EPSTEIN FILES FALLOUT: The recent release of investigation files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is producing more fallout and issues for leaders in the U.S. and abroad.
Nearly seven years after Epstein's death, blowback over past ties to the disgraced financier is rippling across Washington and around the globe, from politics to business to the legal world.
Bill and Hillary Clinton: The Clintons have been back in the spotlight over a battle with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to secure their testimony in the panel's Epstein investigation.
The former president and former secretary of State were two of a handful of individuals whom the committee subpoenaed to testify about their knowledge of Epstein. After they said they didn't have any additional information relevant to the investigation, committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) pressed for contempt proceedings.
The Clintons reversed course just before a vote this week, agreeing to testify at the end of the month. Those in the Clintons' orbit said they had no choice once Democrats started abandoning them, The Hill's Amie Parnes reports.
Trump said Wednesday he's not pleased "somebody's going after" former President Clinton in the wake of the Epstein files release. Trump told The Hill during a press gathering in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he thought the situation was "a shame."
Keir Starmer and European diplomats: The files' release has also stirred up controversy abroad, with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer receiving heat over his appointment of an ambassador with ties to Epstein.
Starmer fired Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. in September following revelations about the extent of his association with Epstein. But the prime minister is facing questions about his appointment of Mandelson in the first place, given what had been known at the time.
The U.K. government said Wednesday that it would release documents related to the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador.
Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party and the House of Lords over the recent revelations.
But the developments are creating headaches for the entire ruling coalition, ones that CNN reports could jeopardize Starmer's position.
Bill Gates: Gates has also been ensnared by controversy from the latest documents release, which included emails that Epstein wrote about him.
In one email, Epstein accused Gates of asking him to delete emails he had about a sexually transmitted disease and requesting antibiotics he could "surreptitiously" give to his then-wife, Melinda French Gates. Epstein alleged in another email sent to himself that Gates had "sex with Russian girls" and "illicit trysts" with married women.
Gates on Wednesday denied the claims of that email but apologized for spending time with the convicted sex offender.
"Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize that I did that," the Microsoft co-founder said in an interview with Australia's Nine News.
Brad Karp: A major figure in the legal world has stepped down from his role over email correspondence he had with Epstein.
Karp resigned as chair of Paul Weiss, one of the country's top corporate law firms, on Wednesday. While the announcement from the firm didn't say why Karp was stepping down, a quote from him said, "Recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests of the firm."
The New York Times reported emails released last weekend showed Karp had been a guest at Epstein's mansion in New York and exchanged emails with him. They included revelations that Karp had socialized with Epstein and asked for his help getting his son a job on a movie by Woody Allen.
▪ The 19th: Epstein advised men facing #MeToo accusations.
▪ The Hill: Former Prince Andrew moves out of royal residence.
POST LAYOFFS: Hundreds of journalists are out of a job as The Washington Post laid off roughly a third of its newsroom as part of a major restructuring.
The layoffs affected more than 300 journalists and also include people on the business side, equal to about 30 percent of all the company's employees, The New York Times reported.
Executive Editor Matt Murray told staff on Wednesday in a Zoom call that the outlet would shut down its sports department in its current form and move the remaining staffers from there to its features department, The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo reports.
That came just ahead of both the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, and the Super Bowl this weekend.
The book section and podcast "Post Reports" are also being eliminated, while the metro section that covers local news is being trimmed down.
Murray called the moves a "strategic reset."
The cuts are adding to criticism that's already been levied at Post owner Jeff Bezos, who bought the paper more than a decade ago. He's received widespread backlash over the handling of the newspaper's finances and its editorial strategy, particularly during Trump's second term.
Democrats and other public figures lambasted Bezos for the mass layoffs.
"A devastating day for the paper of record in our nation's capital," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a post on the social platform X. "Bezos just spent $40M sucking up to Trump with Amazon's 'Melania', but is now cutting a third of [Post] staff – including much of the international & local teams – for 'budget' reasons?
"The corporate takeover of media is a threat to our democracy & the delivery of the truth to the American people," he continued.
White House communications director Steven Cheung also weighed in amid the layoffs, posting, "Just a reminder that printing fake news is not a profitable business model. That's all."
The cuts also impacted other notable parts of the newsroom, laying off the beat reporter who covered Amazon, the company that turned Bezos into one of the world's wealthiest people. The Post's Ukraine reporters at its bureau in Kyiv were also laid off while covering the country's war with Russia.
▪ Business Insider: The severance package offered to laid-off employees.
▪ The Atlantic: "The murder of The Washington Post."
CALIFORNIA MAP STANDS: The Supreme Court refused to strike down the new congressional map that California voters approved for the midterms, handing Democrats a major win in the national redistricting battle.
The court rejected Wednesday an emergency bid from Republicans to block it. It's not a final ruling, and the court could revisit the case, but it declined the emergency application to halt the map for the midterms.
California voters approved a ballot measure to allow the state Legislature to redraw its map in response to a move by Texas Republicans to also redistrict. The new California map could allow Democrats to gain up to five additional seats in the House in November, potentially canceling out the five that Republicans may gain in the Lone Star State.
The battle to gain the upper hand through redistricting is continuing in various other states, with Democrats hoping to redraw Virginia's congressional lines and Florida Republicans planning a special session in April to do the same.
▪ Politico: Virginia Supreme Court to hear map challenge.
ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN SENTENCED: The man who was convicted of trying to kill Trump while he golfed in Florida during the 2024 presidential campaign has been sentenced to life in prison.
Ryan Routh was found guilty on all five counts he faced last fall, including attempted assassination of a presidential candidate. He was silent as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon handed down the sentence.
The incident at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach in September 2024 happened just two months after Trump was hit in another assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. That attempted assassin was killed at the scene by Secret Service agents.
Prosecutors argued in court that Routh spent weeks planning to shoot Trump before he pushed a rifle through the fence of Trump's golf course. Witnesses testified that Routh was seen before Trump came into view and fled after a Secret Service agent shot at him.
Routh had represented himself and requested a 27-year sentence.
▪ The Hill: D.C. National Guard shooting suspect pleads not guilty.
NUCLEAR TREATY EXPIRES: A treaty between the United States and Russia that had been in place for 15 years expired Wednesday, but what will happen next is unclear.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is so named because it is a successor to START 1, which was signed by the U.S. and Russia in 1991 at the end of the Cold War. New START stated that each side could maintain only 1,550 deployable nuclear warheads and no more than 700 land or sea missiles to carry the long-range warheads, according to Al Jazeera.
Now that the treaty is over, it is unclear what exactly that will mean for both countries' nuclear stockpiles.
Trump in October directed the Pentagon to begin testing U.S. nuclear weapons on an equal basis with Russia and China. The unclear statement was met with pushback from Democrats and Republicans, and members of the administration were quick to say what the president may have meant in his statement.
There have been accusations lodged against Russia and China for conducting secret, low-yield nuclear tests, which CIA Director John Ratcliffe suggested in October was the kind of testing Trump was referring to.
The U.S. stopped testing nuclear arms in 1992, and there is no evidence Russia or China have conducted a full-scale nuclear test since the 1990s.
▪ Al Jazeera: Does the last US-Russia nuclear arms treaty's expiration really matter?
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