Washington
New lawsuit on Epstein case seeks records of Trump administration communications
WASHINGTON (AP) — A legal organization challenging President Donald Trump’s administration on multiple fronts filed a new lawsuit on Friday seeking the release of records detailing the handling of the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The group Democracy Forward sued the Justice Department and the FBI for senior administration officials’ communication about Epstein documents and any regarding correspondence between him and Trump.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, appears to the be first of its kind. The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.
“The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,” said Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of the Democratic-aligned group, in a statement. The federal government often shields records related to criminal investigations from public view.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Democracy Forward has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump’s Republican administration, challenging policies and executive orders in areas including education, immigration and health care.
The Epstein case has been subject to heightened public focus since the Justice Department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case, despite assurance from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The decision sparked frustration and anger among online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump’s base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.
The Trump administration has sought to unseal grand jury transcripts, though that has been denied by a judge in Florida. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.
A similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York.
The House Oversight Committee has also subpoenaed the Justice Department for files on the investigation, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to Trump and other former top officials.
Since Epstein’s 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial for sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on the wealthy financier and who else knew about his sexual abuse of teenage girls.
Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and says he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation. But lawmakers from both major political parties have refused to let it go.
Maryland
Judge blocks Trump’s birthright order nationwide in fourth such ruling since Supreme Court decision
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge in Maryland late Thursday ruled President Donald Trump’s administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, issuing the fourth court decision blocking the president’s birthright citizenship order nationwide since a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman’s preliminary injunction was expected after the judge said last month she would issue such an order if the case were returned to her by an appeals court. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to her later in July.
Since June, two other district courts, as well as an appellate panel of judges, have also blocked the birthright order nationwide.
An email to the White House for comment was not immediately returned.
Trump’s January order would deny citizenship to children born to parents living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
Boardman in February issued a preliminary injunction blocking it nationwide. But the June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upended that decision and other court rulings blocking the order across the nation.
The justices ruled that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.
In her ruling Thursday, Boardman certified a class of all children who have been born or will be born in the United States after February 19, 2025, who would be affected by Trump’s order.
She said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit before her were “extremely likely” to win their argument that the birthright order violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens. They were also likely to suffer irreparable harm if the order went into effect, she wrote.
Arizona
Man arrested for throwing sex toy into crowd at WNBA game
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man was arrested after police say he threw a sex toy into the crowd at a WNBA game in Phoenix, the latest in a series of similar disturbances at arenas across the league over the several days.
Police say the 18-year-old pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket at Tuesday’s matchup between the Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut Sun and threw it toward seats in front of him, striking a spectator in the back.
The man later told police it was a prank that had been trending on social media and that he bought the toy a day earlier to take to the game. He was later tackled by a volunteer at the arena who had witnessed the incident and began following him as the man tried to leave the arena.
Police say the man was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.
Over the last week, sex toys have been thrown onto the courts at games in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. A sex toy landed near Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham after it was thrown from the stands in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. Players have said throwing the toys at games is disrespectful and potentially dangerous.
Texas
Judge to consider the fate of an agreement on protecting immigrant children in U.S. custody
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Friday will hear a Trump administration request to end a nearly three-decade-old policy on ensuring safe conditions for immigrant children held in federal custody.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles will hold a hearing to consider dissolving a policy that limits how long Customs and Border Protection can hold immigrant children and that requires them to be kept in safe and sanitary conditions. The policy also allows third-party inspections of CBP facilities that hold immigrant children to ensure compliance.
Advocates for immigrant children have asked the judge to keep the protections and oversight in place and have submitted firsthand accounts from immigrants in family detention who described adults fighting children for clean water, despondent toddlers and a child with swollen feet who was denied a medical exam.
In its motion, President Donald Trump’s administration said the government has made substantial changes since the Flores agreement was formalized in 1997. The government said it has created standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement.
Conditions for immigrant children who enter the U.S. without a parent “have substantially improved from those that precipitated this suit four decades ago,” the government wrote in its motion.
The agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, governs the conditions for all immigrant children in U.S. custody, including those traveling alone or with their parents. It also limits how long CBP can detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then takes custody of the children.
The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when HHS takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs.
Advocates for the children say the government is holding children beyond the time limits set out in the agreement. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours and that 14 children, including toddlers, were held for over 20 days in April. As part of their court filings, they included testimony from several families who were held in family detention centers in Texas.
If the judge terminates the settlement, the detention centers would be closed to third-party inspections.
The federal government is looking to expand its immigration detention space, including by building more centers like one in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” where a lawsuit alleges detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated.
Washington
Appeals court tosses judge’s contempt finding against Trump administration in prison deportations
WASHINGTON (AP) — A split appeals court panel tossed out a judge’s contempt finding against President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday in a case over deportations to an El Salvador prison.
The decision comes after planes carrying Venezuelan migrants landed at the prison even though U.S District Judge James E. Boasberg had ordered them to return to the United States.
Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court. The ruling marked a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of government.
But the divided three-judge panel in the nation’s capital found that Boasberg had exceeded his authority and intruded on the executive branch’s foreign affairs powers.
Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were nominated by Trump in his first term in the White House, agreed with the unsigned majority opinion.
“The threat of criminal contempt is directed at forcing the Executive to engage in diplomacy to assert custody over individuals held by a foreign sovereign,” Rao wrote.
Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dissented. “The majority does an exemplary judge a grave disservice by overstepping its bounds to upend his effort to vindicate the judicial authority that is our shared trust,” she wrote.
The Trump administration has denied violating the judge’s order. The 250 migrants were released to their home country in a prisoner swap with the U.S. after months at a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
Boasberg had accused Trump administration officials of rushing deportees out of the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act before they could challenge their removal in court and then willfully disregarding his order that planes already in the air should return.
Last month, the Justice Department filed an unusual judicial misconduct complaint against Boasberg over comments he allegedly made at a closed-door meeting of judges as well as his actions in the deportations case. The complaint calls for the case to be taken away from Boasberg while an investigation proceeds.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the ruling, calling it a “MAJOR victory defending President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act” in a social media post and vowing to “continue fighting and WINNING in court.”
New lawsuit on Epstein case seeks records of Trump administration communications
WASHINGTON (AP) — A legal organization challenging President Donald Trump’s administration on multiple fronts filed a new lawsuit on Friday seeking the release of records detailing the handling of the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The group Democracy Forward sued the Justice Department and the FBI for senior administration officials’ communication about Epstein documents and any regarding correspondence between him and Trump.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, appears to the be first of its kind. The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.
“The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,” said Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of the Democratic-aligned group, in a statement. The federal government often shields records related to criminal investigations from public view.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Democracy Forward has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump’s Republican administration, challenging policies and executive orders in areas including education, immigration and health care.
The Epstein case has been subject to heightened public focus since the Justice Department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case, despite assurance from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The decision sparked frustration and anger among online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump’s base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.
The Trump administration has sought to unseal grand jury transcripts, though that has been denied by a judge in Florida. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.
A similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York.
The House Oversight Committee has also subpoenaed the Justice Department for files on the investigation, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to Trump and other former top officials.
Since Epstein’s 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial for sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on the wealthy financier and who else knew about his sexual abuse of teenage girls.
Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and says he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation. But lawmakers from both major political parties have refused to let it go.
Maryland
Judge blocks Trump’s birthright order nationwide in fourth such ruling since Supreme Court decision
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge in Maryland late Thursday ruled President Donald Trump’s administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, issuing the fourth court decision blocking the president’s birthright citizenship order nationwide since a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman’s preliminary injunction was expected after the judge said last month she would issue such an order if the case were returned to her by an appeals court. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to her later in July.
Since June, two other district courts, as well as an appellate panel of judges, have also blocked the birthright order nationwide.
An email to the White House for comment was not immediately returned.
Trump’s January order would deny citizenship to children born to parents living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
Boardman in February issued a preliminary injunction blocking it nationwide. But the June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upended that decision and other court rulings blocking the order across the nation.
The justices ruled that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.
In her ruling Thursday, Boardman certified a class of all children who have been born or will be born in the United States after February 19, 2025, who would be affected by Trump’s order.
She said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit before her were “extremely likely” to win their argument that the birthright order violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens. They were also likely to suffer irreparable harm if the order went into effect, she wrote.
Arizona
Man arrested for throwing sex toy into crowd at WNBA game
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man was arrested after police say he threw a sex toy into the crowd at a WNBA game in Phoenix, the latest in a series of similar disturbances at arenas across the league over the several days.
Police say the 18-year-old pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket at Tuesday’s matchup between the Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut Sun and threw it toward seats in front of him, striking a spectator in the back.
The man later told police it was a prank that had been trending on social media and that he bought the toy a day earlier to take to the game. He was later tackled by a volunteer at the arena who had witnessed the incident and began following him as the man tried to leave the arena.
Police say the man was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.
Over the last week, sex toys have been thrown onto the courts at games in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. A sex toy landed near Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham after it was thrown from the stands in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. Players have said throwing the toys at games is disrespectful and potentially dangerous.
Texas
Judge to consider the fate of an agreement on protecting immigrant children in U.S. custody
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Friday will hear a Trump administration request to end a nearly three-decade-old policy on ensuring safe conditions for immigrant children held in federal custody.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles will hold a hearing to consider dissolving a policy that limits how long Customs and Border Protection can hold immigrant children and that requires them to be kept in safe and sanitary conditions. The policy also allows third-party inspections of CBP facilities that hold immigrant children to ensure compliance.
Advocates for immigrant children have asked the judge to keep the protections and oversight in place and have submitted firsthand accounts from immigrants in family detention who described adults fighting children for clean water, despondent toddlers and a child with swollen feet who was denied a medical exam.
In its motion, President Donald Trump’s administration said the government has made substantial changes since the Flores agreement was formalized in 1997. The government said it has created standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement.
Conditions for immigrant children who enter the U.S. without a parent “have substantially improved from those that precipitated this suit four decades ago,” the government wrote in its motion.
The agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, governs the conditions for all immigrant children in U.S. custody, including those traveling alone or with their parents. It also limits how long CBP can detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then takes custody of the children.
The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when HHS takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs.
Advocates for the children say the government is holding children beyond the time limits set out in the agreement. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours and that 14 children, including toddlers, were held for over 20 days in April. As part of their court filings, they included testimony from several families who were held in family detention centers in Texas.
If the judge terminates the settlement, the detention centers would be closed to third-party inspections.
The federal government is looking to expand its immigration detention space, including by building more centers like one in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” where a lawsuit alleges detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated.
Washington
Appeals court tosses judge’s contempt finding against Trump administration in prison deportations
WASHINGTON (AP) — A split appeals court panel tossed out a judge’s contempt finding against President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday in a case over deportations to an El Salvador prison.
The decision comes after planes carrying Venezuelan migrants landed at the prison even though U.S District Judge James E. Boasberg had ordered them to return to the United States.
Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court. The ruling marked a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of government.
But the divided three-judge panel in the nation’s capital found that Boasberg had exceeded his authority and intruded on the executive branch’s foreign affairs powers.
Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were nominated by Trump in his first term in the White House, agreed with the unsigned majority opinion.
“The threat of criminal contempt is directed at forcing the Executive to engage in diplomacy to assert custody over individuals held by a foreign sovereign,” Rao wrote.
Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, dissented. “The majority does an exemplary judge a grave disservice by overstepping its bounds to upend his effort to vindicate the judicial authority that is our shared trust,” she wrote.
The Trump administration has denied violating the judge’s order. The 250 migrants were released to their home country in a prisoner swap with the U.S. after months at a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
Boasberg had accused Trump administration officials of rushing deportees out of the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act before they could challenge their removal in court and then willfully disregarding his order that planes already in the air should return.
Last month, the Justice Department filed an unusual judicial misconduct complaint against Boasberg over comments he allegedly made at a closed-door meeting of judges as well as his actions in the deportations case. The complaint calls for the case to be taken away from Boasberg while an investigation proceeds.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the ruling, calling it a “MAJOR victory defending President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act” in a social media post and vowing to “continue fighting and WINNING in court.”
