Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend repeatedly denied to the Justice Department witnessing any sexually inappropriate interactions with Donald Trump. That's according to records released Friday meant to distance the Republican president from the disgraced financer. The Trump administration issued hundreds of pages of transcripts from interviews Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell last month. The administration has scrambled to present itself as transparent amid a fierce backlash over an earlier refusal to disclose records from the sex-trafficking case. The transcripts show Maxwell repeatedly praising Trump and denying she had observed him engaged in any form of sexual behavior.

The Justice Department has agreed to provide to Congress documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. That's according to Rep, James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, which earlier this month issued a broad subpoena about a criminal case that has long captivated public attention, recently roiled the top rungs of the Trump administration and been a consistent magnet for conspiracy theories. It was not clear exactly which or how many documents might be produced or whether the cooperation with Congress reflected a broader change in posture since last month, when the FBI and Justice Department abruptly announced that they would not be releasing any additional records from the Epstein investigation.

The conservative network Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming a voting equipment company by spreading lies about President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. The settlement announced Monday comes after Fox News Channel paid $787.5 million to settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers describe as $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was a target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled earlier Newsmax defamed Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false information about the company and its equipment. Dominion says it's pleased to have settled.

QAnon is a virtual cult that began in late 2017.

Increasingly, experts and government officials in the United States and Europe are accusing China — the country first hit by the virus — of stoking confusion.

The claims have turned their lives upside down. The couple say their home address has been posted online and that, before they shut down their accounts, their social media inboxes were overrun with messages from believers of the conspiracy.

Scientists have banded together across international borders to condemn the nationalist-tinged conspiracy theories. And yet, they are divided on what was once widely thought the most likely culprit.