Congress
Jeffries calls on Biden to pardon more Americans
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on President Joe Biden to pardon more people convicted of nonviolent offenses amid controversy over the president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.
“During his final weeks in office, President Biden should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses,” Jeffries said in a statement.
Jeffries’ comments echo the calls from some other Democrats who in recent days have asked Biden to use his clemency powers for more Americans in federal custody besides Hunter and to address sentencing disparities. But it did not pass judgment on the pardon of Hunter Biden itself. Some in the caucus have openly criticized the president since the pardon was issued and said it could tarnish his legacy and open a lane for Donald Trump to issue similar sweeping pardons.
Congress
House GOP leaders plan housing bill vote despite Trump ultimatum
House Republican leaders are forging ahead on a bipartisan housing affordability bill Wednesday — without the partisan elections bill President Donald Trump demanded to be attached over the weekend.
Four people granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations said there are no plans to add in the SAVE America Act as Trump demanded on Truth Social — a version of which the House passed in February.
“We’ve already passed it,” one senior House GOP aide said, calling passage of the elections bill a Senate issue.
The episode underscores how President Donald Trump is wielding immense sway over his party by torpedoing the reelection bids of some Republicans who have defied him in recent years — most recently, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, whose bid for renomination failed Saturday.
But on Capitol Hill, Trump has repeatedly failed to force GOP leaders to heed some of his biggest policy demands — particularly in forcing them to add the SAVE America Act, which would tougher proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting, to must-pass bipartisan bills.
Trump has demanded action on the bill since at least March, when he told House Republicans at their policy retreat that “I don’t think we should approve anything until this is approved.”
He said in his Saturday post that “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT MUST BE PASSED, NOW” using “the Housing and FISA Bills to get it done!” The latter reference is to a must-pass reauthorization of federal surveillance powers that expire next month.
Adding the legislation to any must-pass bill would represent a “poison pill” for Democrats, who are blocking the elections bill from proceeding in the Senate. Trump has also asked GOP leaders there to overturn the 60-vote filibuster rule to pass it, but a critical mass of Republicans opposes that move.
“It cannot pass here. It will not pass here,” a Senate GOP aide said.
The housing bill is expected to move through the House under special fast-track procedures that will require a significant number of Democratic votes to pass.
Congress
House Oversight interviews Epstein prison guard
Tova Noel, the prison guard on duty the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s death, is the latest witness to give testimony as part of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
The circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death have dramatically fueled conspiracy theories around the case, despite the fact that the Justice Department determined that Epstein died by suicide behind bars.
Noel, who appeared for a closed-door interview Monday with the committee, has said she believes she was the last person to see Epstein alive.
“Jeffrey Epstein got special treatment in that facility,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said Monday. “He got access to medications in a way no one else did. He got access to extra bed linens, which helped him commit suicide. He got access to a CPAP machine, which had a long cord. And so Jeffrey Epstein — just like Ghislaine Maxwell, right now — was given special treatment in incarceration.“
Maxwell, the only co-conspirator in Epstein’s schemes to be convicted, was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she sat for questioning with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — a move that was highly criticized.
Few lawmakers on the Oversight panel attended the transcribed interview with Noel, as there are no votes scheduled in the House until Wednesday. Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) was unable to participate due to family obligations back home, according to a committee spokesperson.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), who attended part of the interview Monday, blamed the poor attendance on the “chaotic majority” and “the constant changing of the schedule.”
She added that she believed Noel had been forthcoming with the panel.
Noel and a co-worker were previously charged with falsifying records at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in what the DOJ called an effort to hide the fact that they were not performing their jobs. The charges were ultimately dropped after the two abided by the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement.
A spokesperson for Noel did not return a request for comment.
Congress
New reconciliation text
Senate Democrats have received redrafted text from Republicans of their party-line immigration enforcement bill, according to a person granted anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes developments. The revised text given to Democrats does not include a controversial Secret Service provision that could fund parts of a new White House ballroom because Republicans are still updating that language.
The revision comes after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that some provisions of the GOP bill would not quality for the party-line budget reconciliation process, forcing Republicans back to the drawing board in their bid to avoid a Democratic filibuster.
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