By ED WHITE, Associated Press

A judge on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations of Jeffrey Epstein years ago in Florida, though a similar records request is pending in New York.

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.

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The Justice Department last week asked the judge to release records to quell a storm among supporters of President Donald Trump who believe there was a conspiracy to protect Epstein’s clients, conceal videos of crimes being committed and other evidence.

In 2008, Epstein cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.

The wealthy financier later was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was charged with helping him abuse teenage girls.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City about a month after he was arrested. Investigators concluded he killed himself. Maxwell later was convicted at trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The case attracted attention because of Epstein and Maxwell’s links to famous people, including royals, presidents and billionaires. It also led to some of the biggest conspiracy theories animating Trump’s base.

Minnesota-based MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell got a reprieve Wednesday over a $5 million award to a man who discredited conspiracies tied to the 2020 election.

The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling. The appeals judges wrote in a 12-page decision that a panel of arbitrators went too far in requiring Lindell to pay a man who offered proof that cyber data used by 2020 election deniers was invalid.

In 2021, Lindell held a South Dakota symposium featuring a “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” that put up a $5 million reward to anyone who could prove him wrong. Lindell is a staunch ally of President Donald Trump.

Software developer Robert Zeidman concluded the data provided wasn’t valid and spelled out the reasons in a report submitted during the contest.

But when he didn’t get the prize, Zeidman claimed breach of contract by the Lindell Management LLC entity set up to run the event. He went to arbitration and after a three-day hearing was awarded the money.

Lindell went to court and lost the first round. But Wednesday’s appeals court ruling takes Lindell off the hook, barring additional court review.

Lindell separately faces hefty legal judgments over discredited 2020 election claims.

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By BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press

Instagram parent company Meta has introduced new safety features aimed at protecting teens who use its platforms, including information about accounts that message them and an option to block and report accounts with one tap.

The company also announced Wednesday that it has removed thousands of accounts that were leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-run accounts of kids under 13. Of these, 135,000 were commenting and another 500,000 were linked to accounts that “interacted inappropriately,” Meta said in a blog post.

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The heightened measures arrive as social media companies face increased scrutiny over how their platform affects the mental health and well-being of younger users. This includes protecting children from predatory adults and scammers who ask — then extort— them for nude images.

Meta said teen users blocked more than a million accounts and reported another million after seeing a “safety notice” that reminds people to “be cautious in private messages and to block and report anything that makes them uncomfortable.”

Earlier this year, Meta began to test the use of artificial intelligence to determine if kids are lying about their ages on Instagram, which is technically only allowed for those over 13. If it is determined that a user is misrepresenting their age, the account will automatically become a teen account, which has more restrictions than an adult account. Teen accounts are private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. In 2024, the company made teen accounts private by default.

Meta faces lawsuits from dozens of U.S. states that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.