Trump news at a glance: US House breaks early for summer recess as Republicans feel the heat over Epstein
Democrats had pushed for a vote to release files related to Epstein as Trump fends off questions over his relationship with the financier, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019. Now the House will break up on Wednesday instead of Thursday in what Democrats say is a way to dodge the vote.
Here's the what's happened today:
Republicans downplayed the decision to cut short the workweek, while arguing that the White House has already moved to resolve questions about the case. Last week, Trump asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release grand jury testimony, although that is expected to be only a fraction of the case's documents.
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, dismissed the calls for a vote as 'political games' and also argued that Congress must be careful in calling for the release of documents related to the case, for fear of retraumatizing his victims.
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Congress will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker who was a close associate of Epstein, to testify amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration's decision not to release its remaining Epstein files.
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Trump has claimed the future owner of the US TV network CBS will provide him with $20m worth of advertising and programming – days after the network cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The US president recently reached a $16m settlement with Paramount, the parent of CBS News, over what he claimed was misleading editing of a pre-election interview with the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris.
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The US will quit the United Nations' culture and education agency Unesco, the US state department has said, as Donald Trump continues to pull out of international institutions. The move is a blow to the Paris-based global organization, founded after the second world war to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science and culture.
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Barack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Trump for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor's accusations that he tried to engineer a 'coup' after Trump's 2016 election victory by 'manufacturing' evidence of Russian interference.
His office called the accusations 'nonsense', 'misinformation', 'outrageous' and 'a weak attempt at distraction'.
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Trump has announced a trade deal with Japan, potentially resolving weeks of fraught negotiations between the two allies which had caused political uproar and economic uncertainty in Tokyo. While he gave few details of the deal, he described it as 'massive' in a social media post, adding that 'Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States.'
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Coca-Cola has announced it will launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup. But the company said that the drink would be an additional product rather than a replacement for the drink containing corn syrup.
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General Motors announced that Donald Trump's tariffs knocked $1.1bn off its operating income in its last quarter.
The New York Times defended the Wall Street Journal after the Trump administration decided to bar the outlet from the White House press pool.
Stephen Colbert declared to Donald Trump that 'the gloves are off' in his first broadcast since his Late Show was cancelled amid a political firestorm.
Catching up? Here's what happened on 21 July 2025.
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18 minutes ago
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US House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files and Clinton depositions
The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former president Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials. The committee's actions showed how even with members away from Washington on a monthlong break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high. Mr Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago. He has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department's decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation, but politicians from both major political parties, as well as many in the Republican president's political base, have refused to let it go. Since Epstein's 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on Epstein – and who else could have been involved. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee nodded to that line of questioning last month by initiating the subpoenas for the Clintons, both Democrats, as well as demanding all communications between former president Joe Biden's Democratic administration and the Justice Department regarding Epstein. The committee is also demanding interviews under oath from former attorneys general spanning the last three presidential administrations: Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales. Also subpoenaed were former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller. However, it was Democrats who sparked the move to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein. They were joined by some Republicans to initiate successfully the subpoena through a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee. 'Democrats are focused on transparency and are pushing back against the corruption of Donald Trump,' Robert Garcia, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters last month. 'What is Donald Trump hiding that he won't release the Epstein files?' The committee had previously issued a subpoena for an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend, who had been serving a prison sentence in Florida for luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the wealthy financier but was recently transferred to a Texas facility. However, the committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, has indicated he is willing to delay that deposition until after the Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal to her conviction. She argues she was wrongfully prosecuted. Mr Comer noted in letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the former officials that the cases of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell 'have received immense public interest and scrutiny.' 'While the department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr Epstein and Ms Maxwell's cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr Epstein and Ms Maxwell,' Mr Comer said. The subpoenas give the Justice Department until August 19 to hand over the requested records, though such records requests are typically open to negotiation. The committee is also asking the former officials to appear for the depositions throughout August, September and October, concluding with Hillary Clinton on October 9 and Bill Clinton on October 14. While several former presidents, including Mr Trump, have faced congressional subpoenas, none has ever appeared before members under compulsion. Bill Clinton was among a number of luminaries acquainted with Epstein before the criminal investigation against him in Florida became public two decades ago. Mr Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, once gave a newspaper interview in which she described riding in a helicopter with Mr Clinton and flirting with Mr Trump, but she later said in a deposition that those things had not actually happened and were mistakes by the reporter. Mr Clinton has previously said through a spokesperson that while he travelled on Epstein's jet he never visited his homes and had no knowledge of his crimes.
Rhyl Journal
18 minutes ago
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US House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files and Clinton depositions
The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former president Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials. The committee's actions showed how even with members away from Washington on a monthlong break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high. Mr Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago. He has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department's decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation, but politicians from both major political parties, as well as many in the Republican president's political base, have refused to let it go. Since Epstein's 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on Epstein – and who else could have been involved. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee nodded to that line of questioning last month by initiating the subpoenas for the Clintons, both Democrats, as well as demanding all communications between former president Joe Biden's Democratic administration and the Justice Department regarding Epstein. The committee is also demanding interviews under oath from former attorneys general spanning the last three presidential administrations: Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales. Also subpoenaed were former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller. However, it was Democrats who sparked the move to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein. They were joined by some Republicans to initiate successfully the subpoena through a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee. 'Democrats are focused on transparency and are pushing back against the corruption of Donald Trump,' Robert Garcia, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters last month. 'What is Donald Trump hiding that he won't release the Epstein files?' The committee had previously issued a subpoena for an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend, who had been serving a prison sentence in Florida for luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the wealthy financier but was recently transferred to a Texas facility. However, the committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, has indicated he is willing to delay that deposition until after the Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal to her conviction. She argues she was wrongfully prosecuted. Mr Comer noted in letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the former officials that the cases of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell 'have received immense public interest and scrutiny.' 'While the department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr Epstein and Ms Maxwell's cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr Epstein and Ms Maxwell,' Mr Comer said. The subpoenas give the Justice Department until August 19 to hand over the requested records, though such records requests are typically open to negotiation. The committee is also asking the former officials to appear for the depositions throughout August, September and October, concluding with Hillary Clinton on October 9 and Bill Clinton on October 14. While several former presidents, including Mr Trump, have faced congressional subpoenas, none has ever appeared before members under compulsion. Bill Clinton was among a number of luminaries acquainted with Epstein before the criminal investigation against him in Florida became public two decades ago. Mr Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, once gave a newspaper interview in which she described riding in a helicopter with Mr Clinton and flirting with Mr Trump, but she later said in a deposition that those things had not actually happened and were mistakes by the reporter. Mr Clinton has previously said through a spokesperson that while he travelled on Epstein's jet he never visited his homes and had no knowledge of his crimes.
