Victim’s Haunting Words Which Show Ghislaine Can Never Be Truly Free; The Daily Beast, August 1, 2025

Wudan Yan

Michael Daly , The Daily Beast;  Victim’s Haunting Words Which Show Ghislaine Can Never Be Truly Free

"Though Giuffre is unable to voice an objection now, she leaves us with a statement her attorney read at Maxwell’s sentencing on June 28, 2022. Giuffre addressed the statement directly to Maxwell.

“Ghislaine: Twenty-two years ago, in the summer of 2000, you spotted me at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and you made a choice: You chose to follow me and procure me for Epstein. Just hours later, you and he abused me together for the first time. Together you damaged me physically, mentally, sexually and emotionally. Together you did unthinkable things that still have a corrosive impact on me to this day. I want to be clear about one thing: Without question, Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible pedophile, but I never would have met Jeffrey Epstein if not for you.

“For me, and for so many others, you opened the door to hell, and then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us and you led us all through it. When you did that, you changed the course of our lives forever."

Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved to new prison amid fight over answers, immunity; Fox News, August 1, 2025

Julia Bonavita , David Spunt , Fox News ; Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell moved to new prison amid fight over answers, immunity

"The former girlfriend and convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein is now at a new prison facility, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred from a federal prison facility in Tallahassee, Florida, to the Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Bryan, Texas, her attorney confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

Neither the Bureau of Prisons nor Maxwell’s attorney provided an explanation for the move. 

Maxwell's new life behind bars comes with an upgrade, with the FPC Bryan location serving as a minimum-security prison that also houses Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and celebrity housewife Jen Shah. The prison has roughly 600 female inmates and is primarily home to non-violent offenders convicted of white collar crimes. 

The move was criticized Friday by the family of Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein accuser who died by suicide earlier this year."

Jeffrey Epstein victims and family blast Trump for Ghislaine Maxwell prison transfer; CNBC, August 1, 2025

 Dan Mangan, CNBC; Jeffrey Epstein victims and family blast Trump for Ghislaine Maxwell prison transfer

"Two sexual abuse victims of Jeffrey Epstein and the family of late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre on Friday blasted President Donald Trump after learning that Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell had been transferred to a less restrictive prison in Texas from Florida.

“This move smacks of a cover up,” Epstein victims Annie Farmer and Maria Farmer, as well as Giuffre’s relatives said in a statement.

“President Trump has sent a clear message today: Pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter,” the statement said, noting that the two women and Giuffre’s family had not been notified of Maxwell’s transfer before media reports of it.

Maxwell’s transfer to minimum security camp in Bryan, Texas, came after two days of meetings she and her lawyer had last week in Tallahassee, Florida, with a top Justice Department official.

That official, Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche, is Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer.

Trump is a former friend of Epstein and Maxwell."

Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to less restrictive prison after DOJ meeting; Politico, August 1, 2025

 ERICA ORDEN, Politico; Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to less restrictive prison after DOJ meeting

"Days after sitting down with one of the highest-ranking members of the Justice Department, Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to a less restrictive, minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas, her attorney said.

As a convicted sex offender, Maxwell would not normally be eligible for a minimum-security prison. According to a Bureau of Prisons policy, people with a sex offender determination known as a “public safety factor” are required to be housed in at least low-security prisons unless they receive a waiver from an arm of the bureau that designates inmates. Low-security prisons are more restrictive than minimum-security ones."

Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minors; U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, June 28, 2022

Press Release, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York;Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minors

"Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLANE MAXWELL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States Circuit Judge Alison J. Nathan to 240 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade.  MAXWELL was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:  “Today’s sentence holds Ghislaine Maxwell accountable for perpetrating heinous crimes against children.  This sentence sends a strong message that no one is above the law and it is never too late for justice.  We again express our gratitude to Epstein and Maxwell’s victims for their courage in coming forward, in testifying at trial, and in sharing their stories as part of today’s sentencing.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment, court documents, and evidence presented at trial:

From at least 1994, up to and including in or about 2004, GHISLAINE MAXWELL assisted, facilitated, and participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to MAXWELL and Epstein to be under the age of 18.  The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by MAXWELL and Epstein, both of whom knew that their victims were in fact minors.  As a part and in furtherance of their scheme to abuse minor victims, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and caused minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences in different states, which MAXWELL knew and intended would result in their grooming for and subjection to sexual abuse.

MAXWELL enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways.  For example, MAXWELL attempted to befriend certain victims by asking them about their lives, their schools, and their families, and taking them to the movies or on shopping trips.  MAXWELL also acclimated victims to Epstein’s conduct simply by being present for victim interactions with Epstein, which put victims at ease by providing the assurance and comfort of an adult woman who seemingly approved of Epstein’s behavior.  Additionally, Epstein offered to help some victims by paying for travel and/or educational opportunities, and MAXWELL encouraged certain victims to accept Epstein’s assistance.  As a result, victims were made to feel indebted and believed that MAXWELL and Epstein were trying to help them.  MAXWELL also normalized and facilitated sexual abuse for a victim by discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when the victim was undressed, and encouraging the victim to massage Epstein.

As MAXWELL and Epstein intended, these grooming behaviors left minor victims vulnerable and susceptible to sexual abuse by Epstein.  MAXWELL was then present for certain sexual encounters between minor victims and Epstein, such as interactions where a minor victim was undressed, and ultimately was present for sex acts perpetrated by Epstein on minor victims.  That abuse included sexualized massages during which a minor victim was fully or partially nude, as well as group sexualized massages of Epstein involving a minor victim where MAXWELL was present.  In some instances, MAXWELL participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims. 

Ultimately minor victims were subjected to sexual abuse that included, among other things, the touching of a victim’s breasts or genitals, placing a sex toy such as a vibrator on a victim’s genitals, directing a victim to touch Epstein while he masturbated, and directing a victim to touch Epstein’s genitals.  MAXWELL and Epstein’s victims were groomed or abused at Epstein’s residences in New York, Florida, and New Mexico, as well as MAXWELL’s residence in London, England.

In the earlier phase of the conspiracy, from at least approximately 1994 through approximately 2001, MAXWELL and Epstein identified vulnerable girls, typically from single-mother households and difficult financial circumstances.  This earlier phase required the defendant and Epstein to identify one girl at a time to target for grooming and abuse.  In the later phase, from approximately 2001 until at least approximately 2004, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit Epstein’s Palm Beach Residence to engage in sex acts with Epstein, after which Epstein, MAXWELL, or another employee of Epstein’s would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash. MAXWELL and Epstein encouraged one or more of those victims to travel with Epstein with the intention that the victim engage in sex acts with Epstein.  Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, MAXWELL and Epstein also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein.  In this way, MAXWELL and Epstein created a network of underage victims for Epstein to sexually exploit.

*                *                *

In addition to the prison sentence, MAXWELL, 60, was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $750,00 fine.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maurene Comey, Alison Moe, Lara Pomerantz, and Andrew Rohrbach are in charge of the prosecution."

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close after US funding cut; The Guardian, August 1, 2025

Joseph Gedeon, The Guardian ; Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close after US funding cut

"The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday it will shut down operations after losing federal funding, delivering a blow to America’s public media system and the more than 1,500 local stations that have relied on its support for nearly six decades.

The closure follows the Republican-controlled House’s decision last month to eliminate $1.1bn in CPB funding over two years, part of a $9bn reduction to public media and foreign aid programs.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” said Patricia Harrison, the corporation’s president and chief executive.

The 57-year-old corporation distributed more than $500m annually to PBS, NPR and 1,500 local stations nationwide. Despite the federal support, stations mostly rely on viewer donations, corporate sponsorships and local government support for the remainder."

What Happened When Their Art Was Banned; The New York Times, July 31, 2025

Interviews by Kate GuadagninoNick Haramis and Coco Romack

Artwork by Barbara Kruger

, The New York Times ; What Happened When Their Art Was Banned

"Of the 26 executive orders President Donald Trump signed on the first day of his second term, one was billed as “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship,” barring the government from “any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” In his address to Congress a few weeks later, Trump reiterated this point: “I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It’s back.”

Free speech has long been, as NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik put it, “an article of faith” for conservative politicians and especially, recently, for the MAGA right, which has argued that their views have been suppressed by left-leaning social media platforms and misconstrued in the mainstream press. (Some on the left have expressed similar concerns about their views.) Yet what’s transpired since late January wouldn’t meet a free speech absolutist’s definition of unfettered discourse. Federal mandates targeting diversity or racial and gender equality have resulted in bans or attempted bans on words, ideas, books and people. Employees at NASA and other agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures. The Department of Defense briefly excised a tribute to Jackie Robinson’s army service from the Pentagon website and instructed West Point to adjust its curriculum, in an attempt to purge U.S. military institutions of “divisive concepts and gender ideology.” In March, a Turkish grad student in Massachusetts was taken off the street by plainclothes officers in masks and held without charges for weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention center, seemingly for the crime of having co-authored an opinion essay in the Tufts University student newspaper critical of the school’s response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.

American artists have long seen their creative freedom attacked by governments of all political persuasions. They’ve also been the ones to speak out when others are too frightened to do so. We spoke with several seasoned artists in various fields about their own experience with having been censored. In some cases, that censorship, decades old, feels like a relic of another political moment, of other culture wars, even as it resonates with what’s happening now: same wars, new battles. It almost always affected careers and artists’ tolerance for risk — but not always negatively. For censorship can also be a rallying cry, a reminder of why artists make art in the first place. — M.H. Miller"

Trump has weaponized the government to replace ‘wokeness’ with his version of diversity; CNN, July 30, 2025

 Zachary B. Wolf, CNN ; Trump has weaponized the government to replace ‘wokeness’ with his version of diversity

"It’s not news that the government is using withheld federal funds, the threat of blocked mergers and other strong-arm tactics to exploit pressure points and impose President Donald Trump’s version of diversity on the country.

It is new that the efforts are yielding results.

In higher education: The Department of Justice has transformed its Civil Rights Division into a strike team against what it views as unwarranted and illegal diversity efforts in higher education."

Building presidential library for John Adams and son in Quincy, Massachusetts is of "national importance," CEO says; CBS News, July 31, 2025

 Paula Ebben, 

Paula Ebben, Mike Toole, CBS News; Building presidential library for John Adams and son in Quincy, Massachusetts is of "national importance," CEO says

"A presidential library for John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams is a step closer to becoming a reality in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Adams was the nation's second president, and his son was the sixth, but there's no presidential library for either of them."

Stacks of Cash; The New Yorker, August 1, 2025

Jon Allsop; The New Yorker; Stacks of Cash

"The idea of the Presidential library dates to the late nineteen-thirties, when Roosevelt decided to donate his papers to the federal government and move them to a fireproof building near his family home. According to Anthony Clark, a former congressional staffer who has written a book about Presidential libraries, Roosevelt made room to display memorabilia to the public “almost as an afterthought.” Most Presidential libraries would come to house both the paper trail of a Presidency, for researchers to consult, and also a commemorative museum, which is the bit that most tourists actually visit. Over time, these museums grew more ambitious, and sometimes proved to be of questionable historical value. Richard Nixon’s museum initially presented Watergate as a coup, and accused Woodward and Bernstein of bribery.

Roosevelt was under no legal obligation to make his papers publicly available—but since 1978, thanks to Nixon and Watergate, Presidential records have been considered federal property, and are supposed to be handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration. There has never been a governmental requirement to open an associated museum, but typically these have also been managed by nara. (Nixon’s was unusual in that it was run privately for many years; in 2007, nara took it over and ripped out and replaced the Watergate exhibit.) Before the government gets involved on the museum side, however, the structures must be planned and built using outside funds, making them, in practice, fuzzy mixes of the public and the private. When Presidential libraries are donated to the government, they must also hand over endowments to help defray future maintenance costs.

Barack Obama broke the mold: his Presidential museum, in Chicago, which somehow is still not open, is an entirely private endeavor, run by a foundation; his official records are being digitized and will continue to be supervised by nara. After this effective divorce of library and museum functions was announced, Clark expressed hope about the arrangement. “What were intended to be serious research centers have grown into flashy, partisan temples touting huckster history,” he wrote, in Politico. “Even though they are taxpayer-funded and controlled by a federal agency, the private foundations established by former presidents to build the libraries retain outsize influence.” The Obama model would at least keep the government out of the business of hagiography. Not everyone was supportive, however. Timothy Naftali, who was responsible for overhauling the Nixon facility as its first federal director and who is now a historian at Columbia, has argued that the private nature of Obama’s center is an impediment to nonpartisan public history. “It opens the door,” he said, “to a truly terrible Trump library.”"

Smithsonian Removes Reference to Trump’s Impeachments, but Says It Will Return; The New York Times, July 31, 2025

Graham Bowley, The New York Times; Smithsonian Removes Reference to Trump’s Impeachments, but Says It Will Return

[Kip Currier: Any reasonable, thinking person can see how unacceptable and troubling this is in a democracy, right?]

[Excerpt]

"The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History this month removed a label referring to President Trump’s two impeachments, a move museum officials said was part of a review of the institution’s content for bias.

The temporary label was added in 2021 to an exhibition about the American presidency. The label also included information about the impeachments of former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, as well as about former President Richard M. Nixon, who faced possible impeachment before resigning from office.

Mr. Trump is the only American president to have been impeached twice, in 2019 and again in 2021. He was acquitted both times after facing trials in the Senate.

The removal of the label, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, came after the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, which governs the institution, recently committed to reviewing its content under pressure from the Trump administration. Mr. Trump has called for a more positive framing of the country’s history in Smithsonian museums, and tried to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery, accusing her of being political."