Donald Trump's administration urged two judges on Tuesday night to release testimony heard by the grand juries that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges as the president seeks to calm an uproar over his administration's handling of the matter.

Maxwell's legal team petitions Supreme Court claiming a prior Epstein deal should shield her from prosecution, while a former cellmate shares insights about her composed prison behavior.

The new filing responds to a Justice Department brief that argued the justices should leave Maxwell's criminal convictions in place.

A Republican-led congressional committee rejected on Tuesday a request by a longtime associate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for immunity from future prosecution as a condition for testifying to the panel in the midst of a political storm surrounding President Donald Trump.

Plenty of Republicans are walking a tricky line right now on the Jeffrey Epstein files. But few have walked one as tricky as congressional leadership in recent days.

Ghislaine Maxwell has said she will testify freely to Congress if Donald Trump frees her from jail. Lawyers for Maxwell, 63, agreed that she would appear before the House Oversight Committee, as long as she could see what questions they planned to ask her about her links to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, in advance.

Buffalo Bills rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston is having tests to determine the severity of a right leg injury the first-round draft pick sustained in practice.

Darren Beattie, who was fired as a speechwriter during President Donald Trump’s first term after CNN revealed that he spoke at a conference attended by White nationalists, will now serve as the acting president of the US Institute of Peace, a senior State Department official said.