netflix is suing the company, claiming she was wrongfully terminated after raising concerns over her superiors’ discrimination against women of color and allegations of sexual harassment.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that the employee’s managers broke laws and policies that protect employees from race- and gender-based discrimination, and from retaliation for reporting alleged discrimination or harassment.

Nhu-Y Phan was hired at Netflix as legal counsel in labor relations in May 2021. She was fired due to “unspecified performance issues” in September 2024, her lawsuit said. According to the complaint, Phan had never been subject to any discipline and had received overwhelmingly positive performance reviews and feedback throughout her time at the company.

She is seeking punitive damages, emotional distress damages, past and future lost income and other forms of relief, as well as a jury trial.

A Netflix spokesperson said in a brief statement the claims outlined in the suit “lack merit and we intend to defend this matter vigorously.”

For the first year of her Netflix career, Phan was supervised by Ted Sinclair, who is named as a defendant in the suit. Phan alleges that Sinclair repeatedly excluded her and other women of color on her team from professional opportunities that he offered to white colleagues, and that he “encouraged a white employee” to take credit for her work.

Phan made multiple verbal and written complaints about this unequal treatment, including through meetings with both the human resources department and with Sinclair directly, but was still denied opportunities, the lawsuit said. She asked to be removed from Sinclair’s direct supervision in the summer of 2022.

Later, a female colleague confided in Phan, alleging that her new supervior, Jonah Cozien, was sexually harassing her, the complaint said. Cozien is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Phan reported the behavior to human resources, and after doing so, Cozien became “frequently hostile” toward her, limiting her professional opportunities and giving her critical feedback despite never having provided feedback before she made the report, according to the suit.

Sinclair and Cozien did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and their lawyers could not be identified.

After Phan was fired, her lawyers say Netflix filed a lawsuit against her to compel arbitration. Brian Olney, one of the attorneys from Pasadena-based Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai who is representing Phan, said forcing her into arbitration proceedings is a violation of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which became law in 2022.

Because records in arbitration are protected, employers that have arbitration clauses in their employment contracts can avoid public attention on cases involving sexual harassment and assault. The House Judiciary Committee said passing the law would bring justice to victims who were “locked out of the court system and are forced to settle their disputes against companies in a private system of arbitration that often favors the company over the individual.”

“Netflix fired Nhu Phan and tried to force her into secretive arbitration proceedings to silence her voice,” Olney said in a statement. “With her lawsuit, she is standing up to this corporate bully and their outrageous and despicable conduct.”

British actor Micheal Ward, known for the Netflix series “Top Boy” and and most recently Ari Aster’s movie “Eddington,” is facing charges of allegedly raping and sexually assaulting a woman in the United Kingdom in 2023.

London’s Metropolitan Police announced in a Friday statement that prosecutors had charged BAFTA winner Ward, 28, with two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault following an investigation into an alleged January 2023 incident. The statement did not provide details about the incident, including the location and the identity of Ward’s accuser.

“Our specialist officers continue to support the woman who has come forward — we know investigations of this nature can have significant impact on those who make reports,” Det. Supt. Scott Ware said in the statement.

Representatives for Ward did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Friday. The actor is due to appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court in London on Aug. 28.

Ward, who was born in Jamaica, broke into acting less than a decade ago, appearing in the British drama series “Top Boy” and rapper Rapman’s 2019 film “Blue Story.” He won BAFTA’s rising star award in 2020. That same year he appeared in “The Old Guard” opposite Charlize Theron and in Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” miniseries.

His movie credits also include Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” “The Book of Clarence,” “Bob Marley: One Love” and “The Beautiful Game.” He currently stars as a young police officer in “Eddington,” the latest film from “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” filmmaker Aster.

Trial that sparked debate over culture of sexual assault in Canadian hockey ends after judge says allegations not ‘credible’.

A Canadian judge has found that five former members of the country’s 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey team are not guilty of sexual assault, following a trial that roiled Canada.

Judge Maria Carroccia told a courtroom on Thursday that she did not find allegations of assault against the five men “credible or reliable”, according to Canada’s CBC News.

A lawyer for the complainant said the justice system had fallen short in both the way her client was treated on the stand and the conclusions drawn by the judge.

“She’s obviously very disappointed with the verdict and very disappointed with Her Honour’s assessment of her honesty and reliability,” said Karen Bellehumeur, a lawyer for the complainant who is only known as EM due to a prohibition on publicising her identity. “She’s really never experienced not being believed like this before.”

The allegations of misconduct prompted debate over the culture of sexual assault within Canadian hockey, a favourite pastime of the North American country. But it also drew attention to the sceptical eye that authorities often cast on alleged victims.

Carroccia’s statement that she did not find evidence from the woman who was allegedly assaulted reliable prompted gasps in the courtroom, CBC reported.

All five men – Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart and Cal Foote – denied wrongdoing, stating that the alleged victim, EM, was a willing participant in sex acts at a hotel in London, Ontario, in 2018, following a team celebration.

The judge seemed to accept that claim, saying that the complainant had failed to establish that the encounter was “vitiated by fear”. She also said that the woman had a “tendency to blame others” when presented with inconsistencies in her memory of the night.

“Justice Carroccia’s carefully reasoned decision represents a resounding vindication for Mr McLeod and for his co-defendants,” said McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey.

Two previous juries in the case were dismissed, resulting in a trial where a single judge rendered a verdict.

The CEO of Hockey Canada and the organisation’s entire board of directors stepped down in October 2022 amid scrutiny of the alleged gang rape and an out-of-court settlement with the accuser.

New Delhi, India – After spending three decades racked with guilt, scared on sleepless nights, and often changing cities, a 48-year-old Dalit man appeared in Karnataka with information about one of the most horrific alleged crimes in India.

Emerging from hiding after 12 years, the man, who once worked as a sanitation worker at the much-revered Dharmasthala temple, told police on July 3 that he was coming forward with “an extremely heavy heart and to recover from an insurmountable sense of guilt”. As a court-protected witness, the man’s identity cannot be revealed under the law.

“I can no longer bear the burden of memories of the murders I witnessed, the continuous death threats to bury the corpses I received,” he said in his statement, reviewed by Al Jazeera, “and the pain of beatings – that if I did not bury those corpses, I would be buried alongside them”.

Now, the whistleblower wants to help in the exhumation of “hundreds of dead bodies” he buried between 1995 and 2014 – many of them women and girls, allegedly murdered after sexual assaults, but also destitute men whose murders he claims to have witnessed.

After days of sustained pressure from activists and public outcry, the Karnataka government – ruled by the opposition Congress party – has created a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the allegations of assault and murder.

So, what did the protected witness reveal in his complaint? Does the temple town have a history of rape and murder? Are more victims coming forward now?

‘Hundreds of bodies’: What’s in the complaint?

Situated on the scenic lower slopes of the Western Ghats, Dharmasthala, an 800-year-old pilgrimage village, is located on the banks of the Nethravathi River in the Belthangady area of the Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka state, where nearly 2,000 devotees visit daily.

On July 11, the man, fully draped in black clothing with only a transparent strip covering his eyes, appeared at a local court in Belthangady to record his statement.

The complainant, who belongs to the Dalit community – the least privileged and often persecuted group in India’s complex caste hierarchy – joined the temple in 1995 as a sanitation worker.

At the beginning of his employment, he said in the complaint, he noticed dead bodies appearing near the river. “Many female corpses were found without clothes or undergarments. Some corpses showed clear signs of sexual assault and violence; injuries or strangulation marks indicating violence were visible on those bodies,” he noted.

However, instead of reporting this to authorities at the time, the man said he was forced to “dispose of these bodies” after his supervisors beat him up and threatened him, saying, “We will cut you into pieces; we will sacrifice all your family members.”

The supervisors, he claimed, would call him to specific locations where there were dead bodies. “Many times, these bodies were of minor girls. The absence of undergarments, torn clothes, and injuries to their private parts indicated brutal sexual assault on them,” he said. “Some bodies also had acid burn marks.”

The man has told the police and the court that he is ready to undergo any tests, including brain-mapping and a polygraph, and is willing to identify the spots of mass burials. Some sites are likely to be exhumed in the coming days.

In the nearly 20 years he worked at the temple, the man said he “buried dead bodies in several locations throughout the Dharmasthala area”.

Sometimes, as instructed, he burned dead bodies using diesel. “They would instruct me to burn them completely so that no trace would be found. The dead bodies disposed of in this manner numbered in the hundreds,” he said.

Why did he go into hiding?

By 2014, having worked there for 20 years, he said, “The mental torture I was experiencing had become unbearable.”

Then, a girl from his own family was sexually harassed by a person connected to the supervisors at the temple, leading to a realisation that the family needed “to escape from there immediately”. In December 2014, he fled Dharmasthala with his family and informed no one of his whereabouts.

Since then, the family has been living in hiding in a neighbouring state, and changing residences, he said.

“However, I am still living under the burden of guilt that does not subside,” he said. “But my conscience no longer allows me to continue this silence.”

To back his claims, the man recently visited a burial site and exhumed a skeleton; he submitted the skeleton and its photograph during exhumation to the police and the court via his lawyers.

Today, the actual number of dead bodies is not what matters to the former sanitation worker, a person closely associated with the case told Al Jazeera. They requested anonymity to speak.

“Even if it was just two or three women, and not hundreds, their lives matter,” they said, reflecting on why the whistleblower came forward. “If there is a chance at justice, their bodies getting proper rituals, we want to take it.”

Did he identify the victims?

No, he did not identify them by name. However, he detailed some of the burials in his statement to the police.

He recalled that in 2010 he was sent to a location about 500 metres (1,640ft) from a petrol pump in Kalleri, nearly 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Dharmasthala. There, he found the body of a teenage girl.

“Her age could be estimated between 12 to 15 years. She was wearing a school uniform shirt. However, her skirt and undergarments were missing. Her body showed clear signs of sexual assault. There were strangulation marks on her neck,” he noted in his statement. “They instructed me to dig a pit and bury her along with her school bag. That scene remains disturbing to this day.”

He detailed another “disturbing incident” of burying a woman’s body in her 20s. “Her face had been burned with acid. That body was covered with a newspaper. Instead of burying her body, the supervisors instructed me to collect her footwear and all her belongings and burn them with her,” he recalled.

Have similar crimes been linked to Dharmasthala in the past?

Yes. There have been repeated protests over the years regarding the discovery of bodies of rape-and-murder victims in and around Dharmasthala, dating back to the 1980s.

These protests have been sporadic but persistent, often led by local groups, families and political organisations.

In 1987, marches were organised in the town to protest the rape and murder of 17-year-old Padmalata. The demonstrations exposed alleged cover-ups by influential figures but were reportedly quashed through intimidation and legal pressure.

The town saw protests flare again in 2012 with the “Justice for Sowjanya” movement, after another teenager was raped and murdered. That case remains unsolved.

Over the decades, families and local political groups have held demonstrations and submitted memorandums to authorities, linking cases such as the 2003 disappearance of medical student Ananya Bhat to larger allegations of mass graves and unnatural deaths.

S Balan, a senior lawyer in the Karnataka High Court and a human rights activist, told Al Jazeera that the killings and mysterious disappearances in Dharmasthala date back to 1979.

“The souls of young girls are crying for justice; hundreds of girls who disappeared were abducted, were raped, and were killed,” Balan told Al Jazeera. “India has never seen this gravity of offence in its republic after independence.”

Balan also met the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah last Wednesday with a delegation of lawyers, urging him to form the SIT to probe the alleged mass rapes and murders.

“The chief minister was serious about it. He told us that he will talk to the police and do [what’s needed],” said Balan.

How have the temple authorities reacted?

The administration of the Dharmasthala temple has long been controlled by the powerful Heggade family, with Veerendra Heggade serving as the 21st Dharmadhikari, or hereditary head, since 1968.

Heggade, a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, is a member of the parliament’s upper house. He was nominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2022.

His family wields significant influence in the region, overseeing a wide network of institutions.

In 2012, the family came under public scrutiny following the rape and murder of 17-year-old Sowjanya, a resident of Dharmasthala. Her body was discovered in a wooded area bearing signs of sexual assault and brutal violence. Sowjanya’s family has consistently alleged that the perpetrators had ties to the temple’s leadership.

In a statement shared on Sunday, July 20, the temple authorities expressed support for a “fair and transparent” investigation and expressed hope that the investigation would uncover the truth.

K Parshwanath Jain, the official spokesperson for Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala, said the whistleblower’s complaint has “triggered widespread public debate and confusion across the country”.

“In light of public demand for accountability, we understand that the state government has handed over the case to a Special Investigation Team,” he said. “Truth and belief form the foundation of a society’s ethics and values. We sincerely hope and strongly urge the SIT to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and bring the true facts to light.”

Have the families of missing people come forward?

Yes. Sujatha Bhat, the mother of Ananya Bhat, who disappeared in 2003, has responded publicly to the whistleblower’s shocking revelations about alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala.

The 60-year-old retired CBI stenographer said she has lived in fear for more than two decades but was motivated by media reports of the worker’s testimony and the discovery of skeletal remains. She filed a new complaint with the police last Tuesday.

Bhat said she believes her daughter may have been among the many women who faced abuse and met a violent end, only to be buried without a trace.

She recalled that she was discouraged from pursuing the case further. “They told us to stop asking questions,” she reportedly said, emphasising the climate of fear and silence that surrounded Dharmasthala for decades.

Speaking with reporters after filing the complaint, Bhat appealed: “Please find my daughter’s skeletal remains and allow me to perform the funeral rites with honour.”

She said she wants to “give peace to Ananya’s soul, and let me spend my final days in peace”.

A collection of letters gifted to the deceased, high-profile sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, on his birthday in 2003 includes a birthday note bearing US President Donald Trump’s signature, the Wall Street Journal (WSG) reported on Thursday.

Trump denies having written the letter and, on Thursday, told Attorney General Pam Bondi to request a court release of the transcripts of all grand jury testimony in the Epstein case.

The WSJ claims have reignited intrigue about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. We break down how closely, exactly, the two men associated with each other over the years.

What was in Trump’s birthday letter to Epstein?

According to the WSJ report, Epstein was gifted a leather-bound collection of letters and notes for his 50th birthday in 2003.

This had been compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and partner, who was later charged as Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice in his sexual abuse operation. She was found guilty in 2021 and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence handed down in 2022.

The letter included typewritten text in the third person. It also featured a drawing of a woman’s breasts and was signed “Donald”. The drawing appeared to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker, the WSJ reported.

The letter ended with: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the authenticity of the letter.

Following the revelations about the letter, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.

“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his a** off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”

He also wrote: “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”

Soon after Trump’s statement, Bondi announced on X that the Justice Department planned to request the unsealing of grand jury transcripts in court on Friday.

Here’s what we know about how well the two men really knew each other.

1980s: Trump and Epstein are friends

in 2002, Trump told the New York Magazine that he had been friends with Epstein since about the late 1980s.

In the 1980s, Trump was a businessman and a real estate mogul.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump said.

“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life,” Trump continued.

1990s: Trump and Epstein are spotted at parties together, flying together

Through the 1990s, the two men were spotted socialising at high-profile gatherings.

In November 1992, Trump threw a party with NFL cheerleaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He had invited NBC to record the event.

The tape from the party, published by NBC online in 2019, shows Trump laughing with Epstein, their conversation drowned by the really loud music.

In 1997, Epstein and Trump were seen together at the Victoria Secret “Angels” party in New York.

Trump also frequently flew on Epstein’s private jets – seven times in total between 1993 and 1997 – according to flight logs presented as evidence during Maxwell’s trial.

This included four times in 1993, once in 1994, once in 1995 and once in 1997. The flights were between Palm Beach and New York, and they included a stop in Washington, DC.

2000s: The two continue to party, Trump’s name in Epstein files

There are pictures of the two men at a party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 2000.

These images also feature Maxwell and Trump’s now wife, then known as Melania Knauss.

In January 2024, about 950 pages of court documents identifying associates of Epstein were made public.

Trump was mentioned in these documents, but was not accused of anything.

Virginia Giuffre, one of the women who accused Epstein of sexual abuse, told the court that she was working at Mar-a-Lago when she was recruited by Maxwell to become Epstein’s masseuse at the age of 16.

Giuffre said that Epstein and Maxwell groomed her into performing sexual acts with adult men, including Prince Andrew.

Johanna Sjoberg, another woman who accused Epstein of sexual abuse, recalled a 2001 flight from Florida on which she and Virginia Giuffre, then underage, were among the passengers.

Due to a storm, the plane diverted to Atlantic City, where they visited one of Trump’s casinos.

Sjoberg said of Giuffre: “I did not know anything about how old you had to be to gamble legally. I just knew she could not get in because of an ID issue, so she and I did not gamble.”

Giuffre died by suicide in April this year.

2003: Trump’s birthday letter to Epstein

The WSJ published the text of a letter allegedly written by Trump for Epstein’s birthday. It appears to be in script form:

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.

Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.

Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.

Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

According to the report, Trump told the WSJ on Tuesday that he did not write the letter, and threatened to sue the publication. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he told the Journal.

“The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued,” Trump reiterated in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Rupert Murdoch controls the WSJ’s publisher, News Corp.

2004: Trump and Epstein have a real estate dispute

In 2004, Trump and Epstein had a falling out over a foreclosed oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach.

The Washington Post reported that Trump had outbid Epstein on the property.

Since that date, there was sparse public evidence of the two men interacting.

2006: Epstein faces criminal charges

In 2005, Florida police investigated claims Epstein had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl after the girl’s parents made the complaint.

Epstein was charged by Palm Beach police officials with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor.

However, the State Attorney took the unusual step of referring the case to a grand jury, which indicted Epstein on a single count of soliciting prostitution.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to charges involving a single victim. He served 13 months in jail under a work-release programme that permitted him to leave during the day for work and return to jail at night.

2019: Epstein is jailed again and dies in prison

During Trump’s first presidential term in 2019, federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein with sex trafficking.

In July 2019, Trump was asked by a reporter about Epstein, to which he responded: “Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach.”

Trump added: “I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years.”

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019.

During an interview after Epstein’s death, Trump said about the case: “I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding.”

2025: Trump’s shifting stance on the ‘Epstein list’

In 2024, while campaigning for the election, Trump said he would release information about the Epstein case.

He also appointed Pam Bondi to be the Attorney General.

During an interview with Fox News in February, Bondi was asked, “The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, will that really happen?”

She responded, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”

However, on July 7, the US Department of Justice released a memo stating that a government review had found no evidence that Epstein had a specific “secret client list”.

The memo also reaffirmed that Epstein had died by suicide, a claim that many conspiracy theorists among Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) base disbelieve. They believe Epstein was murdered because he had sensitive information about powerful figures, and that this was covered up.

When Trump and Bondi were questioned by reporters about the July 7 memo, Trump said: “I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy, with what happened in Texas,” referring to flash floods that roiled the southern US state over the weekend before the memo was released, killing 109 people.

“It just seems like a desecration,” Trump added.

Trump recently expressed anger towards his supporters over Epstein conspiracy theories.

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.

Pelicot has been praised globally for her courage during trial, which forced changes to France’s rape law.

Gisele Pelicot, who has been internationally hailed after testifying against her husband and dozens of other men who raped her, has been awarded France’s top civic honour.

Pelicot, 72, was named knight of the Legion of Honour on a list announced before France’s July 14 national day, the AFP news agency reported on Sunday.

She was among 589 people named for the honour, which recognises merit-based national service.

Pelicot refused to remain anonymous and publicly testified at a trial in 2024 against her former husband, Dominique Pelicot, who drugged her and arranged for her to be raped by dozens of men over a decade.

His co-conspirators tried to claim they were unaware that the acts were not consensual and blamed the husband.

Gisele Pelicot at the time called it a “trial of cowardice” and asserted there was no excuse for abusing her when she was unconscious. Her testimony gripped the world and led to Dominique Pelicot and 50 co-defendants being found guilty in the mass-rape case.

Lauded for her courage in exposing the case, which forced a change in France’s rape law, she has since been named among the world’s most influential people in international lists.

Gisele Pelicot has not spoken further since the trial. She is focusing on writing a book, scheduled for release in 2026, that delves into her perspective of the ordeal, according to her lawyer.

Writers, artists and international figures are also on the Legion of Honour list.

Singer, music producer and clothing designer Pharrell Williams, writer Marc Levy, actor Lea Drucker, singer Sylvie Vartan, and Holocaust survivor and educator Yvette Levy are some of the other recipients.

When Lauren Hersh, the national director of the anti-sex trafficking activist group World Without Exploitation, heard Wednesday that Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted only on the two least serious charges against him, she felt grief for his former partner Casandra Ventura and his other accusers.

“I think this is a travesty,” Hersh said. “It shows there is culturally a deep misunderstanding of what sex trafficking is and the complexity of coercion. So often in these cases, there’s an intertwining of horrific violence and affection.”

Hersh, the former chief of the sex trafficking unit at the Kings County district attorney’s office in Brooklyn, said that Combs’ verdict — guilty on two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted on one for racketeering and two for sex trafficking — is a mixed message about Combs’ conduct. But it will likely be felt as a step backward for the movement to hold powerful men to account for alleged sex crimes.

In a cultural moment when other music stars like Marilyn Manson and Chris Brown have mounted successful comebacks after high-profile abuse investigations and lawsuits, Hersh worries the Diddy verdict may deter prosecutors from pursuing similar cases against powerful men and chill the MeToo movement’s ability to seek justice for abuse victims.

“It’s a huge setback, especially in this moment when the powerful have continuously operated with impunity,” Hersh said. “It sends a signal to victims that despite the MeToo movement, we’re still not there in believing victims and understanding the context of exploitation. But I’m hoping it’s a teachable moment to connect the dots with what trafficking is and understanding the complexity of coercion.”

The charges against Combs were not a referendum on whether he had abused Ventura or the myriad other women and men involved in his “freak-off” parties, where group sex and drug use intertwined into an allegedly decadent and violent culture around Combs.

Combs’ defense team freely admitted that his relationship with Ventura was violent, as seen in an infamous 2016 videotape of Combs beating Ventura in an elevator lobby at the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles. Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs’ lawyers, said in closing arguments that Combs has a drug problem but described his relationship with Ventura as a “modern love story” in which the hip-hop mogul “owns the domestic violence” that plagued it.

“The defendant embraced the fact that he was a habitual drug user who regularly engaged in domestic abuse,” federal prosecutors wrote in a hearing about Combs’ possible bail terms.

The jury decided that Combs’ conduct, however reprehensible, did not amount beyond a reasonable doubt to a criminal racketeering organization or sex trafficking. Yet the case’s impact on movements within music and other industries to hold abusers to account is uncertain.

Many civil suits against the music mogul are still moving through court and could affect his depleted finances. Combs’ reputation has been thoroughly tainted by the lurid details of the trial and strong condemnations from his many accusers.

Still, for victim advocates, the verdict was a bitter disappointment.

Reactions within the music world were swift and despairing. “This makes me physically ill,” said Aubrey O’Day of Danity Kane, the band Diddy assembled on his popular reality TV show “Making the Band,” on social media. “Cassie probably feels so horrible. Ugh, I’m gonna vomit.”

“Cassie, I believe you. I love you. Your strength is a beacon for every survivor,” wrote singer Kesha, who in 2014 sued producer Dr. Luke, accusing him of assault. Kesha has frequently altered the lyrics of her hit single “TikTok” in performances to lambast Combs.

Even longtime Diddy antagonist 50 Cent seemed to acknowledge his partial victory. “Diddy beat the feds that boy a bad man,” 50 Cent wrote on Instagram, before referencing a famous mobster notorious for evading convictions. “Beat the RICO he the gay John Gotti.”

Mitchell Epner, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey who prosecuted numerous sex trafficking and involuntary servitude cases, said that despite some recent high-profile sex trafficking cases that ended in convictions, Combs’ charges were never going to be easy to prove.

“In recent years, we’ve seen prosecutions of Ghislaine Maxwell in the Jeffrey Epstein case, Keith Raniere of NXIVM and R. Kelly, where they are trafficking in order to feed the traffickers’ sexual desire,” Epner said. “But this indictment was all about Sean Combs sharing women with people he was paying. He wasn’t receiving money, he wanted to be a voyeur. That technically fits the definition of sex trafficking, but it wasn’t the primary evil Congress was thinking about.”

The hurdles for accusers to come forward with claims against powerful men, and for juries to discern between transgressive sexual relationships and criminally liable abuse beyond a reasonable doubt, make such cases difficult to prosecute.

In the absence of convictions, some recently accused artists have already mounted successful comebacks.

Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson had been under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department since 2021, when several women accused him of rape and abuse including “Westworld” actor Evan Rachel Wood and “Game of Thrones” actor Esmé Bianco.

Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in January that the statute of limitations had run out on Manson’s domestic violence allegations, and that prosecutors doubted they could prove rape charges.

“While we are unable to bring charges in this matter,” Hochman said in a statement then, “we recognize that the strong advocacy of the women involved has helped bring greater awareness to the challenges faced by survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.”

Bianco told The Times that, “Within our toxic culture of victim blaming, a lack of understanding of coercive control, the complex nature of sexual assault within intimate partnerships, and statutes of limitations that do not support the realities of healing, prosecutions face an oftentimes insurmountable hurdle. Once again, our justice system has failed survivors.”

Manson has denied all claims against him. He has since released a new album and mounted successful tours.

Meanwhile, R&B singer Chris Brown was recently the subject of “Chris Brown: A History of Violence,” a 2024 documentary that shed new light on a 2022 lawsuit where a woman accused Brown of raping her on a yacht owned by Combs in 2020.

That lawsuit — one of many civil and criminal claims made against Brown over the years, beginning with the infamous 2009 incident in which he assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna — was dismissed. In 2020, Brown settled another sexual assault lawsuit regarding an alleged 2017 incident at the singer’s home. Brown currently faces criminal charges around a 2023 incident where he allegedly assaulted a music producer with a tequila bottle in a London nightclub.

Brown denied the claims in the documentary, and his attorneys called the film “defamatory.” He sued Warner Bros. Entertainment for $500 million. He is currently on a stadium tour that will stop at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood in September.

Combs, meanwhile, may still face a range of criminal and civil consequences. He could be sentenced from anywhere up to the maximum of 10 years apiece on each prostitution charge, or to a far lesser sentence. Some experts said it’s possible he may be sentenced to time served and walk away a free man soon.

Though it’s too soon to know what kind of future awaits Combs should he return to public life, it’s hard to imagine a return to the heights of influence that defined his ‘90s tenure at Bad Boy Entertainment, or his affable multimedia-mogul personality in the 2000s. A fate similar to the former hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons seems most likely — reputationally tarnished and culturally irrelevant.

Still, his supporters thronged outside the New York courtroom waving bottles of baby oil — an infamous detail of the trial — in a pseudo-ironic celebration of his acquittal on the most serious charges.

If Combs wants to ever return to music, he’ll have at least one ally in Ye, the embattled Nazi-supporting rapper who showed up in court to bolster Combs. Ye featured the incarcerated mogul on his song “Lonely Roads Still Go to Sunshine,” and released clothing featuring the logo of Combs’ old fashion label Sean John.

President Trump, another convicted felon and alleged sexual assailant who quickly returned to the heights of power, has said he is open to pardoning Combs. “It’s not a popularity contest,” he has said, regarding a Combs pardon. ”I would certainly look at the facts if I think somebody was mistreated.”