&w=3840&q=100)
US Speaker cuts short House session to avoid vote on releasing Epstein file
He made the move to deny Democrats the chance to try to force procedural votes on measures that would call on the Justice Department to make the information public. It reflected how deep divisions among Republicans on the matter have now paralyzed the House, as Republicans seek to avoid a politically perilous vote on a matter that is confounding President Trump and roiling their MAGA base.
'We're done being lectured on transparency,' Johnson said at a news conference, where the typically unflappable speaker appeared frustrated.
He complained about 'endless efforts to politicize the Epstein investigation' and added: 'We're not going to play political games with this,' as he wrapped up his final news conference before September.
Republicans had planned votes this week on an immigration measure, a permitting bill and a rollback of some Biden-era regulations. But the House Rules Committee, the powerful panel controlled by the speaker that determines which legislation reaches the floor, has been upended by the Epstein issue, with Democrats repeatedly demanding votes on it.
Democrats on the committee vowed to force such a vote again this week as part of a routine measure to allow debate on unrelated legislation. But Republicans did not want to go on the record on the matter, for fear of retribution from angry supporters who are demanding the release of Epstein files.
The result is that the House cannot move ahead on any substantive legislation. Republicans now plan to wrap up votes Tuesday and early Wednesday on some noncontroversial bills and call their recess by midafternoon on Wednesday.
After initially saying the material should come out, Johnson on Monday vowed that he would not schedule a vote this summer on whether to release the Epstein files, saying that Trump needed 'space' to determine how to proceed. On Tuesday, he claimed that House Republicans were united on the issue. But they appeared to be far from it.
'Crimes have been committed,' said Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia. 'If there's no justice and no accountability, people are going to get sick of it. That's where people largely are.'
Representative Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina and a member of the Rules panel, criticized his leaders for 'stalling' on the matter. 'The American people deserve action, not excuses,' he wrote on social media on Tuesday. 'Let's vote on it before August recess and get it DONE!!'
And Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, said he still planned to circumvent House Republican leaders and force a vote on releasing the Epstein files in September, with the help of Democrats, using a maneuver known as a discharge petition.
'He just told us in there to stick their heads in the sand about this Epstein thing,' Massie said after a Republican conference meeting, noting that Johnson had offered members no clear explanation of why a vote on the matter needed to be delayed.
'Some here are much more frustrating than others,' Johnson said, referring to Massie. 'I don't know how his mind works, I don't know what he's thinking. He could have brought his discharge petition any time. Now he's clamoring as if there's any sort of timeline.' He ended with some Southern pique: 'Bless his heart.'
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee also voted to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime partner of Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence on a sex-trafficking conviction, for a deposition. Representative Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who has pushed for more transparency in the Epstein case, introduced the motion to subpoena Maxwell, and several Republican members supported it.
Greene also expressed skepticism about Maxwell's testimony, noting that she was likely 'bartering for something,' like a presidential pardon.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)

First Post
20 minutes ago
- First Post
What is Donald Trump's connection to Scotland? His mum, golf and more
Donald Trump's visit to Scotland goes beyond golf — it's a return to his maternal roots on the Isle of Lewis. With new tributes to his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, and potential political meetings amid planned protests, how much of his identity is still tied to Scotland? read more Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Turnberry Golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, June 24, 2016. File Image/Reuters United States President Donald Trump will land in Scotland on Friday (July 25, 2025), marking his first visit to the United Kingdom since securing a second term in office. Officially designated a private trip by the White House, the president's itinerary includes stops at his two flagship golf resorts — Trump International Golf Links near Aberdeen and the Turnberry estate in South Ayrshire. Despite its private nature, the visit reportedly includes scheduled meetings with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scotland's First Minister John Swinney. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump is expected to return for an official state visit to the UK in September. Preparations for his arrival have triggered logistical challenges and security concerns. Police Scotland, anticipating demonstrations similar to those during his previous visits, has requested backup from other UK law enforcement agencies. Large-scale protests were seen during Trump's 2018 tour, when thousands marched in Scottish cities, including Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow. On that occasion, protestors booed as he played golf at Turnberry, and a paraglider flew over the resort with an anti-Trump banner. Organisers of the group Stop Trump Scotland have called for renewed demonstrations during this year's visit. The structure of this visit allows Trump to freely choose his engagements, with his primary focus being his business interests in Scottish golf — a sector he has repeatedly highlighted as both legacy and enterprise. The US president's mother: Mary Anne MacLeod Trump Donald Trump's ancestral roots lie in the Outer Hebrides, a rugged chain of islands off the northwest coast of Scotland. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in 1912 in the village of Tong, located just three miles from Stornoway, the Isle of Lewis's main town. She was the youngest of ten children in a Gaelic-speaking family. Her father, Malcolm MacLeod, managed a post office and a general store in Tong, offering the family modest stability during difficult times. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Although they were slightly more affluent than some local households, life on the island during and after World War I was marked by scarcity and tragedy. Lewis had suffered grievous losses in the conflict, including the Iolaire disaster of 1919, in which approximately 200 servicemen returning from war perished in the harbour at Stornoway. Amid post-war hardship and limited economic opportunity, many islanders sought new lives abroad. Mary Anne joined that wave of migration in 1930 at age 18, leaving with her sister Catherine, who had already emigrated and returned to visit. Upon reaching New York, Mary Anne initially found work as a nanny in an affluent household but lost the job as the US economy collapsed following the Wall Street Crash. Mary Anne MacLeod Trump died in 2000 at the age of 88. Members of her extended family still live on Lewis. File Image She briefly returned to Scotland in 1934 but soon went back to the US, having met and begun a relationship with Fred Trump, a successful real estate developer and the son of German immigrants. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD They married in 1936, settled in Queens, New York, and Mary Anne became a US citizen in 1942. She passed away in August 2000 at the age of 88. Donald Trump is the fourth of their five children. Though he was raised in New York, his mother's homeland remained close to him. 'My mother was born in Scotland — Stornoway, which is serious Scotland,' he said in 2017. Mary Anne maintained strong ties to her birthplace, regularly visiting Lewis throughout her life. According to BBC, she remained fluent in Gaelic and was well-regarded in her hometown community. During visits, she attended the local church and maintained connections with her extended family. To this day, three of Donald Trump's cousins continue to live on Lewis, including two who now reside in the house where Mary Anne was born. The original structure has since been rebuilt, but the familial bond remains. These relatives have consistently declined all media interviews and have stayed out of the public eye. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The house where Donald Trump's mother grew up is seen in Tong on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, an island off the northwestern tip of Scotland in the Outer Hebrides, Scorland, April 27, 2016. File Image/Reuters Trump himself has made only two known visits to his mother's home village. In 2008, he visited the family home in Tong as an adult and said he had also visited once as a small child, though he remembered little. His 2008 stopover was brief — he reportedly spent just 97 seconds in the ancestral house. Are Trump's Scottish golf ventures about legacy? Trump's commercial footprint in Scotland centres around two major properties: Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and Trump Turnberry in South Ayrshire. The Aberdeenshire venture began in 2006 when Trump acquired a coastal tract north of Aberdeen with the aim of developing a world-class golf destination. The project faced strong local resistance from conservationists and residents concerned about the ecological impact. The site included sand dunes that were home to rare wildlife such as badgers, otters, kittiwakes and skylarks. The controversy attracted global attention. US property mogul Donald Trump leads a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland, May 27, 2010. File Image/Reuters Michael Forbes, a local fisherman, became a symbol of resistance after he refused to sell his land to Trump, despite a lucrative offer of £350,000. Trump was publicly critical of Forbes's property, describing it as 'a slum and a pigsty,' reported AP. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Despite the opposition, the Scottish government backed the plan, and the Trump International Golf Links officially opened in 2012. Nevertheless, some of the project's most ambitious elements — including plans for 500 homes and a 450-room hotel — have not materialised. Financially, the resort has struggled. In 2023, the latest available accounts reported a loss of £1.4 million. 'If it weren't for my mother, would I have walked away from this site? I think probably I would have, yes,' Trump remarked during the development phase. 'Possibly, had my mother not been born in Scotland, I probably wouldn't have started it.' This year, a second 18-hole course at the site is set to open. Named the MacLeod Course in tribute to Mary Anne, the launch is expected to coincide with Trump's visit. The adjacent hotel is also named after her — the Trump MacLeod House and Lodge Hotel. Turnberry, Trump's other high-profile property, is a much older and more established venue. He purchased the resort, including its three coastal golf courses and a five-star hotel, in 2014 for approximately £40 million. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Turnberry is widely known for hosting The Open Championship, though the tournament has not returned to the course since 2009. US President Donald Trump gestures as he walks on the course of his golf resort, in Turnberry, Scotland, July 14, 2018. File Image/Reuters Local sentiment in Ayrshire has been more favourable compared to the Aberdeenshire project. 'He did bring employment to the area,' Louise Robertson, a Turnberry-area resident told AP. 'I know that in terms of the hotel and the lighthouse, he spent a lot of money restoring it, so again, that was welcomed by the local people. But other than that, I can't really say positive things about it.' Trump has pushed for The Open to return to Turnberry. However, the tournament's organisers have cited ongoing issues related to transportation and accommodation infrastructure as obstacles. How Trump's political ties with Scotland have evolved Trump's relationship with Scottish officials has evolved over the years — from honourary recognition to outright rejection. More than a decade ago, he was named a business ambassador in the GlobalScot network. However, that status was revoked in 2015 following his controversial comments about banning Muslims from entering the United States. Around the same time, Robert Gordon University withdrew an honourary doctorate it had awarded him in 2010. In the next few days, Trump is set to meet with John Swinney, Scotland's First Minister, who had supported Kamala Harris during the previous US election cycle. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A placard is attached to a stake in the ground during a protest against the visit of US President Donald Trump, in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 14, 2018. File Image/Reuters A spokesperson for Trump's business interests in Scotland called Swinney's earlier endorsement 'an insult.' Nonetheless, Swinney has confirmed the meeting, saying it serves 'Scotland's interest.' Trump will also confer with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with whom he reportedly enjoys a constructive rapport. Despite ideological differences, Trump recently said, 'I really like the prime minister a lot, even though he's a liberal.' Trade discussions are expected to include a focus on securing exemptions for UK steel from American tariffs. There is no confirmation as to whether Trump and Starmer will visit either golf course together. Starmer is not known to be a golfer. Ironically, Trump's Scottish story is one of immigration. With inputs from agencies


New Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Philippine Supreme Court rules impeachment bid against V-P Sara Duterte as unconstitutional
MANILA: The Philippine Supreme Court ruled Friday that an impeachment case filed against Vice President Sara Duterte violated the country's constitution due to a key technicality, a decision that blocks her upcoming trial over a raft of criminal allegations including her threat to have the president assassinated. The House of Representatives, which impeached Duterte in February and sent the case to the Senate for trial, violated a rule that only one impeachment case could be processed by the lower chamber against an impeachable official in a single year, court spokesperson Camille Ting said. The House received at least four separate impeachment cases against Duterte between December and February but only one was transmitted to the Senate, which would have served as an impeachment tribunal. The other three impeachment cases were placed in the House's order of business but were archived with no action and 'effectively dismissed,' according to the ruling. The ruling was 'immediately executory,' the court said. 'It is not our duty to favor any political result,' the court said in a statement, suggesting it did not pass judgement on the array of allegations. 'Ours is to ensure that politics are framed within the rule of just law.' Duterte's lawyers welcomed the decision, which they said upheld the rule of law. 'We remain prepared to address the allegations at the proper time and before the appropriate forum," the attorneys in a statement. Duterte, 47, became the first vice president of the Philippines to be impeached by the House in February over an array of alleged high crimes. The accusations were led by her threat during a November online news conference to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife and cousin, then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez, killed by an assassin if she were killed herself during her high-profile disputes with them. The daughter of Marcos' controversial predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, she also has been accused of large-scale corruption, sedition, terrorism and failing to openly support Philippine government efforts to oppose and denounce China's aggressive actions against Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea. Duterte allegedly backed her father's brutal crackdowns against illegal drugs that led to extrajudicial killings in their southern home city. Her impeachment trial was set to begin either next week or early next month by the 24-member Senate, which has convened to hear the case. If the Supreme Court ruling becomes final, the vice president's opponents could file another impeachment case after a year. Duterte ran as Marcos's running mate in 2022 on a campaign battle cry of unity in their deeply divided and poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country. Both were scions of strongmen accused of human rights violations, but their strong regional bases of political support combined to give them landslide victories. Their whirlwind political alliance, however, rapidly frayed when they took office. Duterte's father openly accused Marcos of being a weak leader and a drug addict even during the campaign, allegations the president denied. The vice president later resigned from her then-concurrent Cabinet post as educations secretary as the rifts between the two political families deepened. She later accused Marcos, his wife and Romualdez of corruption, weak leadership and attempting to muzzle her because of speculation she may seek the presidency in 2028 when Marcos's six-year term ends. Duterte made the comment about killing Marcos and his family members during a Nov. 23 news conference, a threat she warned wasn't a joke. Faced with the prospects of criminal lawsuits, Duterte later said she wasn't threatening him but was expressing concern for her own safety. Still, her statements set off a criminal investigation and national security concerns and prompted calls for her impeachment. Among the impeachment complaint signatories was the president's son, Rep. Sandro Marcos, and Romualdez. The petition urged the Senate to shift into an impeachment court to try the vice president, 'render a judgement of conviction,' remove her from office and ban her from holding public office. 'Duterte's conduct throughout her tenure clearly displays gross faithlessness against public trust and a tyrannical abuse of power that, taken together, showcases her gross unfitness to hold public office and her infidelity to the laws and the 1987 Constitution,' the complaint said. Last month, senators voted to send the raft of complaints back to the House due to legal questions, sparking street protests demanding Duterte's immediate trial. Then-Senate President Chiz Escudero said the move led by Duterte's allies in the Senate did not mean the impeachment complaint was being dismissed and issued a summons for Duterte to appear when the trial proceeds.


Mint
20 minutes ago
- Mint
Trump Agenda Stuck in Legal Wrangling Despite Supreme Court Wins
President Donald Trump has cast successes at the US Supreme Court as broad endorsements of his authority to fire agency heads, shrink the government workforce and halt billions of dollars in federal spending. Some lower court judges see it differently. Supreme Court rulings are supposed to be the final word on disagreements over the law. But the growing number of decisions being issued with little explanation on an emergency basis — often referred to as the 'shadow docket' — is creating even more legal wrangling. Now, tensions are building not only between the executive branch and the courts, but also within the judiciary. 'This is not helpful at all for lower court judges,' said Dickinson College President John Jones, a former federal district judge in Pennsylvania confirmed during the George W. Bush administration. 'You're reading an abbreviated opinion from the Supreme Court like it's a Rosetta Stone.' The Justice Department has been arguing that the emergency track wins should translate into victories in other lawsuits against Trump's agenda. Federal judges are pushing back, saying the high court isn't giving them enough to work with. This week, the Supreme Court stepped in to settle one such dispute that one of its earlier orders created. A Maryland federal judge had blocked Trump's removal of Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, saying it was different in key ways from a firing fight the justices resolved in the president's favor on May 22. In a two-paragraph order on Wednesday, the conservative majority said the district judge got it wrong, and the officials couldn't keep their jobs while they pressed the merits of their lawsuit. The problem, some judges say, is that more cases are reaching the justices on an emergency basis — often in the early stages, without oral arguments and with minimal or no explanation. These orders are frequently just a few paragraphs issued in weeks or even days, in stark contrast with argued cases that unfold over months and result in lengthy opinions offering more robust guidance. In yet another in the growing stack of firing cases, a Washington federal judge last week refused to let Trump oust Democrats from the Federal Trade Commission. US District Judge Loren AliKhan said she wouldn't read the 'tea leaves' in the justices' May 22 decision, a four-paragraph order that let Trump fire top officials at two other agencies. That ruling 'weighs against' the dismissed officials, she said, but doesn't settle questions over a 90-year-old precedent limiting a president's firing power at federal agencies. 'It would be an act of judicial hubris' to base a decision on what the justices might do later, AliKhan wrote in her order reinstating one of the commissioners. She was 'unsure of what to make of' the justices' order, absent more details about what they intended or how they reached their outcome. An appeals court has temporarily paused her ruling. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. A senior White House official who requested anonymity to discuss pending litigation said lower court judges aren't respecting the spirit of the Supreme Court's orders as well as the rulings themselves, and seemed to be taking extraordinary steps to avoid applying them to other cases. The official accused judges of defying the Supreme Court because of policy disagreements. The conflicts are growing as the Trump administration has taken lower court losses to the justices on an emergency basis 21 times so far this year. Unlike cases the court hears on the merits, emergency cases usually don't involve in-person arguments, robust written briefs or lengthy opinions that explain how the majority reached a decision. They don't offer a rubric for lower courts to apply new precedents going forward. For the Supreme Court's 2023-24 term, the average length of a majority opinion was 5,010 words, according to Empirical SCOTUS, a blog that tracks data on the high court. The majority's July 14 emergency order that allowed the administration to go ahead with Education Department layoffs — praised by Trump on social media as 'a Major Victory' — was only 104 words. There are rare exceptions, such as the fight over Trump's birthright citizenship plan, in which the justices heard arguments and wrote a lengthy opinion. Still, the majority's June decision — which Trump called a 'GIANT WIN' on social media — left key issues unresolved for lower courts to sort through. The justices curbed judges' authority to expansively halt government actions but didn't completely rule out nationwide blocks. They didn't touch the core question of whether Trump's executive order is constitutional. In an emergency order, the Supreme Court considers which side is ultimately likely to succeed on the underlying legal questions, but the justices also focus on the harm each side might suffer in the interim. Tension on the Supreme Court over the escalating shadow docket activity predates Trump's latest term in office. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in 2021 that the conservative majority's use of the process resulted in decisions that were becoming 'more unreasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend.' Justice Samuel Alito accused critics of portraying the process as something 'sinister' in order to 'intimidate the court or damage it as an independent institution.' In remarks to a federal judges' conference on Thursday, Kagan underscored her concerns about the challenges that emergency orders create for lower courts. The justices 'don't usually meet about shadow docket matters and discuss them in the way we do with merits cases,' she said. There is 'a real responsibility that I think we didn't recognize when we first started down this road to explain things better.' The Trump administration's 21 emergency requests in six months exceeds the total number brought by the Biden administration and during the combined presidencies of Barack Obama and George W. Bush, according to research by Stephen Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor and prominent critic of the court's use of the shadow docket. The government has won 16 of the cases at least in part, even if only temporarily. The administration withdrew one application and largely lost four cases, including one filed by Venezuelans who were at risk of being sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison. Trump's wave of policies testing the bounds of presidential power has been met with a deluge of lawsuits, many of which have included requests by challengers for swift intervention by judges. The Justice Department, in turn, has quickly moved to at least temporarily halt the effects of lower court losses while it appeals. But that strategy hasn't always worked. It took just over two weeks for a federal appeals court in Boston to deny the government's emergency request to resume cuts to scientific research grants that a district judge blocked. In a July 18 order, a three-judge panel said it had 'no difficulty distinguishing' the facts of the case from the justices' emergency order in April letting the administration cut teacher-training grants. The Justice Department on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the grant fight. In its latest emergency application the administration claimed that 'district-court defiance' of the justices' April order 'has grown to epidemic proportions' in other funding cases. A Boston federal judge this month rejected the Justice Department's attempt to 'misguidedly argue' that two other Supreme Court orders required her to let Trump fire Department of Health and Human Services workers. In the first order, the justices said Trump could broadly proceed with a push to shrink the federal workforce but didn't rule on the lawfulness of any agency plan. In the other, the majority didn't offer an explanation when it let layoffs continue at the Education Department. The HHS case was likely to 'wind its way up and down the appellate courts,' US District Judge Melissa DuBose wrote, but 'this court declines the defendants' invitation to short circuit that process.' Soon after the Supreme Court ruled in the mass firing fight, the San Francisco federal judge handling that case rejected the government's argument that it was effectively over. US District Judge Susan Illston wrote that the justices' 'terse order' was 'inherently preliminary' and left issues unsettled. With agencies carrying out layoffs following the Supreme Court's order, she wrote, 'the issues in this case remain of significant public importance.' The Justice Department raced to a federal appeals court, which this week temporarily paused Illston's latest order while it decides what to do. Should the government lose the latest round, it could bring the case back to the justices. With assistance from Suzanne Monyak and Greg Stohr. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.