Jeffrey Epstein Document Release; Trump Pleads with the Supreme Court; Iran Explosion |...

On today's podcast:

1) Several previously confidential documents related to Jeffrey Epstein were made public () in federal court in New York after a yearslong battle over their release.

2) The US Supreme Court will chart the nation’s political future as it confronts a potentially stark choice over efforts to remove Donald Trump from this year’s presidential ballot () for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss.

3) Iran said blasts that killed almost 100 people in a central province () were aimed at punishing its stance against Israel’s invasion of Gaza, building on signs the war against Hamas could tip into a broader regional conflict.

Full Transcript:

Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. We begin with previously confidential documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, now made public in federal court in New York. This follows a year's long battle over their release. The documents were part of a twenty fifteen lawsuit against Epstein associate Glene Maxwell, who's serving a twenty year sentence for sex trafficking. Bloomberg editor Tony Aaron says, most of these documents have been seen, but there'd been redactions. A lot of people had thought there'd be some massive client list or a nice list of names that would be easy for them to follow. It wasn't anything like that. We've been getting about so far, about forty of what's probably going to be hundreds of documents, and in those we've seen names like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew Britain, and a few others that are all very very familiar and Bloomberg's Tony Aaron says former President Clinton Andrev denied knowing about or participating in Epstein's appropriate conduct. Well, Nathan. Ties to Epstein have led to career downfalls for former Barclay CEO Jess Staley and Apollo Global Management co founder Leon Black, and they've harnished reputations of other high profile figures like Bill Gates and Leslie Wexner, though all have denied knowing about or participating in an inappropriate conduct with Epstein. Virginia Juphrey is the Epstein victim who sued to have these documents released. Paul Pelletier is a former federal prosecutor who's been following the case. Part of the reason why Jeffrey Epstein was prosecuted in New York, or at least was indicted in New York, was because Virginia Giffrey would not stop and former federal prosecutor Paul Pelletier was speaking there. Jeffrey Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in July twenty nineteen, but died by suicide in a Manhattan prison cell before he could stand trial. Okay, Karen, Let's turn to politics in the US now. Former President Donald Trump is now asking the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling and Colorado that has kicked him off that state's primary ballot. Bloomberg Legal editor Eric Latterson says this appeal has a number of possible outcomes. The court could rule, for example, that the Colorado Supreme Court didn't give Trump to process. That's another argument that Trump is making. He's also arguing Detection three of the Fourteenth amend that which you borrow's insurrectionist from holding office federal office, doesn't apply to the office of the presidency, and the Supreme Court could overturn that Colorado decision based only on those findings that they wished, without weighing in on whether Trump was an insurrection In Bloomberg's Eric Larson says the former president faces many ongoing legal cases, but he is still the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Now Nathan to an issue that's expected to weigh heavily on voters' minds in the twenty twenty four presidential election. Immigration at the southern border. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing for a GOP only border bill, Democrats argue goes too far in securing the US border with Mexico. Johnson led a GOP delegation into the border yesterday as Republicans look to pressure Democrats on border policy changes. The impassover immigration has complicated congressional talks to avert a partial government shut down later this month, and puts more than fifty billion dollars in military at Ukraine at risk should talks collapse. As for rising tensions in the Middle East, care and authorities in Iran say two deadly explosions in a central province our retaliation for its stance against Israel. The US says it has nothing to do with the attacks. Bloomberg's Ed Baxter has the details, and it says neither did Israel. Iran is characterizing them as terror attacks. More than one hundred people killed. The blastnare the grave of Iranian commander Solomane. US State Department quick to respond, spokesman Matthew Miller, I do...