Trump administration urges judges to release testimony heard by grand juries over Epstein – US politics live

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A cryptocurrency working group formed by president Donald Trump will release a report on Wednesday that is expected to outline the administration’s stances on tokenization and market-defining crypto legislation, among other issues critically important to the digital asset industry, Reuters reports.

Shortly after taking office in January, Trump ordered the creation of a crypto working group tasked with proposing new regulations, making good on his campaign promise to overhaul US crypto policy.

Wednesday’s report is a culmination of the taskforce’s work so far and its first public findings.

In line with Trump’s January executive order, it will lay out what rules and laws should be enacted to advance the policy goals of the pro-crypto White House.

Those include making sure that the Securities and Exchange Commission has a framework in place for firms to offer blockchain-based stocks and bonds, according to one person familiar with the discussions.

The report is also expected to discuss the administration’s wishlist for legislation Congress is debating to create broad regulatory guidelines for cryptocurrency, according to a second person familiar with the report.

The working group led by Trump official Bo Hines is composed of several administration officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought.

The White House, Treasury Department and the SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Trump administration urge judges to release Epstein-Maxwell grand jury transcripts

Hello and welcome back to our coverage of US politics.

Donald Trump’s administration urged two judges on Tuesday night to release testimony heard by the grand juries that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges as the president seeks to calm an uproar over his administration’s handling of the matter.

The Justice Department first sought court permission on 18 July to make public transcripts of the confidential testimony given by witnesses years ago in the two cases, but Manhattan-based US District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer asked the government to flesh out the legal bases for the requests.

The US president also spoke about Jeffrey Epstein and his links to the president’s Mar-a-Lago club, saying that the late sex offender “stole” Virginia Giuffre and other young female staffers when he hired them while they were working at the Florida country club.

Trump, who has faced an outcry over his administration’s refusal to release more records about Epstein after promises of transparency, made the comments on Air Force One while returning from a trip to Scotland.

In other developments:

• In Hawaii, waves of up to 1.7 metres (5.5 feet) affected the islands before the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reduced its warning level for the state about 08.50 GMT, saying no major tsunami was expected. Coastal residents were earlier told to get to high ground or the fourth floor or above of buildings, and the US Coast Guard ordered ships out of harbours. Tsunami waves of nearly half a metre were observed as far as California, with smaller ones reaching Canada’s province of British Columbia.

• Indian exporters are bracing for higher US tariffs to kick in as prospects dim for an interim trade deal between New Delhi and Washington before the 1 August deadline. On Tuesday, US president Donald Trump said India could face a 20-25% rate since a deal had not been finalised, although he added that a final levy was yet to be decided.

• A group of global civil society organizations have placed the US on a watchlist for urgent concern over the health of its civic society, alongside Turkey, Serbia, El Salvador, Indonesia and Kenya. On Wednesday, a new report released by the non-profit Civicus placed the US on its watchlist after “sustained attacks on civic freedoms” across the country, according to the group.

• President Trump said on Tuesday he might skip the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit in South Africa in November and send someone else to represent the United States, citing his disapproval of South African policies. “I think maybe I’ll send somebody else because I’ve had a lot of problems with South Africa. They have some very bad policies,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

• The United States has repatriated an American child from a large camp in northeastern Syria. The camp houses tens of thousands of people with alleged ties to the Islamic State group. The state department announced the move on Wednesday. The al-Hawl Camp holds about 30,000 people from 70 countries, mostly families and supporters of IS fighters.

• Vinay Prasad, the US Food and Drug Administration’s chief medical and science officer, has left the health regulator, the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, said on Tuesday, confirming an earlier news report.

• The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Emil Bove, a top justice department official and former defense attorney for Donald Trump, to a lifetime seat on a federal appeals court, despite claims by whistleblowers that he advocated for ignoring court orders. The vote broke nearly along party lines, with 50 Republican senators voting for his confirmation to a seat on the third circuit court of appeals overseeing New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the US Virgin Islands.