Hours of interviews between Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and a federal prosecutor were released by the Department of Justice on Friday afternoon. 

During the recorded sessions in which the convicted sex offender, who was found guilty for her role in Epstein’s crimes, was granted immunity, she made several interesting claims. 

Here are 10 top takeaways. 

Claims there is no client list

Maxwell denied the existence of a black book with Epstein’s clients on it – and least to her knowledge. 

‘There is no list,’ she told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. 

Maxwell said she believed the origin of rumors that there was a list came in 2009 after Epstein had finished a 13-month sex trafficking sentence in Florida, and a lawyer at Rothstein Adler involved in a civil suit against him called the FBI to say he had a ‘piece of evidence’ that belongs to Epstein.

That was ‘the list,’ she claimed, adding that she believes he became a confidential informant to the FBI.

She said he obtained the list through a sting operation involving Epstein’s former butler, who said in a deposition he had ‘handwritten notes, or a journal, whatever.’ 

Doesn’t believe Epstein killed himself

Maxwell said she doesn’t believe Epstein killed himself when he was found hanging in his New York jail cell in 2019. 

‘I do not believe he died by suicide, no,’ she told Blanche when asked. 

She added that she didn’t have any speculation about who could have killed him, but claimed the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is rife with mismanagement. 

‘If it is indeed murder, I believe it was an internal situation,’ she said, adding she didn’t believe his death was a way to silence him. 

‘I do not have any reason to believe that,’ she told Blanche. ‘And I also think it’s ludicrous because if that – I also happen to think if that is what they wanted, they would’ve had plenty of opportunity when he wasn’t in jail. And if they were worried about blackmail or anything from him, he would’ve been a very easy target.’

Never saw President Donald Trump do anything inappropriate

Maxwell said while she believes President Trump (before he was president) and Epstein were friendly, she didn’t think they were ‘close.’

‘I think they were friendly, like people are in social settings. I don’t — I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of — I don’t recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance.’ she said. ‘I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting.’

She added, ‘I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.’ 

Former President Bill Clinton never went to Epstein’s island 

Maxwell claimed that former President Bill Clinton, whose name has previously been linked to Epstein, ‘absolutely never went’ to Epstein’s Caribbean island where sex trafficking of young girls took place. 

She added, ‘I can be sure of that because there’s no way he would’ve gone – I don’t believe there’s any way that he would’ve gone to the island, had I not been there. Because I don’t believe he had 16 an independent friendship, if you will, with Epstein.’ 

She also said that Clinton was her friend, not Epstein’s, and that she knew him through the Clinton Global Initiative and was part of the inception of the organization. 

Calls Epstein ‘disgusting,’ but doesn’t believe he’s guilty of everything he was accused of 

Maxwell called Epstein ‘disgusting’ in the interview but said she doesn’t believe he was guilty of all the accusations. 

‘I do believe that Epstein did a lot of, not all, but some of what he’s accused of, and I’m not here to defend him in any respect whatsoever,’ Maxwell told Blanche. ‘I don’t want to, and I don’t think he requires, nor deserves any type of protection or – from me in any way, to sugarcoat what he did or didn’t do.’

She added, ‘This is one man. He’s not some – they’ve made him into this – he’s not that interesting. He’s a disgusting guy who did terrible things to young kids.’

Never saw Prince Andrew do anything inappropriate and believes the photo of him with accuser Virginia Giuffre is fake

Maxwell told Blanche that she also never saw Prince Andrew do anything inappropriate while she was with him, adding that she believes the infamous photo of the prince with his hand around accuser Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 isn’t real. 

‘I believe it’s literally a fake photo,’ she said of the picture, purported to have been taken at her former London townhouse. ‘I do not know that they met.’

Giuffre died of suicide earlier this year. She had accused the royal of forcing her into sex inside Maxwell’s home in London’s ritzy Belgravia neighborhood. The prince was relieved of his royal duties amid fallout from the scandal but has always denied allegations of wrongdoing. He agreed to pay Giuffre an undisclosed settlement in 2022 and to donate to her charity for crime victims.

Maxwells claims she has memory problems after being on suicide watch for 2 years

Maxwell claimed to Blanche her ‘memory’s not as good as it was’ because she was kept on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after her arrest for nearly two years, and she was woken up every 15 minutes. 

She said because of her memory lapses she had taken notes before the interviews, and throughout the interview still struggled to recall many details. 

Claims Epstein had a heart condition and told her he couldn’t have sex often

Maxwell said that when she traveled with Epstein, they slept in the same bed, but he told her he had a heart condition and couldn’t have sex frequently. 

‘Which meant that he didn’t have intercourse a lot, which suited me fine, because I actually do have a medical condition, which precludes me having a lot of intercourse,’ she told Blanche. 

She added that she didn’t know the exact nature of the condition, but he liked ‘other forms of sexual activities.’

Claims Epstein never loved her and said she wasn’t his type and that he told people to lie to her 

Maxwell told Blanche she and Epstein had a friends with benefits relationship while she was working with him, but at one point Epstein said that one of his associates didn’t want to be seen with her too much because of her father’s company’s embezzlement accusations. 

But she said she believed that was all a ruse just to keep her from traveling with Epstein. 

‘Today – not contemporaneously, but today I don’t believe that that’s even true. I think it was used as a means to not have me travel with him to Ohio or whatever. It was just a way to park me,’ she said.

She added that after her arrest during the legal discovery process she saw evidence that ‘he would actively tell other people to lie to me or conceal things from me, and that he never loved me and I wasn’t his type.’ 

Claims Epstein took testosterone, which altered his character 

Maxwell also claimed that in the late ‘90s, Epstein started taking testosterone, ‘and that altered his character.’

While discussing the frequency at which he got sexual massages, she said the testosterone both made him more ‘aggressive’ and she thought it likely ‘altered his desires.’

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking of minors. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticized on Thursday what she said were the ‘recent tendencies’ of the Supreme Court to side with the Trump administration, providing her remarks in a bitter dissent in a case related to National Institutes of Health grants.

Jackson, a Biden appointee, rebuked her colleagues for ‘lawmaking’ on the shadow docket, where an unusual volume of fast, preliminary decision-making has taken place related to the hundreds of lawsuits President Donald Trump’s administration has faced.

‘This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins,’ Jackson wrote.

The liberal justice pointed to the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of Calvinball, which describes it as the practice of applying rules inconsistently for self-serving purposes.

Jackson, the high court’s most junior justice, said the majority ‘[bent] over backwards to accommodate’ the Trump administration by allowing the NIH to cancel about $783 million in grants that did not align with the administration’s priorities.

Some of the grants were geared toward research on diversity, equity and inclusion; COVID-19; and gender identity. Jackson argued the grants went far beyond that and that ‘life-saving biomedical research’ was at stake.

‘So, unfortunately, this newest entry in the Court’s quest to make way for the Executive Branch has real consequences, for the law and for the public,’ Jackson wrote.

The Supreme Court’s decision was fractured and only a partial victory for the Trump administration.

In a 5-4 decision greenlighting, for now, the NIH’s existing grant cancellations, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the three liberal justices. In a second 5-4 decision that keeps a lower court’s block on the NIH’s directives about the grants intact, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, sided with Roberts and the three liberals. The latter portion of the ruling could hinder the NIH’s ability to cancel future grants.

The varying opinions by the justices came out to 36 pages total, which is lengthy relative to other emergency rulings. Jackson’s dissent made up more than half of that.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley observed in an op-ed last month a rise in ‘rhetoric’ from Jackson, who garnered a reputation as the most vocal justice during oral arguments upon her ascension to the high court.

‘The histrionic and hyperbolic rhetoric has increased in Jackson’s opinions, which at times portray her colleagues as abandoning not just the Constitution but democracy itself,’ Turley said.

Barrett had sharp words for Jackson in a recent highly anticipated decision in which the Supreme Court blocked lower courts from imposing universal injunctions on the government. Barrett accused Jackson of subscribing to an ‘imperial judiciary’ and instructed people not to ‘dwell’ on her colleague’s dissent.

Barrett, the lone justice to issue the split decision in the NIH case, said challenges to the grants should be brought by the grant recipients in the Court of Federal Claims.

But Barrett said ‘both law and logic’ support that the federal court in Massachusetts does have the authority to review challenges to the guidance the NIH issued about grant money. Barrett joined Jackson and the other three in denying that portion of the Trump administration’s request, though she said she would not weigh in at this early stage on the merits of the case as it proceeds through the lower courts.

Jackson was dissatisfied with this partial denial of the Trump administration’s request, saying it was the high court’s way of preserving the ‘mirage of judicial review while eliminating its purpose: to remedy harms.’

As the 11th member of former President Joe Biden’s administration appeared before the House Oversight Committee this week, Fox News Digital asked senators on Capitol Hill if former Vice President Kamala Harris should testify next. 

‘I think they should take her behind closed doors and figure out what she knows and what she’s willing to talk about,’ Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said. 

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is leading the investigation into the alleged cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline and use of the autopen during his tenure as president. 

Comer said on Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle’ last month that the ‘odds’ of Harris getting a subpoena to appear before the House Oversight Committee are ‘very high.’ 

While Marshall told Fox News Digital that Harris should testify, he admitted, ‘I don’t think you need her testimony to show Americans what I knew as a physician a long time ago, that Joe Biden had a neurodegenerative disease of some sort.’

Marshall has a medical degree from the University of Kansas and practiced medicine for more than 25 years before running for public office. 

‘All you had to do is look at his very fixed, flat face,’ Marshall explained. ‘Look at his gait, the way he walked. He had a shuffled walk. He didn’t move his arms, hardly at all. When he talked, it was very monotone, a very soft voice. He had malingering thought processes. I don’t think it took much to figure that out.’

After listing the former president’s symptoms, the Kansas senator lamented that Biden ‘turned weakness into war,’ creating a national security threat. 

During Biden’s presidency, the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan resulted in the death of 13 U.S. soldiers, Russia invaded Ukraine and Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza.

But as Republicans demand transparency, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital that he is far more worried about the ‘challenges we face right now,’ particularly on the economy, inflation and the impact of Trump’s tariff policies. 

Meanwhile, Sen. John Hoeven R-N.D., defended the accountability argument, telling Fox News Digital that Americans ‘always want more information and more transparency.’

‘If you’re involved in an administration, you [should] always be willing to come in and say what you did and why you did it, and you know what it’s all about. I mean, that’s how it works, and that’s what the American people want,’ he said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden and Harris for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, the chain of southern-style restaurants with a gift shop that lines highways across America, has gotten a makeover. Their logo has lost the ‘Old Country Store’ tagline, as well as the iconic man in a chair resting his arm on a barrel in favor of the words Cracker Barrel in text only. Inside, per patron videos of remodeled locations, gone is the dark nostalgic feel replaced with a sterile renovation. The knick-knacks have gone from quirky kitsch from yesteryear to something you might see in a suburban craft store. 

While the company’s CEO has said that initial reaction to these changes was positive, the verdict across social media was very much the opposite. The new look removes the old-school charm and character that was central to the brand’s identity for decades. 

Cracker Barrel is just the latest in a string of companies, including Jaguar more recently and even Coca-Cola in the mid-’80s with their New Coke rollout, to violate the critical principle of making sure that you do not alienate your loyal customer base. 

I wear many hats in business and have more than 20 years of experience as an advocate for loyal customers and clients in business, working in an outsourced CCO (Chief Customer Officer) function and sharing my proprietary customer loyalty models via speeches and consulting with both the biggest companies in the world and a variety of small and mid-sized businesses. And I firmly believe that one of a company’s most important assets isn’t listed on its balance sheet: the company’s loyal customers. 

Loyal customers are easier to sell more to, both in frequency of purchases and upsells, because they already love your business and have often given you permission to communicate with them and build a relationship. They are also excellent advocates for generating new business via their own advertising efforts — word of mouth, posts on social media and more. 

While it is a challenge for companies to continually grow, and publicly traded companies are under even more pressure to do so, mathematically, growth becomes harder if you are losing customers from your key customer base. 

If you make your customers believe you do not care about them and their relationship with your brand and company, it is going to be very difficult for you to be successful in your business. This is the stark reality many businesses who have sought out new customers have faced lately. It’s fine to reach new customers, but you must do it carefully and in a way that doesn’t simultaneously burn goodwill with your existing customers. 

New customers should never be treated better or given more weight than existing, loyal customers. 

In my own social media post resharing a video of a Cracker Barrel dining room remodel, I received thousands of interactions. Among the majority comments from long-time customers expressing their displeasure at the changes, one other comment stood out. The poster said, ‘I don’t eat there but it looks nice to me.’ 

And that is the crux of the issue. The poster is not a customer, and based on the comment, is not likely to become a customer. So, seeking her approval is not a revenue-enhancing win for the company. Maybe it gets some ROE (return on ego) points for the marketing team, but it doesn’t get ROI (return on investment) for shareholders.  

For Cracker Barrel, losing character in a time when corporatization is making everything around us bland and soulless feels like something enjoyable from the past is being killed off. And for a brand which has been based on nostalgia — from their décor to their nostalgic candy and wares in their adjacent store — it doesn’t make a lot of sense.  

I am a long-time Cracker Barrel patron. I stop in whenever I am on the road. And as a long-time customer, as well as business advisor and executive, I can tell you that Cracker Barrel’s logo was not their issue.  

My last stop in was in June on a road trip. I noted that I hadn’t been there in a while prior, because I hadn’t been on the road much. And in a moment where convenience is a part of the equation and DoorDash has taken hold of younger generations, it is harder to get touchpoints with a brand, even if you want them. This is a much bigger strategic endeavor that Cracker Barrel needs to think through. 

My other issue was the menu. They had taken off my favorite item and their hashbrown casserole tasted off — the food overall wasn’t as fresh as I had experienced in the past. In my social media post, there were several comments about a decline in food quality over recent years. Making the menu and food quality rock-solid is critical for a restaurant, particularly when consumers are trying to stretch their dollars. 

Cracker Barrel isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last company to fall into the trap of thinking that all change is good. Companies should be bringing their customer voices to the table, which can be accomplished with a CCO whose job it is to know the customers well and advocate for them within the company or other loyalty specialist advising.  

Loyalty is hard to build and easy to lose. Companies always want to attract new customers, but that isn’t effective if relationships with existing customers aren’t nurtured at the same time. 

The latest addition to the pool of Democrats seeking to challenge Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is doubling down on Zohran Mamdani-style socialism, says the chief of Maine’s Republican Party.

Democrat Graham Platner launched his campaign highlighting his history as an Army and Marine veteran as well as an oyster farmer, but state GOP chief Jason Savage told Fox News Digital that rural accolades aren’t policy positions. He pointed to Platner’s hiring of a top Mamdani adviser, Morris Katz, to produce his campaign launch video.

In that video, Platner rails against the ‘oligarchy’ and endorses universal healthcare. His website features messaging that claims the U.S. has a ‘billionaire economy,’ and that – if elected – Platner would view it as a key part of his job ‘to dismantle’ it.

‘Graham Platner is Maine’s Mamdani,’ Savage told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘He brought in the Mamdani team to support his campaign. He’s out doing a lot of work with socialist groups.… He’s a Bernie bro.’

‘What we’re seeing here is the exporting of the Mamdani ideology to the state of Maine because they think that they can gain ground in a small state where things aren’t as expensive,’ he added.

‘You can look through Graham Platner’s donor history, and you can see that he donated to Harris for President, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar,’ he continued, arguing that far-left candidates are a major threat to the Democratic Party.

Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

‘If common-sense Democrats, and then the leadership like [Sen.] Chuck Schumer don’t do something and say that isn’t the future of our party, then they’re gonna run in a bunch of these races. and we’re gonna beat them,’ he said.

Savage argued that the Democratic Party’s embracing of the far-left is a ‘double-edged sword.’ He said Democratic candidates can’t succeed without the ‘extreme wing’ of the party, and now ‘they’ve created a monster that they don’t have the ability to control.’

‘In the long run, it’s going to be catastrophic for them. I mean, Graham Platner advocates for allowing men to be in girls’ and women’s sports,’ Savage said. ‘He advocates for all sorts of policies that are very, very unpopular, and the Democrats can’t say anything to stop that.’

The Democratic challenger list against Collins is growing, and reports say those already in office are trying to tap Janet Mills, the state’s 77-year-old Democratic governor, for the seat.

Republicans currently control the majority of the Senate by a 53-47 margin. Democrats would need to flip four seats in the 2026 midterm elections to take the majority. 

A spokesperson for Collins told Fox News Digital that Platner is ‘just another progressive entering the race.’

Fox News’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report 

A judge on Thursday found that Alina Habba was unlawfully serving in the role of acting U.S. attorney of New Jersey after President Donald Trump sidestepped typical processes to keep her in charge.

Judge Matthew Brann said Habba has not been the rightful temporary U.S. attorney for New Jersey since July 1, a ruling that follows two criminal defendants in New Jersey challenging her appointment in court, alleging it was unconstitutional.

‘Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,’ Brann wrote in a 77-page order.

Habba, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, had been serving as interim U.S. attorney, but when her term expired last month, Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi used loopholes in federal vacancy laws to install her as ‘acting’ rather than ‘interim’ U.S. attorney.

One of the defendants in the district, Julien Giraud, alleged that the moves violated his constitutional rights because of the string of unconventional actions it took to attempt to keep Habba in the role.

Brann, an Obama appointee serving in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, agreed and found Habba could not prosecute Giraud or another defendant who challenged Habba’s position.

Brann is presiding over the matter after the chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers New Jersey and Pennsylvania, decided the case presented too much of a conflict for New Jersey’s federal judges.

The New Jersey judges made the rare decision to decline to extend Habba’s term and instead appointed career attorney Desiree Grace to the job. Trump and Bondi fired Grace, withdrew Habba’s nomination as permanent U.S. attorney and then reinstated Habba as acting U.S. attorney, which they said kept Habba in charge for at least another 210 days under federal statute.

Fox News Digital reached out to a spokeswoman for Habba for comment.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The Pentagon has created a new medal for service members who’ve deployed to the southern border to assist federal law enforcement with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. 

The Pentagon unveiled plans for a Mexican Border Defense Medal for U.S. troops serving with Joint Task Force Southern Border, according to a new memo the Pentagon released Aug.13 that was shared on social media. 

A U.S. defense official confirmed the authenticity of the memo to Fox News Digital Wednesday. 

Now, service members will receive the Mexican Border Defense Medal (MBDM) instead of the Armed Forces Service Medal (AFSM) like they previously earned for supporting Customs and Border Protection at the border, the memo said. 

The Armed Forces Service Medal, originally created in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton, is awarded to troops who have participated in a military operation with ‘significant activity,’ but didn’t encounter foreign armed opposition or imminent hostile action, according to a U.S. Army description of the medal. 

The Pentagon said in July that approximately 8,500 military personnel are assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Border, and have been tasked with responding to security threats there. The task force got underway in March and completed approximately 3,500 patrols between then and July, according to the Pentagon. 

Those eligible for the award must have deployed since Jan. 20 to support Customs and Border Protection, and served within 100-nautical miles from the international border shared with Mexico in either Texas, New Mexico, Arizona or California. 

Those who’ve also served in adjacent waters up to 24 nautical miles away from the border also are eligible. 

‘Service members must have been permanently assigned, attached, or detailed to a unit that deployed to participate in a designated DoD military operation supporting CBP within the (area of eligibility) during the (period of award) for 30 consecutive or nonconsecutive days,’ the memo said. 

Those who already have received the Armed Forces Service Medal for service at the southern border may appeal to receive the new award but are ineligible to receive both, according to the Pentagon. 

‘Service members and Veterans previously awarded the AFSM for DoD support to CBP may apply to their respective Military Service for award of the MBDM in lieu of the AFSM previously awarded to recognize such service; however, no Service member or Veteran may be awarded both the AFSM and the MBDM for the same period of qualifying service,’ the memo said. 

The Pentagon, per the direction of the president, has established four national defense areas along the border, bolstering U.S. troops’ capacity to assist Customs and Border Protection under the task force. 

The national defense areas operate under military jurisdiction, paving the way for U.S. troops to detain trespassers. Without placing these stretches of land under military jurisdiction, U.S. troops were barred from doing so under existing federal law. 

‘Through these enhanced authorities, U.S. Northern Command will ensure those who illegally trespass in the New Mexico National Defense Area are handed over to Customs and Border Protection or our other law enforcement partners,’ Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command, said in an April statement. ‘Joint Task Force Southern Border will conduct enhanced detection and monitoring, which will include vehicle and foot patrols, rotary wing and fixed surveillance site operations.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wants a ‘strong reaction’ from the U.S. government if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not sit down with him for a bilateral meeting.

This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to broker a peace agreement between the two countries that have been at war since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, although Trump has conceded that Putin may not be prepared to make a deal.

Zelenskyy has said he has already agreed to a proposed meeting with Putin.

‘I responded immediately to the proposal for a bilateral meeting: we are ready. But what if the Russians are not ready?’ Zelenskiy said at a news briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

‘If the Russians are not ready, we would like to see a strong reaction from the United States,’ he added.

Trump separately met with both leaders in the past week, with Zelenskyy visiting the White House along with other European leaders earlier this week and the U.S. president meeting Putin in Alaska last week.

The White House has said Putin was willing to meet with his Ukrainian foe after a phone call this week with Trump.

‘President Trump spoke with President Putin by phone, and he agreed to begin the next phase of the peace process, a meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy, which would be followed, if necessary, by a trilateral meeting between President Putin, President Zelensky and President Trump,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

The path toward peace between the two sides remains uncertain despite U.S. efforts for diplomacy, as the U.S. government and its allies attempt to work out potential security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said it was unclear what concessions about territory Russia was willing to make to end the conflict. Trump has previously said Kyiv and Moscow would both need to cede territory.

‘To discuss what Ukraine is willing to do, let’s first hear what Russia is willing to do,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘We do not know that.’

Reuters contributed to this report.

The Trump administration scored a major victory in the Supreme Court Thursday as the justices, in a 5-4 order, cleared his administration to slash more than $783 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants tied to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, LGBTQ issues and other hot-button topics.

The unsigned majority order said NIH ‘may proceed with terminating existing grants’ while leaving in place a partial block on issuing new directives. 

The move delivers a political win for Trump’s broader push to roll back DEI programs across the federal government.

The decision overturns rulings by lower courts that had blocked the cuts. In June, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley of Massachusetts called the administration’s actions ‘arbitrary and capricious’ and said NIH had ‘failed to provide a reasoned explanation’ for cutting grants midstream. The 1st Circuit upheld her injunction in July, setting up Trump’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Justice Department argued in its July 24 filing that leaving the injunction in place ‘forces NIH to continue funding projects inconsistent with agency priorities’ and warned the order ‘intrudes on NIH’s core discretion to decide how best to allocate limited research funds.’

Opponents framed the cuts as ideological. The American Public Health Association warned that ‘halting these grants would devastate biomedical research across the country, disrupting clinical trials and delaying urgently needed discoveries’ and said ‘the administration has offered no scientific basis for these cancellations — only ideology.’ 

A coalition of Democrat-led states led by Massachusetts argued that ‘patients should not be collateral damage in a political fight.’

News outlets stressed the stakes of Thursday’s decision. 

The Associated Press described the ruling as the court letting Trump cut $783 million in research funding ‘in an anti-DEI push.’ 

Reuters reported that ‘the Supreme Court in a 5–4 order cleared the way for the Trump administration to cut diversity-related NIH grants, though it left in place part of the ruling blocking new restrictions.’

Research groups warned of the cuts’ fallout. The Association of American Universities said the cuts ‘risk chilling scientific inquiry by discouraging researchers from pursuing politically sensitive topics.’ 

Scientists cautioned the decision could derail progress on diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, even as the broader legal fight continues in the 1st Circuit and may return to the Supreme Court.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.