
Comer: Bill Clinton ‘prime suspect' in Epstein investigation
'Everybody in America wants to know what went on in Epstein Island and we've all heard reports that Bill Clinton was a frequent visitor there, so he's a prime suspect to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee,' Comer said Monday during an interview on Newsmax.
'So hopefully we'll win that court battle with that subpoena and see President Clinton in October,' he added.
Comer subpoenaed Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Aug. 5 to give testimony in the House GOP's probe of matters surrounding Epstein, a convicted sex offender. Democrats have joined Republicans' in backing the request.
'I've never lost a subpoena battle, I've been chairman of that committee for a year and a half, this is the most challenging subpoena I've ever issued, but what makes this subpoena different is that the Democrats voted with Republicans,' Comer told Rob Finnerty.
The Kentucky Republican added that he believes the subpoena will hold 'a lot of weight in court.'
Clinton could refuse to testify but would then be subject to repercussions from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
'If someone doesn't comply with a subpoena — we've seen it happen in the past, in both my committee, as well as on the Jan. 6 committee, when the Democrats had the majority — and you can hold them in contempt of Congress,' Comer said during an appearance on NewsNation's ' The Hill ' last week. 'And with a Republican attorney general, that's something that I think that the Clinton legal team is going to think long and hard about.'
Former Attorneys General Bill Barr, who served under Trump's first administration, and Merrick Garland, who served under the Biden administration, have also been summoned to testify.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump's aggressive push to take over DC policing may be a template for an approach in other cities
WASHINGTON (AP) — The left sees President Donald Trump's attempted takeover of Washington law enforcement as part of a multifront march to autocracy — 'vindictive authoritarian rule,' as one activist put it — and as an extraordinary thing to do in rather ordinary times on the streets of the capital. To the right, it's a bold move to fracture the crust of Democratic urban bureaucracy and make D.C. a better place to live. Where that debate settles — if it ever does — may determine whether Washington, a symbol for America in all its granite glory, history, achievement, inequality and dysfunction, becomes a model under the imprint of Trump for how cities are policed, cleaned up and run, or ruined. Under the name of his Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, Trump put some 800 National Guard troops on Washington streets this past week, declaring at the outset, 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.' Grunge was also on his mind. 'If our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us.' He then upped the stakes by declaring federal control of the district's police department and naming an emergency chief. That set off alarms and prompted local officials to sue to stop the effort. 'I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,' Police Chief Pamela Smith said. On Friday, the Trump administration partially retreated from its effort to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department when a judge, skeptical that the president had the authority to do what he tried to do, urged both sides to reach a compromise, which they did — at least for now. Trump's Justice Department agreed to leave Smith in control, while still intending to instruct her department on law enforcement practices. In a new memo, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the force to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law. In this heavily Democratic city, local officials and many citizens did not like the National Guard deployment. At the same time, they acknowledged the Republican president had the right to order it because of the federal government's unique powers in the district. But Trump's attempt to seize formal control of the police department, for the first time since D.C. gained a partial measure of autonomy in the Home Rule Act of 1973, was their red line. When the feds stepped in For sure, there have been times when the U.S. military has been deployed to American streets, but almost always in the face of a riot or a calamitous event like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Trump's use of force was born of an emergency that he saw and city officials — and many others — did not. A stranger to nuance, Trump has used the language of emergency to justify much of what he's done: his deportations of foreigners, his tariffs, his short-term deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, and now his aggressive intervention into Washington policing. Washington does have crime and endemic homelessness, like every city in the country. But there was nothing like an urban fire that the masses thought needed to be quelled. Violent crime is down, as it is in many U.S. cities. Washington is also a city about which most Americans feel ownership — or at least that they have a stake. More than 25 million of them visited in 2024, a record year, plus over 2 million people from abroad. It's where middle schoolers on field trips get to see what they learn about in class — and perhaps to dance to pop tunes with the man with the music player so often in front of the White House. Washington is part federal theme park, with its historic buildings and museums, and part downtown, where restaurants and lobbyists outnumber any corporate presence. Neighborhoods range from the places where Jeff Bezos set a record for a home purchase price to destitute streets in economically depressed areas that are also magnets for drugs and crime. In 1968, the capital was a city on fire with riots. Twenty years later, a murder spree and crack epidemic fed the sense of a place out of control. But over the last 30 years, the city's population and its collective wealth have swelled. A cooked-up emergency? Against that backdrop, Philadelphia's top prosecutor, District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, assailed Trump's moves in Washington. 'You're talking about an emergency, really?' Krasner said, as if speaking with the president. 'Or is it that you're talking about an emergency because you want to pretend everything is an emergency so that you can roll tanks?" In Washington, a coalition of activists called Not Above the Law denounced what they saw as just the latest step by Trump to seize levers of power he has no business grasping. 'The onslaught of lawlessness and autocratic activities has escalated,' said Lisa Gilbert, co-chair of the group and co-president of Public Citizen. 'The last two weeks should have crystallized for all Americans that Donald Trump will not stop until democracy is replaced by vindictive authoritarian rule.' Fifty miles northeast, in the nearest major city, Baltimore's Democratic mayor criticized what he saw as Trump's effort to distract the public from economic pain and 'America's falling standing in the world.' 'Every mayor and police chief in America works with our local federal agents to do great work — to go after gun traffickers, to go after violent organizations,' Brandon Scott said. 'How is taking them off of that job, sending them out to just patrol the street, making our country safer?' But the leader of the D.C. Police Union, Gregg Pemberton, endorsed Trump's intervention — while saying it should not become permanent. 'We stand with the president in recognizing that Washington, D.C., cannot continue on this trajectory,' Pemberton said. From his vantage point, 'Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.' The Home Rule Act lets a president invoke certain emergency powers over the police department for 30 days, after which Congress must decide whether to extend the period. Trump's attempt to use that provision stirred interest among some Republicans in Congress in giving him an even freer hand. Among them, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee drafted a resolution that would eliminate the time limit on federal control. This, he told Fox News Digital, would 'give the president all the time and authority he needs to crush lawlessness, restore order, and reclaim our capital once and for all.' Which raises a question that Trump has robustly hinted at and others are wondering, too: If there is success in the district — at least, success in the president's eyes — what might that mean for other American cities he thinks need to be fixed? Where does — where could — the federal government go next?
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Proposed congressional maps in California could help Democrats flip 5 seats
Proposed new congressional maps in California that are expected to be put to voters in a special election this fall indicate the redrawn district lines could help Democrats flip five Republican seats and bolster around five Democratic incumbents in toss-up districts. The new maps, posted on the California State Assembly website on Friday evening, are draft proposals and are subject to be changed or reworked by the state legislature, which is set to start working next week. The legislative action follows California Gov. Gavin Newsom's call on Thursday for a special election on new maps, in an attempt to counter mid-decade redistricting being pushed by Republicans in Texas. MORE: California will move forward with redistricting vote to counter Texas, Newsom says The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the campaign arm of House Democrats, took credit Friday for submitting the maps to the California legislature, saying in a statement they believe they will have widespread support among California legislators and voters. "We anticipate this proposal will have widespread support both among California office holders and various stakeholders across the state," DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz said in a statement. "We will not stand by as Republicans attempt to rig the election in their favor and choose their voters. It's increasingly clear that Republicans will do anything to protect their narrow majority because they know they can't win on their disastrous legislative record which has raised costs and rips away health care for millions, all to give the ultra-wealthy a tax break." Paul Mitchell, a redistricting and data expert who drew the maps, told ABC News San Francisco station KGO-TV in an interview on Friday afternoon before the draft maps were posted online that eight of the proposed redrawn districts are unchanged; another 20 are changed very little, and that overall the goal was "pushing back on Texas without doing something that would radically disrupt the congressional district lines." MORE: Texas Democrats to return after governor ends special session that included redistricting, sources say Mitchell added that beyond making five Republican-held seats favor Democrats -- as a counter to the proposed congressional maps in Texas that could flip five seats to favor Republicans -- the proposal also strengthens the districts of around five Democratic "frontline candidates" who face more difficult challenges from Republicans. "[The legislature has] got some time next week to put it together, along with all the other language for a statewide ballot measure. And I think the point for voters is, this is a way to push back on what Texas Republicans are doing, on what Trump is doing," Mitchell told KGO-TV. Republicans continue to cry foul, saying that Newsom's gambit for new maps is politically motivated. NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) wrote in a statement before the proposed maps were posted: "Gavin Newsom failed to solve the homelessness, crime, drug, and cost epidemics plaguing the Golden State. Now he is shredding California's Constitution and disenfranchising voters to prop up his Presidential ambitions. "Californians oppose Newsom's stunt because they won't let a self-serving politician rig the system to further his career. The NRCC is prepared to fight this illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box to stop Newsom in his tracks."


Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump tax law could cause Medicare cuts if Congress doesn't act, CBO says
WASHINGTON — The federal budget deficits caused by President Trump's tax and spending law could trigger automatic cuts to Medicare if Congress does not act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Friday. The CBO estimates that Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans over age 65, could potentially see as much as $491 billion in cuts from 2027 to 2034 if Congress does not act to mitigate a 2010 law that forces across-the-board cuts to many federal programs once legislation increases the federal deficit. The latest report from CBO showed how Trump's signature tax and spending law could put new pressure on federal programs that are bedrocks of the American social safety net. Trump and Republicans pledged not to cut Medicare as part of the legislation, but the estimated $3.4 trillion that the law adds to the federal deficit over the next decade means that many Medicare programs could see cuts. In the past, Congress has always acted to mitigate cuts to Medicare and other programs, but it would take some bipartisan cooperation to do so. Democrats, who requested the analysis from CBO, jumped on the potential cuts. 'Republicans knew their tax breaks for billionaires would force over half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts — and they did it anyway,' Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement. 'American families simply cannot afford Donald Trump's attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.' Hospitals in rural parts of the country are already grappling with cuts to Medicaid, which is available to people with low incomes, and cuts to Medicare could exacerbate their shortfalls. As Republicans muscled the bill through Congress and are now selling it to voters back home, they have been critical of how the CBO has analyzed the bill. They have also argued that the tax cuts will spur economic growth and pointed to $50 billion in funding for rural hospitals that was included in the package. Groves writes for the Associated Press.