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New Epstein documents reveal expanded travel with Trump and allegations of institutional failures

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New documents released regarding Jeffrey Epstein include a report of a woman alleging she was raped by US President Benjamin Trump.

The latest release from the Department of Justice concerning the Epstein files sheds light on the FBI’s 2019 investigation into additional suspects who may have assisted Epstein or been involved in his sex trafficking crimes.

The new documents, released Tuesday, contain the names of 10 potential accomplices or suspects that New York prosecutors planned to question in 2019. Three of these suspects are Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and the billionaire former owner of Victoria’s Secret, Leslie Wexner, who was once a client of Epstein.

Other names were redacted without explanation. Files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act state that only certain names can be redacted, specifically those of Epstein’s victims.

The Department of Justice has 15 days to explain the exceptions they used to justify the redactions.

Trump flew with Epstein more than previously known between 1993 and 1996

The approximately 10,000 newly released files contain many references to President Trump. Among these is a January 2020 note from an assistant US attorney, revealing that Trump was on many more flights between 1993 and 1996 than the Department of Justice previously knew.

On one flight, there were three passengers: Trump, Epstein, and a 20-year-old woman; on two other flights, the prosecutor noted that Trump was on the plane with two women who could have been potential witnesses in the criminal case they were building against Maxwell at the time.

Trump has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes. In 2024, he stated on the social media platform Truth Social that he was “never on Epstein’s plane or ‘stupid’ island.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Justice noted that a series of documents concerning the president were “untrue and sensational claims” made against Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

Harsh criticism of the Department of Justice “redaction” system

Emails and correspondence regarding Epstein’s 2007 deal in South Florida were also heavily redacted. With few exceptions, the names of all prosecutors were blacked out, making it nearly impossible to understand how his non-prosecution agreement developed, why it was kept secret, and how Epstein obtained federal immunity.

At that time, Epstein was accused of sexually assaulting approximately 40 underage girls at his mansion in Palm Beach. Previously released documents show that the Department of Justice possessed not only victim statements but also supporting evidence such as phone records, text messages, witness testimony, and bank deposit records showing payments made to the girls.

Three documents released in the past were also heavily redacted, including some photographs of older men. However, the names of many of Epstein’s victims appear on the pages, sometimes dozens of times, which led victims to accuse the department of violating the law and attempting to intimidate them; some have demanded the resignations of US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

A series of tips also came into the FBI and the department’s tip line regarding this case. On Tuesday, the department was forced to admit that these tips were completely fake: a letter appearing to be written by Epstein to former US Olympic Gymnastics coach and convicted rapist Larry Nassar spread rapidly online. The Department of Justice eventually had to examine this letter and announced that handwriting analysis revealed Epstein did not write it.

Epstein’s younger brother: They killed my brother with Trump’s approval

Records also show that Epstein’s younger brother, Mark Epstein, submitted a report to the FBI in 2023 claiming his brother was killed in his prison cell because he was “going to name names.”

Reached by phone on Tuesday, Mark Epstein said the FBI never followed up on the matter. The 71-year-old Epstein has long believed his brother was murdered and claims in his report that Trump “approved” this murder.

When asked why he believes Trump was involved in the incident, he asked, “The question is: who would be in a position to organize this and ensure the Department of Justice covers it up?”

Epstein was found hanging in his Manhattan prison cell on August 10, 2019, one month after being arrested in New York on sex trafficking charges. The New York City medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, but investigations revealed that his prison cell was never properly examined as a potential crime scene.

All but one of the video cameras in Epstein’s cell were recording at the time of death, and some of those recordings went missing.

Many of Epstein’s victims do not believe he committed suicide. Many told the Miami Herald that they feared their lives would be in danger if they spoke publicly about their abusers.

Bannon and former Victoria’s Secret owner Wexner also in the documents

An FBI investigator in the Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Unit noted on July 9, 2019, that three accomplices in the Epstein case were in Florida, one was in Boston, one was in New York, and one was in Connecticut.

He also noted that one of them was a wealthy businessman living in Ohio, later identified in documents as Wexner. For many years, Epstein managed the financial affairs of Ohio billionaire Les Wexner. The 88-year-old Wexner has always denied any involvement in the sex trafficking leader’s crimes.

Epstein used his relationship with Victoria’s Secret to find victims, promising many of them that he could make them the next Victoria’s Secret model. The files contain an undated statement from a woman identified as “Jane Doe” describing an encounter with Epstein:

“At that moment, I ran back to the door and figured out how to get out of there. A girl outside asked me where I was going and told me to be careful. She said Mr. Epstein knew many powerful people, including Bill Clinton, and that if I didn’t do what he wanted, I would never find work in this industry. I was so scared I couldn’t wait to get out of there… I had spent all my savings to buy Victoria’s Secret underwear because I thought it was an audition, but instead, it felt like a casting for prostitution. I felt like I was in hell.”

One of the emails released by the Department of Justice mentions a photograph of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell taken together, found on a mobile phone belonging to Republican political strategist and “MAGA” ideologue Steve Bannon. The photograph itself is blacked out, and it is unclear when it was taken.

Woman alleging rape spoke to police

Among the documents released overnight is a strange FBI report where names are redacted. The report describes a tip the agency received from a limousine driver. The driver claims he heard Trump talking about “Jeffrey” and also spoke with a woman who alleged she had been raped by Trump.

It is unknown whether the FBI investigated this tip or dismissed it as fake, but the person who reported it to the FBI followed the woman, and she told him she had reported the rape to the “police.”

So far, there is nothing in the documents showing that Trump committed any crime, and the files do not indicate that he is under investigation.

In 2007, Epstein made a deal with federal prosecutors in South Florida that allowed him to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges (one involving a minor) and serve 13 months in the Palm Beach County Jail.

Allowed to leave prison regularly, Epstein continued to work in a nearby office and continued to abuse girls.

Epstein’s victims, whose numbers the department estimates at around 1,000 women, have long demanded more accountability for his powerful friends and accomplices, as well as more transparency from the department that kept them in the dark about the 2007 deal that allowed Epstein to escape heavy punishment for sexually abusing girls in South Florida.

Clinton requested the release of all documents

The files the department initially released on Friday did not satisfy the victims or the members of Congress who ordered the release, especially after the Department of Justice removed some files, including a photograph of Trump, after publication. This photograph and several others were later reposted online.

The files released Friday included numerous photographs of former president Bill Clinton. Many of these photographs were taken from a 2002 trip Clinton and Epstein took to Africa on Epstein’s plane.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Clinton asked the Department of Justice to release all files mentioning Clinton’s name, stating that the files released so far suggest “someone or something is being protected.”

Prince Andrew may not have been interrogated despite US requests

According to another document in the latest batch of Epstein files, federal prosecutors—armed with evidence that Prince Andrew had “sexual relations” with one of Epstein’s victims—threatened to force the British royal to speak with investigators under oath.

Department of Justice officials asked British authorities in the spring of 2020 to conduct a “mandatory interview” with the Prince if he refused to answer questions voluntarily as part of the department’s investigation.

Prosecutors also revealed the existence of evidence that Andrew was “present” during “certain” interactions between the victim, Epstein, and Maxwell, and evidence that the prince knew Maxwell “recruited women to engage in sexual relations with Epstein and other men.”

Prosecutors also wrote that they had “evidence that Prince Andrew engaged in sexual relations with one of Epstein’s victims.”

Epstein’s UK flights under scrutiny

The BBC revealed that approximately 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein landed at or took off from UK airports, with some flights carrying British women who claim they were abused by the billionaire.

Following this, the BBC contacted the Metropolitan Police in October to ask if they would launch a comprehensive investigation into potential human trafficking by Epstein and his accomplices within, around, and outside the UK.

A document released by the US Department of Justice includes an email from a senior Metropolitan Police officer asking the FBI attaché in London if there was “still an ongoing investigation” regarding the BBC’s questions about Epstein’s flights to the UK.

In a statement released earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police Service stated that it had “not received any additional evidence that would support the reopening of the investigation” into the human trafficking activities of Epstein and Maxwell in the UK.

“If new and relevant information is brought to our attention, including that obtained from materials released in the US, we will consider it,” the Metropolitan Police Service said.

Amazon was slow to assist in the investigation

Just days before Epstein’s suicide in prison in 2019, the Department of Justice threatened to ask a judge to charge Amazon with contempt of court after the company failed to provide documents related to the investigation into the scandal-plagued financier.

An unidentified investigator wrote in an August 1 email to the company, “Amazon’s response to the attached grand jury subpoena is several weeks late.”

“The FBI has emailed and left messages for your legal department several times in recent weeks but has received no response. Please respond immediately to address Amazon’s non-compliance. Otherwise, we will file a contempt of court motion for failure to comply with valid legal process.”

It is unclear exactly which records the Department of Justice requested from Amazon; the subpoena was not accessible in the latest group of documents. However, it appeared to be related to email correspondence of individuals linked to the Epstein investigation.

A day later, it appeared that Amazon had hastily prepared a response to the subpoena, but the Department of Justice found this response to be highly inadequate.

Summers appointed as an alternate executor in his will

According to another document, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers was at one point appointed as a backup executor in Jeffrey Epstein’s will.

In the 2014 version of Epstein’s will, Summers was named as a “successor executor” to manage the convicted sex offender’s estate after his death if any of the other three appointed executors were “not qualified or unable to serve.”

According to the document, each executor was entitled to receive $250,000 upon completion of the will. Epstein died in 2019, and Summers was not named as an executor in the final version of his will.

Fake passport linked to Saudi Arabia

In the most recently released files, Epstein is seen to have an Austrian passport registered under the name “Marius Robert Fortelni.” The New York Post reported that this name belonged to a real estate developer who once lived in New York and later moved to Palm Beach, Florida.

The passport/document lists the individual’s date of birth as July 30, 1954, and place of birth as Vienna. Epstein was born in the US in 1953.

The passport, issued on May 21, 1984, lists the place of residence as Saudi Arabia and the nationality as Austrian.

The Saudi connection is particularly significant because Adnan Khashoggi, who was involved in organizing the Afghan jihad and the Iran-Contra scandal, and Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, operated in the dark connections of international finance.

Epstein’s lawyers addressed the issue of the fake passport years ago. In a 2019 court filing cited by NBC, the offender’s legal team claimed the document was designed not for routine travel but as a “security measure.”

Arguing that the document was designed to be shown only in extreme cases while traveling in dangerous areas, Epstein’s lawyers wrote, “The passport was for personal protection in case of travel to dangerous areas,” adding that the passport would only be shown to “potential kidnappers, pirates, or terrorists in the event of violent incidents.”

Photographs released by the department show that the passport contained travel stamps from countries such as France, Spain, and the UK between 1982 and 1983. The document also includes a stamp from the Saudi Arabian consulate in Vienna granting a two-month entry permit.

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Tech giants pour billions into media licensing to fuel AI systems

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Investments by Silicon Valley-based technology giants in mainstream media organisations have taken on a new dimension in recent years, pivoting around direct cash flows, technology transfers, and legal strategies.

Aiming to shield their artificial intelligence models from copyright infringement lawsuits and feed them high-quality, real-time data cleansed of low-grade AI-generated material circulating online, tech companies are engaged in a billion-dollar licensing race.

OpenAI stands out with aggressive licensing drive

Building the industry’s most extensive content licensing portfolio, OpenAI is not only purchasing data but also integrating media outlets into its own ecosystem via AI integration.

The five-year agreement struck between the company and News Corp encompasses more than $250 million in cash and technology credits. The deal’s average annual cash flow stands at around $50 million.

Under this collaboration, the archives and live news feeds of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, The New York Post, The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Sun have been opened to OpenAI systems. OpenAI uses this data both to train its GPT models and to summarize News Corp articles with source attribution links within ChatGPT search results.

The Media Copilot Citation Study and analyses by The Wall Street Journal on market dynamics reveal that publishers entering into licensing agreements gain a 48% priority advantage in ChatGPT citations.

OpenAI also signed an agreement valued at between $25 million and $30 million over three years with Axel Springer—whose portfolio includes publications such as Politico and Business Insider—securing the right to provide users with real-time summaries of European and US political news.

In its partnership with Dotdash Meredith, a fixed annual guarantee fee of $16 million was established alongside variable commercial revenue-sharing arrangements.

According to IAC financial filings and Adweek data, millions of articles from brands including People, Better Homes & Gardens, Lifewire, and InStyle are transferred to OpenAI, while the technology company supports the AI optimization of Dotdash Meredith’s advertising targeting platform, D.M.A.P.

On another front, The Walt Disney Company partnership announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger and Sam Altman involved a combination of a $1 billion equity investment and stock warrants.

The agreement aimed to secure the legal use of more than 200 characters from the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars universes inside Sora, the text-to-video AI model.

However, according to details reflected in reports by The Guardian and OpenAI Index filings, Hollywood’s resistance to artificial intelligence, the rights of actors and voice artists, and shifting priorities within OpenAI regarding the Sora application have plunged the operational process of the billion-dollar integration project into crisis.

Alongside traditional media, OpenAI is also turning to alternative and emerging media platforms. The company acquired TBPN last April. TBPN is a podcast hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, both of whom come from the venture capital world. Daily from a Los Angeles studio, the duo hosts a three-hour show reminiscent of mainstream media business or sports broadcasts.

The podcast and its team fall under the responsibility of Chris Lehane, an experienced lobbyist who rose to prominence managing scandals during the Clinton administration. Lehane serves as OpenAI’s head of public relations.

Silicon Valley’s “parallel media ecosystem” does not consist solely of ventures by tech investors. Andreessen Horowitz, for instance, is investing heavily to build its own media empire. The venture capital firm publishes podcasts to showcase its tech investment portfolio and promote pro-technology politics. In this context, bespoke publications such as Future were established to disseminate optimistic perspectives on technology and feature founders in their portfolio without subjecting them to external critical scrutiny.

Furthermore, tech-backed ventures such as the AI platform State Affairs—supported by Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures—employ human reporters to feed state legislative data into large language models (LLMs) for corporate subscribers.

Meta pivots to AI data over social traffic

Having faced disputes with publishers after restricting external link traffic directed to traditional media via Facebook and Instagram, Meta has deployed its AI budgets as a solution.

According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the company is executing multi-year agreements reaching up to $50 million annually with News Corp and a global pool of publishers.

Meta is making this investment to ensure its open-source Llama models avoid copyright complications when delivering news in internet searches and inside the Meta AI assistant.

Rather than using the data directly to train model weights, the company employs it within a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) infrastructure that enables the assistant to deliver instant, legally cleared news to the user.

Apple negotiates with legal liability clause

Entering the AI arena with its “Apple Intelligence” integration, Apple held talks with publisher groups including Condé Nast, NBC News, and IAC to conduct its data collection process on an entirely legal footing.

As reported by The New York Times and PCMag, Apple tabled multi-year offers with a baseline price of at least $50 million per group for decades-long archives of institutions such as Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, and NBC News.

A primary factor prolonging negotiations was reportedly Apple’s demand that publishers also assume potential legal liabilities arising from the processing of data within the system.

Perplexity AI shares ad revenue

Confronted with accusations of plagiarism and content theft from media organisations, Perplexity AI established a revenue-sharing pool under the name “Perplexity Publishers Program” to pre-empt potential copyright lawsuits.

Under the partnership, which includes TIME, Fortune, Der Spiegel, and the Los Angeles Times, an initial cash pool of $42.5 million was created.

According to the model examined by The Wall Street Journal and Digiday, Perplexity AI, which has begun introducing advertisements into search results, transfers between 50% and 80% of generated ad revenues to the publisher when it draws on the relevant media outlet’s article while generating an answer.

The company also provides enterprise AI subscriptions to employees of these media organisations.

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US in talks to acquire equity stakes in Venezuelan oilfields

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The Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela’s interim government to acquire an equity stake in the country’s vast oil reserves.

According to a report by Axios, this historic agreement would more than double US oil reserves by securing resources from the country that holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

“To call this deal ‘big’ would be an understatement. This is a massive deal,” one official said.

Another factor driving the push to sign the agreement is the wars in Iran and Ukraine, which have disrupted global oil supplies and pushed up prices.

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve currently stands at a 40-year low.

The details are still being worked out, but the talks cover more than a dozen producing oilfields, rather than the entirety of Venezuela’s 300 billion barrels in proven reserves.

The fields in question hold 90 billion barrels in proven reserves and were previously controlled by former Venezuelan officials, including some who face criminal charges.

Interests once controlled by China were also linked to these fields.

In exchange for granting the US an ownership stake, the Venezuelan government would benefit from private firms, including American companies, developing these fields and generating increased oil revenues for the country.

According to Axios, the Venezuelan oil deal would represent a legacy-defining moment for President Trump, who has made US energy security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere cornerstones of his “Donroe Doctrine”.

“President Trump is very close to securing America’s energy future for generations to come, not only in the US, but across the entire hemisphere,” another official said.

Trump had reportedly begun discussing ways to acquire a stake in Venezuelan oilfields in secret even before Nicolas Maduro was abducted by the US on 3 January.

The negotiations are being led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez.

Last month, senior officials from the Departments of State and Defence met with their counterparts in Caracas to discuss the details in greater depth.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is also playing a significant role in the process.

An official noted that the White House is sensitive to accusations that Rodriguez will hand over Venezuela’s natural resources to the US, stating: “We are doing everything we can to show this will benefit the Venezuelan people, because it genuinely will.”

It remains uncertain exactly when the agreement will be finalised. US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is discussing plans to travel to Venezuela next week, as his department examines ways for US companies to boost oil production.

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US urges Mexico to curb undocumented crossings at southern border

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The administration of US President Donald Trump is demanding that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum implement additional measures against illegal crossings along the US border.

According to a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter, US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio conveyed this demand to Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco during a closed-door meeting in Washington on 26 August.

The Washington administration is demanding that Mexican authorities prevent their own citizens from attempting to cross the US border illegally.

Bloomberg noted that fulfilling this request could encounter constitutional and legal obstacles, as Mexico’s constitution guarantees its citizens freedom of movement across national territory.

US State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott stated that Rubio urged Mexico during the meeting to take decisive steps in combating migration, drug trafficking, and cartel operations.

The Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs has not yet issued a statement regarding the matter.

According to data cited by Bloomberg, US border patrol units detained more than 9,200 migrants in July. This figure represents the highest monthly tally recorded since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

The July figure was reported to have doubled compared to the same period of the previous year, yet it remained at approximately one-sixth of the level recorded in the final July of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Under Trump, who declared a state of emergency on the southern US border upon taking office in January 2025, illegal border crossings were recorded at 28,635 in February and 29,065 in March.

In the corresponding months of the preceding year, those figures stood at 256,071 and 246,505, respectively.

Following negotiations between Trump and Sheinbaum in February 2025, Mexico pledged to deploy 10,000 National Guard personnel to its northern border to counter drug shipments heading into the US.

Washington, in turn, suspended for one month the tariffs planned on goods of Mexican origin and pledged to work towards preventing illegal firearms shipments into Mexico.

Following Trump’s threats of launching ground operations against drug cartels in Mexico, Sheinbaum called in January 2026 for enhanced security coordination with Washington.

The Mexican leader had assigned then foreign minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente to hold talks with US Secretary of State Rubio.

Sheinbaum expressed that she considered a US invasion of her country unlikely and that Trump’s statements to that effect should not be taken seriously.

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