President Donald Trump directed his ire at yet another journalist this week, lashing out at The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg in the Oval Office and subsequently removing him from the White House press pool.

A verbal clash first broke out at the Oval Office on Tuesday, when Feinberg asked Trump questions during a press gaggle.

“Wait, wait. Quiet,” Trump barked. “What’s wrong with you? Are you a sick person? I actually think there’s something wrong with you.”

At one point, Trump also warned Feinberg, “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you better be careful.”

The exchange was caught on video by other news outlets, and the White House later posted the footage on X, using a slur to refer to the reporter. Vice President JD Vance also shared the exchange on X and called Feinberg an “imbecile.”

The White House penalized Feinberg on Wednesday, barring him from the press pool scheduled to travel to Iowa for Trump’s Thursday campaign rally. White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich called the removal of Feinberg from his pool duties “retaliation.”

“The American public’s right to an independent press depends on reporters being able to do their jobs without fear that challenging the president will cut off their access,” Heinrich, a Fox News correspondent, said in a statement.

The White House’s attempts to ice out Feinberg and The Independent typify Trump’s approach to traditional news outlets, which has grown increasingly combative.

Although he has directed most of his wrath at female reporters, Trump has frequently snapped at journalists pressing him on difficult questions. He has also sought to use the power of his office to punish media outlets; last month, he banned reporters with MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House, though a federal judge has temporarily blocked that ban.

The Independent was not the only news outlet that the White House has targeted this week. CNN was also barred from fulfilling its out of town pool duties on Wednesday, when Trump traveled to South Carolina to stump for Republican Sen. Darline Graham.

On Monday, the White House threatened Politico over its reporting about Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, warning the outlet to retract or correct several articles or “face the consequences.” Politico corrected a detail in one of its stories but said it would continue its work despite the White House’s “ongoing attempts to intimidate Politico and chill and punish that reporting.”

Trump may even be considering removing the press corps from the White House altogether. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Trump has said he would like to revert the White House press briefing room back to the indoor pool it was first built as before the Nixon administration covered it to make space for reporters. Last month, he posted images on Truth Social that suggested as much.

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New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s personal lawyer, Darren Indyke, and accountant, Richard Kahn, accusing them of helping to facilitate and conceal Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Filed in U.S. District Court in New Mexico on Wednesday, the complaint seeks to prevent the men — who are eligible to receive bequests of tens of millions of dollars as co-executors of the late financier’s estate — from obtaining that money.

“It is unconscionable in my mind that people who actively participated in the efforts of that trafficking enterprise that they should in any way benefit from what is left of his estate,” Torrez said at a news conference on Wednesday. “Those resources rightfully belong in the hands of survivors.”

Indyke and Kahn’s attorney, Daniel Weiner, told MS NOW in a statement that they “emphatically reject the New Mexico Attorney General’s allegations that they were complicit in or in any way knowingly facilitated Mr. Epstein’s sexual abuse or trafficking.”

Weiner questioned the motivation behind the lawsuit, saying that the attorney general’s office did not ask to speak with either man before filing the complaint.

“Had the New Mexico Attorney General wanted to learn the actual facts of their professional services for Epstein, the Attorney General or his staff could have reached out to schedule interviews,” he said.

Neither the New Mexico Attorney General nor anyone from his office asked to speak with Mr. Indyke or Mr. Kahn to seek relevant information from them before filing this baseless lawsuit, raising serious questions about the thoroughness of the Attorney General’s investigation and the motivations for his lawsuit.

The men’s longtime relationships with Epstein have been scrutinized intensely following the U.S. Department of Justice’s release of the Epstein files. Despite having worked for decades on the convicted sex offender’s financial and legal dealings, both men have repeatedly said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times separately reported that federal prosecutors were investigating Indyke and Kahn, though the focus of the probe was unclear. MS NOW has not verified that reporting. Their lawyer said at the time that the men had not been informed that they were under any such investigation.

Both men testified separately before the House Oversight Committee in its ongoing Epstein investigation earlier this year. They told lawmakers then that they had never been questioned by any government entity about Epstein’s crimes.

Torrez announced the lawsuit alongside two women who survived abuse by Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving time in federal prison for her crimes. One of them, Anouska De Georgiou, said it was a means to hold accountable those who enabled Epstein and Maxwell.

“My abuse did not happen in isolation. It could not have continued for as long as it did without people facilitating it, looking the other way or choosing to do nothing to stop it,” she told reporters. “Accountability cannot end with Epstein and Maxwell. It must extend to those who knowingly made their abuse possible, especially those who stand to profit from it.”

Torrez also has a criminal probe underway into Epstein’s sprawling property in Santa Fe County known as the “Zorro Ranch,” where Epstein is believed to have abused women and engaged in other criminal activity.

In August, Torrez sued the Justice Department, accusing it of stonewalling New Mexico officials in their criminal investigation of the ranch.

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In a new, unaired attack ad against Amy Acton, the Democrat running for governor of Ohio, her estranged mother speaks directly to the camera to accuse her of lying about her past. It was not clear who is responsible for the ad, which has drawn widespread condemnation, including from Acton’s brother.

“Don’t vote for people who lie,” says Donna Arthur — who married a man whom Acton accused of sexually abusing her as a child — in the video. “Don’t let her become your governor.”

The video began circulating online after a version without a “paid for” disclosure was posted Monday by Ohio political blog The Rooster.

On Tuesday, Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, condemned the video in a statement released by her campaign, accusing Acton’s Republican rival, Vivek Ramaswamy, of a “desperate, disgusting attack.”

“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” Stearns said.

“After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died,” he added. “This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”

When asked if the Ramaswamy campaign had a hand in creating the video, spokesperson Connie Luck did not explicitly deny the campaign’s involvement.

“We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke out about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor,” Luck said, in part, in a statement to MS NOW.

Acton’s campaign spokesperson, Addie Bullock, also attributed the ad to her Republican rival.

“The choice to use, and then stand by, Dr. Acton’s estranged and abusive mother who stayed married to her rapist stepfather until the day he died shows Ohioans exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is,” Bullock said.

The video does not have any reservations, according to AdImpact, which means no money has been put into airing it.

Acton has talked openly about her and her brother’s difficult upbringing. The siblings were homeless for a time growing up, and Acton said they lived in a tent during one winter. She also accused her stepfather of sexual abuse and testified about it to a grand jury, according to Politico.

In 2019, Acton told The Vindicator, a now-shuttered local news outlet, that the last time she saw her mother was after her stepfather’s arrest on criminal charges.

“In the courthouse after they were charged, I went to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away. That was the last time I ever saw her,” Acton said.

Arthur disputed Acton’s allegations against her husband in a 2020 interview with a conservative website, saying she went to court that day to support her husband. She also disputed her daughter’s account of their last interaction.

The National Review, citing court records, reported Tuesday that:

While Donna Arthur was married to Cledith Arthur in 1978 when Acton was 12 years old, Cledith Arthur was charged with having sexual contact with her, documents show. Evidence against him included a sworn statement from Acton’s biological father, and Acton herself was called to testify as a witness. Following his indictment by a grand jury, Cledith Arthur skipped town.

The Review did not report whether the case went to trial or its outcome.

Acton and Ramaswamy are locked in a tight race for governor that has resulted in extremely personal attack ads on both sides. Polls have shown Acton with a narrow lead.

Stearns, too, has talked about his and his sister’s childhood and has credited Acton with saving his life.

“We had all sorts of forms of abuse, neglect, hunger,” he said in a video for her campaign released last week. “I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that.”

Hannah Marr contributed reporting.

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