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Trump’s former attorney general admits to ‘redaction errors’ in Epstein files in closed-door testimony – live | Trump administration
Pam Bondi testifies before House panel over Epstein files release
Anna Betts
The former attorney general Pam Bondi is testifying before the US House oversight and reform committee this morning to answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and its release of the Epstein files under her leadership.
In Bondi’s prepared opening statement, obtained by the Guardian, she defended the department’s record under her leadership, saying: “We demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to transparency in the department’s search for, collection and review of the Epstein files.
“This was an enormously complicated and labor-intensive process,” Bondi said in her remarks. “To the best of my knowledge, the department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“As the head of a large department with broad responsibilities, I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself,” she added, saying that she “delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche”.
“The team of professionals who reviewed all of the materials that we collected assured me the only materials that were withheld were either nonresponsive, privileged or duplicative,” she said.
During her opening statement, Bondi admitted that “there were redaction errors” but said that “since day one of this process, this department has been committed to accountability and transparency”.
You can read more about her opening statement here:
Key events
Federal judge gives Trump two weeks to take his name off the Kennedy Center
A US district judge in Washington DC, Christopher Cooper, ruled on Friday that the Trump administration “violated the Kennedy Center’s organic statute in purporting to rename the Center for President Trump, and in taking steps to effectuate that official renaming, such as installing signage with Donald J. Trump’s name on the front portico of the Center, altering the Center’s website to name the Center for President Trump, and in issuing official materials naming the Center for President Trump.”
In his order, the federal judge, who was responding to a complaint filed by Democratic congresswoman Joyce Beatty, gave the administration two weeks to pull Trump’s name from the center, which was created by Congress as a memorial to John F Kennedy after his assassination.
Cooper’s ruling instructed the administration to:
within 14 days of the date of this order, (a) remove all physical signage on the Kennedy Center building and grounds, including the front portico, that purports to rename the Kennedy Center after President Trump or any other individual besides President Kennedy; (b) update the Kennedy Center’s official website to remove all references to the institution as the “Trump Kennedy Center,” the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” or any similar formulation; Case 1:25-cv-04480-CRC Document 49 Filed 05/29/26 Page 2 of 4 3 (c) withdraw any trademark application officially referring to the Kennedy Center as the “Trump Kennedy Center,” the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” or any similar formulation; and (d) file with the Court a sworn declaration from a responsible official of the Kennedy Center certifying compliance with this order.
Should the administration comply, that would mean that the center would not bear the president’s name on 14 June, when he is staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn on his 80th birthday.
After White House Situation Room meeting ends, still no word on whether Trump has approved deal with Iran
It has now been five hours since Donald Trump announced on his social media platform that he was entering a meeting in the White House Situation Room “to make a final determination” on whether or not to an interim deal with Iran to extend a ceasefire and reopen the strait of Hormuz.
That two-hour meeting apparently ended some time ago, a senior administration official told the Associated Press, and there is still no word from Trump nor any of his aides as to whether he approved the memorandum of understanding that would pause the conflict and open talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Here’s a recap of the news today:
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Trump says he’s meeting in the Situation Room to ‘make a final determination’ on potential Iran deal. President Trump gave hints about the terms of the proposed US peace deal with Iran, in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, before saying that he was heading into a meeting with White House staff to decide how to move forward.
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Louisiana lawmakers pass new map eliminating majority-Black district. The Louisiana senate voted 28-10 to approve a new congressional map ahead of the midterms that has dismantled a majority-Black district.
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US judge temporarily halts Trump’s $1.8bn ‘anti-weaponization fund’. US district judge Leonie Brinkema of the eastern district of Virginia put a halt on the fund, preventing the administration from “taking any further action” to organize the fund while Brinkema hears legal arguments.
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Former attorney-general Pam Bondi faces closed-door questioning from House committee over Epstein files. Bondi’s appearance came as the justice department has faced criticism in recent months over its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
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Musical acts back out of performing at Trump-affiliated concert series. At least seven of the nine featured musical acts set to play in a concert series organized by the Trump administration to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary have dropped out, within 48 hours of the lineup being announced.
As construction crews continue to build the structure that will house the UFC cage fight on White House grounds on 14 June, the Pentagon is making efforts to recruit hundreds of troops to make up the audience for the fight, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Those who attend will have to fund their own travel to Washington DC, meet the Pentagon’s height and weight requirements and attend in uniform, according to the Post’s sources and internal memos they reviewed.
The Pentagon is specifically seeking junior enlisted personnel and junior officers – those who receive the military’s lowest pay grades – and it’s required that the attenders be “genuine UFC fans”.
“This will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman told the Post.
Utah releases state voter roll audit amid Trump administration lawsuit
Lok Darjee
Utah released the results of a year-long audit of the state’s voter rolls, finding that the vast majority of its voters are verifiably US citizens, amid an escalating legal battle with the Trump administration over access to voter registration data.
The audit, launched in April 2025, found that 99.72% of Utah’s registered voters are confirmed US citizens. Of the more than 2 million voter records reviewed, 27 individuals were identified as non-citizens and removed from the rolls. Only 13 of those individuals had ever cast a ballot. The review, released on Wednesday by Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson’s office, also flagged 25 probable non-citizens, who have been given 30 days to provide proof of citizenship or face removal from the voter rolls.
The Trump administration has made supposed election integrity a central priority, following Trump’s long-running false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him. The administration has pursued voter registration information from a wide raft of states, even at times resorting to lawsuits. But states already regularly monitor and maintain their own voter rolls. In Utah, Henderson’s office noted in a letter to the justice department that county clerks removed more than 109,000 registrations from the rolls between 2022 and 2024 alone, including voters who had died, moved out of state, registered elsewhere, or failed to vote in two consecutive general elections.
While Trump announced he is heading to the Situation Room to make the final determination on the peace deal with Iran, Iranian officials signaled defiance.
Those close to the government denied that a deal had been reached. The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Friday that no final understanding had been reached between Iran and the US and that Trump’s post was “in line with his usual pattern of making unilateral and egotistical statements”.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told state media: “Regarding the understanding, as I said while speaking to you, exchanges of messages are continuing, but no final agreement has been reached yet.”
Tasnim reported that there had been no discussion about the nuclear issue, and that Trump’s reports of lifting the US’s own blockade in the strait of Hormuz should be met with “scepticism”.
Iran’s Fars news agency said Trump had published a “mixture of truth and lies” about the terms of an agreement, which did not include provisions for the opening of the strait of Hormuz without fees, or the destruction of Iran’s nuclear material.
You can read more about it here:
Louisiana lawmakers pass new map eliminating majority-Black district
The Louisiana senate voted 28-10 to approve a new congressional map ahead of the midterms that has dismantled a majority-Black district in the state.
The approval of the map makes Louisiana the second southern state to carve out a district that Republicans have a higher chance of winning, since the supreme court weakened the Voting Rights Act in April.
Louisiana’s senate voted almost entirely along party lines and Republican Governor Jeff Landry is expected to sign the map into law. Earlier, Landry pushed to delay the House primary elections, scheduled for 16 May, so that the legislature could draw the new map.
Rescheduled primaries will now be held on 3 November.
Cecilia Nowell
Construction is under way on the White House lawn for an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) arena that will host a cage match next month to mark the US’s 250th anniversary and Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
The mixed martial arts fight is planned for 14 June.
Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, US senator and secretary of state, shared a photo of the construction as well as of the demolished East Wing on X Friday and said:
“This is what Trump’s done to the people’s house: A third of it is rubble. Another third is a cage match. What a metaphor.”
Photos of cranes and other construction equipment on the White House lawn on Tuesday showed the beginnings of the temporary construction. Trump has said that the finished project will feature “a 5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House”.
Online renderings depict what the completed, wire-mesh-fence-ringed fight space is expected to look like. The octagon-shaped cage will be ringed by a red, white and blue stage under a towering arch featuring stars and stripes patterns and two large screens carrying the action live.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar met with his US counterpart Marco Rubio in Washington today, as Trump signaled he was making a “final determination” on a potential agreement with Iran.
“The secretary thanked the minister for the constructive role Pakistan continues to play in realizing President Trump’s vision for peace in the Middle East and its mediation efforts with Iran,” the US state department spokesman, Tommy Pigott, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, sources have told the Iranian state news agency Fars that Trump’s latest comments are a “mixture of truth and lies” and an attempt to portray a “fake victory”.
The sources added that it has “become clear to almost everyone” that his claims are invalid.
“Trump claimed that Iran was obligated to open the strait of Hormuz without tolls, even though no such clause appears in the text of the agreement,” the agency reported.
And on Trump’s assertion that Washington and Tehran would coordinate on destroying Iran’s enriched uranium, it added: “Well-informed sources emphasised that not only does this not appear in the memorandum of understanding, but this claim is fundamentally baseless.”
According to the Fars report, Trump also didn’t mention key clauses relating to the release of frozen Iranian assets and the inclusion of Lebanon – where Israel continues to intensify its attacks and expand its partial occupation – in any deal to end fighting.
Pam Bondi testifies before House panel over Epstein files release
Anna Betts
The former attorney general Pam Bondi is testifying before the US House oversight and reform committee this morning to answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and its release of the Epstein files under her leadership.
In Bondi’s prepared opening statement, obtained by the Guardian, she defended the department’s record under her leadership, saying: “We demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to transparency in the department’s search for, collection and review of the Epstein files.
“This was an enormously complicated and labor-intensive process,” Bondi said in her remarks. “To the best of my knowledge, the department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“As the head of a large department with broad responsibilities, I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself,” she added, saying that she “delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche”.
“The team of professionals who reviewed all of the materials that we collected assured me the only materials that were withheld were either nonresponsive, privileged or duplicative,” she said.
During her opening statement, Bondi admitted that “there were redaction errors” but said that “since day one of this process, this department has been committed to accountability and transparency”.
You can read more about her opening statement here:
Trump says he’s meeting in the Situation Room to ‘make a final determination’ on potential Iran deal
President Trump gave hints about the terms of the proposed US peace deal with Iran, in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, before saying that he was heading into a meeting with White House staff to decide how to move forward.
He said that Iran should agree to never having a nuclear weapon or bomb, the strait of Hormuz should be opened immediately without tolls, all remaining water mines should be detonated by Iran, the US should take over the “nuclear dust” or the enriched uranium buried under Iran’s collapsed nuclear complexes and no money will be exchanged until further notice, outlined Trump.
He went on:
Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to. I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination.
Hannah Harris Green
Growing Republican mistrust in the healthcare system has widened health disparities between liberals and conservatives, who are more likely to avoid vaccines and the medical system in general, according to a new study.
Neil O’Brian, a political science professor at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill and one of the authors of the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, said that his team saw two phases to the phenomenon.
Rory Doyle for The Guardian Photograph: Rory Doyle/The Guardian
“Part one is this gap starts to emerge in the 2010s, and it seems like it’s a byproduct of education polarization,” O’Brian explained, “Folks without a college degree move to the right. Folks with a college degree move to the left. That happens for a variety of reasons. Education is a pretty strong predictor of health.”
The second phase began during the Covid-19 pandemic, when social determinants of health, including education, could no longer explain the expanding gap in health outcomes.
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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