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Epstein Accomplice Maxwell Offers to Testify to Congress, but Her Attorneys Send List of Demands Including Immunity; Food Security Agency Says Worst-case Scenario of Famine in Gaza; Manhunt in Arkansas for Killer Who Slayed Couple on Hike With Kids; Hearing Loss Researcher Loses NIH Grant as Trump Administration Targets DEI. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 29, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:34:17]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We have some breaking news into CNN. Jeffrey Epstein accomplice and convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell is offering to testify before Congress, but her lawyers say she has a list of demands before she talks to them. CNN's Alayna Treene is with us now. Quite the list of demands here, Alayna.
ALAYNA TREENE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and I would put it this way too. I mean, remember, the House Oversight Chairman James Comer had subpoenaed her to testify and what we are getting now from her lawyers, this is what they had sent to the Oversight Committee. They essentially said that initially, that they had decided to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights. Of course, saying that she wouldn't want to comply or answer their questions.
[13:35:00]
But then, they changed their minds, they said, and are now saying that she will accept this subpoena, comply with the subpoena on many different conditions. I'm just going to walk through some of those for you, Brianna. So one of them is a grant of formal immunity. I think that's, of course, the top line here, that what they're really looking for in exchange for any sort of transparency or answers from Epstein's accomplice.
They also had that the interview can't happen at the correctional facility where she's currently serving out her sentence. They went on to say that to prepare adequately for any congressional deposition and to ensure the accuracy and fairness, they would require the Committee's questions in advance. Again, something that the committee does not normally, if ever, do. And then it went on to say that the interview should only be scheduled after the resolution of her case pending before the Supreme Court where she's asking for her conviction to be overturned.
Now, we did already get a response from the Oversight Committee here in the House, a spokeswoman -- person for them saying, that the Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony. Brianna, we've now heard this a lot from many different Republicans on Capitol Hill, but also Democrats as well, that they do not want to consider immunity in order to get answers from Ghislaine Maxwell.
And so, it's still very much unclear where this would go from here. What was also interesting though, in this letter from Maxwell's attorneys to the House Oversight Committee, they also said that the demands could not be met, she would have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment right. But then they said, kind of ending it with an appeal to President Donald Trump for clemency. They said that if Ms. Maxwell were able to receive clemency, she would be willing and eager to testify openly and honestly in public.
All to say, look, there's been a lot of attention, of course, on what Ghislaine Maxwell knows as this Epstein case continues to receive so much attention. We know that the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche interviewed her over two days last week. We still have gotten no insight into what exactly the Justice Department might have gleaned from those interviews, but it's very key or clear that she's key to, hopefully, getting some more answers here, but a lot of people nervous about what it actually means to try and make any sort of deal or give any sort of concessions in order for her testimony, Brianna.
KEILAR: Yeah. and indicted for perjury in the past, we should note as well.
TREENE: Right.
KEILAR: Alayna Treene, thank you so much for the very latest there. Boris?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A dire warning out of the Middle East today after a U.N. backed food security agency says the worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza right now. According to the initiative, more than 20,000 children were admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition between April and mid-July. 3,000 of them were severely malnourished. Gaza health officials say that nearly a hundred children have starved to death, and you can see the desperation in this boy as he's trying to gather as much flour from this vehicle as he can fit into his shirt.
The Israeli military says that in coordination with Arab nations, it airdropped some 52 aid packages today into Gaza. France also announced it would send critical supplies into the enclave. And this morning, President Trump had this to say about speaking with Benjamin Netanyahu.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What will you say next to Benjamin Netanyahu?
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We are working together. We're going to try and get things straightened out for the world. Thank you very much. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Let's take you live to CNN Jerusalem Correspondent, Jeremy Diamond, who has the latest. Jeremy, talk to us about these efforts to get more aid into Gaza.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, there's no question that a lot more aid is starting to get into the Gaza Strip, whether it is the 200 trucks of aid that were distributed in Gaza yesterday, double the numbers that were getting in the day before, or the dozens of airdrops that we are seeing happening in Gaza right now. But the reality, Boris, is that starvation and famine as the IPC, this leading global authority on food security are saying, famine and starvation are not a switch that can just be turned on and off.
It is going to take some time, and it is also going to take a lot more aid, and aid getting in consistently into Gaza in order to even begin to alleviate the starvation that is now gripping the Gaza Strip. And perhaps what is most tragic about everything that we are watching unfold right now is that many of the steps that Israel is now taking to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza, whether it is those tactical pauses for 10 hours a day in parts of the Gaza Strip, or the safe routes for aid trucks to be able to flow through Gaza and actually distribute the aid that is being allowed into Gaza, these are all steps that the United Nations and other humanitarian aid groups have been calling on Israel to take for months now.
[13:40:00]
But it was only now at the point of absolute crisis and as we are watching dozens of people dying of starvation in the Gaza Strip and international outcry, it is only now that Israel has decided to take these steps. And as they are taking these steps, we are seeing as the IPC is saying, that worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding. They say that since April, some 20,000 children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, 3,000 of those are experiencing severe cases of malnutrition. And so for those people, it is clear that there are still children, that there are still adults suffering from the worst cases of malnutrition, who unfortunately will likely die in the coming days, even as mass influxes of food are beginning to get in.
SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, live for us from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for the update.
Up next, police revealing a critical clue about a suspect that killed a couple at an Arkansas State Park, as investigators release a sketch of a person of interest in the case. Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back.
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KEILAR: Arkansas State Police desperately want to talk to this person here about a couple who was killed while they were hiking with their kids. Investigators released this sketch of a "person of interest" in the killings of Cristen and Clinton Brink, who were found dead Saturday in Devil's Den State Park. Their two young daughters just seven and nine-years-old alerted some bystanders that their parents have been attacked, but it's not clear if the children were present when their mother and father were killed.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher is following this case. Dianne, give us the latest about this person of interest.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, there is an urgent manhunt still underway for a killer in northwest Arkansas. State Police did release that composite sketch of what they're calling a person of interest that they want to question, who was spotted in Devil's Den State Park on Saturday. Now look, the general description remains the same. A white male with medium build, wearing dark clothing, fingerless gloves, driving a black four-door sedan, possibly a Mazda, with electrical or duct tape over the license plate.
But, investigators did add a new piece of information to that description overnight, saying now that the suspect likely sustained injuries when he was attacking Clinton and Cristen Brink. Now, they did not elaborate on what that means. There has not been a lot of information overall released about the attack. But, this matches scanner traffic that we have heard and obtained that was going on during the search for the Brinks on Saturday afternoon on that walking trail. Take a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both victims are still missing and we suspect the suspect to have injuries due to the witness seeing the suspect stab one of them.
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GALLAGHER: And look, we heard some of it yesterday as well, but I just want to underscore how haunting some of this scanner traffic really is listening to it now. There's a portion where you hear the search teams looking for them and saying that they think they hear yells for help. And look, there's no indication as to who may be yelling or what they're actually hearing, but a few moments later, you then hear them say that they've come across two bodies at the lower end of the trail.
Of course, the Brinks' daughters were not harmed. They're the ones who notified others at the Park and the visitor center that their parents had been attacked. They are now safe with relatives. The Brinks family releasing a statement, asking for privacy, and also asking anybody who might have seen something, even the smallest factor, to contact authorities so they can track down this killer. They added, "Clinton and Cristen died heroes, protecting their little girls and they deserve justice. They will forever live in all of our hearts." Brianna?
KEILAR: That's so sad. Dianne Gallagher, thank you for the update there. Still ahead, a scientist who was born with hearing loss turned that challenge into groundbreaking research. But now, that research is in limbo because of politics.
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KEILAR: Hearing loss affects more than 30 million Americans and ongoing research has made strides to address it. But a researcher studying how to restore hearing just lost his federal grant.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, his years-long work became a casualty of the Trump Administration's rollback of DEI programs. Notably, he had qualified for this funding because of his own hearing loss. CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell is here to explain what happened. Meg?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, guys, this is a researcher named Uri Manor. He's an Assistant Professor at the University of California in San Diego, and he's been researching these really innovative ways to restore hearing. And as part of that, he received two years ago, a major grant from the National Institutes of Health, a five-year award to support this kind of research. And it was given through a workforce diversity initiative designed to reach researchers of different backgrounds and he qualified for that. This was a grant through the National Institute on Deafness because of his own inherited hearing loss.
However, I spoke with experts in the field who pointed out he's already made major contributions to this kind of research and they believe his research would've been funded no matter which mechanism he'd applied for it. But nonetheless, he got this DEI associated grant and then as the Trump Administration came in and was taking action on a lot of different DEI initiatives, his grant was terminated. He was given a notification that said "Research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life or reduce illness."
So, they ended the grant right there, said he wouldn't get any more funding, and so he had to stop long-term experiments, layoff people from his labs. And guys, then there's a twist in the story. In June, a federal judge actually ruled that some of these grant terminations associated with DEI by the Trump Administration were illegal. And so, Manor is supposed to get his funding, but this is tied up in a lot of court battles and a lot of uncertainty. And so really, the funding is up in the air and he's not the only scientist who's dealing with this.
Thousands of researchers have had their grants cut by the Trump Administration for various reasons, amounting to $3.8 billion in lost funding and even more by some estimates.
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And so, there are real concerns about these kinds of grant terminations and what the effect is going to be on scientific progress. Guys?
SANCHEZ: Meg Tirrell, thanks so much for bringing us his story.
Still ahead, we have much more on Jeffrey Epstein's convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, offering to testify before Congress, the major conditions that come with her testimony. New details next on "CNN New Central."
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