Biden to sign new executive orders on his racial equity agenda– live updates

Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite charged with recruiting teenage girls for the US financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse in the 1990s, has asked a judge to dismiss the case on multiple grounds, including that a deal years ago not to prosecute Epstein and others should shield her from prosecution.

Lawyers for Maxwell said the indictment against her was obtained unjustly and did not allege crimes specific enough to bring before a jury.

But they listed first among 12 arguments attacking the indictment that a non-prosecution deal Epstein reached with the federal government a dozen years ago should shield Maxwell from prosecution too.

The agreement sought to protect Epstein and those around him, but Maxwell was not identified by name in the document that was signed as Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state charges in Florida that forced him to register as a sex offender.

Maxwell, 59, was arrested in July and has remained jailed on grounds she might flee. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited three teenage girls, including a 14-year-old, for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994-97. The indictment alleged she sometimes joined in the abuse.

Read more here: Ghislaine Maxwell asks to throw out case over Epstein plea deal

Joe Biden has frequently cited racial equity as one of the crises that his incoming administration promises to tackle. Today the new president will attempt to take further concrete steps to addressing it, with a speech at 2pm EST (7pm GMT) and some executive orders. Stephen Collinson at CNN runs down what is expected:

Biden on Tuesday will sign executive actions establishing a commission on policing, partly in response to the death of Minnesota man George Floyd with a policeman’s knee on his neck last year.

He is also expected to order improvements in prison conditions and to mandate the Department of Housing and Urban Development to promote equitable housing policies.

Last week, in the first hours of his presidency, Biden signed an executive order requiring all government departments to put racial and other forms of equality at the center of everything that they do during his term.

One, established that “advancing equity for all — including people of color and others who have been historically underserved and marginalized — is the responsibility of the whole of our government.”

Like much of Biden’s presidency, his capacity for action, and to secure the massive funding that serious reform requires, will be constrained by narrow majorities in Congress and Washington’s fractured political scene in the post-Trump era. But he does have the moral authority of having won office against a President who tore at the nation’s racial chasm with a hard line “law and order” campaign based on false claims that the Democratic nominee wanted to dismantle policing as it is currently known.

Read more here: CNN – Biden aims to tackle another American crisis: Race