Today in one sentence: A federal judge refused to release the Jeffrey Epstein grand jury transcripts and accused the Trump administration of using the request as a “diversion”; Trump demanded that Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook resign after his housing regulator Bill Pulte accused her of mortgage fraud; Jeanine Pirro – then a Fox News host, now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia – told RNC chair Ronna McDaniel in a 2020 text that she was working to help Trump and Republicans; more than 750 current and former Health and Human Services employees accused Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of spreading misinformation that led to the Aug. 8 mass shooting at the CDC in Atlanta; Elon Musk backed off plans to launch the “America Party,” telling allies he needed to protect his companies and his relationship with JD Vance; and Trump claimed he’s ended “six wars” – or “seven,” depending on the day – and called himself a “war hero.”

1/ A federal judge refused to release the Jeffrey Epstein grand jury transcripts and accused the Trump administration of using the request as a “diversion.” Judge Richard Berman said the Justice Department already holds a “trove” of 100,000 pages of Epstein records that “dwarf” the 70 pages of grand jury material. He noted the transcripts contain only “a hearsay snippet” from an FBI agent “who had no direct knowledge of the facts.” Berman is the third judge to deny Trump’s effort, which came after the Justice Department announced that no new charges or evidence would be released – directly contradicting Attorney General Pam Bondi’s earlier claim that a client list existed and was under review. (CNN / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / CNBC / Axios / Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News)

2/ Trump demanded that Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook resign after his housing regulator Bill Pulte accused her of mortgage fraud. Pulte claimed Cook took out mortgages on two homes in 2021, each listed as her “primary residence” to fraudulently obtain better mortgage terms, but later rented one. He said this gave Trump “cause to fire” her, posting online that “Lisa Cooked is cooked.” Trump added on Truth Social that “Cook must resign, now!!!” Notably, a New York judge in 2024 ordered Trump and his company to pay $355 million for inflating property values to secure favorable loans. And, separately, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election. (Associated Press / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / NBC News / Politico / New York Times / CNBC / Washington Post / Axios)

3/ Jeanine Pirro – then a Fox News host, now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia – told RNC chair Ronna McDaniel in a 2020 text that she was working to help Trump and Republicans, according to newly unredacted filings in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation case against Fox. “I work so hard for the party across the country […] I’m the #1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and party,” Pirro wrote in September 2020. The filings also showed Pirro sought a pardon for her ex-husband, called Sean Hannity an “egomaniac” after an Oval Office meeting, and urged Sidney Powell to “Keep fighting.” Powell later pleaded guilty in Georgia for her efforts to overturn Trump’s loss. Smartmatic said Pirro and other Fox hosts pushed false fraud claims to stay aligned with Trump, even though Pirro later testified that the election was “fair and free” and that Biden was “legitimately elected.” (Washington Post / The Hill / New York Times)

4/ More than 750 current and former Health and Human Services employees accused Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of spreading misinformation that led to the Aug. 8 mass shooting at the CDC in Atlanta. Law enforcement said the gunman attacked the agency to protest the Covid vaccine. In a letter to Kennedy and Congress, the workers called him “complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information” and accused him of fueling “the harassment and violence experienced by the CDC staff.” An HHS spokesperson, meanwhile, called linking Kennedy’s policies to the gunman was an effort “to politicize a tragedy.” Kennedy, however, has never acknowledged the shooter’s motive, saying instead that “public health agencies have not been honest” and that “trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy, it’s a feature of totalitarianism.” (Bloomberg / NPR / The Guardian / Axios / The Hill)

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shut down federal autism research divisions and canceled more than $40 million in grants while launching his own $50 million initiative under a nontraditional review process. He told Tucker Carlson that “We need to stop trusting the experts,” and claimed prior studies were “trickery.” A coalition of scientists, meanwhile, said Kennedy “casually ignores decades of high quality research” and warned his actions could set progress back “probably decades.” (ProPublica)

5/ Elon Musk backed off plans to launch the “America Party,” telling allies he needed to protect his companies and his relationship with JD Vance, who is seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate. His feud with Trump had already put his businesses at risk: Tesla has faced consumer backlash along with cuts to EV subsidies in Trump’s spending bill, while Trump threatened to cancel SpaceX’s federal contracts before a review found them essential to defense and NASA. Vance said his hope was that Musk would “come back into the fold” by the midterms. Musk spent nearly $300 million backing Trump and Republicans in 2024. (Wall Street Journal / New York Times)

6/ Trump claimed he’s ended “six wars” – or “seven,” depending on the day – and called himself a “war hero” for ordering U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June. He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also “a war hero ’cause we worked together.” Trump never served in the military, avoiding Vietnam with five draft deferments, including a 1968 bone spur diagnosis that the doctor’s family later said was done as a favor to his father. Israel’s military, meanwhile, said it was calling up about 60,000 more reservists, nearly doubling its forces in Gaza, as Netanyahu approved an expanded ground campaign into Gaza City. Israel’s nearly two-year military campaign in Gaza, launched after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians – including thousands of children – displaced most of the enclave’s 2 million residents, left about 70% of buildings uninhabitable, and driven a famine that has killed at least 193 people, including 96 children. (New York Times / Politico / CNN / Bloomberg)

The midterm elections are in 440 days.

Four years ago today: Day 213: "Strategic ambiguity."
Six years ago today: Day 943: Fundamentals.
Seven years ago today: Day 578: "Truth isn't truth."