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  • Claims about Trump in Epstein files are ‘untrue,’ the Justice Department says

    WASHINGTON — Tips provided to federal investigators about Donald Trump’s alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s schemes with young women and girls are “sensationalist” and “untrue,” the Justice Department said on Tuesday, after a new tranche of files released from the probe featured multiple references to the president.

    The documents include a limousine driver reportedly overhearing Trump discussing a man named Jeffrey “abusing” a girl, and an alleged victim accusing Trump and Epstein of rape. It is unclear whether the FBI followed up on the tips. The alleged rape victim died from a gunshot wound to the head after reporting the incident.

    Nowhere in the newly released files do federal law enforcement agents or prosecutors indicate that Trump was suspected of wrongdoing, or that Trump — whose friendship with Epstein lasted through the mid-2000s — was investigated himself.

    But one unidentified federal prosecutor noted in a 2020 email that Trump had flown on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported,” including over a time period when Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s top confidante who would ultimately be convicted on five federal counts of sex trafficking and abuse, was being investigated for criminal activity.

    The Justice Department released an unusual statement unequivocally defending the president.

    “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department statement read. “To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

    “Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” the department added.

    The Justice Department files were released with heavy redactions after bipartisan lawmakers in Congress passed a new law compelling it to do so, despite Trump lobbying Republicans aggressively over the summer and fall to oppose the bill. The president ultimately signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law after the legislation passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers.

    One newly released file containing a letter purportedly from Epstein — a notorious child sex offender who died in jail while awaiting federal trial on sex-trafficking charges — drew widespread attention online, but was held up by the Justice Department as an example of faulty or misleading information contained in the files.

    The letter appeared to be sent by Epstein to Larry Nassar, another convicted sex offender, shortly before Epstein’s death. The letter’s author suggested that Nassar would learn after receiving the note that Epstein had “taken the ‘short route’ home,” possibly referring to his suicide. It was postmarked from Virginia on Aug. 13, 2019, despite Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail three days prior.

    “Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls,” the letter reads. “When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab snatch,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair.”

    The Justice Department said that the FBI had confirmed that the letter is “FAKE” after it made the rounds on Tuesday.

    “This fake letter serves as a reminder that just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual,” the department posted on social media. “Nevertheless, the DOJ will continue to release all material required by law.”

    The department has faced bipartisan scrutiny since failing to release all of the Epstein files in its possession by Dec. 19, the legal deadline for it to do so, and for redacting material on the vast majority of the documents.

    Justice Department officials said they were following the law by protecting victims with the redactions. The Epstein Files Transparency Act also directs the department not to redact images or references to prominent or political figures, and to provide an explanation for each and every redaction in writing.

    The latest release, just days before the Christmas holiday, includes roughly 30,000 documents, the department said. Hundreds of thousands more are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

    Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a statement in response to the Tuesday release accusing the Justice Department of a “cover-up,” writing on social media, “the new DOJ documents raise serious questions about the relationship between Epstein and Donald Trump.”

    Documents from Epstein’s private estate released by the oversight committee earlier this fall had already cast a spotlight on that relationship, revealing Epstein had written in emails to associates that Trump “knew about the girls.”

    The latest documents release also includes an email from an individual identified as “A,” claiming to stay at Balmoral Castle, a royal residence in Scotland, asking Maxwell if she had found him “some new inappropriate friends.” Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has come under intense scrutiny over his ties to Epstein in recent years.

    Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, Trump said the continuing Epstein scandal amounts to a “distraction” from Republican successes, and expressed disapproval over the release of images in the files that reveal associates of Epstein.

    “I believe they gave over 100,000 pages of documents, and there’s tremendous backlash,” Trump told reporters. “It’s an interesting question, because a lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein. But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruin a reputation of somebody. So a lot of people are very angry that this continues.”

    Michael Wilner

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  • Mexican president’s popularity endures despite rising corruption concerns

    MEXICO CITY — Tens of thousands of Mexicans are set to gather downtown Sunday in a choreographed tribute to President Claudia Sheinbaum, who closed out her initial year in office with approval ratings north of 70%.

    Apart from her personal popularity as Mexico’s first woman president, polls show strong support among poor and working-class Mexicans for her continuation of social-aid programs launched by her predecessor and mentor, ex-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum screams during the annual shout of Independence (Grito de Independencia) as part of Mexico’s Independence Day celebration on Sept. 15 in Mexico City.

    (Hector Vivas / Getty Images)

    Sheinbaum, who took office last Oct. 1, has embraced and expanded López Obrador’s leftist social agenda, often repeating his mantra: “For the good of all, the poor first.”

    But, amid the plaudits, there is also a disconnect: Polls and interviews show deep concerns about crime, the economy and, increasingly, the defining issue of corruption — the elimination of which is a central plank of the president’s Morena movement, founded by ex-president López Obrador.

    Almost three-quarters of respondents (73%) gave Sheinbaum’s government a negative rating for its handling of corruption, the poorest mark to date for its anti-corruption efforts, according to a poll last month from the newspaper El Financiero.

    We are seeing the same corruption as in past governments, it’s very disappointing

    — Lorena Santibañez, medical student

    While crime remains Mexicans’ most pressing concern, many cite corruption as a core issue that could eventually erode trust in the administration of Sheinbaum, whose term lasts five more years.

    “We are seeing the same corruption as in past governments. It’s very disappointing,” said Lorena Santibañez, 25, a medical student. “I want to give la presidenta the benefit of the doubt — it’s her first year. But I don’t have much hope.”

    Almost daily headlines here highlight instances of alleged graft, nepotism and other questionable behavior within Sheinbaum’s ruling circles. Some reports have focused on relatives or close associates of the retired López Obrador, whom Sheinbaum regularly extols as a visionary and exemplar of moral integrity.

    The corruption revelations tend to range from the somewhat venal — party bigwigs living on limited government salaries enjoying lavish lifestyles — to more insidious allegations of Morena officials in league with organized crime.

    Making a social media splash this summer were news reports on the ritzy vacations of various Morena heavyweights, notably Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, the son of the ex-president, who serves as Morena’s party secretary.

    His stay at a $400-a-night Tokyo hotel and reported $2,600 restaurant bill sparked outrage in a nation where many earn $10 a day or less. Amid the escalating reports of Morena officials enjoying the high life abroad, Sheinbaum signaled her disapproval.

    “Power must be exercised with humility — that is my position and always will be,” she told reporters. “We have a responsibility with the movement we represent, and the principles that we represent.”

    No allegations have touched Sheinbaum, a scientist and longtime academic known for her austere lifestyle and serious demeanor.

    “We haven’t heard of any scandal about her, of corrupt relatives, or family members in public office doing business,” said José Farías, 54, a bus driver. “That has helped her remain popular, along with the fact that people view her as well-prepared, intelligent and honorable.”

    Sheinbaum, who was recruited into public service by López Obrador while she was an obscure academic and he the mayor of Mexico City, is now the standard-bearer for Morena. It is a movement that, in little more than a decade, has become a juggernaut.

    Morena dominates government, the judiciary and other facets of Mexican life in a way that has drawn inevitable comparisons to a previous Mexican political colossus — the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled Mexico in authoritarian fashion for much of the 20th century.

    The PRI is now greatly diminished, and Morena’s model differs from the PRI playbook of rigged elections, institutionalized graft, repression and an all-powerful president. But many of Morena’s old guard, including López Obrador, earned their stripes as PRI operatives.

    “It’s very hard to explain Morena’s hegemony without acknowledging that it cannibalized a lot of what was left of the PRI,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst. “And a lot of what was left of the PRI was criminal governance and complicity with criminal organizations.”

    Such complicity has become more problematic as the Trump administration has essentially declared war on drug cartels, designating a half-dozen Mexican crime syndicates as terrorist groups. Several recent scandals have suggested Morena politicians were in cahoots with organized crime.

    Morena’s top member of the Senate, Adán Augusto López Hernández — a former interior minister, ex-governor of Tabasco state and lifelong associate of López Obrador— has publicly denied links to a mob known as La Barredora (The Sweeper). The alleged leader of La Barredora, a former security chief in Tabasco, is now imprisoned in Mexico after being arrested as a fugitive in Paraguay.

    It was López Hernández who, while governor of Tabasco, appointed the alleged mob chieftain to the security post. The senator says he knew nothing.

    Even the Mexican navy, ranked among the nation’s most-trusted institutions, has been implicated in a far-reaching fuel-theft scheme, with 14 suspects arrested so far. One is a nephew of the admiral who served as secretary of the navy under López Obrador. In response, Sheinbaum defended the admiral and said he helped denounce the thievery.

    Repeatedly, Sheinbaum has been put in the position of declaring that no one is above the law. “We won’t cover up for anyone,” has become a presidential mantra.

    Some reformers have credited Sheinbaum with confronting corruption, while others say she has been too cautious, too hesitant, to take on a problem deeply entrenched in Mexican politics.

    “A lot of people inside Morena are saying, ‘Let’s push out the bad apples,’ “ noted Bravo Regidor. “But what’s rotten is the barrel, not the apples.”

    Earlier this year, the president publicly pressured Morena to institute a strict anti-nepotism policy. But her plan ran into strong headwinds in a party where patronage is rampant.

    Luisa María Alcalde Luján, a lawyer who presides as president of Morena, has been mocked for declaring that the party is nepotism-free. Both of her parents were prominent in the government of López Obrador, and her sister is the attorney general for Mexico City.

    “It’s so false when politicians from Morena say there is no corruption,” said Miguel Angel García, 32, a salesman. “Yes, Sheinbaum is more honest. But she has a lot of work to do.”

    Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.

    Patrick J. McDonnell, Kate Linthicum

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