By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and FBI are struggling to contain the fallout and appease the demands of far-right conservative personalities and influential members of President Donald Trump’s base after the administration’s decision this week to withhold records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

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The move, which included the acknowledgment that one particular sought-after document never existed in the first place, sparked a contentious conversation between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at the White House earlier this week — threatening to shatter relations between the two law enforcement leaders. It centered in part on a news story by a conservative outlet that described divisions between the FBI and the Justice Department.

The cascade of disappointment and disbelief arising from the refusal to disclose additional, much-hyped records from the Epstein investigation lays bare the struggles of FBI and Justice Department leaders to resolve the conspiracy theories and amped-up expectations that they themselves had stoked with claims of a cover-up and hidden evidence. Infuriated by the failure of officials to unlock, as promised, the secrets of the so-called “deep state,” Trump supporters on the far right have grown restless and even demanded change at the top.

Tensions that simmered for months boiled over on Monday when the Justice Department and FBI issued a two-page statement saying that they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a “client list,” even though Bondi had intimated in February that such a document was sitting on her desk. The statement also said that they had decided against releasing any additional records from the investigation.

The department did disclose a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself in jail, but even that raised eyebrows of conspiracy theorists because of a missing minute in the recording.

It was hardly the first time that Trump administration officials have failed to fulfill their pledge to deliver the evidence they expected.

In February, conservative influencers were invited to the White House and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain.

After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI.

But after a months-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined in the memo Monday that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo says. The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

The Trump administration had hoped that that statement would be the final word on the saga, with Trump chiding a reporter who asked Bondi about the Epstein case at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

But Bondi and Bongino had a contentious exchange the following day at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, listens as President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Part of the clash centered on a story from NewsNation, a right-leaning news organization, that cited a “source close to the White House” as saying the FBI would have released the Epstein files months ago if it could have done so on its own. The story included statements from Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel refuting the premise, but not Bongino.

The news publication Axios was first to describe the conversation.

Blanche sought to stem the fallout Friday with a social media post in which he said he had worked closely with Patel and Bongino on the Epstein matter and the joint memo.

“All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false,” he wrote on X.

Also, Friday, far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, posted on X that she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning” and had taken the day off to contemplate his future. Bongino is normally an active presence on social media but has been silent since Wednesday.

The FBI did not respond to a request seeking comment and the White House sought in a statement to minimize any tensions.

“President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,” said spokesman Harrison Fields. “This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.”

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

By STEVE KARNOWSKI

The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks.

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The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens.

The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state’s outsize role in the national economy.

“It is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” U.S. Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement Thursday. “Thankfully, President Trump is standing up against this overreach.”

Egg prices soared last year and earlier this year due in large part to bird flu, which has forced producers to destroy nearly 175 million birds since early 2022. But prices have come down sharply recently. While the Trump administration claims credit for that, seasonal factors are also important. Avian influenza, which is spread by wild birds, tends to spike during the spring and fall migrations and drop in summer.

“Pointing fingers won’t change the fact that it is the President’s economic policies that have been destructive,” the California Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. “We’ll see him in court.”

The average national price for a dozen Grade A eggs declined to $5.12 in April and $4.55 in May after reaching a record $6.23 in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the May price was still 68.5% higher than a year earlier.

“Trump’s back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a social media post.

The federal complaint alleges that California contributed to the rise in egg prices with regulations that forced farmers across the country to adopt more expensive production practices. The lawsuit also asserts that it is the federal government’s legal prerogative to regulate egg production. So it seeks to permanently block enforcement of the California regulations that flowed from the two ballot measures.

“Americans across the country have suffered the consequences of liberal policies causing massive inflation for everyday items like eggs,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will use the full extent of federal law to ensure that American families are free from oppressive regulatory burdens and restore American prosperity.”

While 2018’s Proposition 12 also banned the sale of pork and veal in California from animals raised in cages that don’t meet minimum size requirements, the lawsuit only focuses on the state’s egg rules.

Humane World for Animals, which was named the Humane Society of the United States when it spearheaded the passage of Proposition 12, says avian influenza and other factors drove up egg prices, not animal welfare laws. And it says much of the U.S. egg industry went cage-free anyway because of demand from consumers who don’t want eggs from hens confined to tiny spaces.

“California has prohibited the sale of cruelly produced eggs for more than a decade — law that has been upheld by courts at every level, including the Supreme Court. Blaming 2025 egg prices on these established animal welfare standards shows that this case is about pure politics, not constitutional law,” Sara Amundson, president of the Humane World Action Fund, said in a statement.

The American Egg Board, which represents the industry, said Friday that it will monitor the progress of the lawsuit while continuing to comply with California’s laws, and that it appreciates Rollins’ efforts to support farmers in their fight against bird flu and to stabilize the egg supply.

“Egg farmers have been both responsive and responsible in meeting changing demand for cage-free eggs, while supporting all types of egg production, and continuing to provide options in the egg case for consumers,” the board said in a statement.

By AMANDA SWINHART and KIMBERLEE KRUESI

SUTTON, Vt. (AP) — Communities in rural parts of Vermont on Friday woke up once again to damaged homes and washed-out roads due to heavy rainfall and flash flooding, making it the third consecutive summer that severe floods have inundated parts of the state.

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Up to 5 inches of rain fell in just a few hours on Thursday, prompting rapid flooding as local waterways began to swell, said Robert Haynes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Burlington office.

Nearly 20 homes were cut off in the small town of Sutton as a local brook quickly rose from its banks and surrounded buildings, Fire Chief Kyle Seymour said. His crews were called out to help rescue people from two homes, which required help from swift-water rescue teams called in from neighboring communities.

“This was an incredibly strong, quick-moving localized heavy water,” Seymour said. “It overwhelmed all of our road culverts, all of our streams, all of our rivers. But the actual weather event lasted three hours, with the bulk of the rain concentrated within one hour.”

Though the severity of the storms wasn’t as widespread compared to the past two years, local officials were still surveying the extent of the damage Friday morning and shaking their heads that they were dealing with flood recovery for three years in a row.

“When I started seeing the reporters saying it wasn’t going to be that bad, I didn’t believe it,” Seymour said, adding that at least one member of his crew has contemplated retiring after experiencing such repeated flood emergencies.

Michelle Tanner stood Friday on what used to be her driveway, dismayed that for the third time her property was washed out by flooding. She and her family have lived in Sutton for 25 years and want to continue doing so, but fear what another flood might do.

“We don’t know if the house will make it again,” Tanner said. “We’ll see what happens. We don’t want to start all over, though I guess we are.”

Tanner’s daughter, Tanika Allard, said taking in the flood damage once again made her tear up.

“This year by far did the worst amount of damage with the least amount of rain, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense,” she said.

According to the National Weather Service, Vermont’s experience with floods can be traced to both ongoing climate change and the state’s mountainous geography. Greater rainfall and increased moisture availability have made the state’s steep terrain more susceptible to flooding.

Elsewhere in Vermont, heavy winds blew off a significant portion of a high school’s roof in Addison County.

Meanwhile, flash flooding also occurred in Massachusetts on Thursday after rains dumped more than 7 inches of rain in some areas. Some businesses were flooded in the town of Weymouth, which saw the bulk of the rain and flooding while commuters faced delays as highways and streets south of Boston flooded.

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez held their first press conference since taking over as the majority owners of the Timberwolves and Lynx on Friday in Las Vegas, the site of NBA Summer League.

The two delivered statements and fielded a number of questions from local and national media members alike.

Here are a few things that stood out:

Roster building

Lore and Rodriguez were specifically asked Friday about “new owner syndrome” — a made-up disease in which new sports owners make unwise decisions out of haste shortly after purchasing a franchise.

But the new ownership duo thinks it’s well positioned to avoid such an error, partly because they’ve been around the organization for years now amid the ownership transition. They already made a splash with the hiring of Tim Connelly as Timberwolves president of basketball operations and were proponents of the Rudy Gobert trade.

And they don’t feel a need for any more fireworks in the near future just in the name of shaking it up.

“We’re being very methodical about the decisions we make,” Lore said. “We’re thinking, in every decision, what’s in the best interest of the long-term, sustained culture of winning?”

That’s not an easy thing to achieve in today’s NBA given the new, strict salary-cap rules. But Lore and Rodriguez have plans for how to navigate the waters.

Rodriguez spoke of the value of continuity, which he called one of the “arbitrages” of the league. But keeping a team together likely requires paying a luxury tax, perhaps even a hefty one. Lore claims they’re fine with that, likening that investment to the financial losses startup companies endure early in their building process.

“Because it’s creating enterprised value over the long term,” he said. “And I think that’s the way we think about it. Investing in the team, in winning, creates long-term franchise value. And it’s not over the next three to five years, but 10, 20, the next 50 years even. We’re prepared to invest, we’re prepared to lose money to create a winning culture, a sustainable winning culture.”

A new arena

Rodriguez noted that new, upgraded arenas may have been vanity features back when he was playing in Major League Baseball. But he no longer feels as though that’s the case.

“Today, it’s a necessity,” Rodriguez told reporters. “If you want to compete at the level we want to compete, year in and year out, a new arena is what our fans deserve.”

Lore and Rodriguez are in the “very, very early stages” of a plan to get a new basketball arena in Minneapolis to replace an aging Target Center.

“Talk about community service,” Rodriguez said, “an arena is an anchor to the community.”

KG comeback?

Kevin Garnett is, as Lore put it, “the GOAT (greatest of all time)” in the Timberwolves organization. But Garnett’s presence within the franchise has waned significantly since the passing of Flip Saunders, as Garnett and Glen Taylor’s relationship was frequently sour.

Will the entrance of two new majority owners pave the path for Garnett’s “return” to the Timberwolves in some capacity?

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for KG and everything he’s accomplished, and we would love to get closer to him,” Lore told reporters. “We know the fans want to see that, and we want to see that, too.”

Added Rodriguez: “Anything that’s important to our fan base is going to be important to us. Obviously, he means a great deal to our fan base, and Marc and I are going to be working on that.”

New ticketing system

The Timberwolves and Lynx announced a multi-year agreement with Jump — a ticketing company founded by Lore and Rodriguez.

The team’s release described Jump as “the only unified fan experience and ticketing platform purpose-built for professional sports teams.”

Fans using the app will be able to purchase and manage tickets. And, in an interesting new feature, Lore said fans in the lower bowl — even sitting courtside — can put up their tickets for auction if they’re leaving a game early, and other fans in the arena can purchase them for a discounted price to move closer to the action.

“As a startup founder, it’s all about innovation, it’s about being disruptive and not doing things the conventional way,” Lore said. “We’ve got a clean slate here to rethink how things are done, not just accept how they’re done. We have big ideas on how to innovate, how to do things in a way that will separate us from others.”

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