The Senate immediately passed a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In an unusual move, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate agreed Tuesday evening to pass the bill as soon as it was sent over from the House, which passed it 427-1 earlier in the day. Formerly a fierce opponent to the proposal, President Donald Trump in recent days bowed to political reality, saying he would sign it into law. The effort showed the pressure mounting on lawmakers and the Trump administration to meet long-held demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein.
The prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey has hit another hurdle. The Justice Department acknowledged in court Wednesday a possible lapse in how the case was presented to a grand jury. The revelation that the full grand jury didn't review a copy of the final indictment came during a hearing where Comey’s lawyers asked a judge to throw out the case on grounds the government is being vindictive. Comey has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of making a false statement and obstructing Congress. President Donald Trump's Justice Department says Comey was indicted because he broke the law, not because Trump ordered it.
Melania Trump and Usha Vance are making an early holiday visit with North Carolina military families
Melania Trump and Usha Vance are traveling together for the first time. They went to North Carolina on Wednesday for a visit with military families. The wives of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a former Marine, landed in the town of Richlands and were visiting with military personnel and their families at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, and Marine Corps Air Station New River, which is located in the same area. They wanted to show appreciation for military service and sacrifice as the holidays approach. “My husband, the president, is sending best regards. We are both thinking of you,” Trump said at Camp Lejeune High School.
Federal agents have now arrested more than 250 people during an immigration crackdown in North Carolina centered around Charlotte, the state’s largest city. Those totals released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are about double the arrest figures announced earlier this week. The operation that began over the weekend is the latest phase of Republican President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass deportation efforts. Military and immigration agents have converged on Democratic-run cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. The push to carry out arrests in North Carolina expanded to areas around the state capital of Raleigh in just the last day.
Congress is sending President Donald Trump a bill to compel the Justice Department to make public its case files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It's a potentially far-reaching development in survivors’ yearslong push for a public reckoning over how the well-connected financier sexually abused and trafficked teenage girls for more than a decade. Once the bill is signed by the president, it sets a 30-day countdown for the Justice Department to produce what’s commonly known as the Epstein files. The bill will most likely trigger a rarely seen baring of a sprawling federal investigation. It also creates the potential for unintended consequences.
An Indiana lawmaker who who has yet to make a decision on whether to back President Donald Trump’s push to have Republicans redraw the state’s congressional boundaries was the victim of a swatting call that brought sheriff’s deputies to his home. The Vigo County Sheriff's Office says deputies were sent to the home of state Sen. Greg Goode on Sunday after they received an email “advising harm had been done to persons inside." Officials say the call was a prank. Earlier Sunday, President Donald Trump criticized Indiana lawmakers for not moving to redistrict the districts, specifically naming Goode and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray.
Both the House and Senate have acted decisively to pass a bill forcing the Justice Department to release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It is a remarkable display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership. When a small, bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills reach the floor, it appeared a long-shot effort. That was especially so as Trump urged supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.” Now he has bowed to growing momentum behind the bill and said he will sign it.
President Donald Trump is finding that redistricting his way to a GOP House majority in next year's midterms is a lot harder than it sounds. That's because there's a tangle of laws and conflicting political pressures in redistricting. On Tuesday, a federal court panel struck down the map he had pushed in Texas. With that, Trump's gerrymandering gambit holds the possibility of leaving Republicans in a worse position than when they started. That's because it spurred California voters to let Democrats amend maps there to create five more Democratic-leaning House seats, and Democratic-controlled Virginia is considering a similar move. With two GOP-controlled states balking at Trump-ordered redraws, the redistricting push illustrates the limits of a president's power.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is leaving OpenAI’s board of directors. The ChatGPT maker announced his departure Wednesday. This move comes after emails revealed Summers maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008. The board stated, “Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision.” They also expressed appreciation for his contributions and perspective. Summers is also a former president of Harvard University.
The nation's immigration courts have undergone a fundamental change under the administration of President Donald Trump. He pledged to impose hardline immigration policies, an issue that was popular with his voters. In practice, the administration has resorted to unusually aggressive tactics, many of which have played out in immigration courts in the United States. Judges have churned out rulings in an assembly-line like fashion. For many immigrants, the courtrooms have also become deportation traps.