
33 years ago, I was in the same room with Iran's new president when he voted to execute political prisoners
CNN
Mahmoud Royaei, who was a political prisoner in Iran, writes about the abuse he faced and the moment he met Ebrahim Raisi, then deputy prosecutor of Tehran and a key member of what was known as the "Death Commission."
It was exactly 33 years ago, on August 3, 1988, when I found myself in the same room with Ebrahim Raisi. At the time, he was a deputy prosecutor of Tehran and a key member of what was known as the "Death Commission" in Gohardasht Prison located in Karaj -- northeast Iran. I was a political prisoner in the middle of serving my 10-year sentence when I first met Raisi, like thousands of other friends and fellow sympathizers of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a political opposition group. I was there to hear Raisi decide my fate.
One year ago this week, Joe Biden was president. I was in Doha, Qatar, negotiating with Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The incoming Trump team worked closely with us, a rare display of nonpartisanship to free hostages and end a war. It feels like a decade ago. A lot can happen in a year, as 2025 has shown.

Botched Epstein redactions trace back to Virgin Islands’ 2020 civil racketeering case against estate
A botched redaction in the Epstein files revealed that government attorneys once accused his lawyers of paying over $400,000 to “young female models and actresses” to cover up his criminal activities

The Justice Department’s leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida Tuesday to volunteer over the “next several days” to help to redact the Epstein files, in the latest internal Trump administrationpush toward releasing the hundreds of thousands of photos, internal memos and other evidence around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The US State Department on Tuesday imposed visa sanctions on a former top European Union official and employees of organizations that combat disinformation for alleged censorship – sharply ratcheting up the Trump administration’s fight against European regulations that have impacted digital platforms, far-right politicians and Trump allies, including Elon Musk.









