Epstein firestorm consumes House

The Hill

4 days ago

Morning Report is The Hill's a.m. newsletter. Subscribe here or using the box below:
In today's issue:
▪ Battle over interim US Attorney in NJ
▪ GOP eyes renaming opera house for Melania Trump
▪ Trump unveils Japan, Philippines trade deals
House Republicans find themselves cornered by President Trump 's MAGA base, their own pledges of 'transparency' and by Democrats intent on making the most of the Jeffrey Epstein firestorm.
The result: The House, embroiled in a rebellion, will flee Washington today and won't return until September.
The majority on Tuesday was unable to push past the simmering controversy to take up a pending immigration bill or a rollback of Biden-era regulations because a key House panel customarily loyal to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was closing in on a vote on an Epstein-related measure.
Johnson hopes that the upcoming August recess will provide time and 'space' for some kind of resolution.
'We're done being lectured on transparency,' the Speaker told reporters Tuesday, hitting what he called Democratic 'side shows.'
Epstein, the disgraced New York financier and convicted sex offender who died in a jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, remains in the headlines more than two weeks after the Justice Department (DOJ) rocked MAGA World with a memo saying it had no additional Epstein files to share.
The administration is still laboring to tamp down the controversy.
The DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi, urged by Trump to release 'credible' investigatory information, asked courts to unseal grand jury transcripts in the case. Two federal judges on Tuesday told the DOJ they need more information. 'The court intends to resolve this motion expeditiously,' they wrote.
Still, the administration's actions have also kept the story front and center.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday said he is seeking a meeting with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, who is serving a 20-year sentence following her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking and other crimes. Blanche said he planned to ask: 'What do you know?'
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the request to interview Maxwell 'sounds appropriate.'
There was no indication the DOJ sought to speak with Maxwell, who is appealing her sentence to the Supreme Court, before issuing its July 7 memo saying an Epstein 'client list' was nonexistent and reaffirming he died by suicide. The DOJ last week urged the court to reject the appeal.
Meanwhile, the White House has for days lashed out at a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump had contributed a 'bawdy' letter with his signature for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003, at the request of Maxwell, for inclusion with notes from other Epstein associates. Trump on Friday sued the Journal and its parent company while the White House banned the outlet from joining its press pool for Trump's trip to Scotland this weekend.
▪ The Hill: Trump fuels Epstein furor he wants to escape.
▪ Politico: Trump's lawsuit against the Journal raises a new constitutional question. The president is wielding lawsuits as both sword and shield.
The president, who socialized with Epstein and Maxwell in the 1990s, has said he had no knowledge of criminal allegations during that period. Epstein's legal troubles began when he was accused of molesting a 15-year-old in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005. He pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to two state felony prostitution charges and received a plea deal that was criticized as too lenient.
Blanche on Tuesday made his announcement about seeking information from Maxwell within hours of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee vote to subpoena her to talk with lawmakers. During an unrelated hearing, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) moved to direct the panel to authorize and issue a subpoena for Maxwell to appear for a deposition. It passed by voice vote.
'I want justice for those thousands of young ladies who were abused, and I want the dirt bags of the world to know that we're not going to tolerate it,' Burchett said.
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) is expected to seek a subpoena 'as expeditiously as possible,' a spokesperson said. Comer told reporters he and his team would visit Maxwell in prison for a deposition when details and terms are worked out with her lawyers.
The deputy attorney general, previously retained as one of Trump's personal defense lawyers, and Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, are friends, The Hill's Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee report in The Gavel newsletter later today. (Click here to sign up.)
' I know a lot of people that have worked with you, I know a lot of people who know you very well,' Blanche told Markus last year while appearing on his podcast. 'I now consider you a friend and someone who I know pretty well. You are by far the best out there, ' he said.
There were no indications as of Tuesday, The New York Times reported, that the DOJ's outreach to Maxwell's attorney was tied to a pardon or a possible reduction in her time behind bars.
Smart Take with Blake Burman
You don't see bipartisanship often in this town, yet alone on immigration. However, a bipartisan effort, the DIGNITY Act, which proposes to grant legal status to some migrants without criminal records, is being relaunched to reform immigration laws.
'The hand that we've been dealt is, we have four decades of [a] broken immigration system in the United States,' Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) told me.
However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested last week that the measure hasn't been on the administration's radar.
'The president has made it very clear he will not support amnesty for illegal aliens in any way,' she said.
While this measure has the support of several House Republicans, the White House made it clear the president has other priorities for his immigration agenda at the moment.
Burman hosts 'The Hill' weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 Things to Know Today
The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to jettison a landmark 2009 ' endangerment finding ' that forms the climate basis for federal greenhouse gas emission limits on vehicles and power plants.
Columbia University on Tuesday said it punished students it maintains were involved in pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations last year and in May. The university wants the Trump administration to restore $400 million in federal funding.
Elon Musk may pivot back into the political realm, SpaceX warned investors. The SpaceX CEO split from Trump in recent months after serving as a senior adviser and then vowed to launch a new party.
Leading the Day
SHUTDOWN STRATEGY: Democrats remain divided over how hard to press their leverage with Trump and his GOP allies in a government funding bill that needs to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a shutdown.
Senate Democrats held a tense lunch meeting Tuesday to discuss their plan for how to vote on the first spending bill to reach the floor — the military construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill — as well as their strategy for how to handle the end-of-September government funding deadline.
Some Democratic senators want Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to come out of the gate hard ahead of the September deadline and make it clear that the party will not accept another partisan stopgap, a bold stance that could raise the risk of a shutdown.
Schumer didn't make his strategy clear on the Senate floor on Monday, instead accusing Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Republicans of being 'obedient' to Trump.
'It's hard to negotiate a budget with Republicans right now because they have demonstrated that they will cut a deal and then turn around and change the deal solely to benefit themselves,' said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). 'That's not a deal, that's like cutting a deal to buy a car, and then long after the price has been paid, the Republicans want to come and repossess the tires. It doesn't work that way.'
▪ Axios: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's push to overhaul government health programs is extending to the troubled U.S. organ donation system.
SPECIAL COUNSEL?: Speaker Johnson said he is open to the idea of appointing a special counsel to probe alleged manufactured intelligence from former White House officials. His comments to the Christian Broadcasting Network come after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a report Friday alleging Obama-era officials manipulated intel related to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
'And I do expect that whether there's a special counsel appointed, which some are suggesting, and/or in conjunction with the House investigations, that we will get the answers and there will be accountability to the extent that we're able to do that,' Johnson said.
In a statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for former President Obama dismissed Trump's 'ridiculous' accusation that Obama had committed 'treason' in 2016 by directing his administration to reveal Russian efforts to interfere in that year's presidential election.
SANCTIONS: Republican lawmakers, with early support from Democrats, are moving forward to permanently repeal Syria sanctions legislation, in line with Trump's ambition to lift all sanctions on the country. But there's no clear way to passage.
Lawmakers are growing squeamish in the wake of sectarian violence in the country and Israel's intervention against Damascus. While Trump has put his support behind Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, skeptical lawmakers are not so quick to brush over his terrorist past.
The Washington Post reports that escalations of violence in Syria have led to a U.S. envoy reaffirming Washington's support for Syria's new government. (More on Syria below.)
Where and When
The House meets at 10 a.m.
The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.
The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m.
The president at 5 p.m. will address a Washington event focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and 'Winning the AI Race' hosted in Washington by the 'All‑In Podcast' and the Hill & Valley Forum. Trump will return to the White House in the evening.
Zoom In
COURTS: Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey since March and a former personal Trump lawyer, was not retained by a panel of the U.S. District Court on Tuesday. In a terse standing order, the court tapped lawyer Desiree Leigh Grace before the expiration of Habba's 120-day temporary term. The order signed by U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb, the district's chief judge, said it took effect Tuesday.
Hours later, however, the Department of Justice took the bold move of announcing it had 'removed' Grace without announcing who would replace her. Grace was Habba's first assistant before district judges elevated her to the top job. Habba has been awaiting Senate confirmation. Previous Justice Departments have recognized that district judges have the authority to name a U.S. attorney if the president's nominee is not acted upon by the Senate within 120 days.
' This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President's core Article II powers,' Bondi wrote on social media platform X while announcing Grace's removal.
Early in her interim term, Habba's leadership came under scrutiny following the arrests and charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) stemming from an incident at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
Although a trespassing count against Baraka was dropped, McIver is still fighting her criminal charges in court. She has pleaded not guilty.
▪ The New York Times: Democratic attorneys general from 21 states sued the Trump administration over its attempts to restrict access to federal health and safety net programs for immigrants without legal status.
FEDERAL RESERVE: Trump has backed off of his threats to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — for now. The president appeared to reach a breaking point with Powell last week when he told Republican lawmakers he would likely be nixing the Fed chair 'soon.' But he has since backed off, while officials and outside voices have warned about the impacts to the markets.
'I think he's done a bad job, but he's going to be out pretty soon anyway,' Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. 'Eight months, he'll be out.'
Much like he does with his tariff threats — which has created the concept of the Wall Street 'TACO' trade, an acronym that stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out' — he floated the idea of forcing Powell out and pulled back.
▪ The Hill: Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday defended the monetary independence of the Federal Reserve after getting caught in the crossfire between Trump and The Wall Street Journal.
KENNEDY CENTER: House Republicans are pushing to rename the Kennedy Center's famed opera house to honor first lady Melania Trump. GOP members of the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the interior, environment and related agencies annual spending bill that would rename the opera house in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts the 'First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.'
The move came months after Trump, in an unprecedented move that was met with criticism, overhauled the Kennedy Center's board and named himself as its chair after accusing the performing arts institution of being too 'woke.'
TRUMP VS. SPORTS TEAMS: Sports teams are holding steady after Trump injected himself into the debate over their names, some of which were changed after Native American groups deemed them insensitive. The president has put pressure on the Washington Commanders to revert to their former name, the Redskins, upending what appeared to be a settled issue when he threatened to use the power of the presidency to hold up the Commanders' plans to build a new stadium in Washington, D.C. While it came as a surprise to local leaders and team officials, it was yet another instance of Trump wading into sports for political purposes.
'Sports is one of the many passions of this president, and he wants to see the name of that team changed,' Leavitt said Monday. 'I think you've seen the president gets involved in a lot of things that most presidents have not. He's a non-traditional president.'
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said her aim to bring the Commanders back to the nation's capital 'would not change despite' Trump's threat.
The head of the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, meanwhile, said his team would not revert its name either. Trump posted on social media they should readopt their old name, the Cleveland Indians, which was changed after the 2021 season amid pressure from Native American groups.
▪ The Washington Post: What Trump can (and can't) do about the Commanders' name and the RFK Stadium deal.
ROUNDUP:
▪ The Washington Post: NPR's news chief is leaving the company, days after federal funding cuts.
▪ The Hill: Virginia Republicans are raising alarm bells about the state of Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears's (R) campaign in the state's closely watched gubernatorial race.
▪ The Hill: State laws requiring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms keep losing in court. But outside advocates believe supporters of laws in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas are actively trying to get the cases before the Supreme Court, where they stand a better chance.
Elsewhere
TRADE DEALS: Trump on Tuesday announced two new trade deals — with the Philippines and Japan — ahead of his Aug. 1 tariff deadline.
Trump's trade deal with Japan would see the U.S. impose a 15 percent tariff on Japanese goods. Trump posted on Truth Social that Japan would invest $550 billion in projects in the U.S., without offering specifics, adding Japan would open its markets to U.S. automobiles, rice and other agricultural products.
In an Oval Office meeting, Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced a trade agreement for 19 percent tariffs on goods coming from the Philippines. American goods shipped there won't be charged a tariff. However, it was not immediately apparent whether the two leaders formally signed a document; similar to other recent trade agreement announcements, few details were revealed.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized Tuesday that next week's cutoff is a 'hard deadline' for countries that do not negotiate trade deals with the U.S., as businesses brace for Trump to impose tariff rates of between 20 percent and 50 percent. The administration has downplayed any negative repercussions from the tariffs while arguing they will bring back U.S. manufacturing.
▪ CNBC: How Europe's 'trade bazooka' could be a last resort against Trump's tariffs.
▪ The New York Times: The Trump administration said the Indonesian government had agreed to roll back multiple trade barriers that U.S. companies have complained about and make purchases of American oil, gas and farm products.
ISRAEL: The U.S. will mediate a meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials on Thursday in an effort to reach security understandings regarding the situation in southern Syria, Axios reports. Last week, Israel bombed a convoy of Syrian army tanks that were heading to the city of Sweida to respond to violent clashes between a Druze militia and armed Bedouin tribesmen. Israel also launched strikes on Damascus.
Leavitt confirmed Monday that Trump was unhappy with the Israeli airstrikes and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to 'rectify' the situation.
Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli strikes continued while civilians, including children, died of starvation, Palestinian health officials said. Israel is pushing in an area that had largely been spared from heavy fighting during the 21-month war.
▪ CNN: 'We are watching our colleagues waste away': Aid workers, doctors, journalists risk starvation alongside people in Gaza.
▪ Time magazine: How Israel appears to be gambling with the Trump administration's patience.
▪ The New York Times: Russia and Ukraine are expected to hold another round of peace talks today in Istanbul, but the two countries have flatly rejected each other's demands.
Opinion
The lunacy of lawfare against the Fed, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
Trump's Wall Street Journal lawsuit is as dangerous as it is unprecedented, by Austin Sarat, opinion contributor, The Hill.
The Closer
And finally… 🐍 Under the category of 'you can't make this up,' a man dressed as a pirate who was riding over the weekend on a Chicago-area train lost control of his ball python named Lucius, named after the slithery Harry Potter character Lucius Malfoy.
Incredibly, the large snake burrowed inside the train's control panel, which resulted in a call to the Oak Park Fire Department in Illinois, which sent a well-equipped emergency team to the Harlem/Lake Green Line terminal to retrieve the reptile and chronicle the whole thing with photos.
Check out the department's pictorial HERE (and don't miss the pirate).