Congress
DOJ to start turning over Epstein files to Capitol Hill
Congressional lawmakers will get their hands on a first tranche of Epstein files in the coming days.
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer in a statement Monday said the Justice Department would start to turn over Jeffrey Epstein-related materials this Friday — less than two weeks after the Kentucky Republican transmitted a subpoena to the agency to demand access to documents connected to the deceased financier and sex offender.
Comer cautioned, however, that it could take a while for all the DOJ materials to come through.
“Officials with the Department of Justice have informed us that the Department will begin to provide Epstein-related records to the Oversight Committee this week on Friday,” he said. “There are many records in DOJ’s custody, and it will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted.”
Speaking with reporters earlier in the day on Capitol Hill, Comer said his committee was “in constructive, productive conversations with the DOJ” about the release of further files in the Epstein case, ahead of the Aug. 19 deadline the committee included in its subpoena.
Still, the possibility that any materials are now forthcoming comes at a critical juncture for Democrats in their efforts to play up the controversy over the secretive nature of the Epstein files to undermine Republicans, particularly as the weeks count down to the end of the August recess.
Comer was compelled to issue the subpoena for the files last month when, during an otherwise routine Oversight subcommittee hearing, Democrats were able to get enough Republicans to take their side in a vote to force the action. It was a major victory for Democrats, who have been seeking to stoke divisions among the president’s base over the matter, including by highlighting the administration’s lack of transparency.
Trump’s allies and supporters have long peddled conspiracy theories about what happened to Epstein, who died by suicide behind bars and has a long history of ties to powerful people — including Trump. Yet now the president and his inner circle have largely been trying to keep documents related to the charges against Epstein under wraps.
The issue has also roiled Republicans in Congress. GOP leadership has moved to quash efforts to force the release of materials in the Epstein matter and sent lawmakers back to their districts early amid mounting pressure to allow a vote on releasing the materials.
Members of both parties have made clear they plan to pick up where they left off in this fight when the House returns early next month, starting with a forcing a vote on the House floor on a resolution from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) calling for the files’ unsealing.
For his part, Comer is now proceeding with a probe of his own through the Oversight Committee. Last month, when Oversight subcommittee Democrats seemingly surprised colleagues by having enough votes to subpoena Epstein case materials, it opened up something of an impromptu, subpoena vote free-for-all, culminating in demands that more than half a dozen public officials testify.
One of those officials brought in to be interviewed behind closed doors was Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, who came to Capitol Hill to speak with members and staff on Monday.
“What Attorney General Barr testified in there was that he never had conversations with President Trump pertaining to a client list, he didn’t know anything about a client list,” Comer told reporters. “He said that he had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump in any of this.”
Asked whether the committee was interested in interviewing additional witnesses like Alex Acosta — Trump’s former Labor secretary who oversaw Epstein’s plea agreement as a U.S. attorney in Florida — Comer said the committee would bring in any additional individuals who could add information to the investigation.
Congress
Mike Johnson tries again to extend contested spy law
House GOP leaders on Thursday unveiled the text of a new three-year extension of a key spy law, as Speaker Mike Johnson tried to overcome ultra-conservative resistance and pass it next week.
The proposed reauthorization of the so-called Section 702 law includes some new oversight and penalties for abuses of the spy authority but stops short of warrant requirements sought by GOP hard-liners.
Conservatives have pushed back on extending Section 702, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners, because of concerns about U.S. citizens being caught up in the program.
The faction that’s been opposing an extension has not yet signed off on the latest plan. GOP leaders plan to continue talks into the weekend.
Congress
House GOP leaders scramble to sell Senate’s slimmed-down budget with promises of ‘Reconciliation 3.0’
House Republican leaders want a floor vote next week on the Senate’s budget resolution, the first step in writing an immigration enforcement bill and passing it by President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline.
“It has to be clean because it has to be quick,” Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday, indicating that conservatives could not make major changes to the other chamber’s blueprint at this time.
But Johnson and others still have to lock in support from conservatives who are threatening to vote against it if it doesn’t encompass more top GOP policy priorities, and it is proving to be a delicate balancing act.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) met Thursday morning with Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (Texas) and leaders of key House GOP factions, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of private meetings — an effort to quell concerns among some conservatives about the narrow scope of the current plan. Arrington and other senior Republicans have been pushing to expand the party-line bill currently under discussion.
Johnson, Scalise and others in GOP leadership are promising that as soon as Republicans pass a bill funding immigration enforcement and some border patrol activities, they will get to work on another measure through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.
“We’re going to move right to reconciliation, what will now be 3.0,” Johnson said, referring both to the current plan and the tax and spending megabill Republicans passed last summer. “We’re going to do it as quickly as possible.”
Some of the ideas that circulated during the closed-door leadership meeting Thursday included opening up the possibility for more tax policy changes, addressing the Trump administration’s request for $350 billion for the Pentagon, additional funding for the Iran war and spending cuts across social programs in another package.
Arrington, who is among those wishing to expand the upcoming reconciliation effort, is seeking steep spending reductions to social programs and hopes to revisit Obamacare spending — including cost-sharing reductions, which would reduce out-of-pocket health costs.
Leadership of the Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, is demanding that any third reconciliation bill be fully paid for. There has been limited angst over “pay-fors” for the current party-line pursuit because the measure is an attempt to fund the immigration enforcement agencies and circumvent regular appropriations negotiations, which have been stuck for months.
But many Republicans are doubtful their party will be able to pass another party-line bill ahead of the midterms and see the immigration funding bill as their last bite at the apple. Some of them, including Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, are threatening to vote against the Senate budget resolution that would unlock the reconciliation process for the immigration funding measure unless it can incorporate more items from the hard-liners’ wishlist.
GOP leaders are now scrambling to stave off defections. Adoption of identical budget resolutions in both chambers will unlock the ability for lawmakers to write and pass a bill through reconciliation that would send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement operations run through the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shuttered since February.
Republicans are on a very tight schedule to send this bill to Trump’s desk and pave the way for ending the record-setting DHS shutdown, given White House demands.
Congress
‘Junior reporters’ pepper Hakeem Jeffries with tough questions
Hakeem Jeffries celebrated Take Your Child to Work Day by taking questions from the children of the Capitol Hill press corps, but it got heavy fast.
The first question: “Why do voters view Democrats so poorly?”
Jeffries responded with a lengthy explanation of broad voter distrust in institutions.
“There’s a great frustration that applies to every organized institution in this country, and Democrats are not immune from that,” he said.
But, Jeffries added, “Consistently in state after state and race after race and contest after contest, irrefutably, the American people are choosing the Democratic Party.”
He fielded other tough questions from the “junior reporters” in the room, including if he would have voted to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick if she hadn’t resigned earlier this week.
“She did the right thing in stepping down,” Jeffries said.
Other questions from kids in the room did tackle lighter subjects.
Jeffries’ favorite candy? Sugar-free Hershey’s chocolate.
What did he want to be when he grew up? A point guard for the Knicks or a hip-hop star.
Does he think the Yankees will win the World Series? “Hope springs eternal.”
And, simply, “What’s next?”
To that Jeffries said: “As Democrats, we’re fighting one battle after another, pushing back against the extremism that we believe is being released on the American people by Donald Trump and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
-
Politics1 year agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics1 year agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Uncategorized1 year ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
Politics1 year agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship8 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words
-
The Josh Fourrier Show1 year agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?


