WSJ What’s News - Trump Calls for Release of ‘Pertinent’ Material From Epstein Grand Jury

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

P.M. Edition for July 18. President Trump has called for the release of grand jury material related to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move follows the publication of an article in The Wall Street Journal about a letter bearing Trump’s name that was included in a 2003 birthday album for the disgraced financier. WSJ reporter Khadeeja Safdar, who co-authored that story, talks about the reporting that went into it. Plus, President Trump has signed into law the Genius Act, which creates ground rules for stablecoins. WSJ reporter Dylan Tokar discusses why banks are worried about the cryptocurrency. And the U.S. is set to end a decades-long practice of commenting on the fairness of foreign elections. We hear from Journal reporter Robbie Gramer about why. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. The Journal: Trump’s Letter to Jeffrey Epstein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to this year's championship game. This is the big one. With Amex Platinum, you have access to an annual dining credit to some of the hottest restaurants around town. Score! So you can raise the bar on game night. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca slash yamex. President Trump has called for the release of pertinent material from Epstein's grand jury.

Plus, why a new law regulating cryptocurrency has got banks on high alert. This is a piece of legislation that was the product of compromise and the focus of lobbying by both banks and members of the traditional financial industry and stablecoin issuers, cryptocurrency companies. And the U.S. is set to stop a longstanding practice of commenting on the fairness of foreign elections. It's Friday, July 18th.

I'm Alex Osela for The Wall Street Journal. This is a PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. President Trump has called for the release of grand jury material related to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move follows the publication of an article in the Wall Street Journal about a letter

bearing Trump's name that was included in a 2003 birthday album for the disgraced financier. President Trump has denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, calling it a, quote, fake thing. The president also said he planned to sue News Corp, the parent company of Dow Jones, which publishes the journal, as well as Rupert Murdoch, the chair emeritus of News Corp. A News Corp spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department documents, the so-called Epstein files, are at the center of a storm consuming the Trump administration. Last week, the Justice Department incensed many of Trump's

political base when it said in a memo that a thorough review had turned up no list of Epstein's clients, nor any additional documents that warrant public disclosure. Yesterday, President Trump lashed out at his own supporters for refusing to let the matter go. WSJ Enterprise reporter Khadijah Safdar, who co-authored the story about the letters, told our colleagues at the Journal podcast about the reporting that went into it. I discovered that there was a birthday book that was given to Epstein for his 50th birthday that Ghislaine Maxwell had compiled it and it contained poems, pictures, drawings, and letters from Epstein's family and friends and among those were some powerful people. And there was like dozens of associates in this book. It's a leather bound album that was professionally bound.

We even spoke to some of the people involved in the book binding process. It was like very special gift that was put together and it was assembled before his arrest in 2006 and delivered to him. And I was interested to know what those letters said. I also have been doing a lot of Epstein reporting over the course of several years, and I've been trying to understand what his relationships were with different powerful people. In my

previous reporting, I had been reviewing schedules and calendars. So this offered another window into the relationships that Epstein had with different powerful people. And it was just a continuation of the reporting that I've been doing for years. To hear more about this story and Khadijah's ongoing reporting, listen to today's episode of the Journal podcast. We'll leave a link in the show notes. An arbitration panel has cleared the way for Chevron to complete its $53 billion purchase of Hess.

It's the outcome of a dramatic battle between Chevron and ExxonMobil, which had been vying for Hess and its assets. Chevron had originally struck the deal for Hess in October 2023. Last year, Exxon threw a wrench in those plans when it asserted a right to preempt its rivals' bid for Hess's 30% stake in Guyana's prolific Stabrook offshore block. Exxon's move to block the deal stunned the oil industry, which hadn't seen Titanic Oil companies battle to these extremes in decades. Just hours after the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris handed down its ruling, Chevron said it had closed its deal for Hess and that it plans to nominate John Hess, the

smaller company's longtime CEO, to its board. Exxon said that it disagreed with the panel's interpretation but respects the arbitration process. Separately, the Federal Trade Commission has reversed its order barring former pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield from Exxon's board. But Sheffield says he's no longer interested in serving as a director of Exxon, accusing the company of signing a rushed, baseless, and illegal order with the FTC last year and of effectively breaking the commitment it made to him in the merger agreement with Pioneer.

Exxon declined to comment. U.S. Stocks Closed Mostly Lower Today Exxon declined to comment. US stocks closed mostly lower today as updates from banks and consumer-focused companies this week have pointed to a resilient economy, but some of the latest results disappointed investors. The Nasdaq rose about half a percent, hitting its eleventh record of the year. The Dow fell about 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 stayed mostly flat. News survey data from the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment continued to recover this month, reaching a five-month high, though the mood remains considerably worse than it

was at the end of last year. The index rose slightly to 61.8 in preliminary July numbers, in line with economists' expectations. And, according to a Commerce Department report out today, home building recovered a little in the U.S. last month, but remains down on the year. Housing Starts, a gauge of new residential construction, rose to 1.32 million in June, from a revised 1.26 million in May, broadly in line with economists' expectations. The European Commission's code of practice for general-purpose artificial intelligence

is not yet signed. MetaPlatform's chief global affairs officer said the Facebook and Instagram owner wouldn't sign the European Union's code of practice for general-purpose artificial intelligence. Meta said the code adds uncertainty and goes beyond the scope of AI legislation in the bloc. A spokesman for the European Commission said AI model providers that opt not to sign the the code adds uncertainty and goes beyond the scope of AI legislation in the block. A spokesman for the European Commission said AI model providers that opt not to sign the code would still have to comply with the AI Act and might be exposed to more regulatory

scrutiny. Coming up, stablecoins are poised to become a part of the mainstream financial system. And banks are worried. That's after the break. Summer is what you make of it, and Tim Horton's fruit quenchers have something for every mood. So choose from a variety of fruity flavors in sparkling, frozen, or lemonade. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. President Trump has signed into law the so-called Genius Act, a day after it passed the House. Speaking at the White House, the president said the signing is a massive validation for

the crypto community and a big day for America. This afternoon we take a giant step to cement the American dominance of global finance and crypto technology as we sign the landmark Genius Act into law, so congratulations to everybody. It is a big deal. The law lays out some ground rules for stablecoins, which function as digital dollars in the wider crypto world.

Now, as stablecoins are poised to become a part of the mainstream financial system, banks are on high alert about how the cryptocurrency could threaten their business. I'm joined now by Dylan Tokar, who covers financial regulation for the journal. Dylan, what kinds of challenges do stablecoins present to banks?

This is a piece of legislation that was the product of compromise and the focus of lobbying by both banks and members of the traditional financial industry and stablecoin issuers, cryptocurrency companies. And they are very keenly aware that, you know, the provisions in the bill are going to dictate who wins and who loses when it comes to the types of products that you and I are used to going to the financial system for, like payments. Banks already offer you ways to make payments more quickly and more cost effectively. You have Venmo, you have Zelle, and the question is, are stablecoin issuers going to claw some of that market away from banks?

One of the things that we saw in the back and forth over this bill is concerns about whether Stable coins could be used almost like bank deposits to store value And so there are prohibitions in the bill against offering yield or interest To the consumers for holding stable coins and that's because banks are worried that if, you know, this is an appealing competitive product to a bank deposit, then consumers will just go put their money in stablecoins. And that could have really broad implications for the financial system as we know it. You've laid out some of the ways that stablecoins could present risks to banks,

but does this also present an opportunity for banks' business? Yeah, absolutely. Particularly, we've seen that for the larger banks. There's a bit of a divergence for smaller and bigger banks. Big banks are looking at all sorts of different ways that they could make money from this and ward off the competition they see from this incumbent industry.

And they'll do everything from charging fees for on and off ramps to thinking about launching their own stablecoin. We've reported recently that consortium of the big banks are already in the early stages of thinking about launching their own stablecoin. That was WSJ reporter Dylan Tokar. Thanks Dylan. Thank you.

The State Department plans to start putting strict limits on its public assessments of foreign elections, a sharp shift away from a practice the U.S. has used for decades to promote fair elections abroad. The new instruction was delivered yesterday in a memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Speaking to my colleague Pierre Bienneme, national security reporter Robbie Grammer explained why the State Department is making this change. They're trying to do this shift back

toward this America first agenda. Don't interfere in foreign countries. Respect their sovereignty. Stop meddling in elections abroad. And a lot of this goes back to what's been going on in recent decades in US foreign policy We had these costly interventions in Iraq and in Afghanistan that were really foreign policy disasters President Trump in May gave a speech in Saudi Arabia that a lot of people see as his seminal foreign policy speech

Where he vowed the United States would refrain from telling other countries what to do And he said the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. How has the US used such statements in the past as a foreign policy tool? It's been really impactful in the past, depending on the country. In bigger countries, the US embassy, the US ambassador might not have a lot of clout, but in smaller developing countries that would rely a lot on foreign assistance or where the might of the United States really matters, those types of statements have a lot of clout and sway. Pro-democracy activists around the world, current and former diplomats say it is important in a lot of

ways. Matthew Feeney Did the State Department itself respond to your reporting and request for comment? Matthew 3 State Department spokesperson said the United States will celebrate democratic values in the US and abroad, but would also seek partnerships with countries in pursuit of strategic interests, regardless of their governance style. That was national security reporter Robbie Grammer speaking to my colleague Pierre Bienneme.

And finally, the European Union has agreed to impose its toughest sanctions on Russia since its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions package blocks attempts to revive the Nord Stream gas pipelines, lowers a price cap for Russian oil sales, and hits banks from third countries, which could exacerbate tensions with China. The move comes as President Trump has started increasing pressure on the Kremlin after months of seeking a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. European capitals hope Washington will soon join them in tightening economic pressure

on Moscow. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow you can look out for our weekly Markets Wrap-Up, What's News in Markets. Then on Sunday we're bringing you an episode of WSJ's Take on the Week, in which co-hosts Gunjan Banerjee and Tellus Deimos speak with Chicago Fed Chair Austin Goolsbee. Their conversation was recorded before the Fed entered its dark period,

when they don't speak to media, ahead of their meeting next week to decide on interest rates. That's in what's new Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienneme with supervising producer Michael Kosmides. Michael Laval wrote our theme music. Aishal Muslim is our development producer, Scott Salloway and Chris Zinsley are our deputy editors, and Philana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Alex Osila. Thanks for listening. you