A group of lawmakers are set to introduce legislation Thursday to examine the use of artificial intelligence in federal courts, according to bill text obtained by Blue Light News.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), along with Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), are preparing to unveil the bipartisan, bicameral Research and Oversight of Artificial Intelligence in Courts Act of 2026. The bill would establish a 15-member task force to study the use of AI-powered speech-to-text and speech recognition tools, with a focus on privacy, civil liberties and accuracy.

The panel would include federal judges, prosecutors, court clerks and other judicial experts and would be required to report its findings to Congress and the attorney general within 18 months.

Clear federal guidelines for AI use in U.S. courts have yet to be established, as broader concerns about the technology grow on Capitol Hill. Last year, Reuters reported that two federal judges withdrew rulings in separate cases after lawyers flagged factual inaccuracies and other serious errors. In one New Jersey case, a draft decision that included AI-generated research was mistakenly posted to the public docket before undergoing review, according to the report. In response to questions from Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the judges attributed the snafus to court staffers using generative AI tools for drafting and research.

“As the Senate’s only former public defender, I know it firsthand: Court reporters and captioners are irreplaceable,” Welch said in a statement. “When it comes to the use of AI in the courtroom, there are still substantial privacy and civil liberty concerns that need to be addressed.” Wicker said, “Ensuring accuracy is critical to fair justice.”

Technology-related privacy and civil rights concerns are currently top of mind for lawmakers in Congress, as Speaker Mike Johnson seeks to put an 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on the House floor next week.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested Thursday the Senate will not go on recess as planned at the end of next week if the Department of Homeland Security isn’t funded by then.

“We need to get this resolved and it needs to get resolved, you know, by the end of next week,” Thune said. “I can’t see us taking a break if the [department’s] still shut down.”

Thune’s comments to reporters come as a bipartisan group of senators, including members of the Appropriations Committee and a clutch of Democrats that helped negotiate the end to the last shutdown, meet privately in the Capitol with Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar.

The meeting — coming as TSA staffing issues create long lines at some airports — is the first sign in weeks of potential momentum in the DHS funding.

Darren Indyke, Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer and a co-executor of his estate, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he had no knowledge of the convicted sex offender’s crimes and rejected aspersions that he knowingly facilitated Epstein’s trafficking, according to a copy of prepared remarks obtained by Blue Light News.

The attorney’s defensive posture in the closed-door deposition on Thursday comes amid mounting pressure on the Justice Department and lawmakers to pursue criminal accountability for others who could have played a role in Epstein’s scheme. In his prepared opening statement, Indyke noted that he was appointed a co-executor of Epstein’s estate in 2019 by the U.S. Virgin Islands probate court, has cooperated with the Justice Department, and helped found the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program.

“Let me be clear: I had no knowledge whatsoever of Jeffrey Epstein’s wrongdoings,” Indyke told congressional investigators, according to the prepared remarks. “My complete lack of involvement in that misconduct is a matter of record: not a single woman has ever accused me of committing sexual abuse or witnessing sexual abuse, nor claimed at any time that she or anyone else reported to me any allegation of Mr. Epstein’s abuse.”

He maintained that his relationship with Epstein was not social in nature and that he was only one of the lawyers with whom Epstein consulted — a list that included Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated the fallout of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

“My primary role was to provide corporate, transactional and general legal services to Mr. Epstein and his companies, and I did so,” Indyke planned to say.

Only one person has been convicted as part of Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme: Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate now serving 20 years in prison for her role in the crimes. She is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Indyke is the latest in the Oversight committee’s string of closed-door depositions with people in Epstein’s orbit. Epstein’s onetime client and former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner and another co-executor of Epstein’s estate Richard Kahn also testified. House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has also subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before lawmakers over her handling of the Epstein files.

Unlike Wexner and Kahn, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right when she was questioned by the Oversight committee in a virtual deposition as part of its investigation into Epstein.

According to his prepared remarks, Indyke also denied any involvement in the facilitation of so-called “sham marriages” for women around Epstein, an allegation that appeared in a complaint filed in court by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands. He described his onetime client as being “extremely contrite” after his 2008 sex crime conviction and added that he believed Epstein when he said did not know the woman was a minor.

“That I did not know what my client did in his private life may be difficult for some to believe, but it is true,” Indyke said.