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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 16, 2025, 7:47 PM ESTBy Hallie Jackson and Marlene LenthangSeveral women who survived abuse by Jeffrey Epstein have come together for a public service announcement video demanding that Congress release all files on the accused sex trafficker.“It’s a call to action,” one of the women, Danielle Bensky, told NBC News on Sunday. “While we are Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell survivors, we are standing for so many victims of sexual assault and of domestic violence, as well.”The PSA, produced by World Without Exploitation, directs the public to a link to send automated letters of support to their congressional leaders. It comes ahead of Tuesday’s highly anticipated House vote on releasing those files.“Many people scroll and they see our stories, and they want to find a way to advocate, and they’re not really sure how,” Bensky said. “We really want to tell people that you can get out there and you can do this for yourself and be a part of what’s starting to really feel like a movement, in a way.”The video features several women holding photos of their younger selves at the ages they met Epstein, the prominent late financier who lived in wealthy and politically connected circles.“There’s about a thousand of us,” a woman says in the video. “It’s time to bring the secrets out of the shadows.” Danielle Bensky, one of women who has said she survived abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, speaks to Hallie Jackson about a new PSA demanding the release of the Epstein files Sunday in Washington.NBC NewsEpstein survivor Annie Farmer, whose sister Maria Farmer was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Epstein, in 1996, stressed the release of the files is not a political issue but one that has been buried too long. “Please remember that these are crimes that were committed against real humans, real individuals. This is not a political issue. This, this has been going on for decades,” Annie Farmer said. “My sister Maria Farmer reported this under the Clinton’s administration, right? There have been mistakes that were made in this case under the Bush administration. So many things have happened over the decades that were law enforcement failures in this case.”This is not partisan. We’re asking for you to stand with us now to release all of the files,” she continued. Bensky has said she was 17 and a budding ballerina in 2004 when Epstein sexually abused her at his Manhattan mansion.”When you look at how long this has spanned, we have to do something about it. And it really is not political. It’s never been political for us,” she said. Annie Farmer speaks to Hallie Jackson about the new PSA on Sunday.Both women were among a group of survivors who wrote a letter thanking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for backing the effort to release the Epstein files in a dramatic split from her party line.The women said that the tone of emails in a trove of Epstein-related documents lawmakers on the House Oversight and Reform Committee released last week didn’t shock them and that they hope it signals a new era of transparency.“I think it’s the type of misogyny and classism and the tone of some of these emails that people were really disturbed by was, was something that we were all very aware of, was a part of this group and these types of conversations,” Farmer said. “I think that it was actually nice to see other people looking into that world and being disgusted by it.” Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, his accomplice, was convicted in 2022 on federal sex trafficking charges and is reportedly seeking to have her prison sentence commuted.While survivors have repeatedly stressed the Epstein case shouldn’t be politicized, it has been a political lightning rod on Capitol Hill.President Donald Trump, who was mentioned in some of the released Epstein emails, directed the Justice Department on Friday to investigate Epstein’s involvement with financial institutions and political figures while taking aim at Democrats. Trump has denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes. Hallie JacksonHallie Jackson is senior Washington correspondent for NBC News.Marlene LenthangMarlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Janine Eduljee, Hayley Walker and Jennifer O’Neil contributed.
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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 2, 2025, 6:01 PM EDTBy Scott WongWASHINGTON — On the second day of the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called it “stupid” and said a negotiation with his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer, is not “going to accomplish a lot.”In an interview with NBC’s Tom Llamas that will air Thursday night, Thune said Democrats will have another opportunity on Friday afternoon to join Republicans in voting for a clean, short-term bill to reopen the government.“I would suspect that we’ll probably cross paths on the floor; we’re both on the floor quite often. Our offices are not far apart. So if he wants to chat, he knows where to find me,” Thune said of Schumer, the New York Democrat who serves as minority leader. “But I think at this point, right now, the issue said, is pretty straightforward. I don’t know that, you know, negotiation is going to accomplish a lot.”For more on this story, tune into “Top Story with Tom Llamas” at 7 p.m. ET on NBC News Now.“This is a seven-week funding resolution just to keep the government funded so we can continue doing the appropriations work that we started earlier this year,” he added.Negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaders have been at a standstill ever since they left a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday without a deal. Trump followed up that meeting by posting an insulting AI video of Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and personal jabs have flown back and forth since.The government shut down on Wednesday for the first time in six years, with no signs of reopening.Schumer and the Democrats are demanding that any funding bill include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. But Thune has insisted he won’t negotiate on those tax credits until Democrats help Republicans reopen the government. “I’m all about getting it back open again. I think shutdowns are— nobody wins, and I think honestly, for the most part, they’re stupid,” Thune said in the interview. “We really shouldn’t be shutting the government down, and it shouldn’t be taken hostage to do other policy things that are totally unrelated to funding the government.”In a statement Thursday, Schumer suggested the American people were turning against Republicans, who currently control all levers of power in Washington. “Americans see it clearly: They know Trump governs by chaos and welcomes this shutdown — and that Republicans are following his orders to maximize pain. That cruelty is already backfiring,” Schumer said. “Americans blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, and the longer they drag it out, the deeper the pain and that blame will grow.”Pressed by Llamas, Thune defended Trump and his top aides who have said they are planning to move forward this week with permanent federal layoffs due to the shutdown, as well as revoking billions in federal funding for projects in blue states like New York, the home state of both Schumer and Jeffries. Thune said none of these things would happen if the Democrats helped reopen the government.”Tom, let’s come back to the basic premise: This is avoidable,” Thune said, adding that the Democrats “are playing with fire by doing this.”He added that Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, and other administration officials would make spending decisions during this shutdown based on where “their political priorities lie.””It’s very simple, you avoid this by just voting to keep the government open,” he said.The Senate did not hold votes on Thursday in honor of the Yom Kippur holiday, but has scheduled votes at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday on dueling Republican and Democratic plans to reopen the government. Yet those same funding bills have already failed three times before.If the proposals are defeated for a fourth time, Thune said earlier Thursday, the Senate will likely not hold any votes over the weekend. That means a shutdown would last at least until Monday, when the House is also planning to be back in town following a two-week recess.“They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to keep, to open up the government,” Thune told reporters in the Capitol. “And if that fails, then we have the weekend to think about it. We’ll come back. We’ll vote again on Monday.”Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Frank Thorp V, Brennan Leach and Lizzie Jensen contributed.
October 16, 2025
Oct. 16, 2025, 5:46 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 16, 2025, 6:01 PM EDTBy Aria BendixPresident Donald Trump on Thursday announced two policy changes aimed at making in vitro fertilization more affordable — a long-awaited follow-up to his pledges to require health insurers to cover IVF services and to an executive order aimed at lowering the cost of fertility treatments.However, the announcement was not a new rule that insurers must cover IVF. Rather, the Trump administration said that the White House has negotiated with two specialty pharmacies and a drug manufacturer to lower the cost of a commonly prescribed fertility drug that stimulates the ovaries to produce eggs.Additionally, the administration announced forthcoming guidance from the Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services departments that will help employers offer fertility benefits outside of major medical health insurance plans, the same way they offer dental, vision or life insurance. “We want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children and start the families they have always dreamed about,” Trump said at a briefing in the Oval Office. The bulk of Thursday’s announcement focused on discounted fertility medications from drugmaker EMD Serono, which is part of the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company said it would make its IVF drugs available at a lower cost through TrumpRx, a direct-to-consumer website operated by the federal government, starting in early 2026. “We are proud to announce that Americans will have access to our leading IVF therapies for an 84% discount off list prices,” Libby Horne, head of U.S. fertility at EMD Serono, said.Most IVF patients in the U.S. pay out of pocket for treatment, according to KFF, a nonprofit research group. Among the discounted drugs is a commonly used medication called Gonal-f, which some IVF patients take in the form of daily injections for roughly one or two weeks.Lab staff prepare small petri dishes, each holding several embryos, for cells to be extracted from each embryo to test for viability in Houston in 2024.Michael Wyke / AP fileSenior administration officials said the specialty pharmacies involved in the deal, CVS Specialty and Express Scripts’ Freedom Fertility — which they estimated account for more than 80% of the distribution of Gonal-f — agreed to reduce their expenses associated with the drug’s handling.“Upwards of 40% of the cost of IVF comes from the specialty drugs used for this treatment. Reducing these costs can have a significant impact on affordability and access,” Dr. Roger Shedlin, CEO of the fertility benefits company WIN, said in a statement.Trump’s announcement came after months of relative silence from the White House on which policies it was considering to expand IVF access. The executive order he issued in February had called for recommendations for “protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.” Trump received a list of those recommendations in May.The new deal is part of Trump’s broader effort to bring the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. more in line with the lowest prices charged in other wealthy countries — what’s known as the “most favored nation” pricing model.The White House has not yet negotiated lower prices on IVF drugs from other manufacturers.Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which represents IVF providers, called the announcement a “crucial first step,” but said it still doesn’t go far enough to boost affordability.“One executive action cannot, on its own, ensure that every patient who needs IVF — which for some represents the only option to have a child — can access it,” he said.For now, senior administration officials said, medications made by EMD Serono will be discounted on TrumpRx at varying levels depending on a buyer’s income. Patients earning below 550% of the federal poverty level will be eligible for the more significant discount, the officials said.Trump campaigned last year on expanding IVF access, referring to himself at the time as the “father of IVF.” However, some conservatives and anti-abortion groups see IVF as unethical because the process often involves discarding embryos that have genetic issues or aren’t needed. The Washington Post reported in August that the administration had veered away from the idea of an IVF coverage requirement for health insurers.EMD Serono is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration for another fertility drug, Pergoveris, which is approved in Europe but not the U.S. Administration officials said on Thursday the FDA intends to give that application priority review status, which would expedite the process.Aria BendixAria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.
October 25, 2025
Oct. 25, 2025, 4:14 PM EDTBy Daniel ArkinThe members of New York City’s notorious “Five Families” are known by many names: wise guys, goodfellas, friends of ours. At least a dozen men with alleged ties to the Mafia can now add a new moniker to the mix: defendants in a federal investigation dubbed “Operation Royal Flush.”The sprawling illegal gambling case announced by federal officials this week names 34 defendants in total — among them a dozen men the government says are members or associates of New York’s notorious Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Lucchese crime families. They are accused of orchestrating a high-tech poker rigging scheme that duped unsuspecting gamblers and raked in millions of dollars over six years.“This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families,” said Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.Here’s what we know about the alleged Mafia leaders, members and associates at the center of the explosive case.Ernest AielloThe U.S. government’s 22-page indictment identifies Aiello as a member of the Bonanno crime family. Prosecutors allege that organizers of a rigged game on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan were required to make payments to Aiello and his Bonanno associates.Aiello, 46, has three prior felony convictions, according to a government detention memorandum unsealed Thursday. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to promoting gambling in the first degree and was sentenced to two to four years behind bars, according to the memo. He also has prior convictions for attempted criminal possession of a loaded firearm in the third degree and attempted assault in the second degree.An attorney listed for Aiello did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Louis Apicella, aka ‘Lou Ap’The indictment identifies Apicella as an associate of the Gambino family and a member of a “Cheating Team” that organized and participated in poker games, according to prosecutors.Apicella, 50, has no criminal history, according to the detention memo, but “the government’s investigation revealed that Apicella has access to firearms and has expressed a willingness to use violence for his own gain.”The memo cites one text message exchange in which Apicella allegedly discussed “cracking … heads open.”Apicella’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment. Ammar Awawdeh, aka ‘Flapper Poker’ and ‘Flappy’The indictment identifies Awawdeh, 34, as an associate of the Gambino crime family. Prosecutors say he organized and participated in a rigged game at Washington Place in Manhattan and other locations, including the Hamptons, and was required to make payments to the mobsters backing the scheme.Awawdeh is also accused of committing gunpoint robbery in September 2023 to steal a “specific model” of rigged shuffling machine that he and other defendants wanted to use at their games.He has one prior felony conviction for laundering the proceeds of controlled substances and was sentenced to probation in 2020, according to the detention memo.Awawdeh’s attorneys, Mark Lesko and Matin Emouna, declined to comment. Matthew Daddino, aka ‘Matty’ and ‘The Wrestler’The indictment identifies Daddino, 43, as a member of the Genovese family. Prosecutors say he helped manage the Washington Place poker game in Manhattan and received “proceeds” from the rigged games.Gerard M. Marrone, an attorney for Daddino, said his client “had no criminal history whatsoever” and maintains his innocence. Comparing the case to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, he said Daddino and other Italian American defendants are “easy targets for the government” while the “real criminals are being protected.”Lee FamaThe indictment identifies Fama, 57, as a member of the Gambino family. He received a portion of the money from the games, according to prosecutors.Fama has three prior felony convictions, according to the detention memo. He pleaded guilty to distribution of marijuana in 2012 and was sentenced to six months behind bars. He was previously convicted of assault in aid of racketeering and sentenced t0 58 months in prison. He was also convicted of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree.Fama’s lawyer, Marissa Sherman, declined to comment.John GalloThe indictment identifies Gallo, 53, as an associate of the Gambino family. He was an organizer of the Washington Place game and a member of a “Cheating Team” that rigged the matches, according to prosecutors. He also received proceeds from the game, the indictment says.Gallo has one prior felony conviction, according to the detention memo. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to attempted enterprise corruption, attempted criminal usury and promoting gambling in the first degree. He was sentenced to one year in prison.An attorney listed for Gallo did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.Thomas Gelardo, aka ‘Juice’The indictment identified Gelardo, 42, as an associate of the Bonanno family who later became affiliated with the Genovese family. Prosecutors say he received proceeds from the illegal games.Gelardo is also accused of extorting an unnamed person to “secure the repayment of debtfrom illegal poker games” between November 2022 and September 2023.He has multiple prior felony convictions for violent crimes, including assaults and weapons possession, according to the detention memo. Gelardo was convicted of assault in the second degree in 2002 and sentenced to a year in prison. Three years later, he was convicted of assault in the second degree and given a suspended five-year sentence.Then, in 2008, he was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and sentenced to two to four years behind bars.An attorney listed for Gelardo did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.Joseph LanniThe indictment identifies Lanni, 54, as a member and an alleged captain of the Gambino family. He also received proceeds from the illegal games, according to prosecutors.He has multiple prior felony convictions, according to the sentencing memo. He was convicted of securities fraud in 1999 and sentenced to 30 months behind bars. He was convicted of promoting gambling in the first degree in 2014 and sentenced to one year in prison.Lanni pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy related to his leadership role in the Gambino family.Frederick Sosinsky, an attorney for Lanni, said in a statement that his client has “been compliant with all of the conditions of release” from the racketeering conspiracy case to which he pleaded guilty last week. Sosinsky said the court agreed to release Lanni on similar bail conditions so he can defend himself in the new case. “Unlike most of the other individuals who are accused in this week’s indictment of fraud, extortion, robbery or money laundering, Mr. Lanni has been charged solely with somehow being involved in the operation of a gambling business — what the government itself terms a ‘straight’ poker game where none of the elaborate means of high-tech cheating is even alleged to have taken place,” Sosinsky said. “Mr. Lanni denies participation in that ‘straight’ or unfixed poker business and looks forward to his next court date.”Nicholas MinucciThe indictment identifies Minucci, 39, as an associate of the Gambino family and a member of the “Cheating Team,” according to prosecutors. Prosecutors allege he took part in a September 2023 gunpoint robbery revolving around the rigged shuffling machine.Minucci has a “criminal history,” according to the detention memo. He was convicted on various counts of robbery as a hate crime related to an incident in which he beat a Black man in the head with a baseball bat and, using the N-word, told the victim not to enter his “predominantly Italian-American” neighborhood, the memo says.He was sentenced to 25 years behind bars and released to parole supervision in 2018.An attorney listed for Minucci did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.Anthony Ruggiero Jr.The indictment identifies Ruggiero, 53, as a member of the Gambino family who received “proceeds” from the underground games. Prosecutors describe him as having a “long history of committing serious crimes — including witness tampering.”In 2008, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and was sentenced to 84 months in prison.While serving that sentence, he was convicted of witness tampering for intimidating a potential trial witness, reportedly forming his hand into “the shape of a gun” and saying, “You know how we take care of rats, we get up-close and personal.”He received an additional 36-month sentence.Ruggiero’s attorney, James R. Froccaro, declined to comment.Seth TrustmanThe indictment identifies Trustman, 43, as an associate of the Lucchese family — the only alleged member of that clan named in the case. Trustman organized illegal games on Lexington Avenue and other locations, making payments to Aiello and Gelardo, the indictment says. He is also accused of extorting an unnamed person to collect gambling debts in 2023.Trustman has two prior felony convictions, according to the detention memo. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy and two counts of illegal gambling. Nine years later, he was convicted of criminal usury and enterprise corruption, then sentenced to three years in prison.Contact information for attorneys representing Trustman was not immediately available, and NBC News could not reach them for comment. Julius Ziliani, aka ‘Jay’The indictment identifies Ziliani, 54, as a member of the Bonanno family who received a share of the games’ proceeds. Prosecutors allege he and co-defendant Gelardo extorted an individual to collect gambling debts between November 2022 and February 2023.Ziliani’s attorney, Marco A. Laracca, said his client “denies all allegations against him and looks forward to his day in court.”Daniel ArkinDaniel Arkin is a national reporter at NBC News.Sophie Comeau contributed.
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