\u201cSome may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,\u201d Marcus added. \u201cFor example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Maxwell refused to answer questions today, James Comer \u2013 the oversight committee\u2019s Republican chair \u2013\u00a0said that it was \u201cvery disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had many questions to ask about the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators. We sincerely want to get to the truth to the American people, and justice for the survivors\u201d Comer added.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n Michelle R Smith<\/p>\n Three members of Congress say US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a> lied during his Senate confirmation hearings in response to newly revealed emails that undermine his testimony that a trip he took to Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak<\/a> had \u201cnothing to do with vaccines\u201d.<\/p>\n The governor of Hawaii, a medical doctor who responded to the crisis, also spoke out \u2013 saying that the disclosure of the emails<\/a> by the Guardian and the Associated Press show Kennedy misled the Senate and that he should step down.<\/p>\n Kennedy, a lawyer and longtime anti-vaccine activist<\/a> before his appointment as health secretary, was asked about the trip<\/a> several times during two days of confirmation hearings last year. He repeatedly denied<\/a> that his reason for going there in June 2019 had anything to do with vaccines. But the records show staff at the US embassy and the United Nations wrote emails shortly before Kennedy\u2019s visit saying he was visiting because of his concerns about vaccine safety.<\/p>\n Samoan officials later said Kennedy\u2019s trip bolstered<\/a> the credibility of anti-vaccine activists<\/a> ahead of the measles outbreak that sickened thousands and killed 83 people<\/a>, mostly children under age five.<\/p>\n The new reporting comes after a year in which Kennedy has used his power<\/a> as health secretary to remake<\/a> federal vaccine recommendations and policies<\/a> to align with his anti-vaccine views<\/a> and to sow doubts about vaccine safety. Meanwhile, measles has gained a foothold<\/a> in communities around the United States.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a013.48 EST<\/p>\n Epstein survivors urged lawmakers to treat Maxwell’s testimony with ‘the utmost skepticism’ and to show her no leniency<\/p>\n In a letter sent to the House oversight committee before Ghislaine Maxwell\u2019s deposition, a group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors, including several Jane Does and family members of the late Virginia Giuffre, urged lawmakers to be skeptical of any information she provided (of course, as we\u2019ve been reporting she ended up providing none).<\/p>\n We urge the Committee to approach Ms. Maxwell\u2019s testimony with the utmost skepticism, to rigorously scrutinize any claims she makes, and to ensure that this process does not become another vehicle through which survivors are harmed or silenced. Truth, accountability, and transparency must be the priority \u2014 not the rehabilitation of a convicted trafficker\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n In the letter, the group criticized Maxwell\u2019s refusal to identify \u201cthe many powerful men\u201d involved in Epstein\u2019s trafficking network and her refusal to \u201cmeaningfully cooperate\u201d with law enforcement. They also slammed the decision to transfer Maxwell to a low-security prison last year, a move they said \u201cappears to be preferential treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n Ms Maxwell was not a peripheral figure. She was a central and indispensable architect of Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking enterprise. Despite this, she has refused to meaningfully cooperate with law enforcement or provide credible, complete information about the scope of the trafficking network.<\/p>\n They added:<\/p>\n Any attempt to grant Ghislaine Maxwell leniency, whether through sentencing relief, special treatment or credibility afforded to her testimony, would be catastrophic for survivors.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a013.05 EST<\/p>\n Maxwell’s lawyer says she is ‘prepared to speak honestly if granted clemency’<\/p>\n In a social media post<\/a> earlier, Ghislaine Maxwell\u2019s lawyer David Oscar Markus said he had advised her to plead the fifth during her deposition today and that she was \u201cprepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,\u201d Markus said. \u201cFor example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n The attorney said he had delivered that statement to the House oversight committee, and told members that his client \u201cwould very much like to answer your questions\u201d but she \u201cmust remain silent because she has a habeas petition currently pending that demonstrates that her conviction rests on a fundamentally unfair trial\u201d.<\/p>\n Democrats have condemned Maxwell invoking her right to silence and refusal to answer any questions. California Democrat Ro Khanna posted on X:<\/p>\n Here is my conclusion after sitting through Maxwell\u2019s deposition with her refusing to answer a single question about the men who raped underage girls, saying she would only do so for clemency. She must immediately be sent back to the maximum security prison where she belongs.<\/p>\n Representative Suhas Subramanyam, of Virginia, said:<\/p>\n She is campaigning over and over again to get that pardon from President Trump, and this president has not ruled it out. And so that is why she is continuing to not cooperate with our investigation.<\/p>\n And the BBC reported New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stansbury as saying:<\/p>\n This was an effort to essentially try to secure her pardon by keeping her mouth shut, and we will not allow this silence to stand.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a012.36 EST<\/p>\n ‘Who is she protecting?’ Garcia demands answers to Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘cover-up’ after she invokes fifth amendment during committee deposition<\/p>\n Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight comittee, issued a sharp rebuke following Ghislaine Maxwell\u2019s virtual deposition earlier today.<\/p>\n Maxwell, a convicted co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, invoked the fifth amendment and \u201cno questions and provided no information about the men who raped and trafficked women and girls\u201d, according to Garcia.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter months of defying our subpoena, Ghislaine Maxwell finally appeared before the Oversight Committee and said nothing,\u201d he added in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWho is she protecting? And we need to know why she\u2019s been given special treatment at a low security prison by the Trump Administration. We are going to end this White House cover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Garcia listens during a House oversight committee markup meeting about finding former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton in contempt of Congress, 21 January 2026. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin\/APShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a012.25 EST<\/p>\n Dharna Noor<\/p>\n Bad Bunny\u2019s treatment of Puerto Rico\u2019s grid crisis in his Super Bowl<\/a> performance has sparked social media conversation from scholars.<\/p>\n Toward the end of his performance, Bad Bunny<\/a> performed his song \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n,\u201d which translates to \u201cblackout.\u201d Dancers playing workers hung from electric poles as the singer lambasted the energy instability facing Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n Dancers portray electrical linemen and women during Bad Bunny\u2019s half-time show during the NFL Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, 8 February 2026. Photograph: Kevin Sabitus\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThe power lines moment was kinda extraordinary,\u201d historian Adam Tooze said on X<\/a>, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n In 2016, a controversial Obama-era law created an oversight board to manage Puerto Rico\u2019s longstanding debt crisis, which critics said infringed on the island\u2019s economic autonomy. The board recommended that the island\u2019s publicly owned electric grid be privatized, sparking fury from opponents.<\/p>\n The following year, the longest blackout in US history began in Puerto Rico in the wake of the deadly Hurricane Maria. Some residents, left without electricity for almost a year, were forced to learn electrical skills themselves, climbing up power lines in an attempt to rig up homemade solutions to the outage.<\/p>\n After the harrowing outage, the island\u2019s then-governor announced he would indeed privatize the grid, selling it to Canadian company Luma Energy. Puerto Ricans were promised their energy woes were behind them, but more than one million were affected by power outages just days later, and blackouts have remained a persistent issue.<\/p>\n \u201cMaldita sea, otro apag\u00f3n,\u201d Bad Bunny sang in \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n\u201d \u2013 \u201cDamn, another blackout.\u201d<\/p>\n A staunch opponent of grid privatization, the artist in 2024 spent hundreds of thousands on billboards<\/a> criticizing Puerto Rico\u2019s New Progressive Party for corruption and its links to Luma Energy.<\/p>\n Historian Greg Grandin called<\/a> Bad Bunny \u201cour social democratic moment\u2019s answer to Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s [neoliberal] Hamilton,\u201d noting that Miranda, the composer, supported Promesa, though he later expressed opposition to harsh austerity measures implemented by the board.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a012.14 EST<\/p>\n Disgraced former congressman, George Santos, has also weighed in on Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl<\/a> performance.<\/p>\n \u201cI expected a little more energy and sassiness from Bad Bunny<\/a>,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cLady Gaga was out of no where or simply the token white girl?\u201d<\/p>\n A reminder that Santos, a Republican, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud. However, Donald Trump<\/a> commuted Santos\u2019s sentence last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI speak fluent Spanish and I still can\u2019t decipher what Bad Bunny says when he \u2018sings\u2019\u2026 lol but it does make you at least want to move your body and dance lol,\u201d Santos added, in a series of comments about the half-time show watched by millions.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a011.24 EST<\/p>\n Richard Luscombe<\/p>\n Tom Homan<\/a> \u2013 the Trump administration\u2019s<\/a> \u201cborder czar\u201d sent to Minnesota<\/a> in January after federal agents fatally shot two US citizen protesters \u2013 warned last year that the government\u2019s aggressive, widespread approach to immigration enforcement would cost it public support.<\/p>\n Homan made the observation in an interview with NBC in June for the forthcoming book Undue Process<\/a>, by the network\u2019s homeland security correspondent, analyzing the immigration policy of mass deportation that Donald Trump has pursued during his second presidency.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the vast majority of the American people think criminal illegal aliens need to leave,\u201d Homan told author Julia Ainsley, reported by NBC News<\/a> on Monday. \u201cAnd if we stick to that prioritization, I think we keep the faith of the American people.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think the more we do that, the more the American people will support what President Trump\u2019s doing. We got to do it and we\u2019ve got to do it in a humane manner.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, the homeland security department (DHS) has rounded up hundreds of thousands of people, including US citizens, in an aggressive and often violent manner<\/a>, prompting protests in numerous cities and punctuated by the shooting deaths<\/a> in Minneapolis in January of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> by immigration officers.<\/p>\n And figures released on Monday, reported by CBS<\/a>, reveal that less than 14% of almost 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first year of Trump\u2019s second presidency had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses \u2013 discrediting the administration\u2019s often repeated insistence it was targeting only \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a011.31 EST<\/p>\n Current and former Trump officials echoed the president\u2019s criticisim of Bad Bunny\u2019s widely acclaimed Super Bowl<\/a> performance.<\/p>\n Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division at the Department of Justice, wrote: \u201cMy mother: \u2018who is this Bad Bunny<\/a>?\u2019 Don\u2019t worry mom, we aren\u2019t watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n Podcast host Dan Bongino, who served for a short period as the deputy director of the FBI, wrote \u201cKid Rock > Sad Bunny\u201d in reference to Turning Point USA\u2019s counter programming during the half-time show.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, conservative activist Laura Loomer, agreed with Trump\u2019s assessment of the performance, but went further. \u201cNot a single white person or English translation at the Super Bowl,\u201d she wrote<\/a>. \u201cThis isn\u2019t White enough for me. Cant even watch a Super Bowl anymore because immigrants have literally ruined everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a010.54 EST<\/p>\n US senator Lisa Murkowski said \u201cit hurts my heart\u201d that the trust between Greenland and the US, built up since the second world war, has been broken by \u201cjust a few sentences and words\u201d. This comes after Donald Trump\u2019s insistence that the US should acquire the autonomous territory, against the will of its people, Denmark, and the rest of Nato.<\/p>\n Lisa Murkowski attends a press conference speaks during a press conference in Nuuk, Greenland, 9 February 2026. Photograph: Stoyan Nenov\/Reuters<\/p>\n Addressing Greenlandic people, the senator for Alaska appeared at a press conference alongside three other lawmakers who made the visit \u2013\u00a0Independent senator Angus King of Maine, and Democratic senators Gary Peters of Michigan, and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.<\/p>\n Speaking in Nuuk, the delegation appeared alongside Pipaluk Lynge and Erik Jensen, members of Greenland\u2019s foreign and security policy committee, and the actor Viggo Mortensen, a vocal Donald Trump critic.<\/p>\n The visit, which saw them go to the US space base in Pituffik, meet with Greenlandic politicians and a helicopter tour of the Greenland ice sheet, comes after a US senatorial delegation visited Copenhagen last month.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the citizens of Greenland, it hurts my heart to know how much anxiety and worry you feel in these times of uncertainty,\u201d Murkowski added. \u201cIn just a few sentences and words, the trust that has been built since the second world war has been eroded and degraded.\u201d<\/p>\n The Republican senator added:<\/p>\n I want to remind you that regardless of what our president says, we have a big role in Congress. And I believe there is a common interest that we must work together on, and it begins and ends with respect and dialogue.<\/p>\n![\"Miranda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770664128_190_Miranda_Bryant_Next_Gen.png\")
Miranda Bryant<\/p>\n