A judge in the US has rejected a justice department bid to unseal grand jury materials related to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The US government had filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the former financier, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019.

Materials from grand juries are typically kept secret under US law, though exceptions can be made for a handful of reasons.

In a ruling issued on Wednesday, US District Judge Robin Rosenberg said the justice department’s request did not fall into any of these exceptions.

It comes as Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been officially subpoenaed to testify to the House Oversight Committee from prison.

The grand juries on Epstein were held in Florida in 2005 and 2007, according to a court document.

Under the US justice system, grand juries decide whether there is a criminal case against a person and whether they should be put on trial.

In 2007, prosecutors agreed not to bring federal charges against Epstein in exchange for him agreeing to plead guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution, for which he served 13 months in prison.

Last Friday, Donald Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.

The Department of Justice said criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell were a matter of public interest.

The department previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more.

It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony.

The judge’s decision is the first ruling in a series of attempts by President Trump’s administration to release more information on the case amid calls by some in his MAGA group of supporters for the full details of Epstein’s activities to be released.

Mr Trump has faced renewed scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein since his administration’s U-turn on the so-called “Epstein files”.

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The MAGA movement had accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s crimes and Mr Trump pledged to release the files during his second presidential term.

But after a review of the evidence, the justice department said recently that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.

As pressure has grown for Mr Trump to act, there has been increased attention paid to claims he was friends with Epstein – a relationship he denies.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last week published a story saying Mr Trump wrote a bawdy letter to Epstein to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003.

Mr Trump responded by filing a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, who owns the WSJ, two WSJ reporters and the publication’s owner, News Corp, as well as saying the letter was a “fake”.

The summons for Ghislaine Maxwell from the House Oversight Committee is for a deposition to occur on 11 August.

Chairman of the committee, Republican James Comer said: “I have issued a subpoena to Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition to occur at Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on August 11, 2025.

“The Department of Justice is cooperating and will help facilitate the deposition at the prison.”

A man who murdered four University of Idaho students in November 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison – as the mother of one of his victims expressed her disappointment that he won’t be executed.

Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old former criminal justice student, initially denied the killings but later pleaded guilty as part of a deal that meant he would avoid the death penalty.

Kohberger sneaked into the rented home in Moscow, Idaho, which is not far from the university campus, through a kitchen sliding door and murdered Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.

Kohberger has never revealed his motive and it is not clear why he spared two roommates who were in the home.

Post-mortem examinations showed the four who died were stabbed multiple times and were likely asleep when they were attacked – with some sustaining defensive wounds.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings following a nationwide search.

Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder today.

A ‘delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser’

Family members of the victims gave statements in court today ahead of the sentencing – with the murderer’s mother Maryann Kohberger in attendance for the hearing.

Ms Kohberger quietly wept at times as the other parents described their grief.

Ms Goncalves’ mother Kristi Goncalves said she was disappointed that Kohberger won’t be executed by firing squad but revelled in how he would suffer in prison.

“You will always be remembered as a loser, an absolute failure,” she said.

“Hell will be waiting,” she added.

Alivea Goncalves, the victim’s sister, drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless as she insulted him.

“You didn’t win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are,” she said. “You’re a delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser.”

Steve Goncalves, the victim’s father, spoke to Kohberger directly and said: “Today we are here to finish what you started.”

Kohberger nodded subtly in response.

Mr Goncalves added: “You tried to break our community apart, you tried to plant fear, you tried to divide us. You failed.”

In a statement read on her behalf by her lawyer, Ms Mogen’s mother Karen Laramie said: “Any one of us would have given our own life to have been outshone by hers.”

Ms Mogens’ mother declined to address Kohberger directly, as he remained expressionless, but closed her statement by saying the family might never forgive him or “ask for mercy” for what he did.

“His acts are too heinous,” her statement read.

Bethany Funke, who survived the attack, said about her roommates in a statement to the court: “I hated and still hate that they are gone, but for some reason, I am still here and I got to live. I still think about this every day. Why me? Why did I get to live, and not them?”

She described one of the victims, Ms Kernodle, as “one in a million. She was the life of the party”.

Much of her statement was devoted to remembering her four close friends who died – recounting the nights they spent binge-watching reality television, making dinner together, going to parties at their university and the love that they had for each other.

Her testimony reduced many at the hearing to tears.

Dylan Mortensen, the second surviving roommate, said in court that she has panic attacks that force her to relive the trauma of what she experienced.

She said: “I was too terrified to close my eyes, terrified that if I blinked, someone might be there. I made escape plans everywhere I went… “He may have shattered parts of me but I’m still putting myself back together piece by piece,”

Kohberger’s head bobbed slightly as she spoke.

The US and Japan have agreed a trade deal days ahead of the latest tariff deadline set by Donald Trump.

Under the terms of the agreement, rather than all Japanese goods being hit with a 24% tax on entry to the US, they will instead be subject to a 15% tariff.

Significantly, and unlike the US-UK deal, there is no cap on the number of Japanese cars subject to the agreed lower tariff. The levy on cars and car parts has been brought down from 25% to 15%, making it the first country to secure a reduction in the blanket 25% rate on vehicles.

Cars make up more than a quarter of all Japan’s exports to the US.

Japanese steel and aluminium are still subject to a 25% tariff.

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It’s just over a week until the 1 August pause on tariffs is due to end, itself a six-week extension to the 9 July 90-day freeze US President Trump announced in April.

It’s seen a win for all parties as Japan is a major trading partner of the world’s largest economy.

To make the deal happen, Japan agreed to a $550bn (£406bn) investment package of loans and guarantees from Japanese government-affiliated institutions in key sectors like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Japan will also increase purchases of US agricultural products such as rice.

Market reaction

Markets welcomed the news.

In the US, the value of a dollar ticked up, and in Japan, the benchmark stock exchange, the Nikkei, gained sizably, and closed up more than 3.5%.

The index is comprised of many major carmakers, including Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Toyota, and Mitsubishi, which all rallied following the news.

Other Asian stock indexes closed up, including Korea’s Kospi, which rose nearly 0.44%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which increased more than 1.6%, and Thailand’s SET index, which was up more than 2.3%.